National: “The Offensive of Those Above against the Movement from Below”, CNI Communiqué Reports Intensification of Repression

On June 12th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) published a new communiqué titled “The Offensive of Those Above against the Movement from Below” “to repudiate the repressive escalation against compañeros from our peoples where they have been nominating councilors for integration of the Indigenous Council of Government for Mexico, which represents for us an attack against the CNI and our proposal that we have launched throughout the nation.”

It denounced threats, attacks, arrests and a murder in four communities in Chiapas, a community in Queretaro, one in Morelos, one in the State of Mexico, one in Michoacan, one in Campeche, and the situation of Mayan indigenous people in Guatemala who are displaced in Campeche.

The CNI identified these events as part of “the intensification of the war against our peoples, the storm that flashes across the sky and now seeks to end hope for all Mexicans represented by the Indigenous Council of Government and our spokeswoman, of the use of attack groups and paramilitaries to strike at the struggle of the peoples that make up the CNI, of the criminalization and persecution of those who fight for a just world, from below and to the left.”

 For more information in Spanish:

La ofensiva de arriba, ante el movimiento de abajo (CNI, 12 de junio de 2017)

“Escalada represiva” contra pueblos del Congreso Nacional Indígena (Contralínea, 12 de junio de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Aumenta tensión en Tila (9 de junio de 2017)

Chiapas : Allanamiento y robo de información a integrante de Semilla Digna, parte del CNI (8 de junio de 2017)

Chiapas: Asesinan a Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gómez(6 de junio de 2017)

Nacional / Chiapas : El CNI conforma su Concejo Indígena de Gobierno y elige a su vocera (31 de mayo de 2017)

National/Chiapas: CNI Forms Indigenous Government Council and Elects Spokesperson

Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, spokesperson for the Indigenous Council of Government (Photo@: Colectivo Tragameluz)

 From May 26th to 28th, the assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) was held to form its Indigenous Council of Government (ICG in its Spanish acronym) and to appoint its spokesperson who will be an independent candidate to the presidency of the Republic in 2018. The meeting that took place in San Cristobal de Las Casas included 858 representatives of 58 indigenous peoples, guests, observers, as well as the general command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) headed by Subcommandantes Moises and Galeano.

On the 27th, three working groups were opened to discuss the aims and strategies of the ICG, its operation and organization, and its links with other sectors of civil society.

On the 28th, the CNI delegates elected the 71 councilors who will form the ICG: two councilors, one woman and one man, were appointed for each of the indigenous regions participating in the CNI, with the exception of resident peoples in the metropolitan areas of Mexico and Guadalajara, in which cases a single councilor was named for each people. Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, 57, an indigenous Nahua from Tuxpan in Jalisco and a traditional doctor was appointed spokesperson of the CIG and will be the independent candidate to the presidency of the Republic in 2018. The EZLN gave its support to the decision of the CIG.

The spokesperson confirmed that the process they are undertaking as indigenous peoples is for life and not for power, and declared that it is not exclusive, that is to say only for indigenous peoples, but that all sectors of society are called on to participate: “Our fight is for life. This step we take is difficult but necessary. We have to take it if we want to continue to exist as peoples. We also open the invitation to all [members of] organized and unorganized civil society to join this struggle for life”, Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez stated.

For more information in Spanish:

Hoy anuncian quién será la candidata indígena independiente para 2018 (La Jornada, 28 de mayo de 2017)

Pronunciamiento de la Asemblea Constitutiva del Concejo Indigena de Gobierno (Congreso Nacional inigena, Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, 28 de mayo de 2017)

¿Qué es el EZLN y por qué respalda a una mujer indígena como presidenta de México?(News Vice, 28 de mayo de 2018)

“No vamos por votos, nuestra pelea es por la vida”: Concejo Indígena de Gobierno (Educa, 29 de mayo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional : Candidata presidencial “no es decisión de una persona” (Subcomandante Moíses) (15 de noviembre 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)

Chiapas: Fresh Post-Election Incidents in Oxchuc

Rosa Perez Perez (left) and Maria Gloria Sanchez Gomez (right), mayors of the indigenous municipalities of Chenalho and Oxchuc (@ la CimacNoticias)

On April 1, the post-electoral conflict reemerged in the municipality of Oxchuc, with the arrest of eight people, roadblocks between San Cristobal de Las Casas and Palenque, fireworks, bombs and shots fired.

