Chiapas: Conflict erupts in Venustiano Carranza, with two dead and several injured

On 5 May in Venustiano Carranza, there were seen confrontations between members of the campesino organizations Casa del Pueblo and the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Chiapas (OCEZ-Chiapas), resulting in several injured and two dead.  According to information provided by the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the confrontation began during the early morning of Sunday 5 May, when masked persons entered into different residences firing guns and burning homes.  In their respective communiques, both groups blamed the opposing organization for having initiated the conflict.  During the course of the happenings, which engulfed nearly the entire urban zone of Venustiano Carranza with the exception of two neighborhoods, two persons died and several more were injured.  For its part, the OCEZ-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) distanced itself from the events.

Following the confrontations, the state government indicated that it all had to do with an agrarian conflict, and for this reason it did not consider itself competent to attempt resolution of the problem.  Regardless, on 7 May, toward the end of seeking a solution to the conflict Noé Castañón, General Secretary for Governance, Raciel López Salazar,  state Attorney General, and Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, head of the Secretary for Public Security and Citizens’ Protection, visited the area to try to find a solution to the conflict, in accordance with media reports.  It was proposed that families belonging to OCEZ-Chiapas, which presently find themselves outside the offices of Citizens’ Protection, that they be relocated to the Berriozabal municipality, a proposal they rejected.  The same journalistic source indicated that a military check-point had been established at the entrance of a community of the municipality, with several fly-overs reported.

For more information (in Spanish):

Proceso: Enfrentamientos entre pobladores dejan tres muertos en Chiapas (05/05/2013)

Proceso: Pasividad del gobierno de Manuel Velasco causa violencia en Chiapas: ONG (06/05/2013)

Proceso: Campesinos de Chiapas temen más agresiones de supuestos paramilitares (08/05/2013)

Comunicado de la OCEZ-FNLS

Comunicado de la OCEZ-Chiapas

Comunicado de la OCEZ-RC

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Denunciation of residents of Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza regarding the “El Desengaño” territory (25 March 2012)

Chiapas: new public denunciation from the Candelaria El Alto community (16 January 2012)

Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza (28 September 2011)

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

More than 2000 persons from 20 municipalities of Chiapas as well as other states in the Republic and abroad protested in the Frontera Comalapa muncipality at the close of the “Chiapan Meeting in Unity against the Extractive Mining Model” which was held from 26 to 28 November in this municipality.  During the march, protestors demanded that the state and federal governments suspend 120 mining concessions that have been awarded since 2000, as well as the exit of these firms from the state of Chiapas.  Similarly, they demanded justice for the murder of Mariano Abarco, an anti-mining leader who was murdered on 27 November 2009 in Chicomuselo.

In the final declaration of the event, participants called for the “the strengthening in unity among the movements and organizations against the Extractive Mining Model.  Mining is a problem that affects all peoples, without regard for party affiliation, ideological views, organizational belonging, or religion.”  They also warned about “the situation of violence in the state, where there is the presence of concessions and large mining interests, as in Venustiano Carranza.  We reject acts of violence, harassment, and repression on the part of the state, municipal, judicial, and sectorial police, as well as the AFI [Federal Agency for Investigation], against the people of Venustiano Carranza.”

For more information (in English):

MARCHA y DECLARATORIA del Encuentro Chiapaneco en Unidad contra el Modelo Extractivo Minero 2012 (Otros Mundos)

Ambientalistas protestan contra actividad minera en Chiapas (El Universal, 28 de noviembre de 2012)

Exigen campesinos de Chiapas cancelar minas que operan a cielo abierto (Proceso, 29 de noviembre de 2012)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

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)

Chiapas: conflict over land in Venustiano Carranza

By means of a press-release published on 29 October, the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC), the Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization (OPEZ-MLN), the Center of Campesino and Popular Organizations (COCYP-Chiapas), and Laklamul Ixim-Northern Jungle (Our People of Maize) denounced that “approximately 25 armed men identified as residents of the Candelaria El Alto community, who call themselves members of the Other Campaign, attacked comrades and children who pertain to the OCEZ-RC with firearms while they found themselves working in the field known as El Desengaño.”

These organizations found the state-government responsible.  They indicate that “The Chiapas state-government is responsible for this aggression, given that since December 2009 it has publicly committed itself by means of minutes to resolve all our agrarian demands, including those regarding the Desengaño field, but at the end of this six-year term it has not observed its promises; to the contrary, it has refused to attend to our demands, social and agrarian.”

