Oaxaca: Conflictivity increases over wind-energy parks in the Isthmus

The tensions related to the intention to build a wind-energy park in San Dionisio del Mar, in the Tehuantepec Isthmus, have increased in recent days due to different events that have led to confrontations between opponents to the wind-energy park and its proponents.  On different occasions, several journalists have been arrested, and some local residents have also been detained, only to be subsequently released with signs of torture.  Beyond this, on 26 March public security forces were used in a failed attempt to displace a roadblock maintained by opponents to the project in the Playa Vicente community, leaving several injured.

Both the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Tehuantepec Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIITDTyT) and the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) have denounced that 4 communards “were taken in the middle of the day from the Juárez neighborhood on 18 March and released the next day with signs of torture.”  The two organizations have denounced that on 21 March there were arrests of several hours of “journalists from La Jornada, Rosa Rojas and Francisco Olvera, [and of] David Henestrosa from the Regional Weekly from Salina Cruz; Ignacio Garrido, Karina Martínez, and Eliseo Ramírez from Ucizoni, as well as Eleazar Infante, an Ikoots communard from San Mateo del Mar as prosecuted by a group [...] which serves Francisco Valle Piamonte, the ex-mayor of San Mateo del Mar.”

While the journalists and UCIZONI members were released the same day, Eleazar Infante was not freed until the midnight of the following day.  The communiques have indicated that Valle Piamonte had been rejected as mayor for having negotiated a deal with the Spanish firm Mareña Renewables for the rental of lands to construct the wind-energy park in the region.

Beyond this, on 26 March, there were confrontations between Zapotec indigenous members of the Popular Assembly of the Juchitec People (APPJ) with the State Police as the latter attempted to displace a roadblock that the APPJ had maintained on the road between the community of Playa Vicente and the state capital.  In accordance with journalistic information, the residents installed barricades to impede the construction of the wind-energy park Fuerza y Energía Bii Hioxho, the project of the Spanish firm Fenosa Natural Gas.  Some 140 state police had been sent to the site to remove the opponents to the wind-energy park using tear gas and live fire, but regardless, the communards defended themselves with rocks and sticks, forcing the state police to retreat.  According to the press, 6 Navy units also participated in the operation.  The confrontation left 32 police injured, three of them gravely, and 11 injured on the side of the APPJ.  Following the confrontation, which resulted in the arrest of 5 Zapotec indigenous persons and the taking of a female police officer, representatives of the state government and the protestors agreed to a cease-fire.  The Ministry for the Defense of Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca (DDHPO), for its part, has requested precautionary measures from the Oaxaca General Secretariat of Governance and Public Security to resolve the conflict by means of dialogue and negotiation.

For more information (in Spanish):

La Jornada: Gente vinculada a edil priísta oaxaqueño retiene a dos periodistas de La Jornada (22/03/2013)

Quadratin: Siete policías heridos luego de intento de desalojo en Juchitán (26/03/2013)

La Jornada: Se enfrentan policías e indígenas en Juchitán (27/03/2013)

El Universal: Manifestantes liberan a policía retenida en Oaxaca (27/03/2013)

Comunicado de la APIIDTyT

Comunicado de Ucizoni

Reports:

Página3: Vientos del Istmo ponen al descubierto mitos y mentiras de proyectos eólicos en la zona Huave

Página3: Dan más de 3mdeuros al proyecto eólico Bii Nee Stipa II; huaves, sin beneficios

Proceso: Pese a la oposición, empresa española construirá parques eólicos en Oaxaca y Puebla

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Red alert for communities in the Isthmus and for civil society (5 February 2013)

Oaxaca: judge concedes motion against wind-energy project in San Dionisio del Mar (21 December 2012)

Oaxaca: confrontations between PRI militants and opponents to wind-energy park in San Dionisio del Mar (7 December 2012)

Oaxaca: Threats from shock-groups in San Dionisio del Mar (26 October 2012)

Oaxaca: entry of Caravan of Solidarity impeded to San Dionisio del Mar (15 October 2012)

 

Oaxaca: Harassment of the offices of Código DH and repression of rights-defenders and communal radios in the Isthmus

During the early morning of 3 April, the offices of the Committee for the Comprehensive Defense of Human Rights Gobixha (Código DH) were harassed, with clear signs of informational materials having been removed.  It should be recalled that Alba Cruz Ramos, who is responsible for the juridical sphere of this organization, enjoys precautionary measures granted her by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) due to her having received a nu number of death-threats.

