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)

 

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20 Years of Crimes against Humanity in Northern Zone

Victims’ relatives continue to seek justice 20 years later. Photo@SIPAZ

On October 22, victims’ relatives and survivors of the “counterinsurgency strategy operated in the northern zone of Chiapas” met in the community of Susuclumil, Tila municipality, to denounce “the lack of justice for crimes against humanity Committed by the paramilitary group Peace and Justice (Paz y Justicia), with the complicity and responsibility of the Mexican State.”

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, (CDHFBC, also known as Frayba) recalls in its press bulletin No. 21 that with the emergence of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), on January 1, 1994, violence increased in the northern zone. It explains that the Mexican State implemented a strategy of counterinsurgency war against the civilian population, through the Chiapas Campaign ’94 plan, with the objective of eliminating support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. From 1995 to 1999, paramilitary groups responsible for crimes against humanity were formed: “In the north of Chiapas, paramilitary groups such as the Peace and Justice Development Organization (Paz y Justicia) appeared, with the training and protection of different levels of government, and who between 1995 and 1999 systematically committed serious human rights violations. “

The CDHFBC recorded a total of “22 cases of serious human rights violations in the north, of which 37 were forced disappearances and 85 extrajudicial executions and more than 4,500 people were forcefully displaced, followed by arbitrary detention, torture, sexual torture, harassment, intimidation, destruction of property, among others, committed by the paramilitary group Peace and Justice.”

Victims’ relatives and survivors continue to denounce, “constant harassment, intimidation and persecution with unjust arrest warrants and subpoenas, with threats of fines, by the justice administration system in Chiapas.” They request that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) continue its monitoring and determine the responsibility of the Mexican State for human rights violations committed in the context of the Internal Armed Conflict.

For more information in Spanish:

Sucuclumil conmemoración de la memoria ( Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, a 21 de octubre de 2016)

Estado mexicano responsable de crímenes de lesa humanidad (Chiapas Denuncia, a 26 de octubre de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Amenazas de muerte a defensor comunitario (23 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas: Conmemoración por las y los asesinados y desaparecidos durante conflicto en la zona baja de Tila (22 de septiembre de 2015)

Chiapas: Evento “Corazón de memoria, sembrando en nuestro territorio” en Masoja Shucjá, Tila (03 de noviembre de 2014)

Chiapas: La Sexta in San Sebastian Bachajon Receive New Threats

Ejidatarios from San Sebastian Bachajon at a press conference in El Paliacate, October 27, 2016. Photo@SIPAZ

At a press conference on October 27 last, ejidatarios from San Sebastián Bachajón, adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN, denounced the threats that its authorities have recently been receiving, “including compañero Domingo Perez Alvaro, human rights promoter of La Sexta, ejido Bachajón, and other authorities.” They explained that there are threats of arrest or abduction  the ejidal commissariat C. Manuel Guzman Alvaro’s people, and were informed by third aprties that, “compañero Domingo Perez Alvaro is first on the list of threats and then the other authorities of La Sexta”.

The San Sebastian Bachajon ejidatarios blamed the ejidal commissariat Manuel Guzman Alvaro for these threats. They pointed out that while Guzman Alvaro, as a candidate, had announced that he would defend the village lands and would respect the organization of  La Sexta in Bachajón, “so far [he] has not fulfilled and respected his word, because his actions are the complete opposite.”

For more information in Spanish:

COMUNICADO: EJIDO SAN SEBASTIAN BACHAJON ADHERENTES A LA SEXTA DECLARACION DE LA SELVA LACANDONA. CHIAPAS, MEXICO. A 20 DE OCTUBRE 2016. (Koman Ilel, 21 de octubre de 2016)

San Sebastián Bachajón: La Lucha contra el despojo (Desinformémonos, a 29 de octubre 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Ejidatarios de San Sebastián Bachajón denuncian agresiones a uno de sus integrantes y nuevas amenazas

Chiapas: Homenaje a Juan Vázquez Guzmán a tres años de su asesinato

Chiapas: Conmemoran 2 años desde el asesinato de Juan Vázquez Guzmán en San Sebastián Bachajón

Chiapas: The Pardon as Reparation Measure in the Face of Human Rights Violations

Placard during the procession for those unjustly imprisoned at CERSS No.5, October 29, 2016. Photo@SIPAZ

October 30 marks three years since the pardon of the teacher Alberto Patishtan Gomez. In this case, an addition to the Federal Penal Code made his release possible.

In an article published in Desinformémonos, Leonel Rivero, the lawyer who accompanied Alberto Patishtan Gómez, stated that the case “acquired an emblematic character due to the serious violations of human rights that the ministerial and judicial authorities (the common and federal law) committed in the inquest, the process, the second instance and direct protection trial.”