These latest events are related to the order of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF in its Spanish acronym), which was issued on September 1, 2016, to reinstate Maria Gloria Sanchez Gamez as mayor of Oxchuc,.

Oxchuc is not the only municipality which faces such problems. In the municipality of Chenalho, there is also post-election conflict. In recent months, different bodies that operate in the state expressed their concerns about the post-electoral conflicts happening in different municipalities. To date, no intervention or proposal for a solution has been registered by the authorities.

For more intervention in Spanish:

Retienen a 8 tzeltales, resurge conflicto por disputa de alcaldía de Oxchuc (Radio Formula, 1 de abril de 2017)

Retienen a 8 tzeltales y bloquean carretera Oxchuc-San Cristóbal (Quadratin Noticias, 1ero de abril de 2017)

Piden mayor seguridad en Oxchuc (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 2 de abril de 2017)

Solicitan seguridad para habitantes de Oxchuc  (Mega Noticias, 3 de abril de 2017)

TEPJF ordena restituir a alcaldesa de Oxchuc; fue forzada a renunciar, resuelve (Revista Proceso, 1ero de septiembre de 2016)

Tribunal Electoral restituye a la alcaldesa de Oxchuc, Chiapas, quien fue forzada a renunciar (Aristegui Noticias, 1ero de septiembre de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: TEPJF ordena restitución de alcaldesa de Oxchuc (5 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas: conflicto partidista desata violencia en el municipio de Chenalhó (27 de marzo de 2017)

Chiapas : Dos muertos y decenas de heridos en Chenalhó por disputa de la alcaldía (9 de marzo de 2017)

Chiapas : Restitución en su cargo de alcaldesa de Chenalhó hace temer nueva situación de violencia (22 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: Conflict between Parties Unleashes Violence in Chenalho

Families displaced due to violence in Chenalho Photo@:Quorum Informativo

In March, faced with the context of violence stemming from the post-electoral conflict in the municipality of Chenalho, several organizations and the Coordination of the Parish of San Pedro Apostol of this municipality issued statements to express their concerns, demand that the State to disarm armed groups and ensure the integrity and personal safety and life of the villagers of the municipality.

The parish of San Pedro Apostol recalled in its pronouncement how the Massacre of Acteal came about almost twenty years ago and declared with great concern “how history seems to repeat itself: acts of violence, threats, dead and wounded, displaced people, burnt houses, actions by armed groups, arms trafficking.” What most distresses the parish is that “the authorities do nothing to solve the problem (…) they abandon their responsibility to enforce justice and the law, which is the only reason for their existence as authorities.” It points out that the two sides of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) are armed with weapons considered “for exclusive use by the army.” So far, the conflict has resulted in over 200 displaced persons and four deaths: “It is public and notorious that in the municipality the armed groups have bee reactivated and are acting with total freedom and impunity.” The parish called on the inhabitants of Chenalho so that “as Christians they refrain from engaging in acts of violence against their own brothers.”

In a joint statement, civil organizations blamed the State for “action and omission, in a context of violence that could continue to escalate.” They also alleged that they had been insisting on the disarmament of the paramilitary groups that perpetrated the Acteal Massacre in 1997 and that “not only have they not listened to us in terms of disarmament, but also the armed groups have been reactivated under the current administration of Governor Manuel Velasco Coello.” They stated that, “the authorities cannot continue to evade their responsibility in the face of the evident and obvious consequences of the unpunished actions of armed groups and arms trafficking in the region.”

They asked if “this mode of action is a prolongation of the counterinsurgency in which the paramilitaries are the material executors of the plan drawn up by the Army? Is it connivance and active complicity of the authorities with criminal groups? Or is it simple and crass inability to govern? Or perhaps it is a question of creating a sense of ungovernability to justify the Internal Security Law that seeks to institutionalize the action of the Mexican Army in tasks that correspond by their nature to civil authority?”

 For more information in Spanish:

En Chiapas imposición y violencia son la forma de gobernar: ONGs; “confrontaciones son encabezados por PRI y PVEM” (Revolución 3.0, 21 de marzo de 2017)

Pronunciamiento conjunto: Chiapas: Imposición y violencia como modo de gobierno (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 20 de marzo de 2017)

Zozobra en Chenalhó ante inminente violencia por la disputa del poder político, económico y social (Chiapas en contacto, 15 de marzo de 2017

Manifiesta parroquia preocupación por violencia (La Jornada, 14 de marzo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Dos muertos y decenas de heridos en Chenalhó por disputa de la alcaldía (9 de marzo de 2017)

Chiapas: TEPJF ordena restitución de alcaldesa de Oxchuc (5 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas : Restitución en su cargo de alcaldesa de Chenalhó hace temer nueva situación de violencia (22 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: Riesgo de más violencia en Chenalhó después de secuestro y cambio de alcalde (31 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Protestas post electorales en el municipio de Chenalhó (6 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Two Dead and Dozens Injured in Chenalho in Dispute over Mayoralty

Chenalho Town Hall (@Linkogecko)

The post-election dispute in the municipality of Chenalho claimed the lives of two people between February 22 and March 7, resulting in more than a dozen with gunshot wounds.

It should be recalled that since the beginning of 2016, nonconformists made a series of protests that led the mayor-elect, Rosa Perez Perez, Ecologist Green Party of Mexico, to apply for a license for the position last May and the local Congress appointed the trustee of the City Hall, Miguel Santiz Alvarez, as substitute mayor.

Nevertheless, on August 17, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary of the Federation (TEPJF in its Spanish acronym) ordered the reinstatement of Rosa Perez, which could not be, but it was dispatched from offices in San Cristobal de Las Casas from where the official resources of the municipality are received.

On the morning of February 22, hundreds of supporters of Rosa Perez took over the Town Hall that more than one hundred municipal workers and sympathizers of the substitute mayor were guarding. The takeover of the building and a subsequent confrontation left one person dead, Jonhny Orlando Vasquez Ruiz, 16 wounded, vehicles destroyed and houses looted (including those of Santiz Alvarez and the treasurer, Manuel Clemente Gomez). Testimonies refer to the use of high-caliber firearms and “bullet-proof vests”.

About 270 displaced people from Puebla neighborhood, who since May 2016 were displaced in the Cultural Center in the municipal seat of Chenalho, dispersed before taking refuge in San Cristobal. They had fled Puebla in the face of threats from Rosa Perez supporters. Faced with the latest events, at least 49 of them decided to stop supporting Miguel Santiz Alvarez to support Rosa Perez Perez.

On another note, since March 6, rural agents from at least 60 of the 116 communities in Chenalho agreed to suspend classes at all levels of education, considering that “there are no safe conditions for students and teachers after the takeover of the Town Hall on February 22.” The agents who signed the agreement are supporters of Sanchez Alvarez, and demanded that “threats, intimidation and gunshots be stopped in the communities and that precautionary measures be taken in the localities where men, women and children live who repudiate and do not recognize Rosa Perez.”

On March 7, the body of Lorenzo Santiz Alvarez, son of the Chenalho trustee, Miguel Santiz Alvarez, was finally found in the community of Santa Marta from where they came. Supporters of the mayor Rosa Perez spread the story that he committed suicide because the victim was supposedly drunk, a story the relatives rejected because they claim he did not usually take or use a backpack like the one found next to him.

For more information in Spanish:

Hallan muerto a hijo de alcalde sustituto de Chenalhó, Chiapas (Proceso, 7 de marzo de 2017)

Asesinan a hijo del alcalde sustituto de Chenalhó (La Jornada, 7 de marzo de 2017)

Comuneros de Chenalhó acuerdan suspender clases (La Jornada, 5 de marzo de 2017)

Seguidores de alcalde sustituto ahora apoyan a la edil Pérez (La Jornada, 28 de febrero de 2017)

Hallan cuerpo de joven desaparecido en toma de alcaldía de Chenalhó (La Jornada, 26 de febrero de 2017)

Simpatizantes de Pérez Pérez toman alcaldía de Chenalhó (La Jornada, 23 de febrero de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas: TEPJF ordena restitución de alcaldesa de Oxchuc (5 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas : Restitución en su cargo de alcaldesa de Chenalhó hace temer nueva situación de violencia (22 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: Riesgo de más violencia en Chenalhó después de secuestro y cambio de alcalde (31 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Protestas post electorales en el municipio de Chenalhó (6 de mayo de 2016)

 

 

 

 

 

Oaxaca: Alejandro Murat Takes Office as Governor

@Twitter Murat

In the early morning of December 1 and in an alternate location, Alejandro Murat Hinojosa (of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) took office as the new governor of Oaxaca. The event took place in an alternate venue to the Congress facilities, which was taken over by teachers from Section 22 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), who also organized 37 road blocks in several parts of the state in the same context.

In a statement, Section 22 described the taking of office as “spurious and without consensus.” It emphasized that “a taking of office that arrives hidden from the Oaxacans, with hunger for power and ambition for authority is doomed to failure because it is not public, consensual and open to the peoples and communities.”

In a political declaration from the social movement, some 20 social organizations denounced that, “emboldened and thirsty for power before the arrival of the PRI to government, its political operators have begun to confront the popular movement, as has been observed in different scenarios.” It warned: “The immediate objective of the PRI is to continue the path of imposing structural reforms, allowing them to exploit natural resources (minerals, oil, gas, timber, etc.), obtain cheap labor (the health service is an example of embezzlement of millions, with popular insurance and universalization being rejected as fraud); to generate greater infrastructure for the transportation of goods (the trans- isthmus corridor, the highway to the isthmus and coast) and to advance with the liquidation of indigenous, social, trade union and human rights resistances, which have been examples at national level. “

Therefore, they called on “all democratic, progressive and revolutionary forces in Oaxaca to close ranks before the return of the PRI.”

On the same day, Murat Hinojosa announced the composition of his cabinet in which the appointment of a marine in charge of the Secretariat of Public Security, Frigate Captain Jose Raymundo Tuñón Jauregui who is also paratrooper of the Marine Corps and served as military attaché for several years in the United States is notable.

For more information in Spanish:

De madrugada y en sede alterna, Murat toma protesta como gobernador de Oaxaca (Aristegui Noticias, 1ero de diciembre de 2016)

A escondidas y de madrugada, Murat rinde protesta como gobernador de Oaxaca (Proceso, 1ero de diciembre de 2016)

“Espuria y sin consenso”, la toma de protesta de Murat: CNTE (Proceso, 1ero de diciembre de 2016)

Cerrar filas en el movimiento social, ante el retorno del PRI en Oaxaca (Declaración política de organizaciones sociales del estado, 1ero de diciembre de 2016)

Alejandro Murat da a conocer a su Gabinete legal (Página 3.mx, 1ero de diciembre de 2016)

Nombra Murat a Capitán de la Marina como titular de la SSP en Oaxaca (NVI Oaxaca, 1ero de diciembre de 2016)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : Resultados de las elecciones del 5 de junio (16 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas/National: New EZLN Communiqué Clarifies Joint Proposal with CNI

Subcomandante Galeano (Photo@SIPAZ archives)

On November 17, 33 years after its foundation, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) published an extensive communiqué titled “A History to Understand”, in which it gives further details about the proposal of consultation with the peoples that make up the Indigenous National Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) to examine the convenience of naming a national council of government and an indigenous woman candidate for the 2018 elections.

Subcomandante Galeano clarified that, although the proposal was launched by the EZLN, “the CNI is who will decide whether or not to participate with a delegate of its own, and, if necessary, it will have the support of Zapatismo.” But, “No, neither the EZLN as an organization nor any of its members will run for a popular election position in the 2018 electoral process. No, the EZLN is not going to become a political party. No, the EZLN is not going to present a Zapatista indigenous woman as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic in the year 2018. No, the EZLN has not altered its course to any degree, nor will it continue its struggle along the electoral route institutional.” He ratified that “the EZLN does not struggle to take the Power.”

Subcomandante Galeano added that in making the proposal to the CNI, the EZLN stated “that it did not matter whether or not they won the Presidency of the Republic, that what was going to matter was the challenge, irreverence, insubordination, the total rupture of the image of the indigenous, subject to the alms and the image of pity so rooted on the institutional right and who, would say it, also on the left of ‘real change’ and its organic intellectuals addicted to the opium of social networks – that their daring would make the whole political system vibrate and that it would have echoes of hope not in one but in many of the Mexicans below … and the world.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado “Una historia para tratar de Entender (EZLN, 17 de noviembre de 2016)

Lo importante es la insumisión, no ganar la presidencia con candidata indígena: EZLN (Proceso, 17 de noviembre de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

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)