Chiapas: Petition from the CDHFBC to release Alberto Patishtán Gómez

Children of Patishtán @ Swefor

On 10 April, some 400 persons marched in the El Bosque municipality to demand the release of professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez, who was “unjustly” been incarcerated in prison no. 5 of San Cristóbal de Las Casas for nearly 13 years, accused of having participated in an ambush that resulted in the death of 7 police officers.  “All indigenous people feel incarcerated, rejected, and discriminated against” with his imprisonment, as protestors noted in a letter directed to the magistrates of the First Collegiate Tribunal of the Twentieth Circuit, which shortly will resolve whether or not to release the teacher.  This letter arrived on 11 April, organized by relatives of Patishtan and the Movement of the People of El Bosque in favor of the release of Alberto Patishtán Gómez; it counted approximately 5000 signatures.  For its part, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) published petitions for Patishtan on Avaaz.org and Change.org, to be presented before the magistrates.

Several media have noted the juxtaposition of the ordered liberation of 15 persons accused of having participated in the Acteal massacre, as demanded by the First Hall of the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN), which rejected a review of Patishtán’s request for innocence on 6 March.  The notes made by Aristegui Noticias indicate that “the news reflect the different modes of justice in Mexico, where those accused of guilt are released and those accused of innocence are incarcerated.”

Beyond this, the actions for professor Patishtán continue.  Within prison no. 5, Patishtán Gómez announced the close of a second week of hunger-strike that will continue with two silent marches within the prison, on 13 and 14 April.  In solidarity, Enrique Gómez Hernández will be participating in the hunger strike from 11 to 19 April in the Amate prison no. 4 in Cintalapa.  On 19 April is planned a pilgrimage in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the day that Alberto Patishtán will have his forty-second birthday.

For more information (in Spanish):

Carta de Avaaz.org para firmar en español

Carta de Change.org para firmar en español

Entregan a tribunal carta con 5 mil firmas para que libere a Patishtán (La Jornada, 12 de abril de 2013)

Con Patishtán en prisión, todos los indígenas nos sentimos encarcelados  (La Jornada, 11 de abril de 2013)

Libres por orden de la Corte, otros 15 indígenas implicados en el caso Acteal (La Jornada, 11 de abril de 2013)

Patishtan y Acteal: las diferentes varas de la justicia (Aristegui Noticias, 11 de abril de 2013)

Entregan 4 mil 736 firmas a favor de la Libertad de Alberto Patishtán (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 11 de abril de 2013)

Anuncia 9 días de ayuno Enrique Gomez Hernández Solidario de la Voz del Amate (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 11 de abril de 2013)

Alberto Patishtán anuncia el termino del ayuno y comparte acciónes para el 13 y 14 de abril (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 11 de abril de 2013)

In English:

Avaaz petition in English

Change.org petition in English

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Forthcoming actions for the release of Alberto Patishtán (8 April 2013)

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: 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: “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)

 

Chiapas: Federal protection afforded to Francisco Sántiz López, with more denunciations from those in solidarity with la Voz del Amate

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC), by means of a press-bulletin, has confirmed that “on 3 January of this year, the Magistrate of the First Unitary Tribunal of the Twentieth Circuit ordered a motion of Federal Justice protection in favor of Francisco Sántiz López, upon recognizing that the First Judge of the District of Federal Penal Processes in Chiapas had violated Francisco’s judicial guarantees.”  For this reason, said Center stressed that the “federal government does not have reason to continue depriving Francisco Sántiz López of his liberty, being a Zapatista support-base (BAEZLN) who has been held in the State Center for Social Reinsertion of the Sentenced in San Cristóbal de las Casas No. 5 since 4 December 2011.”  The CDHFBC also recalled that the Chiapas state governor, Manuel Velasco Coello, affirmed in a press-bulletin on 1 January 2013 that “as regards the situation of Professor Alberto Patishtán Gómez and Francisco Sántiz López, their prompt release is for this state government a necessity.”

