was arrested in a joint operation by state and federal forces on Thursday as a result of an investigation into more than a dozen cases of forced disappearance Oaxaca Attorney General Rubén Vasconcelos Méndez said Arturo García Velázquez was found in possession of six illegal weapons and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition when his house was raided as part of the investigation The mayor faces charges for weapons violations Police arrested nine people suspected of participating in forced disappearances including two police officers from Jalapa de Díaz There are five people reported missing in Jalapa de Díaz and Ixcatlán, and another 11 in the neighboring municipality of Huautla de Jiménez The attorney general said 100 state police and 120 National Guard troops participated in the operation García is the second Oaxaca mayor to be arrested in the past two weeks San Marcial Ozolotepec Mayor Ramiro López was arrested in connection with a triple murder Source: El Universal (sp) ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC MEXICO CITY - An indigenous woman squats in pain after giving birth, her newborn still bound by the umbilical cord and lying on the ground. It's a photograph that horrified Mexicans because of where it took place: the lawn outside a medical clinic where the woman had been denied help, and it struck a nerve in a country where inequity is still pervasive. The government of the southern state of Oaxaca announced Wednesday it has suspended the health center's director, Dr. Adrian Cruz, while officials conduct state and federal investigations into the Oct. 2 incident. The mother, Irma Lopez, 29, told The Associated Press she and her husband were turned away from the health center by a nurse who said she was only eight months pregnant and "still not ready" to deliver. The nurse told her to go outside and walk, and said a doctor could check her in the morning, Lopez said. But an hour and a half later, her water broke, and Lopez gave birth to a son, her third child, while grabbing the wall of a house next to the clinic. "I didn't want to deliver like this. It was so ugly and with so much pain," she said, adding she was alone for the birth because her husband was trying to persuade the nurse to call for help. A witness took the photo and gave it to a news reporter. It ran in several national newspapers, including the full front page of a tabloid, and was widely circulated on the Internet. The case illustrated the shortcomings of maternal care in Mexico, where hundreds of women still die during or right after pregnancy. It also pointed to still persistent discrimination against Mexico's indigenous people persists. "The photo is giving visibility to a wider structural problem that occurs within indigenous communities: Women are not receiving proper care. They are not being offered quality health services, not even a humane treatment," said Mayra Morales, Oaxaca's representative for the national Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Lopez, who is of Mazatec ethnicity, said she and her husband walked an hour to the clinic from the family's one-bedroom hut in the mountains of northern Oaxaca. It would have taken them longer to get to the nearest highway to catch a ride to a hospital. She said that from the births of her two previous children, she knew she didn't have time for that. The federal Health Department said this week it has sent staff to investigate what happened at the Rural Health Center of the village of San Felipe Jalapa de Diaz. The National Human Rights Commission also began an investigation after seeing news reports. Nearly one in five women in the state of Oaxaca gave birth in a place that is not a hospital or a clinic in 2011, according to Mexico's census. Health officials have urged women to go to clinics to deliver their babies, but many women say the operating hours of the rural centers are limited and staffs small. A receptionist at the Rural Health Center told the AP that the doctor in charge was not available to comment about the case. Although some have praised Mexico for improving its maternal health care, the mortality rate still stands at about 50 deaths per 100,000 births, according to the World Health Organization, similar to Libya, Barbados and Kazakhstan. The U.S. rate is 16 per 100,000. Oaxaca is one of Mexico's poorest, most rural states and many women have died of hemorrhaging or preeclampsia, a condition causing high blood pressure and possible kidney or liver failure. The Mexican states with the highest indigenous population have the highest rates of maternal deaths, by a wide margin. Lopez was taken in by the clinic after giving birth and discharged the same day with prescriptions for medications and products that cost her about $30, she said. Health officials say she and her baby were in good health. She said that poverty-stricken villagers are used to being forgotten by Mexico's health care system and left to fend off for themselves. "I am naming him Salvador," said Lopez, a name that means "Savior" in English. "He really saved himself." Print MEXICO CITY — Irma Lopez waited to receive attention at a medical clinic in Oaxaca she retreated outdoors — and abruptly gave birth to a baby boy on the hospital lawn it was revealed that two other pregnant indigenous women had also been turned away from Oaxaca hospitals and that a fourth woman had been forced to have her baby on the reception floor at a hospital in Puebla of the indigenous Tzotzil community in Chiapas state died after childbirth in what relatives and maternal rights advocates say may have been medical negligence The cases have underlined the inferior