Chiapas: Release of one of the 5 of San Sebastián Bachajón

On 7 July, Mariano Demeza Silvano, a minor 17 years of age, one of the five adherents to the Other Campaign from the ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, who was detained at the beginning of February on several charges following a confrontation regarding the control-point at the entrance of the Agua Azul waterfalls, was conditionally released. He is to leave the juvenile-detention center of Villa Crisol and will be managed by the Chilón System for the Wholesome Development of the Family (DIF) to carry out community-service projects.

The other four adherents detained in March continue to be held in the State Center for the Social Reinsertion of the Sentenced (CERSS) number 17, in the Playas de Catazajá. On 27 June, they published a communiqué denouncing abuses and discrimination on the part of prison authorities in Playas de Catazajá vis-a-vis prisoners’ relatives. They denounce “energetically those persons and we demand more respect and more just treatment of the relatives of prisoners who want to enter to visit their family-members, given that they feel harassed and threatened in the way they are currently treaty. The government should truly demonstrate its respect for human rights so that it does not in vain waste money paying the personnel of the State Council [on Human Rights]. The true reality is this: that the institution serves injustice and masks the government’s behvioar so it can better carry out its discriminatory acts.”

This same day, dozens of families of prisoners in this same prison also denounces sexual abuse and humiliation on the part of prison authorities upon visiting. The relatives found David Montero Montero, director, to be responsible, and they demand the intervention of the secretary of Citizens’ Protection and Security to remove Montero from office, given the abuses committed both inside the prison and with regard to relatives of the imprisoned.

In other news, in a new act that demonstrates that tensions continue in the zone of Bachajón, on 27 June, the ejidatarios who are adherents to the Other Campaign warned of an attempt to loot Alac Sac jun, part of the ejido, on the part of officialist groups. They found the authorities responsible for anything that might take place in the vicinity of the terrain.

For more information (in Spanish):

Ordenan liberar a activista de Bachajón (La Jornada, 8 July)

Comunicado de los ejidatarios de Bachajón respecto a la liberación de Mariano Demeza (8 July)

Denuncian abusos en contra de internos y visitantes del penal de Catazajá, Chiapas (La Jornada, 6 July)

Alertan ejidatarios de Bachajón sobre intento de despojo en Alan Sac jun (La Jornada, 1 July)

San Sebastián Bachajón denuncian ex autoridades oficiales(Comunicado de los adherentes a La Otra Campaña de San Sebastián Bachajón, 27 June)

Denuncia de los presos de San Sebastián desde CERESO NUM. 17 PLAYAS DE CATAZAJÁ (27 June 2011)

Familiares de Internos de cárcel en Playas de catazajá en el Norte de Chiapas denuncian violencia sexual de funcionarios de dicha cárcel (27 June 2011)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Facing police repression, adherents to the Other Campaign from San Sebastián Bachajón abandon control-post they had taken the previous day (24 April 2011)

Chiapas: Press conference by ejidatari@s from San Sebastián Bachajón (20 March 2011)

Chiapas: Special report by Frayba: Government creates and administers conflicts (8 March 2011)