In a 30 October community, the organized community of Candelaria El Alto publicly reported that “on Monday 29 October 2012, our community of Candelaria El Alto decided to recover the lands that the OCEZ-RC took from us on 6 April 2011, using the group known as Nuevo San José La Grandeza, which hails from the same municipality.  This land has been ours since 1950; by right it is ours, legally and legitimately.  We have always worked it, growing our maize and beans which provides us with food to eat.  As we noted publicly in many denunciations, we have demanded that the state solve this problem of looting of our lands.”  They affirm that “the shootings came from the part of the invaders of our land.”

In an Urgent Action published on 2 November, the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights noted the “imminent risk for the lives, personal integrity, and security of the campesinos from the community of Candelaria El Alto, who adhere to the Other Campaign of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and the members of the Campesino Organization Emiliano Zapata-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) who, due to the omissions on the part of the state government of Chiapas, find themselves in conflict over land.”

For more information (in Spanish):

DENUNCIA URGENTE: AGRESIÓN ARMADA DE GRUPO DE CHOQUE Y DE CORTE PARAMILITAR A INTEGRANTES DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN CAMPESINA EMILIANO ZAPATA-REGIÓN CARRANZA (OCEZ-RC) (Radio Proletaria, 29 de octubre de 2012)

Denuncia de la Comunidad Organizada Candelaria El Alto Adherente a La Otra Campaña (30 de octubre de 2012)

Candelaria el Alto denuncia agresiones a las mujeres de su comunidad (1 de noviembre de 2012)

AU del CDHFBC: Por omisión del gobierno del estado de Chiapas en riesgo la vida de campesinas y campesinos en Venustiano Carranza (2 de noviembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Denuncia of residents of Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza regarding the “El Desengaño” territory (25 March 2012)

Chiapas: new public denunciation from the Candelaria El Alto community (16 January 2012)

Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza (28 September 2011)

Chiapas: intensification of protests in Venustiano Carranza

On 18 October, hundreds of members of the community of Bienes Comunales de la Casa del Pueblo, Venustiano Carranza municipality, blockaded the junction of the highway between this community and the cities of Comitán de Domínguez and Tuxtla Gutiérrez.  By means of this action, they demanded the expulsion of 49 communards who on 25 September took power of the offices of the organization.  They demanded that the government “act, punish, and transfer the dissidents out of the communal territory, due to the fear and uncertainty their presence generates.”  On 20 October, protest actions intensified, with the close of the offices of government and commerce, newly in demand of the dismissal of the directive committee of the House and the dismantling of a presumed paramilitary group.

For more information (in Spanish):

Campesinos bloquean carreteras de Chiapas (El Universal, 18 de octubre de 2012)

Indígenas tzotziles radicalizan protestas (El Universal, 20 de octubre de 2012)

Comunicado de la OCEZ FNLS (18 de octubre de 2012)

Comunicado de los expulsados (20 de octubre de 2012)

Chiapas: occupation and recuperation of the offices of the Casa del Pueblo

In a communiqué, the representative committee of the Casa del Pueblo organization, which has long had a historical presence in the Venustiano Carranza municipality, reported that on 25 September, communards who disagreed with the present administrative body of the organization forcibly occupied the extraordinary assembly at which there was to be discussed the presumed disappearance of 67 of the 575 cattle that belong to the Casa del Pueblo.  The commission denounces that protestors interrupted the proceedings with firearms, tubes, stones, and sticks, occupying the offices and injuring nine members of the body.  The communiqué also notes that between 20 and 30 of the invaders have been financed by Jesús Alejo Orantes Ruiz, a local deputy representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM).

According to different media, the next day, hundreds of communards from the Casa del Puebla forcibly retook the offices of the ejidal commission.  These media indicate that 28 invaders were handed over to an agent of the Public Ministry while the state police found three others in a house, having attempted to escape.

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo sobre las agresiones a la Casa del Pueblo (Comisión representante de la Organización Casa del Pueblo, 26 de septiembre de 2012; Radio Pozol)

Toma grupo armado Casa del Pueblo en Chiapas; 9 comuneros golpeados (La Jornada, 27 de septiembre de 2012)

Recuperan casa comunal en Chiapas (La Jornada, 28 de septiembre de 2012)

Chiapas: One person ambushed and another disappeared, both members of OCEZ-FNLS. The latter appears with life, imprisoned and with signs of torture

The Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (Fedefam), the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared “Until we Find Them,” the Cerezo Committee Mexico, and the Network for the Defense of Human Rights (Reddh) have denounced the forced disappearance of the Tzotzil indigenous man Rogelio Alfonso López and the attempted murder of the Luis Alfonso López, also Tzotzil.  Both are militants from the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ-FNLS), and the acts occurred on 13 April 2012 in the Venustiano Carranza municipality, Chiapas.