Also on 10 January, those in solidarity with la Voz del Amate released a public denunciation expressing the situation experienced by several of their comrades, including Rosario Díaz Méndez, a member of la Voz del Amate, who “after three months has had her audience by right postponed [...] and will today newly have an audience by right.  We hope that the female judge from Simojovel carry this out responsibly.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Conceden amparo federal a Base de Apoyo del EZLN Francisco Sántiz López (CDHFBC, 10 de enero de 2013)

Boletín de prensa del Instituto de Comunicación Social (ICOSO Chiapas) (1 de enero de 2013)

Rosa López: la triple dignidad de una mujer presa en Chiapas (Kaos en la Red, 11 de enero de 2013)

Denuncia de la Voz del Amate y Solidarios de la Voz del Amate en su sexto aniversario  (Enlace Zapatista, 10 de enero de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Oventic JBG once again demands the liberation of Francisco Sántiz López (17 June 2012)

Chiapas: CDHFBC publishes more information on the Banavil case (9 February 2012)

Chiapas: Urgent Action in in case of aggressions against families who sympathize with EZLN by PRI group from the Banavil ejido and arbitrary detention of Zapatista support-base (8 February 2012)

Chiapas: The four prisoners of San Sebastián Bachajón are released

On 25 July was held a press-conference at the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) to observe the release of the four prisoners of the San Sebastián Bachajón ejido, municipality of Chilón.  For five months Juan Aguilar Guzman, Jeronimo Guzman Mendez, Domingo Perez Alvaro y Domingo Garcia Gomez had found themselves incarcerated in the CERESO 17 in the municipality of Playas de Catazajá.  The fifth prisoner, a minor, Mariano Demeza Silvano, had been released on bail on 8 July from the juvenile detention center of Berriozábal.

Marcelino Hernández Gomez, human-rights defender and member of the CDHFBC, spoke of the numerous denunciations of rights-violations of the indigenous of the zone “committed by functionaries at all levels of the state government.”  Moreover he expressed that to date no one has been punished at all for the violent acts that occurred at the beginning of February in San Sebastián Bachajón, among those who had been accused.  Domingo Pérez Álvaro, one of the formerly imprisoned, explained: “We were imprisoned for nearly six months for having defending our lands.  They have been persecuting us now for three years [...] because we as ejidatarios and authorities defend our lands and natural resources left to us by our ancestors.”

On 5 February of this year, the State Attorney General’s Office of Chiapas imprisoned 10 ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón, adherents to the Other Campaign, among them a minor, following a conflict with PRI militants regarding the control of a checkpoint located at the entrance of the touristic center at the Agua Azul waterfalls.

Víctor Hugo López, director of the CDHFBC, declared that beyond suffering an unjust imprisonment, the five also were subjected to abuses in prison and “experienced one of the worst moments as prisoners of the state.”  Although the Tzeltal ejidatarios recovered their physical liberty, noted Hugo López, they are still “prisoners” of a “unilateral process led by the police and Federal Army in their lands, confronting governmental projects that have lacked all consultation with residents.”  Juan Aguilar Guzmán, also released, thanked national and international solidarity with prisoners in Tzeltal.

For more information (in Spanish):

Exige el Frayba respeto a las garantías de ejidatarios de San Sebastián Bachajón (Jornada, 27 July 2011)

En conferencia de prensa los ex presos políticos de San Sebastián Bachajón hablan de su liberación  (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 25 July 2011)

Palabra de los ex presos y Frayba sobre la liberación de los presos políticos de Bachajón (Radio Zapatista, 25 July 2011)

México: Salen libres los presos políticos de San Sebastián Bachajón – Entrevista

Libres los 4 Presos Políticos de San Sebastián Bachajón

Un preso político de Bachajon esta libre

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Facing police repression, adherents to the Other Campaign from San Sebastián Bachajón abandon control-post they had taken the previous day (24 April 2011)

Chiapas: Press conference by ejidatari@s from San Sebastián Bachajón (20 March  2011)

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

Chiapas: The Peace Network visits prisoners from San Sebastián Bachajón (8 March 2011)

