Chiapas: Ejidatarios of Tila clarify information published by Cuarto Poder

Sign of ejidatarios of Tila @ SIPAZ

On 2 April, the ejidatarios of Tila clarified information that had previously published by the Chiapas newspaper Cuarto Poder.  The issue has to do with the case of the Tila ejido, given that on 1 April the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation decided to delay its resolution regarding the return of the 130 hectares that the State Executive and Legislative branches expropriated via a decree in 1980.  In their communique, the ejidatarios cited different paragraphs of a note and the editorial of the local newspaper, adding to each clarifications regarding the published information.  They requested that the newspaper allow them space to distribute their communique.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de los ejidatarios de Tila (02/04/2013)

Notas de Cuarto Poder, a las que se refiere el comunicado:

Editorial

Nota

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Supreme Court postpones decision on case of the Tila ejidatario (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios march in Tila and Mexico City (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila announce schedule of march to the SCJN in Mexico City (31 July 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios de Tila announce a caravan and march against the SCJN in defense of their land and territory (25 July 2012)

Chiapas: Tila ejidatarios reject compensation and request that the SCJN respects their right to territory (14 February 2011)

Chiapas: Authorities of the Tila ejido denounce negation of their right to land; their lives are threatened (9 September 2010)

Chiapas: ejidatarios march in Tila in defense of their lands (27 April 2010)

 

Chiapas: The displaced of Banavil, Tenejapa in “precarious and inhumane” conditions

In a press bulletin released on 2 April, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) denounced that “men, women, and children who were displaced from the Banavil community (Tenejapa municipality), being sympathizers of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), find themselves facing precarious situation of health due to their forced displacement, beyond being threatened constantly as a result of the looting of their lands, the disappearance of Alonso López Luna, and the murder (still not clarified) of Pedro Méndez López. In response, the state government by means of the Prosecutorial Office for Indigenous Justice has dawdled unjustifiably, thus systematically violating the human rights of the displaced.”

The bulletin details that the 13 persons displaced in December 2011 presently find themselves in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, living in “inhumane and precarious” conditions: “they live in a wooden and cardboard room, with a plastic roof of 3×3 meters, with soil for ground.”  Regarding the disappearance of Alonso López Luna, the communique notes that the Special Prosecutorial Office has refused to “carry out the 11 arrest orders against the aggressors, including the public servants of Tenejapa, Pedro Méndez López and Manuel Méndez López, indciated as having been material authors of the act.”  The bulletin affirmed also that “according to testimony, the PRI aggressors have recently looted five and a half hectares of the property of the displaced.  One part was taken directly by the aggressors, and the other sold.  These new acts worsen the situation of these EZLN sympathizers.”

For these reasons, the CDHFBC indicates that “the State is not observing its obligation to guarantee and protect the human rights of the indigneous peoples of Chiapas,” and it demands the “total cessation of all threats and harassment against the displaced in the Banavil ejido; that the 11 arrest-orders against the aggressors be carried out; that there be serious, timely, and expedited investigations to find the whereabouts of Alonso López Luna; that the right to land and the return with guarantee of physical safety and life of the displaced in Banavil be observed; that the Chiapas state government as part of the Mexican State guarantee and protect the human rights of the 13 assaulted persons.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Denuncia Frayba que 13 tzeltales desplazados viven en condiciones “inhumanas” (La Jornada, 3 de abril de 2013)

Boletín de prensa: Boletín: Siguen en situación precaria e inhumana las 13 personas desplazadas de la comunidad de Banavil simpatizantes del EZLN (CDHFBC, 2 de abril de 2013)

Denuncia de los desplazados de Banavil (27 de marzo de 2013)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

Chiapas: CDHFBC published more information on the Banavil case, Tenejapa (9 February 2012)

Chiapas: Presentation of the six-year report from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights

Photo @SIPAZ

On 19 March, in observance of its twenty-fourth anniversary, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) released its report “Between systemic politics and alternatives for life,” an account of the violations of individual and collective rights over the previous six-year administration, when “the federal and state governments exacerbated the neoliberal projects for looting and sought to impede autonomous social processes.”

