On 23 and 24 July, in the community of El Naranjo, municipality of Palenque (Chiapas), there was held a meeting of the National Network of Civil Resistance to High Electricity prices. In the meeting participated organizations and communities from the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz that have organized themselves in civil resistance in light of the high electricity prices, opting to not pay given prices, given that the costs are considered excessively high.
In their communiqué, the participants of the meeting denounced that “We see and suffer in alarm, but also with anger and impotence given how they repress us and subject us to judicial process, this just for raising our voices. They seek to sap us of our strength and will, subjecting us to a justice that denies us the most fundamental human rights and which criminalizes our struggles and our comrades.” They expressed their solidarity with the National and International Campaign against Judicial Harassment and the Criminalization of Human-Rights Defenders and Social Activists of Mexico, initiated by the Regional Autonomous Council of the coastal zone of Chiapas and the Digna Ochoa Center for Human Rights A.C. from Tonalá (Chiapas), due to the judicial investigations targeting Nataniel Hernández Núñez, ex-director of the Center, which have been considered legal harassment. Among other demands, they call for the cancellation of arrest-orders, investigations, and penal processes targeting several members of the National Network of Civil Resistance to High Electricity Prices.
For more information (in Spanish):
Pronunciamiento de la Red Nacional de Resistencia Civil a las Altas Tarifas de la Energía eléctrica (24 July 2011)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Campeche: Arrest of activist campaigning against high electricity prices (26/05/2010)
Mexico: AI Declares Activists against High Electricity Tariffs Prisoners of Conscience (10/03/2010)
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