Chiapas: Annual summary-report of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center

On 27 May 2010, the annual summary-report of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (CDHFBC) was presented by Don Samuel Ruiz García, president and founder of the center, as well as by Diego Cadenas Gordillo, director of CDHFBC, and Agnieszka Raczynska, executive secretary of the National Network of Civil Human-Rights Organizations “Network of All Rights for All,” of which CDHFBC is a member.  This summary-report, which covers the period April 2009 to March 2010, presents “the systematization of a year of work [of CDHFBC] as well as the daily efforts and creativity of individuals and peoples who struggle for their rights and for the construction of juster realities from the exercise of self-determination” (Introduction of the summary-report).

“[The report] speaks to the ambition on the part of firms to extensively exploit the natural resources of Chiapas, particularly those located in the lands of indigenous peoples.  This dynamic has resulted in the launching by several communities of actions taken in defense of their right to their lands.  Other important themes covered by this summary-report are the criminalization of social and civil organizations that [are opposed] to the destruction of the environment and the lack of respect for the right of peoples, the systematic violence directed at women as a goal of war, the continuation of the counter-insurgency strategies and of the historical memory that peoples construct amidst the violence and absence of justice overseen by the Mexican State” (ibid).

In this summary-report is also published two official reports, one with the letterhead from the General Secretary of Government of Chiapas and the other with letterhead from the State Attorney General’s Office.  Both documents seem to indicate that the government is aware of the activities of paramilitary groups in the state; they also show how files are kept on the social activists who are criminalized in the press.

Following some words by Don Samuel stressing the importance of accompanying those who suffer violations of their rights so as to contribute to the transformation of the society that generates such, Agnieszka Raczinska situated the findings of this summary-report within a national panorama characterized by many of the same tendencies documented by the CDHFBC in Chiapas.  The event closed with the words of a representative of the civil society Las Abejas, who movingly thanked the CDHFBC for its accompaniment on the path of struggle for justice.  When he referred to the CDHFBC as his “big brother,” Diego Cadenas responded by saying that they, the indigenous peoples who struggle, represents the big brothers of the Center.

For more information (in Spanish):

The counter-insurgency strategy continues in Chiapas, assures the Las casas Center (La Jornada, 28/05/10)

Executive summary of Frayba’s annual summary-report (27/05/10)