The report was presented by Abel Flores, from the Believing People, Marina Pagés, coordinator of SIPAZ, and Michael Chamberlin, director of Inicia, the researcher Mercedes Olivera, and Víctor Hugo López, director of the CDHFBC.  According to the report, during the prior six-year administration, “the gap between the recognized rights of indigenous peoples and the exercise of these grew ever wider.”  Territorial looting deemed “legal” has continued by means of projects “that include national-security considerations and protection of investments made by firms linked to the governments that have interested in these territories of great natural resources.”The communities in resistance, regardless, “continue to defense the territory and land in conformity with the San Andres Accords, 17 years after their non-observance.”  Mercedes Olivera stressed the role of women in “the struggle against forgetting,” given that they are “builders of memory.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Entre la política sistémica y las alternativas de vida (Informe sexenial del CDHFBC, 2012)

En el sexenio pasado, tortura y militarización en Chiapas (La Jornada, 19 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Annual report from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (22 September 2011)

Chiapas: Special report by Frayba: Government creates and administers conflicts (8 March 2011)

Chiapas: New Campaign Forward for the Liberty of Alberto Patishtán

On 20 March, a press conference at the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) announced the launch of a new campaign in favor of Alberto Patishtán Gómez, called Campaign Forward for the Liberty of Alberto Patishtán, which will consist of a mass-sending of letters to the president of the Council on Federal Judiciary, Juan Meza Silva, as well as the First Collegiate Tribunal, toward the end of promoting the review of the case of professor Patishtán, as has been announced by his legal counsel, Leonel Rivero Rodríguez, from Strategic Defense for Human Rights A.C.  Within this context, there will also be had different mobilizations in embassies and consulates as well as days of fasting by members of the Voz del Amate and those in solidarity with the Voz del Amate, noted Patishtan himself from prison no. 5 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.  The proposal is to have the Collegiate Tribunal resolve the case “using consciousness.”

During the press-conference were also heard the voices of representatives of the El Bosque community and relatives of Alberto, who have not given up their struggle for his release over the course of the nearly 13 years that he has been imprisoned, in addition to members of Collective Ik’, those accompanying political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, who stressed that “the call for his release has been made by the very governor [of Chiapas] Manuel Velasco Coello, the bishop of San Cristobal Felipe Arizmendi, and the EZLN by means of Subcomandante Marcos, in addition to the entire social movement in the El Bosque municipality.”  They added that never before had there been such a diverse range of personalities uniting against injustice.

The mobilizations will last until 19 April, which is Patishtán Gómez’s birthday.  During a telephone call, Alberto noted that “Despite this new wave of injustice, I will never rest as regards justice and liberty.”  In his call he included collectives, churches, students, workers, communities, and also demanded the release of his comrades in solidarity with the Voz del Amate.

There exists the possibility that his case be resolved in justice, in the estimation of his lawyer.  “The case should go to the First Collegiate Tribunal [in Tuxtla Gutierrez] and this will determine whether we have reason on our side.  That which passed as evidence 10 years ago, when he was sentenced, now no longer can be considered so to be since 2009, for the process was reviewed, with that evidence found to be illegal.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Conferencia de prensa 20 de marzo (Blog Alberto Patishtán, 20 de marzo de 2013)

Lanzan campaña por la libertad de Alberto Patishtán (Aristegui Noticias, 20 de marzo de 2013)

Anuncian nueva campaña internacional para exigir la liberación de Patishtán (La Jornada, 21 de marzo de 2013)

Audios:

Por la Libertad de Alberto Patishtán acciones mundiales (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 21 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: “Justice is its opposite,” declares Alberto Patishtán (20 March 2013)

México/Chiapas: SCJN rejects review of case of Alberto Patishtán(20 March 2013)

Mexico/Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán should be immediately released, notes Olga Sánchez Cordero (5 March 2013)

Mexico/Chiapas: The SCJN admits the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Chiapas: “Justice is its opposite,” declares Alberto Patishtán

“Justice is its opposite, given that those who have committed crimes such as those accused over the Acteal case are free while those like me who are innocent continue to be imprisoned by the government,” noted Alberto Patishtán Gómez, a prisoner who had been incarcerated now for 12 years, in an interview with La Jornada.  ”It would seem that one has to kill in order to leave prison,” he reiterated, referring to the mode of resolution taken by the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN), which newly ordered the release of another prisoner who had been held for presumably having participate din the 1997 Acteal massacre.  It should be recalled that now a total of 58 of the accused for this massacre have been released.  Noé Castañón, secretary of governance, has announced that in this way that it has been done with all, there will be a convention made to provide them with lands so that they do not return to Chenalhó, so as to avoid problems in the area.

