Photo@SIPAZ
Members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) denounced in a communiqué on December 2 numerous acts of aggression and harassment of participants in their fifth Congress during the consultation they have been conducting. “The fear of the powerful, the extractive companies, the military, the narco-paramilitaries is such that our consultation is being attacked and harassed where our peoples are gathering to discuss and decide the steps to follow as the CNI “.
They specifically denounced:
“-In the Nahua indigenous community of Santa María Ostula, Michoacán, the narco-paramilitary harassment by the Templar Knights cartel has intensified, and through a paper signed on November 19, 2016, the same date on which a regional assembly discussed on the Michoacan coast the resolutions of the first stage of the V CNI, they threatened to do a “clean up” of those who participate in demonstrations together with the community police commanders.
– That compañeros who, by agreement of the assembly of the V CNI in October 2016, have moved through different geographies of the country where the original peoples have wanted to dialogue with delegates of other peoples regarding our political proposal, have been victims of aggression and harassment by criminal gangs or by unknown persons, such as the burning of homes in their places of origin, or attacks on other vehicles to try to remove them from the roads where they need to travel.
– That while foreign companies intend to seize 12 oil wells in the northern Zoque territory of Chiapas, on November 23, 2016, a group of armed men pretending to be government teachers and with the consent of the Undersecretary of Federated Education of Chiapas, Eduardo Campos Martinez and the chief, Delfino Alegria Garcia, abducted a group of indigenous teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) in the northern area of Chiapas, and attacked them with high-powered weapons. Outside the office of the Secretary of Education in the municipality of Ixtacomitán, Chiapas. The attack resulted in the loss of life of Professor Zoque Roberto Diaz Aguilar, originally from Chapultenango, Chiapas and three other people were injured.
– That the teacher Irineo Salmerón Dircio, Coordinator of the House of Justice in San Luis Acatlan and member of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC-PC) was abducted – disappeared by an armed group in the municipality of Tixtla, Guerrero; and two days later his dead body was found in the municipality of Chilapa, Guerrero, a few days after in that same municipality at least 15 communities of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata held an assembly as part of the consultation in which we are participating.”
For more information in Spanish:
EZLN denuncia agresiones durante consulta indígena, La Jornada, 2 de diciembre de 2016
A pesar de agresiones contra pueblos indígenas la consulta va, anuncian EZLN y CNI, Radio Formula, 2 de diciembre de 2016
For more information from SIPAZ:
Chiapas/Nacional : Nuevo comunicado del EZLN aclara propuesta conjunta con el CNI (25/11/2016)
Chiapas/Nacional : Candidata presidencial “no es decisión de una persona” (Subcomandante Moíses) (15 de noviembre de 2016)
Chiapas /Nacional: Polémica después de la propuesta planteada por el EZLN y el CNI en octubre (24 de octubre de 2016)
Chiapas / Nacional : CNI y EZLN realizarán consulta para nombrar a una candidata indígena hacia las elecciones presidenciales de 2018 (15 de octubre de 2016)
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