On 3 October, the Las Abejas Civil Society published a new communiqué in which it denounces the reactivation of paramilitary groups in the Chenalhó municipality, where it has its principal presence, as well as in the northern zone of the state of Chiapas. The group affirms that the massive ex-carcelation of prisoners held for the Acteal massacre (22 December 1997) which began in August 2009 and continues with the release of Manuel Sántiz Pérez just this September 25 “has favored greatly the regrouping of these organizations, and now they have joined forces with those who were not judged: they carry firearms on the highways and in the mountains, as well as on the path to milpas and coffee-farms.” The Civil Society also reports that a month ago an indigenous Zapatista supporter was shot in the Yabteclum community, a happening that “reveals the paramilitary actions and the presence of said armed groups.”
The Civil Society affirmed also that “the governmental transition of Enrique Peña Nieto has unleashed a series of violent acts. This is a strategy of threat that is exercised to arrest the social protests that denounce his imposition, though they be not just against EPN but also against social organizations that denounce injustices and human-rights violations as committed and supported by governments. These actions are implemented within a logic of counterinsurgency that has among other ends the creation of divisions and internal conflicts within communities and organizations, even including forced displacement. [The tendency is this way so that] this government administer these actions for its own ends, as has been done by the government of Juan Sabines Guerrero with the organizations in the northern zone of Chiapas (Tila, San Sebastián Bachajón), and other autonomous regions.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Reactivación del grupo paramilitar “Máscara Roja” en Chenalhó (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 3 de octubre de 2012)
Denuncia Las Abejas la reactivación de grupos paramilitares en Chenalhó (La Jornada, 5 de octubre de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Mexico/Chiapas: Postponement of the SCJN’s decision on the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)
National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case (19 September 2012)
sipazen.wordpress.com 