On October 30, 2013, the reform enacted by the Congress of the Union adding Article 97a to the Federal Penal Code was published in the Official Gazette, determining that “Exceptionally, of itself or at the request of the plenary of one of the chambers, the Head of the Federal Executive may grant a pardon for any federal or common crime in the Federal District where there are consistent signs of serious human rights violations of the sentenced person. “

In his article, Leonel Rivero reiterates that, “this kind of pardon (exceptional or necessary) tests the reliability of the judiciary (federal and state), […], the facts constitute a recognition of the serious flaws that exist within the judicial system and stand as guarantees of repair.”

Leonel Rivero recalls that, “arbitrary detention constitutes a serious human rights violation for the sufferer.” He ends his article stating that cases like the teacher Alberto Patishtan “serve as a parameter to highlight the serious failures of the systems of procurement and administration of justice, although inopportune, in a nation that takes pride itself as being democratic, the exceptional or necessary pardon will remain the only hope of people who were denied access to justice in its forms of reparations to victims of human rights violations, effectiveness, quality and professionalism.”

Today, Leonel Rivero is lawyer for Alejandro Diaz, Tzotzil indigenous, unjustly imprisoned in CEFERESO No. 15, Villa de Comatitlán near Tapachula.

Alejandro Diaz is an adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN. In his last letter he complained that is the only sympathizer of the Voice of Amate that was not released in 2013. He alleged that the State Governor Manuel Velasco Coello, promised to see to his case and seek his freedom from the Veracruz authorities more than three years ago, “of which nothing has been fulfilled to date.”

For more information in Spanish:

El indulto como medida de reparación frente a las violaciones de derechos humanos (Desinformemonos, a 11 de octubre de 2016)

Alejandro Diaz Santiz reitera su exigencia de libertad (Chiapas denuncia, a 30 de agosto de 2016)

Velasco Coello el acérrimo enemigo de indígenas, a quienes se les fabrica delitos y se les encierra en la cárcel ( Revolución TRESPUNTOCERO, 11 de agosto de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Alejandro Diaz Sántiz reitera su exigencia de libertad (a 6 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas: Denuncia Alejandro Díaz Santiz malos tratos hacia los reclusos (8 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas: Alejandro Díaz Santiz ayuna por 17 años de encarcelamiento (13 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Exigen la liberación de Alejandro Díaz Santiz (11 de marzo de 2016)

Chiapas: Trasladan a Alejandro Díaz Sántiz, junto a 386 presos, a penal de alta seguridad (15 de septiembre de 2016)

 

 

Chiapas/National: Controversy Following Proposal of EZLN and CNI

Celebration of V National Indigenous Congress at Oventik Caracol, October 2012 (@SIPAZ)

The proposal of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on October 14, in which both announced that they will consult the possibility of submitting an indigenous woman as a presidential candidate in the 2018 elections with their support bases, has created a stir in the media. The controversy has been fueled by both critics and supporters.

Among the protagonists belonging to the political parties, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, national leader of the Movement for National Regeneration (MORENA), acknowledged that the EZLN has every right to participate in the political life of the country. However, he declared that this proposal was a maneuver “that plays into the hands of the government” so that “there is no transformation and regime change.” For his part, Francisco Garate, PAN representative to the National Electoral Institute (INE), considered the initiative as an “event” and a “nonsense”: “today the country’s indigenous population is less than one percent and spread across towns ranging from Sonora to Yucatan.”

In a statement entitled “Questions without Answers, Answers without Questions, Councils and Counsel” on October 21, the EZLN gave its opinion on the criticisms made so far, pointing to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Margarita Zavala del Campo (possible candidate for National Action (Acción Nacional) and wife of former President Felipe Calderon), whom it called “the Big Boss” and “La Calderona” respectively.

Among other things it asked “To what degree does the proposal that an indigenous governing council (council with a “c”), that is, a collective and not an individual, be in charge of the federal executive bolster-presidential-rule-become-complicit-in-the-electoral-farce-contribute-to-reinforcing-bourgeois-democracy-play-to-the-oligarchy-and-to-Yankee-Chinese-Russian-Judeoislamic-millenarian-imperialism-in-addition-to-betraying-the-highest-principles-of-the-global-proletarian-revolution? (…) How solid can the Mexican political system be, and how well-founded and reliable the tactics and strategies of the political parties, if, when someone says publicly that they are thinking about something, that they are going to ask their equals what they think of what they are thinking, the entire political party system becomes hysterical?

For more information in Spanish:

Reprueba AMLO la candidatura independiente del EZLN (La Jornada, 16 de octubre de 2016)

La candidatura presidencial del EZLN es para hacerle el juego al gobierno, acusa AMLO (Animal Político, 16 de septiembre de 2016)

Ni AMLO ni Margarita; el EZLN construye su propio 2018 (Crónica) (Aristegui Noticias, 20 de octubre de 2016)

Preguntas sin respuestas, respuestas sin preguntas, concejos y consejos (Comunicado del EZLN, 21 de octubre de 2016)

Sugiere EZLN posibilidad de un debate entre la candidata indígena y “la Calderona” (Revista Proceso, 21 de octubre de 2016)

El EZLN responde a críticas por su candidata para 2018 y llama a Margarita Zavala “La Calderona” (Sin Embargo, 22 de octubre de 2016)

“Ocurrencia” y “disparate”, una candidatura indígena, califica el PAN (Desinformémonos, 24 de octubre de 2016)

 Opinion:

La candidatura de una mujer indígena y el racismo en México (TV Sur, 24 de octubre de 2016)

EZLN y CNI: la vía electoral como herramienta para luchar contra el sistema (Diagonal, 23 de octubre de 2016)

Una candidatura bienvenida (La Jornada, 23 de octubre de 2016)

Una indígena a la presidencia (El País, 22 de octubre de 2016)

Debatir, no (des)calificar (La Jornada, 21 de octubre de 2016)

México: ¿Por qué no voto? ¿Por qué votaría? (ALAI, 20 de octubre de 2016)

El EZLN, el CNI y las elecciones (La Jornada, 18 de octubre de 2016)

 For more information from SIPAZ :

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/Nacional : Convocatoria al V aniversario del CNI en Chiapas (1ero de septiembre de 2016)

 

Chiapas/National: CNI and EZLN to Hold Consultation to Appoint Female Indigenous Candidate for 2018 Presidential Elections

CNI at Oventik Caracol (@SIPAZ)

From October 9 to 13, within the framework of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), the “Fifth National Indigenous Congress” was held at CIDECI-Unitierra in San Cristobal de Las Casas. About 500 delegates from 32 nations, peoples and indigenous tribes of Mexico, as well as members and support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and other guests participated. It worked in thematic working groups around the following themes: dispossession and repression; our resistances and rebellions; a review of the CNI; proposals for strengthening the CNI. On October 12, Columbus Day, a political-cultural event in Oventik Caracol was also held.

Zapatista militia on the arrival of the CNI at Oventik, October 12, 2016 (@SIPAZ)

On closing the event, the CNI and the EZLN published a statement entitled “May the Earth Tremble at its Core” (paraphrasing the national anthem), in which they reported 27 grievances dispossessions indigenous peoples in the country are facing. What created the biggest stir was the announcement of the start of a consultation to examine the convenience of appointing an indigenous council of government and inviting an indigenous woman to participate in the upcoming presidential elections to be held in 2018. The statement says: “Given all of the above, we declare ourselves in permanent assembly and we will consult in each of our geographies, territories and directions the agreement of the Fifth CNI to appoint an indigenous council of government whose word will be materialized by an indigenous woman, a delegate of the CNI as an independent candidate who contends on behalf of the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in the 2018 election for the presidency of this country.”

The statement says that “It’s time to attack, to go on the offensive” and clarified that “our struggle is not for power, we do not seek that; but we will call on indigenous peoples and civil society to organize to stop this destruction, to strengthen us in our resistance and rebellion” the Zapatistas said in a statement in which they made a call to organize “from below.”

The joint statement ends by emphasizing “It is time for rebel dignity, to build a new nation for all people, to strengthen the power from below and the anti-capitalist left, and for those who are to blame for the pain of the people of this multicolor Mexico to pay.”

For more information in Spanish:

Congreso Nacional Indígena: 20 años (La Jornada, a 11 de octubre 2016)

QUE RETIEMBLE EN SUS CENTROS LA TIERRA (Comunicado conjunto EZLN/CNI, 14 de octubre de 2016)

El EZLN postulará a una mujer indígena como candidata independiente para 2018 (Sin Embargo, 14 de octubre de 2016)

EZLN lanzará candidata indígena para la presidencia en 2018 (Regeneración, 14 de octubre de 2016)

El EZLN da un giro y apuesta a la vía electoral; postulará a mujer indígena en el 2018 (Revista Proceso, 14 de octubre de 2016)

Los zapatistas se presentarán a las elecciones (El País, 15 de octubre de 2016)

Lanzarán EZLN y CNI candidata indígena independiente para 2018 (La Jornada, 15 de octubre de 2016)

Congreso Nacional Indígena: 20 años (La Jornada, 11 de septiembre, por Luis Hernández Navarro).

