Chiapas: Las Abejas denounce lack of justice in the Acteal case

(@Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas)

On 22 April 2013, in observance of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre of December 1997, members of the Las Abejas Civil Society denounced the “impunity and lack of justice” exercised by the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) in the case, as newly illustrated with its liberation of 15 Tsotsil individuals who had been imprisoned for participating in the massacre on 10 April.

Las Abejas affirmed that “as survivors of the massacre we clearly know that they were participants; we know their faces, and we clearly know their first and last names.  Although the mass media denies that they have returned to their communities of origin, we ourselves have seen them with our own eyes.”  They noted, “They are liberating the paramilitaries, and so: who is it who massacred our brothers?”  It should be recalled that a total of 73 indigenous persons have now been released where previously they had been incarcerated for the massacre–not because they are innocent, but because there were violations to due process.  Now there remain just six people in prison for the crime.

Las Abejas concluded that they would not demand justice from the SCJN or the authorities from the three levels of government, affirming instead that “Our hope is with international human-rights organizations.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas (22 de abril de 2013)

Reclama Las Abejas a la Corte impunidad en caso Acteal (Proceso, 22 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)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Las Abejas lament release of yet another of those charged for Acteal massacre (27 March 2013)

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)

 

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: 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: 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: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre

On 10 December, in observance of the International Day for Human Rights, the Las Abejas Civil Society of Acteal held a press conference to announce the anniversary of the organization for “20 years of struggle, autonomy, dignity, and resistance,” while mentioning the imminent anniversary of the 15 years since the Acteal massacre.

In their pronunciation, Las Abejas spoke of the evolution of the organization and their present political position: “20 years ago Las Abejas believed in institutional democracy (we had the hope that the government and the political parties would listen to us so that we were respected as indigenous peoples).  Regardless, all of this was an illusion.  Nonetheless, from these lies and trickery we learned a great deal, and thanks to that, we are who we are today.  No we no longer believe in any political party, nor in any government imposed from above.  The men and women of Las Abejas have made their thoughts and hearts larger.  Our struggle and the construction of our autonomy has continued.  20 years since the founding of the Las Abejas, we do not ask permission from the bad government regarding how we would like to live, struggle, care for our Mother Earth, territory, or natural resources.”

In this document, they expressed their lack of confidence in the present governments: “With these governments, nothing can be hoped for, and for that reason for us they are, as for our Zapatista brothers and sisters, the ‘bad governments.’  In them we find no dignity or will, much less respect.”

During the day there were held panels regarding human rights in Mexico, and at the end the documentary “Antsetik tsa’ik Lekil Kuxlejal” (Women creating good life) was shown.

Porfirio Arias Hernández, president of the Directive Table of Las Abejas, affirmed that the head of the Secretary of Education, Emilio Chuayffet Chemor, “should be in jail and not at that post, because he is one of the intellectual authors of the [Acteal] massacre.”  The president added that Chuayffet Chemor “is responsible due to omission, given that before the events he had information of what was going on” in the Chenalhó municipality, to which Acteal pertains, “and he did nothing.”  Arias Hernández also recalled that during the past federal administration more than 50 of the 87 persons accused of having participated in the massacre that killed 45 indigenous people on 22 December 1997 have been released, and that “with each passing month we have demanded justice, indicating those who are materially and intellectually responsible, even though they remain at large.”

Lastly, Las Abejas expressed their solidarity with “the comrades who were repressed and incarcerated in Mexico City and Guadalajara for their protests against the imposition of Enrique Peña Nieto; we demand their immediate and unconditional release.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Pronunciamiento Frayba: Aniversario de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal (Enlace Zapatista, 10 de diciembre de 2012)

Comunicado de las Abejas en su 20 aniversario como organización civil (Enlace Zapatista, 10 de diciembre de 2012)

Chuayffet debería estar en la cárcel no en SEP: Las Abejas (La Jornada, 10 de diciembre de 2012)

Las Abejas pide cárcel para Chuayfett por caso Acteal (Aristegui Noticias, 11 de diciembre de 2012)

Denuncian en Las Abejas, reactivación de grupo paramilitar ‘Máscara Roja’ (La Jornada, 8 de diciembre de 2012)

Audio-Video:

Audios del 20 aniversario de las Abejas de Acteal (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 11 de diciembre de 2012)

Las Abejas de Acteal estrenan documental (Koman Ilel, 6 de diciembre de 2012)

Conferencia de prensa y Panel; Luchas, Resistencias y Autonomías (Koman Ilel, 10 de diciembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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

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

Chiapas: the Las Abejas Civil Society denounces reactivation of paramilitaries in its municipality

On 3 October, the Las Abejas Civil Society published a new communiqué in which it denounces the reactivation of paramilitary groups in the Chenalhó municipality, where it has its principal presence, as well as in the northern zone of the state of Chiapas.  The group affirms that the massive ex-carcelation of prisoners held for the Acteal massacre (22 December 1997) which began in August 2009 and continues with the release of Manuel Sántiz Pérez just this September 25 “has favored greatly the regrouping of these organizations, and now they have joined forces with those who were not judged: they carry firearms on the highways and in the mountains, as well as on the path to milpas and coffee-farms.”  The Civil Society also reports that a month ago an indigenous Zapatista supporter was shot in the Yabteclum community, a happening that “reveals the paramilitary actions and the presence of said armed groups.”

The Civil Society affirmed also that “the governmental transition of Enrique Peña Nieto has unleashed a series of violent acts.  This is a strategy of threat that is exercised to arrest the social protests that denounce his imposition, though they be not just against EPN but also against social organizations that denounce injustices and human-rights violations as committed and supported by governments.  These actions are implemented within a logic of counterinsurgency that has among other ends the creation of divisions and internal conflicts within communities and organizations, even including forced displacement.  [The tendency is this way so that] this government administer these actions for its own ends, as has been done by the government of Juan Sabines Guerrero with the organizations in the northern zone of Chiapas (Tila, San Sebastián Bachajón), and other autonomous regions.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Reactivación del grupo paramilitar “Máscara Roja” en Chenalhó (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 3 de octubre de 2012)

Denuncia Las Abejas la reactivación de grupos paramilitares en Chenalhó (La Jornada, 5 de octubre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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

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