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)

 

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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)

 

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)