On November 13, ejidatarios (communal landowners) of San Sebastián Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, adherents to the Other Campaign, reported that in the past five months, they have observed a growing strategy of slanders, injustice and provocations carried out by authorities, as well as an escalation of attacks and harassment by members of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Opddic).
These new threats were attributed to “the same interest of neoliberalism and transnational projects”. The ejidatarios claimed that those who share this vision in the area “have won the trust of the Secretary of Government, Noe Castanon, who received them on November 8, with open doors and the table set with a special menu including transnational projects and ideas of how to destroy our organization. “ They noted “the interest [of “the bad government”] to start a conflict in different communities of their ejido, organizing paramilitary groups to intimidate the society.”
Finally they announced: “We will defend our natural resources to the limit, we will show the government that we are not alone. (…) From this date there will be no dialogue and rapprochement with any official authority, since we do not negociate or do any agreement with the bad governement, because they have clearly shown their interest in stripping us of our lands and take over our resources””
For more information (in Spanish):
Ejidatarios de Bachajón, Chiapas, denuncian recrudecimiento de agresiones de la Opddic (La Jornada, November 18, 2010)
Denuncia completa de las ejidatarios de Bachajón (November 13, 2010))
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Adherents to the Other Campaign from San Sebastián Bachajón denounce torture and illegal detention of ejidatario (November 8, 2010)
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