Código DH has indicated the repression and harassment suffered by communal human-rights defenders in the state of Oaxaca by means of various Urgent Actions released in recent weeks.  One of these communiques notes “our concern for this new wave of aggression against human-rights defenders.  In Oaxaca for several months there has been the generation of a climate of intimidation and harassment against communal human-rights defenders whom we have been accompanying, some of them having been recently arrested.”  Among those they accompany is found Mariano López Gómez, an activist for the defense of territory in the Tehuantepec Isthmus and a member of the Assembly of the Juchiteco People and of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Tehuantepec Isthmus, who was arrested on 2 April and released two days later due to lack of evidence against him.

The harassment of different communal radios in the Isthmus has been notorious; these together with social organizations have made pronouncements against the recent aggressions targeting Radio Huave, Radio Xadani, Radio Voces de los Pueblos, and Radio Totopo, noting that “In light of the repressive wave that the communal radios of the Isthmus have been suffering, we make an urgent call for solidarity and call on the Marena Renewables and Fenosa Nautral Gas firms and the state government of Oaxaca to halt harassment against these communal communication media.”  For its part, the Consultation Council of Indigenous and Afromexican Peoples of Oaxaca denounced that “we consider the persecution and criminalization of indigenous communicators of the ‘Radio Totopo’ communal radio to be an attack on cultural diversity and a violation of basic rights and collective rights.”

For their part, a dozen social and human rights organizations, including the IACHR and Amnesty International, have demanded urgent actions and precautionary measures from the federal government for the representatives of communal radios in the zone of the Isthmus.  The organizations have denounced harassment and arbitrary detention suffered by representatives of the communal radios, such as with Mariano López Gómez and Carlos Sánchez of Radio Totopo.

For more information (in Spanish):

Allanan oficinas de ONG en Oaxaca (Proceso, 3 de abril de 2013)

Exigimos garantías para las defensoras y defensores de derechos humanos (CodigoDH, 3 de abril de 2013)

AU por la libertad inmediata de Mariano López Gómez (CodigoDH, 3 de abril de 2013)

Acción Urgente a favor de comunicador de Radio Xadani (CodigoDH, 29 de marzo de 2013)

Denuncian ONG en Oaxaca represión dirigida a radios comunitarias (Milenio, 3 de abril de 2013)

Se rompe el diálogo entre gobierno de Oaxaca y opositores a parque eólico (La Jornada, 3 de abril de 2013)

Pronunciamiento del Consejo Consultivo de Pueblos Indígenas y Afromexicanos de Oaxaca (La Luna de Oaxaca, 4 de abril de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Harassment and robbery of offices of Consorcio (14 November 2011)

Oaxaca: new intimidation directed at Alba Cruz (18 January 2011)

Oaxaca: attack on union leader Marcelino Coache (20 May 2010)

 

Oaxaca: Protest against “Failure of Democratic Transition in Oaxaca”

On 19 March in Oaxaca City there was held a mobilization to observe the “Failure of Democratic Transition in Oaxaca,” as organized by several civil and social organizations.  In accordance with journalistic information, the protest, which began in the “El Llano” park and ended in the Zócalo, was attended by 1000 persons.  In a joint communique, the organizational groups indicated that the “government of Gabino Cue does not represent those of us who seek a real change for our state.  Today Oaxaca is ruled by groups that direct José Murat and Diodoro Carrasco who in the shadow of power have become millionaires, imposing repressive policies in the government through their operators.”