They were returning from work when at the point of Agua Zarca, Venustiano Carranza municipality, they were fired upon by an AR-15 from a Ford truck lacking license plates.  Several men emerged from the truck to detain Rogelio Alfonso López, while the others were fired upon and followed; Luis Alfonso López was injured in the jaw and the right arm.

The attackers included approximately six persons dressed in civilian clothes; the witnesses identify Alfredo López Núñez as giving the orders.  To date the whereabouts of Rogelio Alfonso López are unknown.  For this reason, the Network for the Defense of Human Rights requests the presentation with life as well as guarantees for the physical and psychological integrity of Alfonso López, in addition to the immediate application of the necessary measures to guarantee his security as well as that of Alberto Alfonso López, as well as that of their relatives and members of OCEZ-FNLS.

On 17 April, Alfonso López was presented alive, presumably a victim of torture due to the beatings that could be observed, in the State Attorney General’s Office of Chiapas.  Until now he has been able to communicate only with his relatives.  In accordance with information from them, he is accused of the crime of homicide.

An update to the Urgent Action indicates that “It should be stressed that during two days after his disappearance, the relatives of the Tzotzil indigenous man Rogelio ALFONSO LÓPEZ asked the State Attorney General’s Office if he was under their custody or in that of one of the agencies affiliated with the Public Ministry as well as what it was that he was being accused of.  They responded by telling them that they did not know of any such person with that name or data.”

For more information (in Spanish:

Deja emboscada un desaparecido, Cuarto Poder 17 de marzo de 2012

Exigimos la presentación con vida del indígena tzotzil Rogelio Alfonso Pérez, Red todos los derechos para todos, 16 de abril de 2012

Actualización: Aparece con vida el indígena Rogelio Alfonso López, está preso y con signos de tortura, Red todos los derechos para todos, 17 de abril de 2012

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Indefinite sit-in by the FNLS in the Cathedral Plaza of San Cristóbal de Las Casas (13 April 2012)

Chiapas: new public denunciation from the Candelaria El Alto community

(@corotos.blogspot.com)

By means of a public letter written on 10 January 2012, the community of Candelaria El Alto, municipality of Venustiano Carranza, adherents to the Other Campaign, denounced that the looting of their lands continues by the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC).  In their communiqué they write the following: “We publicly denounce the government of Chiapas; 9 months have passed since we have been able to work [the land]; now we have lost this year of harvest, and we would like to say that we will not continue merely putting up with this, suffering from hunger.  This year we will work our land; we would prefer that this conflict not worsen, and so we demand an immediate solution, because the land is not to sell.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Continúa el despojo de sus tierras, según la comunidad Candelaria El Alto (La Jornada, 12 January 2011)

Denuncia de Candelaria El Alto a 10 de enero (Zapateando, Comunicado de la Comunidad Organizada Candelaria el Alto, Municipio Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, México)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza (28 September 2011)

Chiapas: denunciation of military incursions on part of OCEZ-Carranza Region

(@OCEZ-RC)

In a communiqué published on 23 December, the Emiliano Zapata Carranza Region Campesino Organization (OCEZ-RC) denounced invasions by the Army in its zone of influence since 11 December and demanded a halt to the harassment on the part of soldiers against its members.  It notes that “we are tired of the threats and harassment carried out by the Federal Army, who hold our comrades that go out to work or for reasons of health toward the municipal center and other points; they intimidate us with their weapons and verbal threats, and they have increased their patrols in the communities that correspond to the territory of the OCEZ-Carranza Region.”

They also expressed their solidarity with the “families of the more than 64000 dead, more than 1200 disappeared, and thousands of displaced persons resulting from the war that President Calderón Hinojosa has implemented since the beginning of his term.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de la OCEZ RC (Escrutinio Público, 23 December 2011)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza (28 September 2011)

Chiapas: OCEZ-Carranza Region carries out day of actions to demand observation of their demands (15 April 2011)

Chiapas: confrontation in Candelaria El Alto, Venustiano Carranza

On 21 September, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, indigenous individuals of the Emiliano Zapata Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) and members of the community Candelaria El Alto who are adherents to the Other Campaign had a confrontation regarding possession of 185 hectares of land.  Both groups blamed the other for having begun the violence.