treatment often given to Mexico’s indigenous communities They have prompted new demands for greater access to healthcare have resulted in punishment for several hospital managers “The right to health protection is a fundamental right … especially for pregnant women,” Mexico’s human rights ombudsman He opened investigations in the Oaxaca and Puebla cases “The vulnerability of indigenous communities is worse for women who suffer a lack of basic material needs and services.” Mexico’s maternal mortality rate is twice that of the United States but below the average for Latin America according to the World Health Organization the statistics for indigenous women in Mexico are dire: Childbirth and infant deaths are highest in states with the largest indigenous communities according to Mexico’s Maternal Mortality Observatory According to the most recent data from the national statistics institute 72.3% of indigenous Mexicans live in poverty (about 8.2 million people) compared with 42.6% of the non-indigenous (43.1 million people) had arrived at the hospital in San Felipe Jalapa de Diaz in Oaxaca state early in the morning on Oct supplies and even the bed she recovered in The case received considerable attention because someone took a photo of Lopez giving birth on the lawn and the picture made the rounds of social media But it turned out that such treatment was far from unique Oaxaca officials reported that two other women in the last six months had been refused attention at local hospitals and were forced to give birth outside authorities at Lopez’s hospital offered several excuses at one point saying she didn’t speak Spanish and couldn’t make herself understood as she proved in interviews with reporters two top directors of the hospital were suspended “It’s good for everyone to see how these nurses and doctors act,” Lopez said the woman was of modest means but not indigenous was ignored by hospital administrators even as her labor pains increased the baby was born on the reception area floor The state government fired the director of that hospital after a video of the birth was circulated checked into the women’s hospital in San Cristobal de las Casas according to her family and a coalition of maternal rights groups Doctors delivered her baby by caesarean section on Oct The family contends they were not informed of the complications that apparently put Hernandez in danger nor did they give permission for several medical procedures that were performed along with the cesarean Her father was quoted by the rights groups as saying he felt they were treated “like animals.” “There is a general problem in Mexico with the handling of women” by the medical establishment a health law expert at a Mexican think tank “Then with indigenous women it becomes what is often called double discrimination wilkinson@latimes.com Former staff writer Tracy Wilkinson covered foreign affairs from the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau. California World & Nation Hollywood Inc. Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map A large clothing company has once again been accused of appropriating indigenous Mexican designs but it did collaborate with a collective that employs Mazatec women from Oaxaca The Mexican subsidiary of Levi’s released a premium collection of jeans and jackets that incorporate “embroidered elements belonging to the Mazatec culture of the community of San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz,” the federal Ministry of Culture said in a letter to the company San Felipe is located in the northeast of Oaxaca near the border with Veracruz and Puebla The Culture Ministry wrote to Levi’s México and the Draco Textil collective which collaborated on the manufacture of the Levi’s Premium Original Trucker Jacket collection to denounce their use of Mazatec designs without obtaining permission from the community first It sought an explanation from both Levi’s and Draco and said that “fair economic reward” must be paid to the rights holders of the designs “We invite you to develop respectful work with the indigenous communities within an ethical framework that doesn’t undermine the identity and economy of the [indigenous] peoples,” the Culture Ministry said Levi’s México announced its new collection and the opening of its first store in Oaxaca in a social media video earlier this month while a group of female Mazatec and Cuicatec artisans called Texturas de Oaxaca issued a statement last Thursday denouncing its collaboration with Draco Textil as “another exercise of cultural appropriation and concealment of the people and communities behind the embroidered pieces.” “The companies and visual artists behind the project are named but the names of the artisans that did the embroidery work are omitted,” the women said Two days later – the same day the Culture Ministry sent its two letters – Draco said on Facebook that it was “grateful” to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Levi’s and thanked its team of Mazatec embroiders by name “We want to take the opportunity to mention that the intervention of these embroideries took place in our workshop in Oaxaca,” the collective said adding that it was very proud of its all-female workforce Levi’s México hasn’t publicly responded to the Culture Ministry letter Among the other designers and clothing companies that have been accused of plagiarizing or appropriating indigenous Mexican designs are Zara The Culture Ministry held an event in Mexico City last week to support indigenous textile creators and fight cultural appropriation but Texturas de Oaxaca said its members were not invited to participate With reports from El País