The protestors declared that “In these latest years the conflicts that seemingly had no solution have been exacerbated; this climate of tensions directly affects the indigenous peoples who are no priority for the present government [...].  The current government, instead of promoting action for communal development, stimulates looting of our natural resources, with more than 300 mining concessions handed over to the owners of the land as an example.  It has also criminalized and harassed those of us who manifest ourselves to defend our rights.  The brutal police repression suffered by communards in Santa María Chimalapa and Alvaro Obregón are examples of this.”

The organizations, including the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Tehuantepec Isthmus (UCIZONI) and the Zapatista Agrarian Indigenous Movement (MAIZ), warn that there exists a situation of corruption and impunity in the state, referring in this way to the murders of several social activists in recent years.  Furthermore, they demanded the resignation of the state secretaries for Public Security, Finance, Agrofishing Development, and Infrastructure.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado íntegro de las organizaciones

E-Consulta: UCIZONI marcha por “muerte” de la transición democrática en Oaxaca (19/03/2013)

Quadratin: Con cortejo “fúnebre”, declaran “muerta” transición en Oaxaca (19/03/2013)

Oaxaca: One-year anniversary of the murder of Bernardo Vásquez

15 March marked the one-year anniversary of the murder of Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, spokesperson of the Coordination of United Peoples in Defense of the Ocotlan Valley (CPUVO) and opponent of the “Trinidad” mine owned by the Cuzcatlán firm, which is a subsidiary of Fortuna Silver Mines Inc, located in the municipality of San José del Progreso.  During 2010 and 2011 Bernardo and members of the CPUVO received death-threats for which they responded with 20 juridical demands, none of which was processed.

Commemorating the one-year anniversary of Bernardo Vázquez’s murder, on March 15 a group of 200 people carried out a ceremony to remember this social activist, before the very site of the Cuzcatlán mine in San José del Progreso.   In accordance with the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights (Centro Prodh), the entire group was arrested following their public act.  These events took place when members of a group supportive of the mine (transported in 5 trucks) blockaded access, including federal highways, to inhibit the free movement of the protesters, who were also fired upon so as to intimidate them.  There were no reports of injured persons, but among those arrested are found members of the Oaxacan Collective in Defense of Territory, of the CPUVO, residents of San José del Progreso, and members of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights, including its director, José Rosario Marroquín Farrera.

“A year after his murder, the violations of the collective rights of the people continue to be prosecuted by the mining firm, and there has been no institutional means by which to resolve this conflict.  This date leads us to recall the level of impunity with which the mining firms are operating; it also recalls the complicity of municipal, state, and federal governments with the implementation of these projects,” as is noted in the communique by REMA (Mexican Network of those Affected by Mining) that was published for the one-year anniversary.

For more information (in Spanish):

Bernardo VIVE en la lucha de los pueblos de Oaxaca (EDUCA, 15 de marzo de 2013)

A un año del asesinato de Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez se continúan violando los derechos humanos en San José del Progreso (Colectivo Oaxaqueño en Defensa de los Territorios, 14 de marzo de 2013)

Situación de emergencia en San José del Progreso (CodigoDH, 15 de marzo de 2013)

A un año del asesinato de Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, REMA exige justicia para San José del Progreso, Oaxaca, México (Otros Mundos Chiapas, 15 de marzo de 2013)

Activistas hacen toma simbólica de mina en El Progreso, Oaxaca(Milenio, 15 de marzo de 2013)

Retiene grupo armado a 200 activistas opositores a una mina en Oaxaca (WRadio, 15 de marzo de 2013)

Opositores a minera y defensores de DH bien tras hostigamiento(Centro Prodh, 15 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Opponents to mining in San José del Progreso are attacked (25 June 2012)

Oaxaca: access to the Cuzcatlán mine is blocked in San José el Progreso (16 May 2012)

Oaxaca: Actions, denunciations, and mobilizations in the case of San José del Progreso (3 April 2012)

Oaxaca: Murder of the spokesperson of the Coordination of the United Peoples of the Ocotlán Valley (25 March 2012)

