Chiapas: Las Abejas announce that they will not vote in the mid-term elections

Acteal (@Sociedad Civil Las Abejas)

On 22 May, in observance of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre (1997) in which 45 people were murdered, the Las Abejas Civil Society published a new communique presenting its take on the present electoral context.

Las Abejas affirmed that “the people who we represent will not vote in the elections,” given that the “so-called vote” is a “farce that offers political leadership of the people, but we know that there above they know well and already have arranged who and which parties will win in the elections to come.”

Instead, they recommend “the exercise of our rights as citizens not to participate in elections, but rather in the decision-making processes we carry out in our communities, in the daily resistance we embody, in the construction of autonomy, and in our collaboration with different spaces and processes to denounce injustice and human-rights violations committed by the State against our people. In exchange for not participating in the elections, we have begun a process of building an ethical and responsible government that actually represents us and listens to our voice: one that defends our lives, lands, and territories.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado completo (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de mayo de 2015)

“Las Abejas” de Acteal informaron que no participarán en elecciones 2015(Chiapas Paralelo, 24 de mayo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Civil Society Las Abejas denounce human rights violations in the country and show solidarity with various processes (24 April 2015)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal reject dams and high electricity prices, affirming “Free Rivers and Free People” instead  (April 10, 2015)

Chiapas: Las Abejas Civil Society expresses solidarity with the relatives and comrades of the disappeared students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero (February 5, 2015)