Chiapas: detentions vis-a-vis blockade of road Tonala-Pijijiapan during action of the Other Campaign (26 February 2011)

Chiapas: Caravan of women to San Sebastian Bachajón (25 February 2011)

Chiapas: Agua Azul, new happenings and denunciations (17 February 2011)

Chiapas: update in the Agua Azul case (14 February 2011)

Chiapas: roadblocks and detention of militants in Mitzitón (10 February 2011)

Chiapas: confrontation over control point at Agua Azul leaves one dead and several injured (7 February 2011)

Chiapas: Efforts are made to discredit the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDFHBC) has denounced that on 2 May there was distributed a press-release employing its logo and official letterhead with the title “Bulletin No. 11 – violent homicide of Osama Bin Laden” found on the blog http://fraybadelascasas.blogspot.com (currently inoperational), among other electronic sites.

As the NGO has claimed, “This center of human rights has not released any press-release regarding the murder of Osama Bin Laden and does not administrate the blog in question.  This is one of the mediatic strategies used to disinform public opinion and discredit the human-rights work this center has engaged in for the past 22 years.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Este Centro de Derechos Humanos comunica y aclara información apócrifa que se encuentra circulando por distintos medios electrónicos,CDHFBLC, 3 May

Denuncia el Frayba maniobra desinformativa, La Jornada, 4 May 2011

Usan blog anónimo para desprestigiar a ONG en Chiapas, infochiapas, 3 May 2011

Audio (in Spanish):

México: “Miente, que algo queda”, entrevista a Gubidcha Matus, responsable de comunicación del Frayba,  Radio Nederland, la emisora internacional holandesa, 5 May de 2011

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Mexico: Growing insecurity for the work of human-rights defenders–denunciations from Washington, Brussels, and Chiapas (31 March 2011)

México: Pronunciations and actions as regards the situation of human-rights defenders in the country and southeastern Mexico (25 March 2011)

Chiapas: director of Digna Ochoa Center for Human Rights detained once again (20 March 2011)

Chiapas: 3 human-rights defenders from the Digna Ochoa Center for Human Rights released from El Amate (8 March 2011)

Chiapas: Penal authorities in Chiapas violate rights of incarcerated persons and their families

On 2 February, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) published a report on the prison conditions found in the State Centers for the Social Rehabilitation of the Sentenced (CERSS) that exist in Chiapas.  This report bases itself in denunciations received by the center during the year 2010 sent by a total of 2,142 persons imprisoned in different prisons of Chiapas as well as by relatives and friends of such individuals.  The report presents several human-rights violations committed by penal authorities and administrative groups within the prisons.

The report examines the cruel treatment and torture suffered by those who visit their imprisoned relatives or friends.  The testimonies obtained by Frayba are in their majority from indigenous women who, in visiting the prisons, are subjected to having to become nude, touching and revision of the genitalia, and other actions that violate the right to personal security and integrity, in addition to the right of women to lead lives free of violence.  They are often restricted in their familial right to visit the detained.

The CDHFBC manifested its preoccupation and reminded “the government of Chiapas that regardless of the crimes committed by the imprisoned, their rights are inviolable and cannot be limited for security reasons.”  It affirmed moreover that “the right of the imprisoned to receive dignified treatment refers not just to actions that violate  the security and integrity of the interned but is also extended to what is referred to as conditions of a dignified life: shelter, food, and protection of health.”  It specifies that “the situation lived by female prisoners is grave and discriminatory; the spaces they occupy are insufficient and lack the conditions of dignity for their situation and their physical and mental development.”  It stressed finally that “the situation of the imprisoned in Chiapas is a failure as regards the question of the social integration of the imprisoned, in addition to being so as regards their human rights broadly understood.  This Center of Human Rights has shown that the majority of the imprisoned are impoverished individuals who pertain to indigenous groups or migrants who lack formal education and are unaware of the implications of judicial processes that place them into vulnerable situations with regard to access to justice.”