Alberto Patishtán recalled that, differently, the SCJN decided not to review his own case, instead noting that the Primary Tribunal in Tuxtla Gutiérrez will be the one to decide whether or not the motion requested by his lawyers be reviewed.

For its part, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights affirmed that the primary hall of the SCJN’s action represents a negation of justice to the thousands of people who processes have been replete with irregularities.  Leonel Rivero, laywer for Patishtán, notes that regardless there is the possibility that the tribunal give him his reason and so immediately provide him his liberty.

For more information (in Spanish):

La justicia está al revés, “pareciera que hay que matar para salir de la cárcel”: Patishtán (La Jornada, 14 de marzo de 2013)

El centro Frayba demanda la libertad inmediata del tzotzil Alberto Patishtán(La Jornada, 15 de marzo de 2013)

Aún existen posibilidades de que se reconozca la inocencia de Patishtán(La Jornada, 15 de marzo de 2013)

Liberan a indígena acusado por la matanza de Acteal(La Jornada, 15 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

México/Chiapas: SCJN rejects review of case of Alberto Patishtán(20 March 2013)

Mexico/Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán should be immediately released, notes Olga Sánchez Cordero (5 March 2013)

Mexico/Chiapas: The SCJN admits the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: Postponement of the SCJN’s decision on the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán loses his sight, and request on his part (28 September 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: Request for recognition of innocence of Alberto Patishtán before the SCJN (19 September 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: SCJN rejects review of case of Alberto Patishtán

Image @ Koman Ilel

On 6 March the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) decided not to review its competence regarding the case of professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, from the El Bosque municipality of Chiapas.  The decision was taken on the basis of the project of the justice Olga Sánchez Cordero, who had suggested new hope to favor the cause of Patishtán, given that, if he had been judged according to the criteria approved by the Primary Hall in recent years, surely he would have been released due to the grave violations of due process which occurred during his trial.

Manuel Velasco Coello, governor of Chiapas, affirmed that the Tzotzil indigenous man Alberto Patishtán Gómez, who had been imprisoned since 2000, “should be released.”  In a communiqué, he assured that Patishtán Goméz, who has been sentenced for 60 years, “should be granted a recognition of his innocence.”  ”The SCJN’s decision should have favored the release” of Patishtán, reiterated the governor.

Now, the case returns to a court in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.  “There still remains racism within Mexican justice,” claimed Patishtán’s defense team.  It is hoped that the new process will last three weeks in arriving to the tribunal in Tuxtla.  All indications show that this court could decide on the resource of innocence.

For more information (in Spanish):

Patishtán debe ser puesto en libertad: gobernador de Chiapas (La Jornada, 7 de marzo de 2013)

SCJN: Doce años de injusticia son insuficientes para Alberto Patishtán(Centro de Medios Libres, 7 de marzo de 2013)

“Estamos gobernados por la injusticia”: Patishtán tras negativa de la Corte (La Jornada, 6 de marzo de 2013)

Rechaza la SCJN resolver el caso del profesor indígena Alberto Patishtán (La Jornada, 6 de marzo de 2013)

Rechaza el caso de alberto la SCJN (Blog de Alberto Patishtán, 6 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico/Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán should be immediately released, notes Olga Sánchez Cordero (5 March 2013)

Mexico/Chiapas: The SCJN admits the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: Postponement of the SCJN’s decision on the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán loses his sight, and request on his part (28 September 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: Request for recognition of innocence of Alberto Patishtán before the SCJN (19 September 2012)

Chiapas: March in Cerss nº5 of San Cristóbal de Las Casas for prisoner Rosario Díaz

On 22 February there was held a protest march within prison no. 5 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, to denounce the injustices carried out gainst Rosario Díaz Méndez, who was newly sentenced to 25 years at the end of January.  Those in solidarity with the Voz del Amate together with proper members of this organization (Rosario and Alberto Patishtán Gómez) made public an audio declaration in which they called on the state governor, Manuel Velasco Coello, to “put an end to these unjust incarcerations, immediately and without conditions.”

