Chiapas: Days of Cultural Resistance of the Las Abejas Civil Society

Press-conference @ SIPAZ

On 12 October, in observation of the presentation of a “Day of Cultural Resistance,” the Las Abejas Civil Society of Acteal denounced in a press-conference the injunction filed in the United States against Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, considered one of the material authors of the Acteal massacre and the counterinsurgency war against the indigenous peoples of Chiapas.

The communiqué reads “We came here to say once again that the Acteal massacre continues to go unpunished. We came to say that the intellectual authors of this State crime, committed on 22 December 1997, continue free; they are fugitives from justice. We came here because in no way will we permit that foreign persons or persons outside our organization use and manipulate the justice of the Acteal massacre… We have nothing to do with the demand presented in US courts against Ernesto Zedillo for the Acteal massacre. It is very clear that these persons who use the name of the survivors of Acteal are persons who only desire power and money rather than true justice.”

They found other public figures to be responsible as well: “It is for this reason that apart from Zedillo as intellectual author of the massacre we find responsible Emilio Chuayffet Chemor, Gral. Enríque Cervantes Aguirre, Julio César Ruiz Ferro, Gral. Mario Renán Castillo Fernández, Homero Tovilla Cristiani, Uriel Járquin Galvez, Jorge Enríque Hernández Aguilar, David Gómez Hernández, Antonio Pérez Hernández entre otros.” Beyond including this, “it is not only Zedillo who merits punishment but also all those involved we have mentioned and the governors in turn, because when they cover up and protect those responsible for the Acteal massacre by not applying justice, they become complicit and pass to forming part of the list of perpetrators of this crime of State.”

In the same pronunciation they denied the idea that the massacre was perpetrated for religious reasons; rather in their view it was a counterinsurgency strategy: “they present the paramilitaries as victims of an inter-religious problem, that Las Abejas de Acteal pertains to the Catholic Church and the [political] left, and for this reason we accuse these peoples. The Acteal massacre and the events leading up to it were part of a political conflict designed by the Mexican State with the objective of countering the struggle of the EZLN and that of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.”