- Nuevo Poblado Comandante Abel (@SIPAZ)
In a press conference held at the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) on 24 September, members of different organizations presented the report of the Caravan for Solidarity and Documentation to Nuevo Poblado Comandante Abel, which was held from 18 to 20 of this month.
The Caravan held interviews in Nuevo Poblado Comandante Abel, San Marcos, and Zaquitel Ojo de Agua, all of which pertain to the autonomous municipality La Dignidad (official municipality of Sabanilla) in the northern zone of Chiapas; the latter two are places where Zapatista support-bases found refuge after the violent acts that affected the Comandante Abel community in recent days. The report informed that due to aggressions on the part of the group Development, Peace, and Justice (Desarrollo, Paz y Justicia) over disputes regarding 147 hectares, 83 Zapatista support-bases have been forcibly displaced, living in precarious conditions since 8 September.
The mission “can confirm the existence of several bullet-holes in the walls of the Autonomous School and the Cooperative Stores, as well as in the foundations of trenches on the shore of the river located 200 meters from the community.” Furthermore, “Zapatista support-bases mentioned that they identified the weapons used as R-15; they also report that during the night the aggressors install themselves in the trenches, training their weapons in the direction in which the Zapatistas are located.” The Caravan observed that a Public Security post was established on 16 September some 400 meters from the entrance to the community. The Zapatista support-bases relate that on 18 September, members of the police discharged their firearms twice during the morning.
The members of the Caravan shared their “strong concern for the situation faced by the Zapatista support-bases,” and for the fact that “the Zapatista support-bases detailed the links that exist between the aggressors, some of them being identified as members of Paz y Justicia, and governmental officials of Chiapas, whether currently or formerly serving. Beyond this, we see as worrying the control-post installed by state Public Security at the entrance of Nuevo Poblado Comandante Abel, which has been the origin of shots fired into the air on at least one occasion, as testimony shows.” The members and organizations also noted that “[t]he increase in aggressions has now been warned about in the denunciations published during the past two months by the Good-Government Councils of Oventik,Realidad, Morelia, and Garrucha.”
For more information (in Spanish):
– Informe completo de la Misión de Observación y Solidaridad (24 de septiembre de 2012)
– Actualización de la Acción Urgente del CDHFBC: Desplazamiento forzado de 83 Bases de Apoyo del EZLN en dos comunidades (24 de septiembre de 2012)
– Retorna caravana de solidaridad (Cuarto Poder, 25 de septiembre de 2012)
– Los Otros, que no son Ellos, ni nosotros (La Jornada, 25 de septiembre de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Attacks, forced displacements, and disappearances of Zapatistas in the Comandate Abel community (21 September 2012)
Chiapas: Roberto Barrios JBG denounces attack on Comandante Abel community (19 September 2012)
Chiapas: visit by governor to San Patricio, northern zone; challenge to official strategy by OSC (4 November 2011)
Chiapas: Update regarding the situation in San Patricio, northern zone (27 October 2011)
Chiapas: MPJD arrives once again to Chiapas, there to express solidarity with Las Abejas, prisoners on hunger strike, and Zapatistas (10 de octubre de 2011)
Chiapas: harassment and risk of forced displacement in autonomous community of San Patricio in the northern zone (26 September 2011)
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