On 11 October, the La Realidad Good-Government Council (JBG) Toward Hope located in La Realidad (border jungle region of Chiapas) publicly denounced “the repeated provocations that are being committed against our Zapatista support-base comrades by the authorities and residents of the Guadalupe ejido, Los Altos (official municipality of Las Margaritas), Chiapas, Mexico, who are members of the organization Historic CIOAC and the official parties of the PRD and PAN.”
In its communiqué, the JBG details how it is that the conflict has been developing since 2000, and how this once again has been worsening since December 2011. Due to the Zapatista support bases’ desire not to cooperate in affairs that they consider to be governmental projects, or due to their perception that these not be in the general interest of the ejido, ejidal authorities pertaining to the Historic CIOAC organization came to arrest 5 Zapatistas on 30 September and another on 4 October; these all remain imprisoned.
On 4 October, the JBG visited the community where they were given an “explanation” of the arrest, stipulating that this occurred because the Zapatistas owe the following:
“1. An accumulation of $430 per comrade, due to the refusal to explain what this cooperation was for.
2. 10 days of work, 8 of which they said they lost when they were taking care of those who were arrested for leaving the plot.
3. 8 days of work due to a work deviation that was a governmental project and $180 in cooperation that served to pay for this–knowing that our comrades do not have anything to do with policies that come from the bad government.
4. In case of not observing the accords, our comrades will be displaced from the community. This is a threat that would give room for new problems, given that there are things that they agree to which our comrades cannot accept, as in requests and projects from the bad government.”
The JBG also expressed concern for “the state of health of our comrades, given that due to the bad conditions of the jail, which have toilets right there, 4 of our comrades find themselves very ill. They have now spent 11 days in jail without bathing themselves. Our comrades have not received any medical attention.” The JBG adds that “We as Zapatistas do not want problems with these persons, nor with anyone given that they are not our enemies, because we Zapatistas have it clear and we are convinced that s/he who has reason will end up victorious, and it is not for fear that we do not want forcibly to release our comrades. It is because we understand that that is not the way–fighting and beating others; it is instead because we in no way want to violate their human rights, as they do; that is not the way we do things, as they do.” Regardless, they claimed that they “Demand the immediate release of our 6 comrades, so that we do not come to see it as necessary to take other, more serious measures. These persons know well that our comrades are not alone, and we will not let them be abandoned. For this reason we will defend them, regardless of the cost.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Comunicado completo (JBG de La Realidad, 11 de octubre de 2012)
Invaden grupos del PRI y PVEM poblados zapatistas y atizan conflictos agrarios (La Jornada, 6 de octubre de 2011)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Denunciations from Morelia and La Realidad JBGs (18 September 2012)
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