In an example of that which was reported by the CDHFBC, prisoners from the association Voz del Amate and residents of Mitzitón imprisoned in the No. 5 prison of San Cristóbal de Las Casas announced on 2 February that they would engage in a hunger-strike of 36 hours “with the purpose of asking God to rectify injustice,” denouncing that “today the prisons are overpopulated due to the injustices between men and women who for lack of economic resources cannot afford lawyers and others for being speakers of indigenous languages who lacked translators in the prison during processing and end up being sentenced.”  The same day, those in solidarity with the Voz del Amate also announced that they would begin a hunger strike to demand that the government grant them their unconditional release.

For more information (in Spanish):

• Report on the Prison System in Chiapas (CDHFBC, 2 February 2011)
• Denunciation of the Voz del Amate (La Voz del Amate, 2 February 2011)
• Communiqué of those in solidarity with the Voz del Amate (2 February)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Meeting of Organization of Relatives of Prisoners of Ocosingo (OFPO) (6 October 2010)

Chiapas: Fifth anniversary of the “Voz del Amate” (8 January 2011)

Chiapas: Cideci-Unitierra Chiapas is harassed

On 15 October, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights publicly denounced the harassment to which Cideci-Unitierra Chiapas has been subjected in recent days on the part of presumed members of the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE).

It should be mentioned that Cideci-Unitierra has engaged in resistance to the payment of electricity since 1995, when its location was found elsewhere.  Due to threats and harassment received, the center decided to establish its own electricity-plant, which has been operational for 4 years.

The denunciation claims that Cideci has constantly been “watched by CFE trucks located at the center’s outskirts that observe the activities that go on inside” since last July.  Last week a man was identified taking photos of Cideci.  This harassment, notes the CDHFBC, “is yet another expression of the context of criminalization on the part of the state and federal governments of organizations that are working to construct autonomy-projects according to the San Andrés Accords, Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Cideci denounces harassment by the CFE (La Jornada, 17 October 2010)

CFE employees harass Unitierra (Cuarto Poder, 17 October)

Bulletin: the CFE harasses Cideci-Unitierra Chiapas (Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, 15 October 2010)

Chiapas: in Masojá Shucjá, memory and demands for justice for the victims of paramilitaries in 1995 and 1996

Photo: relatives demand justice for Romeo Pérez Pérez, Minerva Guadalupe Pérez Torres, Mateo Hernández López, Juan Ramirez Torres, Hector Pérez Torres, Encarnación Pérez Pérez, and Sebastián Pérez López (@SIPAZ)

On 29 August 2010, in the community of Masojá Shucjá, municipality of Tila, in the Northern Zone of Chiapas, there was held a commemoration of the victims of conflict during the years 1995 and 1996–some from Masojá Shucjá, others from neighboring communities.  Some of the victims were buried, while others continue disappeared to date.

People from several communities of the municipality came to Masojá Shucjá to join the residents of the community in this act of memory.  After a celebration held in the church, all joined a rosary-prayer in the pantheon where, together with members of their family, lies Mateo Hernández López, ambushed and killed by Paz y Justicia while en route to his milpa in 1996.

Due to the recent rains and landslides experienced in recent days, not all the invited reached the community.  The absence of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) in particular was lamented, given that it is the CDHFBC that is taking the case before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and that accompanies the community in its efforts of historical memory.  All the children of the community’s primary school attended the event, so that they come to know what it is that happened, and that it continues in impunity.  There it was explained that, although justice does not come from above, memory is a means by which to make justice from below.

On this occasion, not only was justice demanded for the victims of the conflict and their relatives, but also for the losses of possessions that occurred during that time.  As was claimed in a poster exhibited in the pantheon, “in the community of Masojá Shucjá, municipality of Tila, Chiapas, we demand that the possessions we lost during the time of conflict with Paz y Justicia and the bad government in the year 1996 be compensated”: 424 cattle, 23 horses,a number of farm-birds, and 20 burnt houses.

For more information (in Spanish):

Chiapas: 14 years after the forced disappearance of Minerva Pérez Torres by Paz y Justicia paramilitaries (30 June 2010)

Chiapas: commemoration of the victims of Paz y Justicia in Masojá Shucjá (3 September 2009)