Chiapas: Las Abejas lament release of yet another of those charged for Acteal massacre

During the religious celebration performed in the most recent monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre, the Las Abejas Civil Society lamented that the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) has released another indigenous person who had been incarcerated on the charge of having participated in the 22 December 1997 massacre in Acteal.  Las Abejas affirmed that “What we are now living here in Mexico confirms what we Abejas have always said: the organisms of the Mexican justice system do not serve justice but rather the interests of the powerful.”

“As in the case of the paramilitaries released previously, we are told that the reason for his release had to do with failures and violations to ‘due process.’  We think and denounce that this is nothing more than a pretext on the part of the authorities to twist justice in the way that is most convenient to them.”  Demonstrating this claim, Las Abejas indicated that the SCJN had denied review of the case of Alberto Patishtán, given that that case is marked by irregularities; moreover, the SCJN attended to the case of Florence Cassez, who had claimed failures to due process and was so released.  Another example that was mentioned was the “‘false Abejas’ who are playing with Salinas de Gortari so as to avenge Ernesto Zedillo, and a collegiate court immediately grants the motion to permit the continuation of the case against Zedillo in the U.S.”

Las Abejas assert that “the lack of justice and the means in which the authorities use law only for their benefit have resulted in the fact that throughout Mexico, some communities organize themselves for armed self-defense, as in the case of our friends from the Regional Coordination of Communal Authorities of the Mountain and Costa Chica of Guerrero.”  Distinguishing their perspective from that of many authorities and media, Las Abejas noted that “One thing is that people amidst total impunity organize themselves to apply justice according to their own methods, and another very different thing is seen when the government, unsatisfied with using its own repressive apparatus, resorts to using a part of the people who are tricked into repressing their own brothers.”

Finally, Las Abejas closed with saying that they are “seeking other means to obtain the justice that is denied us by the government, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.  But for now we will say that we reject the ‘friendly’ calls made by the Mexican government through the IACHR to our brothers and sisters in Atenco, who have rejected these proposals with the same dignity we shall employ.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de marzo de 2013)

Los grupos de autodefensa, resultado de la impunidad en el país, aseguran Las Abejas (La Jornada, 26 de marzo de 2013)

Confían en nuevo Papa (Cuarto Poder, 23 de marzo de 2013)

Abejas lamentan más liberaciones por Acteal (Noticiasnet.mx, 25 de marzo de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: New communique from Las Abejas de Acteal (24 January 2013)

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre (21 December 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its community (12 October 2012)

National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case(19 September 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)

Chiapas: Las Abejas denounce gunfire in various communities of Chenalhó

On 22 February, in observance of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre (22 December 1997), the Las Abejas Civil Society denounced that “the paramilitaries who were released by the badly named Supreme Court for Justice on the pretext of failures in due process are enjoying their impunity in Chenalho; together with their relatives they live calmly, while they cause fear throughout the communities.”  The Society reported that gunfire had been experienced in full daylight in Yaxgemel, C´anholal, and Yibeljoj in recent weeks.

The Society indicated as well that while “the authorities release the murderers and the results of impunity begin to be seen, those who are in fact persecuted and thrown in jail are those who actually defend the rights of the people,” as is the case with Nataniel Hernández Núñez, member of the “Digna Ochoa AC” Center for Human Rights and the National Network of Civil Resistance against High Electricity Prices, or Octavio Blanco García, who was arrested on Tuesday, 22 January, for protesting a wind-energy project close to Arriaga, Chiapas.

Finally, they demanded “that the municipal authorities of Chenalho and the state authorities, particularly the Health Ministry, that the close and relocation of the trash-dump that is located at the cusp of the road near the communities of Acteal, Tsajal ukúm, y Pechiquil. This concentration of trash has caused a great deal of diseases (coughing, flu, temperature, and diarrhea) among children.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de febrero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: New communique from Las Abejas de Acteal (24 January 2013)

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre (21 December 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its community (12 October 2012)

National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case(19 September 2012)

Chiapas: Believing People call for invitation to join the Grand Pilgrimage – 25 January

Samuel Ruíz García Photo @CGT Chiapas

The Believing People of the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, have organized a Grand Pilgrimage to be held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas on Friday 25 January starting at 9am.  “We engage in this pilgrimage to mark the second anniversary of the death of jTatic Samuel Ruíz García and the 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre.  We demand the liberation of our brother Alberto Patishtan Gómez, who has been unjustly imprisoned for 12 years.”  The points of meeting will be the gasoline station on the intersection between the San Felipe Ecatepec highway and la Caseta de San Pablo, exiting toward Comitán.  The eucharistic celebration will begin at 12pm in the Peace Plaza, as presided over by Bishop Felipe Arizmendi.