Oaxaca: Two opponents of mining in San José del Progreso are fired on (8 February 2012)

Mexico: “Mined land, the defense of the rights of communities and of the environment” (14 December 2011)

National: Thousands of persons participate in the March for Life in Mexico City

Photo @megafono.lunasexta.org

Thousands participated in the March for Life organized by the Network of Autonomous Anticapitalist Resistance (RRAA) left from the Ángel de la Independencia toward the Zócalo of Mexico City on Wednesday 13 March, while activities in solidarity were carried out in another 20 states of Mexico.  During the march there were made many slogans, including rejections of the war against the people and opposition to the rape of Mother Earth, megaprojects, the disappearance of employment, militarization, repression and criminalization of social protest, and attacks on the autonomy of indigenous peoples.

Raúl de Jesús Cabrera, coordinator of the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities-Communal Police (CRAC-PC) from the House for Justice in San Luís Acatlán, Guerrero, once again stressed the posture of the CRAC in terms of the context of the present discussions regarding self-defense processes and communal police: “Today we have come with 50 people to demonstrate to the federal government that our struggle has always been from below.  We come to totally reject the place of mining firms in Guerrero, which operate mainly in communal territories.  We also reject the decree that the Guerrero state governor Ángel Heladio Aguirre has released, calling for the Communal Police to integrate into the state apparatus, and for the community to be the subject of the federal government, as he desires.  We will not allow this, because our rulers are the people.  There is our base [...].  We would like to report to Mexican society that it not be deceived by the media, because the media at times lie.  There is a great deal of confusion now regarding the relationship between the Communal Police and the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG) and self-defense in Guerrero.  We do not have links or ties with them.  We are independent and autonomous.”

For more information (in Spanish):

México DF: Voces desde la Marcha por la Vida(www.megafono.lunasexta.org 14 de marzo de 2013)

México: Durante Marcha por la Vida, Viudas de Pasta de Conchos piden justicia (Kaos en la Red, 15 de marzo de 2013)

El variopinto México de abajo marcha por la vida (Desinformémonos, 18 de marzo de 2013)

For more information (in Spanish):

Guerrero: CRAC-PC demystifies journalistic claims regarding UPOEG (20 March 2013)

Guerrero: Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities-Communal Police (CRAC-PC) pronounces itself against state decree (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Authorities linked to the UPOEG occupy the House of Justice of the CRAC in San Luis Acatlán (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Governor Aguirre intervenes in situation of insecurity in Ayutla. Communal Police repeats: “it is not us” (24 January 2013)

Guerrero: Self-defense against organized crime in 4 municipalities (15 January 2013)

Guerrero: Social insurrection in Olinalá against organized crime (9 November 2012)

Mexico: Insufficient attention to human rights on the part of EPN

 Nearly a hundred days into the new administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, Annesty International (AI) expressed that “the few measures that Enrique Peña Nieto has taken in terms of human rights simply do not correspond to the gravity of the situation that Mexico is experiencing.”

“There exist worrying indications that this government is not giving sufficient priority to the protection of human rights.  The new administration should break with the empty promises from before regarding human rights, putting an end to the impunity of abuses,” noted Javier Zúñiga, special assessor of AI.

Victims of violence, police reform, code of military justice, migrants, women, indigenous people, human rights defenders and journalists: AI went systematically through the problems that exist and the lack of significant progress in each sphere.