It should be noted that Rosario Díaz has always maintained his innocence, given that at the very time of the crime for which he has been charged, he was working in construction in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, with two of his sons, who corroborate this claim.

For more information (in Spanish):

Audio Denuncia de Solidarios y Voz del Amate (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 22 de febrero de 2013)

Audio Denuncia de Solidarios y Voz del Amate: realizaron una marcha de protesta dentro del penal el viernes 22 de febrero (Enlace Zapatista, 23 de febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: End of week of fasting for prisoners in Cerss nº5 (12 February 2013)

Chiapas: The Voz del Amate and those in solidarity fasting and praying (5 February 2013)

Mexico/Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán should be immediately released, notes Olga Sánchez Cordero

Image @ Pozol.org

The First Hall of the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) has planned on 6 March to address the motion requesting the recognition of innocence of the Tsotsil professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, given that the justice Olga Sánchez Cordero will present the project that would allow for the decision of whether the SCJN has the ability to begin profoundly studying the requested motion.  The project elaborated by Olga Sánchez indicates clearly that Alberto Patishtán should be immediately released.

The officials have reported to the media regarding the move by the justice, adding that the project notes that if the accused (of 60 years of age) had been judged in light of the recent constitutional reforms on human rights and the new decisions taken by the First Hall on due process and presumption of innocence, Patishtán would already be freed.It was explained that juridically the affair is very complicated, because the sentence that has Patishtán incarcerated has an indefinite timewindow.  It is for this reason, they added, that a favorable decision for the teacher would be very difficult to approve, given that he must be supported by at least two other justices to receive his freedom.  Furthermore, during the course of its history, the SCJN has on occasion recognized innocence of prisoners; it has done so only rarely because new and irrefutable evidence is required to demonstrate that the accused is not responsible for the crime for which s/he has been charged.  This is the move that has been made by the lawyers of Patishtán Gómez.For more information (in Spanish):

Boletín: En manos de la SCJN asumir el caso de Alberto Patishtán Gómez y crear un referente en la administración de justicia a favor de los derechos humanos en nuestro país (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 28 de febrero de 2012)

Patishtán debe ser liberado de inmediato, según proyecto de la ministra Olga Sánchez (La Jornada, 28 de febrero de 2013)

Palabra de Alberto Patishtán Gómez sobre próxima decisión de la SCJN sobre su caso (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 4 de marzo de 2013)

Audio-Video:

Entrevista a Abogados de Alberto Patishtan (Koman Ilel, 12 de febrero de 2013)

Entrega del Amicus Curiae ante Suprema Corte de la Nación (Blog Alberto Patishtán, 4 de marzo de 2013)

Programa Especial sobre Alberto Patishtán (Blog Alberto Patishtán, febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico/Chiapas: The SCJN admits the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: Postponement of the SCJN’s decision on the Patishtán case (12 October 2012)

Chiapas: Alberto Patishtán loses his sight, and request on his part (28 September 2012)

Mexico/Chiapas: Request for recognition of innocence of Alberto Patishtán before the SCJN (19 September 2012)

 

Chiapas: Ejidatarios of Tila release a communique and a letter to SCJN judges, on eve of decision in their case

On 26 February, ejidatarios of Tila who adhere to the EZLN’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona jungle released a communique reporting that the court case regarding the fate of the Tila ejido is about to be resolved before the Supreme Court of Justice in the Nation (SCJN).  The ejidatarios indicated that they had won a motion allowing them to recover the lands that the state-government of Chiapas expropriated via decree in 1980.  They emphasized that “the mayor who is protected by the state-government [used] this illegal decree of 1980 [such that he has been] selling and appropriating our lands.  The motion clearly states that the lands pertain to the ejido and that the decree is illegal.  They wanted to take over 130 hectares, 52 of which are occupied by the town of Tila and 78 of which are worked and cultivated.  Now we can see how they desire to continue privatizing and enriching themselves.  They want to continue with their corruption and looting of our people.  This is the root of the problem and its injustice.”Furthermore, on 28 February it was announced in a press-conference that the ejidatarios had written a letter to the SCJN’s judges.  “We want our right as ejidatarios to be respected, because we do in fact have rights, and we want justice to be done.  This justice must be done according to the law, because we are not taking away lands, but they are taking ours.  We request justice because it is our right as Mexicans, and it makes no sense that those who have no juridical standing be favored in this process.”  The female ejidatarias emphasized that “as women we want our lands to be returned, because this way we maintain our sons and daughters and our own selves.  We do not want them to expropriate our lands because then our children left for the cities, becoming criminals, all due to the injustice and violation of our rights as Ch’ol indigenous women.”Separately, there was made public a letter written by academics, intellectuals, and artists who support the ejidatarios of Tila.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado del 26 de febrero en su versión completa