For more information (in English):

Noticia: Invitación de PUEBLO CREYENTE DE LA DIÓCESIS DE SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS (www.frayba.org.mx)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Pilgrimage of the Believing People in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (27 November 2011)

Chiapas: pilgrimage against “death projects” (3 December 2010)

Chiapas: New communique from Las Abejas de Acteal

In observance of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre (December 1997), the Las Abejas Civil Society released a communique challenging the National Crusade against Hunger which was launched in Las Margaritas, Chiapas, the previous day as being nothing more than a “pretty painting.”  The organization denounced as well that “the only thing” that President Enrique Peña Nieto has done “with regard to hunger is to increase the number of hungry persons.”  They explained that “s/he who lives from the welfare of the State is a slave.  We are clear that their projects will not benefit us: they merely change the laws so that indigenous peoples remain ignorant.”

Another of the points they locate as being part of this “pretty picture” is the new interest that has been expressed by authorities with regard to the San Andrés accords regarding indigenous rights and culture.  Las Abejas affirm that “the PRI not is very new; as we know, the paramilitaries who came to kill our brothers in Acteal belonged to the PRI.  Regarding the Green Party that won in Chiapas, we know that it is nothing more than the same PRI merely colored with green.  And they say that they will respect indigenous rights.  Really, does this apply to Emilio Chuayffet who jointly with Ernesto Zedillo is the intellectual author of the Acteal massacre?”

They also directed three questions to Manuel Velasco Coello, the new governor of Chiapas, regarding the question of the Special Prosecutorial Office that will investigate the case of the Acteal massacre:

1) “For what reason was this Office created, if not to punish?

2) Why was neither the public in general nor Las Abejas notified of the results of its investigations?

3) Taking into account the results of the report “which we could read in the webpage of the American lawyers”: “If these were the conclusions, then why did they decide not to exercise punishment against those responsible?”

Las Abejas added that the day that the state government contests said questions, “we can then begin to believe that they intend to respect indigenous rights.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado integro (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de enero del 2013)

Las Abejas: “¿Acaso creen los gobiernos que somos tontos y que no tenemos memoria?” (La Jornada, 22 de enero de 2013)

Grupo indígena chiapaneco, Las Abejas, rechaza la Cruzada Nacional contra el Hambre de EPN (Sin Embargo, 22 de enero de 2013)

Sólo buscan dar limosnas: Las Abejas (La Jornada, 23 de enero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Anniversary of the Acteal massacre (27 December 2012)

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre (21 December 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its community (12 October 2012)

National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case(19 September 2012)

Chiapas: Anniversary of the Acteal massacre

Image @ Santi Armengod

15 years after the massacre of 45 persons committed in Acteal, Chenalhó municipality, Chiapas, indigenous persons associated with the Las Abejas Civil Society–to which the victims also pertained–commemorated these acts with a pilgrimage and ceremony.  During the pilgrimage from the Majomut ejido, 45 indigenous youth carried crosses with the names of their relatives who were killed during the attack.

During the ceremony in which participated people and collectives from Chiapas, other states in Mexico, and other countries, the Las Abejas Civil Society released a communique in which it also expressed joy, given that this year its members celebrate 20 years since the organization’s founding.  Nonetheless, it denounced that “Today, 15 years after the Acteal massacre, the government continues to deny that it was a crime of State, and far from undertaking a profound investigation, it continues with its counterinsurgency strategy to harass our organization and the survivors, so as to create conflict and/or division within and among the communities and organizations which struggle.  This governmental attitude has degraded real justice and the recognition of the truth regarding the events of the massacre.”

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center fro Human Rights, which has accompanied Las Abejas since the beginning of the process, reaffirmed in its pronunciation that “the Mexican State has promised not only to guarantee but also make-deeper the situation of impunity so as to protect the authors, material and intellectual, of the worst assaults in our Historical Memory.”

For its part, the organization Amnesty International (AI) requested that state and federal authorities make justice and compensate the victims, indicataing that “the remembrance of this massacre continues as one of the darkest moments of the recent history of Mexico.  The failures of the authorities in clarifying the crimes, investigating and bringing to justice all persons responsible, whether by action or omission, and in providing adequate compensation to the victims does nothing but to worsen this darkness.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas (22 de diciembre de 2012)

Boletín: Hoy, se cumplen 15 años de impunidad, 15 años de sobrevivir al olvido, 15 años de ejemplo de vida en un contexto de tanta muerte. (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Pide AI castigar a responsables de la matanza en Acteal (Proceso, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Conmemoran los 15 años de Acteal con peregrinación (El Universal, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Estado tiene ‘deuda de justicia’ a 15 años de Acteal: Amnistía (El Universal, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Conmemoran a indígenas asesinados en 1997 en Chiapas (La Jornada, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Acteal sin hallar descanso (El Universal, 23 de diciembre de 2012)

Acteal: 15 años de impunidad (La Jornada, 23 de diciembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre (21 December 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its community (12 October 2012)

National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case(19 September 2012)

Chiapas: MPJD delegation visits Chiapas

In a press-conference held at the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights on 20 December, the representation of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) which was beginning a 3-day visit to the state of Chiapas called on federal and state governments to halt their hostilities targeting the Zapatista communities which have been targeted by death-threats and other forms of harassment.  The Caravan that comprises about 50 persons will visit the prisoner Alberto Patishtán and will be present at the anniversary of the Acteal massacre.

