On November 13th, the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Freedom CDLI-XI’NICH’ and several civil organizations met in the municipality of Palenque, to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Viejo Velasco massacre and to continue to demand truth and justice in the case.
It should be recalled that on November 13, 2006, at approximately 6:00 a.m., nearly 40 people in civilian clothes, from Nueva Palestina, located in the same municipality of Ocosingo, entered the Viejo Velasco community, accompanied by a group of 300 people dressed in boots and black and blue uniforms, carrying heavy-caliber weapons, who attacked the community, leaving four people extrajudicially executed, four more forcibly disappeared, as well as 36 forcibly displaced people.
In a joint statement, the organizations claimed that 16 years after the massacre, it “remains in total impunity” and even “far from justice, this is another of the most serious cases of violation of the most basic individual and collective human rights, fueled by the lack of institutional response. (…) During all this time, the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) still hasn’t carried out a complete and effective investigation of these events; while the federal government and the CNDH have kept total silence in this regard, for which reason the masterminds, political operators and material authors continue in impunity.”
They also stressed that “this bloody massacre occurred in a context of intense struggle and resistance, demanding the right to territory, and to the protection and management of natural resources, of more than 45 indigenous communities, settled in the heart of the Lacandon Jungle; resistance of which the Assembly and residents of Viejo Velasco were a worthy example, faced with an aggressive policy of land clearance, social dispossession and privatization of nature by the Mexican State, exerted on these peoples, located within and in the limits of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, one of the richest areas in biodiversity, water, forest cover and with a strong scenic and tourist attraction in our country.”
For more information in Spanish:
Masacre de Viejo Velasco. Lejos de la justicia ante la Masacre, desapariciones y desplazamiento forzado, continúa la impunidad (Pronunciamiento conjunto, 13 de noviembre de 2022)
Comunicado del Pueblos Creyente Zona Chab durante conmemoración 16 de Masacre Viejo Velasco (13 de noviembre de 2022)
Masacre de Viejo Velasco, 16 años en impunidad (Chiapas Paralelo, 13 de noviembre de 2022)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Chiapas: A 15 años de la masacre de Viejo Velasco (15 de noviembre de 2021)
Chiapas/Noviembre: CIDH admite caso Viejo Velasco (24 de noviembre de 2020)
Chiapas : A 14 años de la masacre de Viejo Velasco (14 de noviembre de 2020)
Chiapas: Peregrinación y conmemoración de la masacre de Viejo Velasco después de 13 años de impunidad (14 de noviembre de 2019)
Chiapas: Peregrinación Viejo Velasco en Palenque (15 de noviembre de 2018)
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