Carta de hombres y mujeres del ejido Tila a los ministros de la SCJN y carta de intelectuales en respaldo al ejido Tila

Más detalles sobre el caso de Tila: Enfoque del Informe de SIPAZ de febrero de 2013

Blog de los ejidatarios adherentes a la Sexta del ejido de Tila

La Jornada: Aguardan indígenas Ch’oles fallo de la Corte que les resituya tierras (28/02/2013)

La Jornada: Pueblos indígenas: escenas de un mismo Estado (26/02/2013)

Nexos: El derecho de los pueblos indígenas a la tierra y el territorio. Caso Ejido Tila (27/02/2013)

Centro ProDH: SCJN discutirá el derecho indígena a la tierra: Ejido de Tila (25/02/2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Supreme Court postpones decision on case of the Tila ejidatario (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios march in Tila and Mexico City (16 August 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila announce schedule of march to the SCJN in Mexico City (31 July 2012)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios de Tila announce a caravan and march against the SCJN in defense of their land and territory (25 July 2012)

Chiapas: Tila ejidatarios reject compensation and request that the SCJN respects their right to territory (14 February 2011)

Chiapas: Authorities of the Tila ejido denounce negation of their right to land; their lives are threatened (9 September 2010)

Chiapas: ejidatarios march in Tila in defense of their lands (27 April 2010)

Chiapas: “immediate risk” of expulsions of Zapatista support-bases in San Marcos Avilés

(QRadio Pozol)

On 23 February, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) launched an urgent action in light of the “immediate risk” that “for the second time there be realized a forced displacement of support-bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) as committed by residents of the same ejido [of San Marcos Avilés, Chilón municipality], affiliates of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM).”

The new threats came to a head when ejidal authorities demanded that the Zapatista support-bases pay a land tax, which they refused to do: “We have suffered a great deal due to all the aggressions committed by these party-members, and the government has done nothing.  Now is not the time to pay, as we are in resistance, and we demand respect for our rights to our lands.  If we do not receive anything from the government, we will not pay taxes.”  In light of this, ejidal authorities replied that, if they would not do so, they would be displaced.  They then began to organize themselves and to contact other municipal and state authorities to help carry out said displacement.

The CDHFBC stressed in its document “the responsibility of the Chiapas state-government, which due to deliberate omission has not acted to guarantee the personal integrity and security of the Zapatista support-bases and their access to land, despite the numerous interventions sent by this very organization demanding that the Mexican government provide the necessary measures for the personal security and integrity of the threatened indigenous people, as well as their right to fundamental rights of free expression and thought, in addition to their right to land and the autonomous processes that they are developing, in observance of the right to the free self-determination of peoples.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente: Riesgo de desplazamiento forzado a BAEZLN en San Marcos Avilés (23 de febrero de 2013)

Existe “riesgo inminente” de expulsión de zapatistas en Chilón: Frayba (La Jornada, 23 de febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Communiqué from the Oventic JBG regarding the aggressions and death-threats on the aprt of persons affiliated with political parties against Zapatistas in San Marcos Avilés(5 July 2011)

Chiapas: death-threats to Zapatista support-bases in San Marcos Avilés (5 July 2011)

Chiapas: Return of displaced Zapatista support-bases to San Marcos Avilés (18 October 2010)

Chiapas: Denunciation of the Oventic JBG regarding violent expulsion of Zapatista support-bases in San Marcos y Pamala (14 September 2010)