On January 30, at a press conference, health-care workers denounced the repression and criminalization that workers of the Ministry of Health of Chiapas , organized in defense of the right to public health are suffering.
They explained that although Chiapas is the state with more support for the health sector in the Federal budget, it suffers from a shortage of medicines, poor infrastructure conditions and a lack of necessary tools for care due to the situation of corruption and mismanagement. Due to this situation, as reported by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, “the state of Chiapas exceeds the national average in maternal and child deaths, tuberculosis, malnutrition, among other curable diseases. »
In the press conference, the health-care workers explained that in spite of having carried out two hunger strikes last year that led to the signing of two minutes with the State Government, until today only 30% of what was agreed upon was fulfille . They also expressed their concern at the “crisis of repression” they are experiencing. They denounced the arrest warrants issued by the state against 4 health-care workers, who had participated in the hunger strikes and now accused of riot. One of them, Límbano Domínguez Alegría, was arrested and detained in the Amate prison, while the others, the nurse Maria de Jesus Espinosa de los Santos, the doctor Victor Hugo Zavaleta Ruíz and Humberto Gutierrez Medina, remain refugees at friends’ homes far way from their families to avoid being unfairly apprehended.
The president of the Fray Bartolome de la Casas HRC, Don Raul Vera declared that “what the state does is not an act of repression but a criminal act of State.” Therefore, he demanded “to the government of the state of Chiapas,the freedom and the end of the criminalization of those who defend their labor rights and the right to health. »
For more information (in Spanish) :
Trabajadores de Salud denuncian hostigamientos del gobierno de Chiapas por exigir sus derechos (Animal Politico, 31 de enero de 2018)
Acusan de motín a trabajadores de salud que piden mejores servicios en Chiapas (Regeneracion, 30 de enero de 2018)
Gobierno de Chiapas criminaliza a quienes defienden el derecho a la salud (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 23 de enero de 2018)
Crisis del sistema de salud en Chiapas (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 11 de abril de 2017)
Carta de la Diócesis de San Cristóbal a las enfermeras (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 24 de mayo de 2017)
For more information from SIPAZ :
Chiapas: Agreement to End Second Nurses’ Hunger Strike in Chiapas May 29, 2017
Chiapas: Nurses Return to Hunger Strike and Denounce Breach of Agreements by State Government May 4, 2017
Chiapas: Nurses Reach Agreements and End Hunger Strike April 27, 2017
Chiapas: Hunger Strike by Eight Nurses Continues in Chiapas April 13, 2017
Chiapas: Five Nurses Begin Hunger Strike in Tuxtla Gutierrez April 4, 2017
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