OCEZ-RC denounced that eight of its members were injured during the confrontation.  It affirms that the conflict began when a group of men armed with machetes reached the stretch of land in question and began to insult members of OCEZ-RC and throw rocks at them.  In light of this, the organization installed an indefinite plantation in front of the municipal palace to demand that the municipal government of Venustiano Carranza punish the aggressors.

The communiqué of the Digna Ochoa Center for Human Rights writes this on the question: “We indicate that the aggression committed today by a paramilitary shock-group that hides behind the label of the Other Campaign in Chiapas shows the contradiction between its word and coherence, given that today it launched an action to denounce the aggressions taken by paramilitary groups such as Paz y Justicia against communities that pertain to the EZLN, as in the case of the community of San Patricio in the municipality of Sabanilla; this at the same time that groups of adherents in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza carry out paramilitary-type aggressions against members of the OCEZ-RC.  Not to support the practice of these groups that say they are part of the Other Campaign in Chiapas means that it is an opportune time to put distance between the two and to clarify one’s position.”

The adherents of the Other Campaign in Candelaria El Alto have blamed campesinos of the community Nuevo San José la Grandeza who pertain to the OCEZ-RC for the aggression.  In a communiqué, they reported that on 21 September they were meeting where they do guard-shifts, given the situation in the community following the land-occupation by OCEZ-RC  of Nuevo San José la Grandeza, who took the land El Desengaño in April of this year.  There was had an accord of not allowing three persons who come to work it.  Soon, they affirmed that 10 persons arrived “provoking and insulting.”  They denounce that “after the confrontation the members of the OCEZ-RC communicate with persons who are positioned in our lands and who pertain to the colony San José la Grandeza, who are from the same organization.  60 persons arrive, dressed in black with their faces hidden, armed and firing their high-caliber weapons.  The firefight lasted some two hours, and subsequently they returned to their camp.  We would also like to mention that this same day at about 9:30am they cut the electricity to the community so that we could not have communication.  Since yesterday we have been receiving threats regarding their desire to enter our homes to attack us.  We also understand that this form of threatening and attacking us is done so that we abandon our lands, so that they can have them.”  They ended their communiqué by expressing that “we would like to say to the OCEZ-RC that it is not possible that you take from us our bread, as we are campesinos who are conscious that it is the bad government that benefits [from this].  We demand that the state-government immediately take responsibility on the matter, given the situation of danger that our families are experiencing.”

For more information (in Spanish):
Organizaciones de nuevo en conflicto (Cuarto Poder, 24 September)

Miembros de la OCEZ y zapatistas chocan por control de un predio de 185 hectáreas (Proceso, 23 September)

Un enfrentamiento deja a ochos heridos (Cuarto Poder, 23 September)

Agresión paramilitar en contra de la OCEZ-RC, 8 heridos con machetes y palos (Comité de Derechos Humanos de Base Digna Ochoa, 22 September)

Denuncia pública de los adherentes a la Otra Campaña de Candelaria(Comunidad organizada Candelaria el Alto adherentes a la Otra Campaña, 22 September)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: OCEZ-Carranza Region carries out day of actions to demand observation of their demands (15 April 2011)

Chiapas: Cruztón denounces invasion of lands

Photo @ Última Palabra

The community of Cruztón from the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, adherents to the Other Campaign, denounced that persons from the municipality of Teopisca have attempted to invade communal lands, presumably with the support of the Agrarian Office.  During the past mes and a month there has been reactivated a conflict which the state government and agrarian authorities had purportedly resolved.  The campesinos affirmed with regard to the lands that “for many years have been ours because our grandfathers worked them.  We recovered them in 2007, and in June 2009 the government resolved the conflict, leaving them in our hands.”  In June 2009 they received “economic support” from the state government “with the end of putting an end to the social controversy” and it was agreed that “the lands would be legitimately in the possession of adherents to the Other Campaign.”

The community demands that the government respect its lands and that the Agrarian Office stop encouraging invasions.  ”We demand that the government inform us immediately regarding the result of the convention signed on 3 June 2009, carried before the Agrarian Unity Tribunal for its ratification.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Población tzotzil de Cruztón denuncia intento de invasión a tierras comunitarias, La Jornada, 25 May 2011

Denuncia Pública, Enlace Zapatista, 24 May 2011

Población tzotzil de Cruztón denuncia intento de invasión a tierras comunitarias, Última Palabra, 25 May 2011