For more information (in Spanish):

Peña Nieto: Cien días esperando verdaderos avances de derechos humanos (Comunicado de prensa de AI, 5 de marzo de 2013)

AI: insuficiente atención de Peña a derechos humanos (La Jornada, 5 de marzo de 2013)

Ai: Insuficiente respuesta de EPN en derechos humanos (El Universal, 4 de marzo de 2013)

Pide AI al gobierno de Peña más compromiso con derechos humanos(Milenio, 4 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Nacional: Amnesty International presents report regarding use of torture in Mexico (19 October 2012)

National: International judges report on conclusions of the observation of state of justice in Mexico (12 October 2012)

Chiapas: Presentation of report on torture in Chiapas “From Cruelty to Cynicism” (2 July 2012)

The OMCT condemns torture in Chiapas (18 August 2011)

Guerrero: CRAC-PC demystifies journalistic claims regarding UPOEG

Meeting in San Luis Acatlán, 17 February 2013. Photo @SIPAZ

On 6 March, the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities (CRAC) released a communiqué in which it demystifies the content of articles published in various media on the same day.  According to these sources, the CRAC would propose joint communal work with the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG) and would permit the entrance of mining firms into communities pertaining to the CRAC.  In the communiqué released by the CRAC, it declares that these news “are absolutely untrue, and do not represent the position of our communal institution.  We have on several occasions made public our disagreement with the groups of self-defense promoted by the UPOEG, and for this reason in no way do we think we can change our mode of action with regards to the security of the communities that make up our communal system.”  The communiqué goes on to indicate that “in relation to the mines, our communities and peoples have manifested on several occasions their total rejection of the installation of mining firms on communal lands.  We believe that these notes and the means by which they were published represent a provocation on the part of governmental and media agencies to confuse the people and produce lack of confidence in our authorities.”

For more information (in Spanish):

CRAC_pronunciamiento_6_de_marzo

Anuncia CRAC trabajo Conjunto con UPOEG para bien de las comunidades (Novedades Acapulco, 6 de marzo de 2013)

Policía comunitaria colaborará con autodefensa en Guerrero (El Mexicano, 6 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities-Communal Police (CRAC-PC) pronounces itself against state decree (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Authorities linked to the UPOEG occupy the House of Justice of the CRAC in San Luis Acatlán (26 February 2013)

Guerrero: Governor Aguirre intervenes in situation of insecurity in Ayutla. Communal Police repeats: “it is not us” (24 January 2013)

Guerrero: Self-defense against organized crime in 4 municipalities (15 January 2013)

Guerrero: Social insurrection in Olinalá against organized crime (9 November 2012)

Chiapas: Self-defense brigades against looting by mining corporations

On 26 February, campesinos and indigenous persons pertaining to 78 ejidos from 11 municipalities of the Sierra and Coast of Chiapas founded a “Civil Guard for Self-Defense” toward the end of putting a halt to the looting undertaken by mining firms in the state.  During a meeting celebrated in the El Carrizal community (Motozintla municipality), at which participated more than 2000 campesinos, it was agreed that the Civil Guards will be comprised by groups of 20 persons who will patrol zones to prevent the operation of mining firms and to arrest any transport vehicle in said zone.  They indicated that they saw themselves as obligated to opt for this route in light of the indifference of the local and federal authorities and their outright collaboration with the companies that loot and pollute the state.

The 78 communities that participated are located in the Bella Vista, Bejucal de Ocampo, La Grandeza, Mazapa de Madero, Escuintla, Acacoyagua, Siltepec, Frontera Comalapa, El Porvenir, and Chicomuselo municipalities.

The next day, the Chiapas state-government expressed its rejection of the operation of armed self-defense groups in the state, clarifying that the development has to do with civil ecologists who have been protesting mineral exploitation for more than five years in municipalities such as Chicomuselo: “They have nothing to do with the civil armed groups that have arisen in other states, because in Chiapas security and social peace are guaranteed by the institutions of local public security and the federal security forces present in the state.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Campesinos crean en Chiapas ‘guardias civiles’ para frenar a mineras (Proceso, 26 de febrero de 2013)

Amagan con más autodefensas, ahora en Chiapas (El Universal, 26 de febrero de 2013)

Chiapas descarta presencia de autodefensa armada (El Universal, 27 de febrero de 2013)

Aparecen grupos de autodefensa en Chiapas (Animal Político, 27 de febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: two thousand march at the close of the “Chiapan Meeting of Unity against the Extractive Mining Model” in Frontera Comalapa (7 December 2012)

