Chiapas: Organizations Demand Respect for People’s Rights

foto @Frayba

A number of networks and social and civil organizations in Chiapas spoke out in favor of full respect for human rights and for life in a document published on April 20th, seeking to “share information, analyze and generate strategies to jointly face this pandemic COVID 19.”

The statement recalled that “we are in a state that has lived historically and in a particular way exclusion and marginalization, and in contrast with a tremendous organizational power resulting from its long history of struggle and resistance. The pandemic we are experiencing today reiterates that capitalist forms of production, in which violence, inequality and dispossession predominate, make the means for the reproduction of life precarious and diminish the possibility of living a dignified life.”

The signatories asked the three levels of government: “to attend to the social determinations of the pandemic that place the migrant population, boys and girls working in the street, residents of urban peripheries, people in detention, precarious workers as sectors with greater vulnerability to contagion, timely diagnosis and access to treatment.”

In the case of the indigenous peoples, they also demanded “to fully respect the exercise of their right to autonomy and their own models of health care in their territories”, “historical strategies” that are based on the framework of the San Andres Accords , the second article of the Constitution and international instruments such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The health emergency “highlights the dismantling of public health systems resulting from the capitalist model and the subordination of people’s health to a model that serves the market and the developmental option as the only valid indicator”, they denounced.

Lastly, they urged that “under no circumstances should force be applied by the police and military forces for the purpose of containing the population that may incur illegal actions and violations of the human rights of the people”, even using the argument of avoiding Covid-19 infections.

For more information in Spanish:

Pronunciamiento conjunto por la vida, Frayba, 20 de abril de 2020

Video:Programa especial sobre Chiapas frente al Covid-19, Rompeviento, 20 de abril de2020

ONG de Chiapas piden al gobierno no reprimir gente por el Covid-19, La Jornada, 20 de abril de 2020

For more information from SIPAZ: