As of March 16, zapatista support bases from Ranchería Amaytik located in the Ricardo Flores Magón autonomous municipality have been followed and threatened with eviction and death by some 200 member of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Opddic, Organización para la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas y Campesinos). The Good Government Council (JBG, Junta de Buen Gobierno) “The Path of The Future” of the Garrucha caracol, recently denounced the actions of armed members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and the Opddic who are following “our compañeros” in an attempt to apprehend them. The women are alone in their homes and they are threatening them, telling them they will kill all of their livestock and that they will be evicted.
The JBG explains the events leading up to this conflict stating that it began on August 25, 2002 with “a problem [concerning] the separation of a couple in Ranchería Amaytic,” in the Ricardo Flores Magón autonomous municipality in which autonomous authorities intervened. Lorenzo Martinez Espinoza, a spokesperson for the autonomous council and Jacinto Hernandez Gutierrez, an autonomous agent, “were murdered with a firearm and machetes and sticks after leaving the place.”
According to the communiqué “the murderers” left the community and sought refuge in the Peña Limonar ejido. The autonomous authorities would not allow them to continue living in the Ranchería Amaytic. On March 15 of this year, the PRI members attempted to return accompanied by people from Peña Limonar, Yoc Navil, Pamanavil, San Antonio Catarraya, Ranchería Ganxanil and Nueva Providencia.
The JBG concludes: “We will defend our compañeros and our land with a solution in agreement with our customs; we do not want problems, we will always seek out a solution that springs from the area where the problem arose, but the bad government always gets in the way and that is when it becomes impossible to solve the problem because of course this is part of their plan known as counterinsurgency.”
For More Information (Spanish):
Opddic supports the return of suspects in 2002 murders to Amaytik (La Jornada, 18/3/2010)
sipazen.wordpress.com 