For more information (in Spanish):

Exige MPJD cesar hostilidades contra comunidades de base del EZLN (Proceso, 20 de diciembre de 2012)

Inicia comisión por la Paz, aquí (Cuarto Poder, 21 de diciembre de 2012)

Temen agresiones a zapatistas por plan de seguridad de EPN (La Jornada, 20 de diciembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico: EPN dismisses Calderón’s motion against the General Law on Victims (7 December 2012)

National: MPJD criticizes presidential “veto” of Law on Victims (10 July 2012)

National: Approval of Law for the Protection of Human-Rights Defenders and Journalists (16 May 2012)

 

Chiapas: Las Abejas denounce death-threat against president of directive table

 

Acteal (@SIPAZ archive)

In observance of the monthly commemoration of the December 1997 Acteal massacre, on 22 November the Las Abejas Civil Society denounced in a communique that the president of its directive table, Rosendo Gómez Hernández, received a death-threat in recent days.  Las Abejas note that “the death-threats and harassment against resistance organizations continue to increase, ever-more intensely.  What was carried out previously was more surreptitious, but now they do it more openly.  Because the low-intensity war of counterinsurgency has not ceased, but rather transformed into a high-intensity war that seeks comprehensively to wear out [resistance].  This is shown in the events that occurred on 27 October, when our comrade Rosendo Gómez Hernández, elected president of the Las Abejas Civil Society, was harassed at his home, threatened with death by means of a .22 caliber revolver pistol, as carried out by Mr. Enrique Arias Ruiz, of the Yabteclum community, and a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.  The next day, Mariano Gómez López, father of Rosendo, was physically and verbally attacked by Mr. Armando Gómez Pérez, from Paraje Linda Vista and director of the DIF from the Chenalhó City Hall, as he was walking in the street.“

Beyond this, the Las Abejas Civil Society challenged the state government of Chiapas and Mexican justice in general regarding the release of former governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, who was recently liberated after having confronted 11 criminal charges.

For more information (in Spanish):

Respeto a la construcción de nuestra autonomía y a la libre determinación. !Vivan los Pueblos en lucha!, (Las Abejas, 22 de noviembre de 2012)

Abejas de Acteal cuestionan libertad del exgobernador Pablo Salazar, MVS noticias

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies

 

Manuel Vázquez Luna @ Kolectivo Boka en Boka

During the morning between 9 and 10 November, Manuel Vázquez Luna died.  He was a survivor of the Acteal massacre who lost his parents, brothers, grandmother, and uncle at the hands of paramilitaries on 22 December 1997.  Manuel, 28 years of age, entered the hospital on 22 October.  Previously, in 2009, he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was treated and resolved using chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the National Institute for Neurology and Neuropsychiatry (INNN) in Mexico City.  Furthermore, he received periodic attention at this center before he died.

The Las Abejas Civil Society has denounced the negligence of the doctors at the Las Culturas Hospital in San Cristóbal de Las Casas en Chiapas, noting a series of events that occurred in the final period of time that Manuel was in the hospital before his death.  In a communique, Las Abejas expressed that “The problem is that the Mexican health system is inefficient and does not care for dignified health.”

In another communique, Las Abejas bid Manuel farewell with these words: “With the profound pain of our hearts, but also with hope and considering everything that Manuelito showed us in terms of resistance, of memory, of struggle for life and for the construction of peace with justice and dignity.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Manuelito deja de existir de esta Tierra para vivir por siempre en nuestra memoria, lucha y esperanza (Las Abejas de Acteal blog, 12 de noviembre de 2012)

Manuelito siempre fue una luz fuerte en Las Abejas, ahora guiará más con su brillo nuestro camino (Koman Ilel, 10 de noviembre de 2012)

Chiapas: New communiqué by the Las Abejas Civil Society in monthly observation of the Acteal massacre

On 22 October, the Las Abejas Civil Society distributed a new communiqué in which it asserts that “14 years and 10 months after the Acteal massacre, it is a reality that now comprehensive justice and truth have not arrived.”  Beyond analyzing the Mexican context and resisting “the sources of the survival of capitalism,” the Civil Society called on “the citizenry in general to engage in peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience, self-organization in defense of life, construction of autonomies, and the raising of voices in denunciation of the injustices that contribute to the halting of all types of systematic violence so as to transform war and violence into Peace, justice, hope, and harmony.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo,“Cerrando ciclo de violencia y oscuridad, inicia etapa de luz que da vida” (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de octubre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its community (12 October 2012)

National-International: Zedillo obtains immunity for the Acteal case(19 September 2012)

Chiapas: Communiqué by Las Abejas of Acteal on 22 August 2012 (18 September 2012)

Chiapas: Las Abejas of Acteal march against impunity (16 August 2012)