Chiapas: Second Forum “For the Defense of Our Mother Earth and Land; Yes to Life, No to Mining Devastation” (21 September 2012)

Mexico: “Mined land, the defense of the rights of communities and of the environment” (14 December 2011)

Chiapas: Death-threats directed against the Chicomuselo parish (13 October 2010)

Chiapas: the Peace Network presents report on Chiapas’ border zone(13 October 2010)

Chiapas: Canadian delegation investigates mining abuses (2 April 2010)

Chiapas: Anti-mining activist Mariano Abarca killed (1 December 2009)

Guerrero: CECOP on red alert after invasion by Army

During the night of 21 February, in the community of Los Huajes, the residence of Joel Blanco Sánchez, son of Julián Blanco, a leader of the opposition to the La Parota dam (which has been proposed since 2003), was forcibly searched by soldiers.  For this reason, members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP), called for an assembly and announced a red alert due to the invasion of the Army in the area of the communal lands of Cacahuatepec (close to Acapulco).

Marco Suástegui Muñoz, spokesperson for CECOP, warned that if the Army maintained its presence in the area, CECOP would reactivate the five checkpoints it had installed at the beginning of its movement.  he stressed that the federal government had budgeted 500 million pesos for the reactivation of the La Parota dam, declaring that it is not an accident that there be abuses carried out by soldiers int he area, given that there is a clear interest to follow through with the dam project.

Suástegui Muñoz reported that on 7 February, CECOP called on governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero to observe the Cacahuatepec Accords, signed in August 2012, and he promised that campesinos will continue struggling until the dam project be cancelled indefinitely.

For more information (in Spanish):

Opositores a La Parota, en alerta por incursión militar (La Jornada, 25 de febrero de 2013)

Se declara Cecop en alerta roja por la irrupción de militares en Los Huajes (La Jornada de Guerrero, 25 de febrero de 2013)

Denuncia integrante del Cecop que soldados irrumpieron en su casa (El Sur de Acapulco, 22 de febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero: Governor Aguirre Rivero will not support construction of La Parota (27 August 2012)

Guerrero: Federal tribunal confirms end to La Parota dam project (20 July 2012)

Guerrero: CECOP will initiate a series of mobilizations demanding the definitive cancellation of the La Parota dam (3 April 2012)

Guerrero: denunciations and declarations of the CRAC and CECOP (12 March 2012)

Guerrero briefs: Two ecologist are kidnapped by armed men in the Sierra de Petatlán (14 December 2011)

Guerrero: CFE contemplates acceleration of La Parota project (27 November 2011)

Oaxaca: Zapotecos expel Canadian mine from Magdalena Teitipac

On 26 February, in a general assembly, hundreds of women and men from Magdalena Teitipac, a Zapotec community of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, decided to expel the mining firm Plata Real, which is a subsidiary of the Canadian Linear Gold Corporation.  The assembly accused the company of having polluted the rivers and tributaries during its mineral exploitation, which involved the application of cyanide, arsenic, and mercury.  The assembly also closed off access to the municipality so as to avoid the entrance of workers to the mine, and they formally denounced the president for communal resources, Fructuoso Martínez, whom they accuse of having collaborated with the firm in extending the original contract signed in May 2009 with Philip Frank Pyle, vicepresident of the Linear Gold Corporation, for five years–this without having warned the community.

For more information (in Spanish):

Zapotecos expulsan a minera canadiense (La Jornada, 26 de febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Canadian and U.S. trade unionists demands laws and sanctions against mining firms (26 February 2013)

Oaxaca: Close of meeting “Yes to Life, No to Mining” with declaration (24 January 2013)

Oaxaca: Forum “Yes to Life, No to Mining” from 17 to 20 January (15 January 2013)

Mexico: “Mined land, the defense of the rights of communities and of the environment” (14 December 2011)

Oaxaca: Civil Mission of Observation “Water is Life; Let us Defend its Existence” (8 September 2010)