Chiapas: Public denunciation from those displaced from Banavil

Photo @Radio Zapatista (archive)

On 4 September, those displaced from Banavila, Tenejapa municipality, once again denounced the precarious and inhumane conditions they have suffered now for a year and nine months.  In their public denunciation the displaced also express solidarity with families displaced from the Puebla Colony, Chenalhó municipality.  The communique write that “On 4 December 2011, we were attacked by PRI members from Banavil, leaving 13 displaced […].  For a year and nine months we have not been taken into account; the federal and state governments and the Cristóbal Hernández Lopez Specialized Prosecutorial Office for Indigenous Justice are all complicit with the aggressors and support the murderers […].  On Friday 30 August, we recall with great sadness the day of our displacement and the forcible disappearance of our father Alonso Lopez Luna and many others who were similarly disappeared.”

In solidarity with the families from the Puebla Colony, the displaced mention that “We the displaced of Banavil exist in inhumane conditions and hence share with you our memory of multiple attacks against our persons, as has happened in the Puebla ejido; to be displaced is no way to live as dignified human beings, because we humans have rights.”

The communique ends by making the following demands of President Enrique Peña Nieto and state Governor Manuel Velasco Coello:

• the truth regarding the forced disappearance of Alonso López Luna
• justice for the acts which took place on 4 December 2011
• justice for our displaced brothers from the Puebla ejido
• release for our brother Alberto Patishtan, sentenced to 60 years’ imprisonment“

For more information (in Spanish):

Denuncia pública de los desplazados de Banavil (Chiapas Denuncia, 3 de septiembre de 2013)

Denuncia sobre desplazamiento forzado y desaparición de Alonso López Luna de la comunidad de Banavil, Tenejapa (Radio Zapatista, 17 de julio de 2013)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: The displaced of Banavil, Tenejapa in “precarious and inhumane conditions” (8 April 2013)

Chiapas: CDHFBC published more information on the Banavil case, Tenejapa (9 February 2012)