Chiapas: Arbitrary Arrest of Two Members of CNI in Ocosingo Denounced

@ Desinformemonos

On February 15th, members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and residents of Ocosingo published an urgent action in which they denounced the arbitrary and unjust detention of Fernando Espinoza Perez and Baldemar Espinoza Perez, members of the CNI, who were transferred to the Reintegration Center Social (CERESO) No.16 after they were arrested and had the coffee they were taking to sell confiscated, at the Peña Limonar crossing on the Ocosingo-Palenque highway.

With “an excess of violence and abuse of authority” they were transferred to the Peña Limonar Ejido to later be sent by ejido authorities to the municipal jail where they are currently “in vulnerable conditions.” The organization declares that this act that violates human rights is the consequence of a constant low intensity war against the communities that are in resistance. In addition to other aggressions, this act “is part of a series of human rights violations, unjust arrests, armed attacks on our houses, illegal logging, theft of wood, armed incursions, with the action and protection of the ejidal authorities, who for more than ten years have disrupted peace and collective community life”, the CNI mentions.

For this reason, they hold the three levels of bad governments responsible for the physical and psychological integrity of their fellow detainees and demanded their immediate release; as well as investigating and punishing those responsible.

For more information in Spanish:

Acción urgente. Denuncia de agresiones y detención arbitraria contra integrantes del Congreso Nacional Indígena en Ocosingo, Chiapas. (Consejo Nacional Indígena, 15 de febrero de 2021)

Denuncian detención arbitraria de integrantes del CNI en Ocosingo, Chiapas(Educa Oaxaca, 16 de febrero de 2021)

Detienen con violencia a integrantes de la CNI en Ocosingo (Chiapas Paralelo, 16 de febrero de 2021)

For more information from SIPAZ: