Chiapas: Leader of CIAOC-H Executed in Comitan de Dominguez

Luis Hernandez Cruz, ex-federal deputy for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) (Photo@Alfaro Noticias)

On May 4th, 2017, one of the leaders of the Historical Independent Center of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos (CIOAC-H in its Spanish acronym) was assassinated in Chiapas. His name was Luis Hernandez Cruz, who was a federal deputy for the PRD.

The campesino leader was executed by gunmen in a van in front of his home in the Magueyes neighborhood of the city of Comitan de Dominguez.

CIOAC-H, an organization to which Luis Hernandez Cruz belonged, is linked to different conflicts in the area, including clashes with the EZLN and the assassination of Jose Luis Solis Lopez (the Zapatista Galeano), in May 2014. “In particular, Luis Hernandez had had political differences with other campesino groups who singled him out for financing armed groups to dispute land in the Las Margaritas region,” Proceso highlighted.

The investigation continues.

For more information in Spanish:

Ejecutan a exdiputado federal del PRD en Chiapas (Proceso, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Matan a ex diputado del PRD en Chiapas; investiga Fiscalía (El Universal, 5 de mayo de 2017)

Asesinan a dirigente de la Cioac Comitán en Chiapas (La Jordana, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Asesinan a líder de la CIOAC a balazos (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 4 de mayo de 2017)

Ejecutan a ex diputado del PRD en Chiapas (El Milenio, 4 de mayo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: “Grupo armado de la CIOAC-Histórica atacó” a comunidad en el municipio de Las Margaritas (26 de enero de 2016)

Chiapas: Desplazados del Poblado Primero de Agosto denunciaron escalamiento de hostigamiento, amenazas de muerte y desalojo (7 de enero de 2016)

Chiapas: Denuncian hostigamiento militar a la JBG zapatista de La Realidad (13 de marzo de 2015)

Chiapas: Agresión contra Bases de Apoyo del EZLN deja un muerto y 15 heridos zapatistas (6 de mayo de 2014)

Chiapas: “The Walls of Capital, the Cracks of the Left” Critical Reflection Seminar Ends

Between April 12th and 15th, the Critical Reflection Seminar “The Walls of Capital, the Cracks of the Left” was held at Cideci-Unitierra in San Cristobal de Las Casas. It included the participation of commanders of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and of several intellectuals of the country.

Participations focused mainly on the neoliberal capitalist system today and what is to come, the resistances and possibilities that the proposal to form an Indigenous Council of Government and to appoint an indigenous candidate to the presidential elections of 2018 opens, given that with the current situation, “We have no choice but to make the earth shake its centers”, said Gilberto Lopez y Rivas.

From the first day, Subcomandante Insurgente Moises, spokesperson for the EZLN, explained why the capitalist world resembles a walled estate reminiscent of slavery on the estate, its boss-caporal-butler-foremen command structure, where government structure subordinate to the command of capital, its “employer.”

Later, he stressed that, “the migrants did not leave because they wanted to, but because they could no longer be on their farm, better known as a country.” He announced that after “emptying their pockets and not finding euros, the Zapatista communities agreed to work collectively to raise a total of 3,915.5 kg. of clean and roasted coffee to send to the migrant brothers, so that they are the ones who organize themselves there and see how to turn the coffee into resistance and rebellion.” He clarified: “We below need to help each other to demonstrate that we do not need those who give conditioned support,” referring to the government and political parties.

For his part, Subcomandante Galeano made a call to fight collectively because “the storm is coming and what is seen now is not even remotely the peak”, because “the worst is yet to come and individuals, bright and capable as they might be of feeling will not be able to survive survive if it is not with others, others.” He added that “Zapatismo as libertarian thinking does not recognize the rivers Bravo and Suchiate as limits of its aspiration of freedom”, because “the fight against capital is global.”

Referring to the upcoming electoral context, he reiterated that “among the options our position has been and is clear: There is no good foreman but we understand that someone, most of the time as a comfort therapy, makes a differentiation between the bad and the worse. (…) We do not want to choose between a cruel and kindly boss, simply and plainly do not want bosses.”

He added: “I would recommend that you take advantage of what the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) will do from May this year. We truly hope that the CNI will fulfill its own mandate and will not fall into the search of votes and posts, but that it will take a brother’s ear for whoever is below in pain and loneliness, to relieve him with the call to the organization.” He expressed that “Come closer as a sister, brother, brothers, because when the time comes when no one knows where to go, those who are despised and humiliated today will know where the path and the look, they will know the how and when. They will know the answer to the most urgent and important question in those moments: What next?”

At the end of the event, Subcomandante Insurgente Moises concluded “They listened to our words. It is now up to you to discern which ones serve you to organize, work and fight where you live. (…) We have only to organize and go for everything (…) People below: organize, fight and work in resistance and rebellion.”

For more information in Spanish:

Participación de la Comisión Sexta del EZLN en el Seminario de reflexión crítica “LOS MUROS DEL CAPITAL, LAS GRIETAS DE LA IZQUIERDA” (Participación del 12 al 15 de abril, Enlace zapatista)

Día 1: Los muros del capital, las grietas de la izquierda (12 de abril de 2017)

Día 2: Los muros del capital, las grietas de la izquierda(Radio zapatista, 13 de abril de 2017)

Día 3: Los muros del capital, las grietas de la izquierda (Radio zapatista, 14 de abril de 2017)

Día 4: Los muros del capital, las grietas de la izquierda (Radio zapatista, 15 de abril de 2017)

El enemigo capitalista no va dejar que el pueblo mande, por eso hay que organizarnos: EZLN (Radio Formula, 14 de abril de 2017)

“Lo peor está por venir”, advierte el subcomandante Galeano (La Jornada, 15 de abril de 2017)

Lo que viene será peor: subcomandante Galeano (Proceso, 16 de abril de 2017)

Refrenda el EZLN que la lucha es contra el capitalismo (Contralínea, 17 de abril de 2017)

La postulación de la candidata indígena es un llamado a la organización, más que un asunto electoral (Desinformémonos, 17 de abril de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: El EZLN anuncia nuevas convocatorias e invitaciones para 2017 (24 de febrero de 2017)

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/National: CNI and EZLN Launch Call and Denounce Repression against Purepecha Community in Michoacan

On April 2nd, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) launched the Call for the Constituent Assembly of the Indigenous Government Council for Mexico. In the second stage of the Fifth CNI, held from December 29th-31st, 2016 and January 1st, 2017, they had agreed to “CALL the authorities, representatives, delegates and councilors appointed by the peoples, nations, tribes, neighborhoods, communities and indigenous organizations that participate in the CNI to the celebration of the: CONSTITUTIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNMENT COUNCIL FOR MEXICO.” They announced that this assembly will be held from May 26th-28th at the Indigenous Center for Integral Training (CIDECI-UNITIERRA) in San Cristobal de Las Casas.

In addition, on April 4th, 38 people from the Purepecha indigenous community of Arantepacua, Michoacan, were arrested “by members of the Michoacan police in the midst of the land dispute between communities in the municipalities of Uruapan and Nahuatzen.” To push for the release of the 38 community members arrested, the town demonstrated the following day blocking the Arantepacua-Nahuatzin road. Another group traveled to the city of Morelia to learn about the legal status of the detainees. “The reaction of the government of Silvano Aureoles was to send a convoy of more than 70 units with elements of the Special Operations Group of the Michoacan Police to Arantepacua community where, with teargas and firearms, they began the persecution of the population, including women and children. They ransacked homes and as reported by the community spokesman, from the events (…) there are four villagers dead, ten injured.”

In response, the CNI and the EZLN denounced the repression against the Purepecha community and the “betrayal” of the Michoacan government to “not allow dialogue to solve a long-standing agrarian conflict” in a joint communiqué. The CNI and EZLN stated that “bad governments think that spreading terror in the indigenous territories of Michoacan and much of the national geography is how they are going to silence the people and their word, but that will not happen, the word that the indigenous peoples today shout collectively is born precisely of the indignation, being fed up and the decision to not allow themselves to be killed, dispossessed, divided or bought.” In addition they said that, “your pain for the murder of your compañeros is ours. We fight because we have the certainty that the punishment of the guilty will arise from the dignity, resistance and rebellion of our peoples.”

Meanwhile, from April 12th-15th the seminar of critical reflection “THE WALLS OF CAPITAL, THE CRACKS OF THE LEFT.” will be held at CIDECI-UNITIERRA. Registration is from Tuesday, April 11th, 2017 at 10:00 am at the same venue.

For more information in Spanish:

Convocatoria a la Asamblea Constitutiva del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno para México (Enlace Zapatista, 2 de abril de 2017)

Comunicado conjunto del CNI y el EZLN denunciando la represión contra la comunidad Purépecha de Arantepacua, Michoacán. (Congreso Nacional Indígena, 6 de abril de 2017)

Comunicado conjunto del CNI y el EZLN denunciando la represión contra la comunidad Purépecha de Arantepacua, Michoacán. (Enlace Zapatista, 6 de abril de 2017)

La comunidad indígena de Arantepacua víctima de la violencia del gobierno de Michoacán (Desinformémonos, 6 de abril de 2017)

“El mal gobierno de Silvano Aureoles los traicionó e impidió el diálogo con los comuneros”: CNI y EZLN (Desinformémonos, 7 de abril de 2017)

“No nos confundan, no pretendemos competir con los partidos políticos porque no somos sus palabras mentirosas y perversas”: Congreso Nacional Indígena (Desinformémonos, 11 de abril de 2017)

LOS MUROS ARRIBA, LAS GRIETAS ABAJO (Y A LA IZQUIERDA). (Enlace Zapatista, 14 de febrero 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: EZLN Announces New Gatherings and Invitations for 2017

In their latest communiqué of February 14, “THE WALLS ABOVE, THE CRACKS BELOW (AND TO THE LEFT)” The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) convened a Global Campaign and several activities “Against Capital and its Walls: All The Cracks.” The first of them, the Campaign “Against the Walls of Capital: Resistance, Rebellion, Solidarity and Support from Below and to the Left”, where they called to “organize with autonomy, to resist and to rebel against persecutions, arrests and deportation” and stated that “every human being has the right to a free and dignified existence in the place that seems best to them, and they have the right to fight to remain there.” They called on the “Sixth as a whole to organize (…) to support in and with activities of those who resist and rebel against expulsions. Whether they are supporting them to return to their homes, creating ‘sanctuaries’ or supporting existing ones, with legal advice and support, with money, with the arts and sciences, festivals and mobilizations, commercial and media boycotts, be it in cyber space, wherever and however it may be. In all the spaces where we move it is our duty to support and show solidarity.”

They also announced their support and solidarity for those who resist arrests and deportations: “To begin, we will send you the artistic works created by the indigenous Zapatistas for last year’s CompArte, as well as organic coffee produced by the indigenous Zapatista communities in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, so that, through their sale, they can carry out artistic and cultural activities to formalize support and solidarity with migrants and displaced persons throughout the world who see their life, liberty and goods threatened by the xenophobic campaigns promoted by Governments and the ultra right in the world.”

The three calls for 2017 invite you to a critical reflection seminar “THE WALLS OF CAPITAL, THE CRACKS OF THE LEFT” from April 12 to 15, CIDECI-UniTierra in San Cristobal de Las Casas; all artists to the second edition of the “CompArte for Humanity” with the theme “Against Capital and its Walls: All the arts” from July 23 to 29 in Oventik caracol and CIDECI-UniTierra, and the virtual edition will be from August 1 to 12 online; the scientists of the world to the second edition of “ConSciences for Humanity” with the theme “The Sciences Against the Wall” from December 26 to 30 at CIDECI-UniTierra. They also asked for people “to be attentive to the activities convened by the National Indigenous Congress, as part of its own process of forming the Indigenous Council of Government.”

For more information in Spanish:

LOS MUROS ARRIBA, LAS GRIETAS ABAJO (Y A LA IZQUIERDA). (Enlace Zapatista, 14 de febrero de 2017)

EZLN convoca a campaña mundial frente a los muros capitalistas (TeleSur, 15 de febrero de 2017)

El EZLN convoca a la resistencia frente a los ‘muros del capital’ (La Jornada, 14 de febrero de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Anuncia EZLN actividades para el 2016 (9 de marzo de 2016)

Chiapas/Nacional : Nuevo comunicado del EZLN aclara propuesta conjunta con el CNI (25 de noviembre de 2016)

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/Mexico: CNI and EZLN Denounce Attacks during the Indigenous Consultation

Photo@SIPAZ

Members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) denounced in a communiqué on December 2 numerous acts of aggression and harassment of participants in their fifth Congress during the consultation they have been conducting. “The fear of the powerful, the extractive companies, the military, the narco-paramilitaries is such that our consultation is being attacked and harassed where our peoples are gathering to discuss and decide the steps to follow as the CNI “.

 They specifically denounced:

 “-In the Nahua indigenous community of Santa María Ostula, Michoacán, the narco-paramilitary harassment by the Templar Knights cartel has intensified, and through a paper signed on November 19, 2016, the same date on which a regional assembly discussed on the Michoacan coast the resolutions of the first stage of the V CNI, they threatened to do a “clean up” of those who participate in demonstrations together with the community police commanders.

 – That compañeros who, by agreement of the assembly of the V CNI in October 2016, have moved through different geographies of the country where the original peoples have wanted to dialogue with delegates of other peoples regarding our political proposal, have been victims of aggression and harassment by criminal gangs or by unknown persons, such as the burning of homes in their places of origin, or attacks on other vehicles to try to remove them from the roads where they need to travel.

 – That while foreign companies intend to seize 12 oil wells in the northern Zoque territory of Chiapas, on November 23, 2016, a group of armed men pretending to be government teachers and with the consent of the Undersecretary of Federated Education of Chiapas, Eduardo Campos Martinez and the chief, Delfino Alegria Garcia, abducted a group of indigenous teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) in the northern area of Chiapas, and attacked them with high-powered weapons. Outside the office of the Secretary of Education in the municipality of Ixtacomitán, Chiapas. The attack resulted in the loss of life of Professor Zoque Roberto Diaz Aguilar, originally from Chapultenango, Chiapas and three other people were injured.

 – That the teacher Irineo Salmerón Dircio, Coordinator of the House of Justice in San Luis Acatlan and member of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC-PC) was abducted – disappeared by an armed group in the municipality of Tixtla, Guerrero; and two days later his dead body was found in the municipality of Chilapa, Guerrero, a few days after in that same municipality at least 15 communities of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata held an assembly as part of the consultation in which we are participating.”

 For more information in Spanish:

 EZLN denuncia agresiones durante consulta indígena, La Jornada, 2 de diciembre de 2016

A pesar de agresiones contra pueblos indígenas la consulta va, anuncian EZLN y CNI, Radio Formula, 2 de diciembre de 2016

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional : Nuevo comunicado del EZLN aclara propuesta conjunta con el CNI (25/11/2016)

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)

 

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)

 

Chiapas/National: The Presidential Candidate “Is not the Decision of One Person” (Comandante Moises)

Subcomandante Insurgente Moises (@SIPAZ archives)

On November 11, Subcomandante Insurgente Moises, spokesperson for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), issued a statement, released the previous day in Tseltal, in response to academics, journalists and people who have criticized the proposal which is being consulted along with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), to decide whether to form a national council of government and field an indigenous woman as a presidential candidate in 2018.

He labeled the critics as “racists” and stressed that “first you should learn to read, then read it [the proposal] well, then learn to understand what you read.” He emphasized that, “it is not yet known what the result will be”, because “the very decision of whether to or not [to field a candidate] hasn’t been made”, but “how many mockeries you have made and how much contempt you have shown to the original peoples and especially to indigenous women.”

He clarified that the result of the consultation “will not be the decision of one person, but of a collective.” He commented “You make fun of the National Indigenous Congress for doing this, for asking first before deciding, because you do what your shepherd tells you, even if it is pure stupidity.”

He said ironically “So it’s all the fault of the SupGaleano who manipulates us and leads us astray? It is laughable how they now say ‘Galeano/Marcos’. You were so in love with SupMarcos that you even came to take photos with him and ask him to sign his autograph, although I saw it because I was there on the sidelines. Also on the sidelines was the deceased teacher Galeano, and you did not even ask his name. And then later you hated SupMarcos so much because he did not obey you, but he obeyed us. He’s already dead now anyway.”

Previously, at the end of October, the EZLN presented the schedule of follow-up activities for the Fifth National Indigenous Congress and the Encounter “The Zapatistas and ConSciences for Humanity,” which will be held in Chiapas on from December 25, 2016, to January 4, 2017.

For more information in Spanish:

 No es decisión de una persona (Subcomandante Moíses, 11 de noviembre de 2016)

Enérgico, EZLN responde a críticas racistas a consulta para candidata presidencial indígena (11 de Noviembre, 2016)

”Existe “mucho racismo en la sociedad”: subcomandante Moisés (Expreso de Chiapas, 13 de noviembre de 2016)

Calendario de continuación del 5º Congreso del CNI y del Encuentro “L@s Zapatistas y las ConCiencias por la Humanidad”. (EZLN, 27 de octubre de 2016)

En diciembre definirá el EZLN a su candidata presidencial (Revista Proceso, 4 de noviembre de 2016)

En diciembre EZLN y CNI definirán si van o no a elecciones presidenciales (Radio Fórmula, 27 de octubre de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ :

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)