The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) denounced on 17 December in an Urgent Action that 17 Tojolabal families that sympathize with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) who had taken a piece of land in the Las Margaritas municipality have been attacked and currently face threats of displacement on the part of members of the Historical Agricultural and Worker Independent Center (CIOAC-H).
The document explains that “at approximately 6am, 50 members of CIOAC-H entered the Primero de Agosto community from the Miguel Hidalgo ejido, carrying sticks, machetes, and even firearms.”
It adds that “the situation of violence is critical due to the fact that CIOAC-H members have been attacking Zapatista-sympathizing families, setting free their domesticated animals, and destroying their homes.”
For this reason, Frayba urgently demands that the state governemnt immediately act to protect the lives and physical safety of the EZLN sympatherizers in the Primero de Agosto community, prevent the forcible displacement of these same families, thus respecting and guaranteeing the rights stipulated in the international declarations and conventions having to do with indigenous autonomy and self-determination, and punish the CIOAC-H members who have been engaged in destruction and assault against the Primero de Agosto community.
For more information (in Spanish):
Acción Urgente: Amenazas de Desplazamiento y agresiones a familia tojolabales simpatizantes del EZLN, Frayba, 17 de diciembre de 2014
Denuncia Frayba amenazas contra familias simpatizantes del EZLN, La Jornada 17 de diciembre de 2014
Nueva agresión de la CIOAC contra familias del EZLN, chiapasparalelo, 18 de diciembre de 2014
sipazen.wordpress.com 