By means of a press-release published on 29 October, the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC), the Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization (OPEZ-MLN), the Center of Campesino and Popular Organizations (COCYP-Chiapas), and Laklamul Ixim-Northern Jungle (Our People of Maize) denounced that “approximately 25 armed men identified as residents of the Candelaria El Alto community, who call themselves members of the Other Campaign, attacked comrades and children who pertain to the OCEZ-RC with firearms while they found themselves working in the field known as El Desengaño.”
These organizations found the state-government responsible. They indicate that “The Chiapas state-government is responsible for this aggression, given that since December 2009 it has publicly committed itself by means of minutes to resolve all our agrarian demands, including those regarding the Desengaño field, but at the end of this six-year term it has not observed its promises; to the contrary, it has refused to attend to our demands, social and agrarian.”
In a 30 October community, the organized community of Candelaria El Alto publicly reported that “on Monday 29 October 2012, our community of Candelaria El Alto decided to recover the lands that the OCEZ-RC took from us on 6 April 2011, using the group known as Nuevo San José La Grandeza, which hails from the same municipality. This land has been ours since 1950; by right it is ours, legally and legitimately. We have always worked it, growing our maize and beans which provides us with food to eat. As we noted publicly in many denunciations, we have demanded that the state solve this problem of looting of our lands.” They affirm that “the shootings came from the part of the invaders of our land.”
In an Urgent Action published on 2 November, the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights noted the “imminent risk for the lives, personal integrity, and security of the campesinos from the community of Candelaria El Alto, who adhere to the Other Campaign of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and the members of the Campesino Organization Emiliano Zapata-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) who, due to the omissions on the part of the state government of Chiapas, find themselves in conflict over land.”
For more information (in Spanish):
DENUNCIA URGENTE: AGRESIÓN ARMADA DE GRUPO DE CHOQUE Y DE CORTE PARAMILITAR A INTEGRANTES DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN CAMPESINA EMILIANO ZAPATA-REGIÓN CARRANZA (OCEZ-RC) (Radio Proletaria, 29 de octubre de 2012)
Denuncia de la Comunidad Organizada Candelaria El Alto Adherente a La Otra Campaña (30 de octubre de 2012)
Candelaria el Alto denuncia agresiones a las mujeres de su comunidad (1 de noviembre de 2012)
AU del CDHFBC: Por omisión del gobierno del estado de Chiapas en riesgo la vida de campesinas y campesinos en Venustiano Carranza (2 de noviembre de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Denuncia of residents of Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza regarding the “El Desengaño” territory (25 March 2012)
Chiapas: new public denunciation from the Candelaria El Alto community (16 January 2012)
Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza (28 September 2011)
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