 For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas/Nacional : Convocatoria al V aniversario del CNI en Chiapas (1ero de septiembre de 2016)

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

 

 

National: March for Resignation of Enrique Peña Nieto

Call for march for resignation of Peña Nieto

On September 15, the symbolic commemoration day of “El Grito” – the cry for the Independence of Mexico – thousands of people responded to the call launched on social networks for a march to demand the resignation of Enrique Peña Nieto.

#RenunciaYa, is the hashtag with which this non-partisan demonstration was called for on social networks since September 2, just after the publication of the Government’s fourth report. Led by parents of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa, followed by farmers from Atenco, machete in hand, about 4,000 citizens, mostly young, began the #RenunciaYa protest, according to Animal Politico. The protesters left the Angel of Independence monument with the aim of reaching the Zocalo to face the president. However, at the Palace of Fine Arts, thousands of riot police, deployed by the Ministry of Public Security of Mexico City, blocked their passage. However, in the Zocalo, a small group of protesters who had managed get through started whistling and shouting slogans against the president just as President Enrique Peña Nieto appeared. According to La Jornada, “a young man showed a poster criticizing the federal administration and was immediately surrounded by elements of the Federal and Presidential Police. Some people demanded that the police allow the youth to express himself, to which they responded “we are only following orders.” Federal Police kept the young man surrounded until the fireworks ended, he was photographed and they made video of the youth and finally two policemen said they would accompany him to the exit.”

In Chiapas, the governor, Manuel Velasco Coello, did “El Grito” from an alternative site to the square of Tuxtla Gutierrez, as it was occupied by teachers opposed to the education reform bill.

For their part, the Las Abejas of Acteal Civil Society Organization, in their last statement, give several examples of why, according to them, “there is no longer independence.” They claim that, “this heroic and historic struggle for the independence of Mexico […] has been betrayed by the PRI governments and other political parties in Mexico who have been in power.” Because “The idea of the struggle, independence in 1810, meant that Mexico was independent, sovereign, democratic. […] However, the edge of that independence began to end with the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari with agreements and commercial, political and military treaties with neoliberal and capitalist countries, one of them is: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada.”

In addition, the Xinich’ Coordinator of Social Organizations remembered September 15 with a statement in which it demands the removal of Enrique Peña Nieto as an “incompetent” in addition to “delivering our nation into the hands of foreigners.” It also expressed support for the struggle of the teachers against the so-called educational reform and demanded “the repeal of structural reforms, justice for the people massacred at Viejo Velasco, Acteal, for the 43 disappeared student teachers of Ayotzinapa, for Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, compliance with the San Andrés agreements signed between the federal government and the EZLN…”

 In Oaxaca, in the state capital, the governor, Cué Monteagudo, did his sixth and last “Grito” from the balcony of the government palace amid shouts of “murderer” and “traitor”. According to Educa, “elements of the State Police prevented the entry of teachers from Section 22 into the square to give their alternative ‘Grito’ with teargas, sparking a confrontation”. At least 20 people sustained minor injuries.

For more information in Spanish:

En méxico ya no existe independencia, es por las mal llamadas reformas constitucionales (Las abejas de Acteal, 22 de septembre de 2016)

#Chiapas Xinich’ recordó el “15 de Septiembre” exigiendo la renuncia de EPN, la abrogación de las reformas estructurales y el cumplimientos de los “Acuerdos de San Andrés” (Koman Iles, 20 de septiembre)

Marchan para exigir la renuncia de Peña Nieto (La Jornada, a 16 de septiembre 2016)

15 de septiembre: Policías repliegan marchas en Oaxaca y Chiapas (Educa, a 15 de septiembre 2016)

Miles de personas dan el Grito en el Zócalo (La Jornada, a 15 de septiembre 2016)

Renuncia ya y los acarreados: dos marchas rumbo al Zócalo (Animal político, a 16 de septiembre 2016)

Hay apertura para la crítica, dice presidencia sobre posible rechifla a Peña durante el Grito (Animal político, a 14 de septiembre 2016)

15 razones para marchar y gritar #RenunciaYA (Animal político, a 6 de septiembre 2016)

Ciudadanos convocan a marchar hoy 15 de septiembre para exigir renuncia de Peña (Animal político, a 2 de septiembre 2016)

 For more information from Sipaz:

Nacional : cuarto informe del gobierno de Peña Nieto (12 de septiembre 2016)