Emilio Godoy: Social Cleansing in Mexican Cities!

Homeless People and Panhandlers Targeted by Police: Non governmental organizations in Mexico are presenting a complaint before the Inter American Commission on Human Rights about government mistreatment and "social cleansing" of thousands of people living on the street in several of the country's cities. Among the cases cited by the plaintiffs are Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, on the US border,where they allege that homeless people and panhandlers are being removed outside the city limits by the police. The same practice, with variations, is occurring in the western city of Guadalajara, which has an urban planning program designed to remove the homeless from the center of the city, and in Mexico City itself, where they are being taken from the historic center of the city and forced to live under bridges, viaducts or elevated highways, increasing their vulnerability. Activists say the common denominator of all these actions is the violation of the rights of street people, a sector for which the outgoing Mexican government of conservative President Felipe Calderon lacks specific policies. The session of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights "will make the state give an appropriate answer, and will open up a long term process for human rights violations to be redressed as part of a public agenda," Juan Martin Perez, the executive director of the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (REDIM) told IPS. Perez, whose coalition is made up of 73 child rights advocacy groups, will attend the hearing of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC. Perez, whose coalition is made up of 73 child rights advocacy groups,will attend the hearing of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC.