Chiapas: Public Act of Recognition of State Responsibility in Gonzalez Sisters Case Announced

On August 26th, several media released statements by Gloria Flores, representative of the Gonzalez Perez Sisters Committee (Tseltal Indians who were raped by members of the Mexican Army at a military checkpoint in Altamirano, Chiapas in June 1994). She reported that after a meeting with the Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration of the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas in July, the official promised to hold a Public Act of Recognition of Responsibility of the Mexican State, which is scheduled for next October 18th in the municipality of Ocosingo, near Altamirano.

Under the conditions under which the State will offer this apology, the Gonzalez Perez sisters and their mother, Delia Perez de Gonzalez have insisted on the presence of the high command of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA in its Spanish acronym). In 2001, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) recognized that they were victims of arbitrary detention, deprivation of liberty and sexual torture, in addition to the violation of the rights of children in the case of Celia Gonzalez Perez who at that time was a minor, such that it recommended the investigation of the case and adequate reparation to the sisters.

Accompanying organizations in the case stressed that, “the recognition of responsibility of the Mexican State is an essential guarantee for the non-repetition of human rights violations, hence the importance of public apology as a primary symbolic measure that allows repairing the hurt to begin. Therefore, the presence of senior officials of the Ministry of National Defense in the event is essential and necessary as part of the victims’ access to justice: the Gonzalez Perez sisters, their mother, their family and the Tseltal Maya indigenous people. By not fulfilling these conditions, the Mexican State would be omitting its obligation to guarantee adequate reparation.”

For more information in Spanish:

El Estado ofrecerá disculpa pública a indígenas violadas (La Jornada, 26 de agosto de 2019)

Estado se disculpará por militares que violaron a indígenas (El Universal, 26 de agosto de 2019)

El Estado mexicano ofrecerá disculpas públicas a las Hermanas González Pérez por la violación a sus derechos humanos perpetrados por militares hace 25 años (Comité Hermanas González Pérez, CMDPDH, Amnistía Internacional, 24 de julio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Tzeltal Women Tortured and Raped by Military in 1994 Denounce Total Impunity (June 9, 2019)

Chiapas: Indigenous Tzeltal women raped by the Mexican Army accept “compensation” with conditions (October 25, 2010)

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Chiapas: EZLN Announces Creation of New Caracoles, Autonomous Municipalities, Centers of Autonomous Resistance and Rebellion and Various Other Initiatives

New Caracol at CIDECI Unitierra

In a statement published on August 17th, Subcomandante Moises, on behalf of the General Command of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee (CG-CCRI in its Spanish acronym) of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym), announced that, in accordance with what was stated by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym), of “going on the offensive and extending the word and action of resistance and rebellion”, the EZLN decided to “break the fence” forming new Caracoles (autonomous regions that will now be 12) and more autonomous Zapatista rebel municipalities in new areas of southeastern Mexico. He also reported on the creation of Centers of Autonomous Resistance and Zapatista Rebellion (CRAREZ in its Spanish acronym), which in most cases “will also be the headquarters of Caracoles, Good Government Councils and Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ in its Spanish acronym)”.

He stressed that, “who thought that with their counterinsurgency policy of alms, he would divide Zapatismo and buy the loyalty of non-Zapatistas, encouraging confrontation and discouragement, gave the reasons that were needed to convince those brothers and sisters that it is necessary to defend the earth and nature.”

He invited “the Sixth, the Networks, the CNI and the honest people to come and, together with the Zapatista peoples, participate in the construction of the CRAREZ, be it obtaining materials and economic support, be it hammering, cutting, loading, orienting and living with us or in the way and manner that they see that suits them.”

He also summoned a Forum in defense of territory and Mother Earth be held in a Zapatista Caracol on dates to be defined in October “to meet and know the work we have committed to, share problems, difficulties, blows, headaches, but also the seeds that serve to harvest better from the struggle.”

He called the Sixth and the Networks “to begin the analysis and discussion for the formation of an International Network of Resistance and Rebellion, Polo, Nucleus, Federation, Confederation, or whatever it is called, based on the independence and autonomy of those who form it, explicitly renouncing to hegemonize and homogenize, in which mutual solidarity and support are unconditional, share the good and bad experiences of each other’s struggle, and work on the dissemination of the stories from below and to the left.” He announced that “bilateral meetings with groups, collectives and organizations that are working in their geographies” will be convened.

He said that they will invite “THOSE WHO MAKE ART, SCIENCE AND CRITICAL THOUGHT THEIR VOCATION AND LIFE” “to festivals, meetings, seedbeds, parties, exchanges, or whatever those sharings are going to be called”; that they will convene “meetings of relatives of murdered, disappeared and imprisoned, as well as organizations, groups and collectives that accompany [them in] their pain, their anger and their search for truth and justice”, that “a new meeting of Women who fight, in the times, places and modalities that they decide” will be held, possibly “a meeting of otroas” as well as a “meeting of groups, collectives and organizations defending Human Rights, in the form and modality they decide.”

Given this announcement, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared that “yesterday there was a Zapatista statement, saying that they were going to expand, that they will create more autonomous municipalities. Welcome. Because this means working for the benefit of communities and peoples.” “More actions, less talk, that is, theory and practice, thought and action. That is what we are sponsoring and we recommend, respectfully”, he said.

In previous days and through three communiqués, Subcomandante Galeano presented a political analysis of the current moment. He stated among other things that, “it rains everywhere and on everyone. At least here below. Perhaps some, just begin to feel the cold drops stinging their body; but for others, and not only for native peoples, it rains on the wet: pillage, robbery, threats, persecution, jail, disappearance, rape, blows, death … and, yes, sometimes alms.” He stressed that “up there they declare that everything is going well, and down here that everything is going wrong, and that it is going to get worse” and that in the present it is sought to cancel “any criticism, pointing out, observation that have as a basis a rigorous and documented analysis.”

He also warned that, “a world economic crisis is coming” recognizing that “anyone who would have stayed (Meade, Anaya, El Bronco or Miss Xerox) would have had to face that “adverse global environment” (this is what Think Tanks of big capital say) and get defeated and look guilty. And everyone would have done and would be doing what the current government does: lie and cover up.” “They would have started celebrating themselves; they would have solemnly declared that a new cycle of hope, work and bonanza began for the territory that is south of the Rio Grande and west of Guatemala and Belize: they would have distributed the same alms although with another name; they would have taken care more than a few things they had promised in the campaign; they would have blamed resentment and envy, the criticisms made of them; would have made calls to unity and patriotism, would have prostrated the same before the designs, bravado and insults of the foreman who, in the troubled and brutal north, drools; and they would have attributed their mistakes to the “adverse international environment,” “he said.

The statement addressed among other issues: the treatment of migrants; the “manner and servile tone and crawling in front of the US government”; “The defeat of secularism”; “The impulse and acceleration of megaprojects and the destruction of territories of the original peoples”; and finally “the encouragement of individualism and the confrontation with the community with the delivery of support [programmes] such as Sowing Life.”

For more information in Spanish:

Enter el telonero (EZLN, 10 de agosto de 2019)

“Reaparecen los pueblos zapatistas para desafiar muro en el Istmo”, anuncia EZLN (El Universal, 10 de agosto de 2019)

Obertura: La realidad como enemiga. (EZLN, 11 de agosto de 2019)

Arriba declaran que todo va bien y aquí abajo todo va mal, acusa EZLN (La Jornada, 11 de agosto de 2019)

“Allá arriba declaran que todo va bien, y acá abajo que todo va mal, y que se va a poner peor”: EZLN ante las problemáticas en México (Desinformémonos, 12 de agosto de 2019)

Adagio-Allegro Molto en mi menor: Una realidad posible. (tomado del Cuaderno de Apuntes del Gato-Perro) (EZLN, 13 de agosto de 2019)

El subcomandante Galeano acusa a AMLO de “mentir” y “maquillar” la realidad financiera de México (Proceso, 15 de agosto de 2019)

Rompimos el cerco (CCRI-CG del EZLN, 17 de agosto de 2019)

EZLN crea siete nuevos Caracoles (La Jornada, 18 de agosto de 2019)

El EZLN anuncia 11 “Caracoles” y 16 municipios rebeldes nuevos; AMLO le responde: “Bienvenidos…” (Sin Embrago, 19 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/National: Commission for Concord and Pacification Seeks to Meet Secretariat of Government to Explore Possibiity of Dialogue between Federal Government and EZLN (May 30, 2019)

National: CNI, EZLN and Indigenous Organizations Announce “Zapata Lives, Samir Lives, The Struggle Continues” (March 21, 2019)

National: Controversy between EZLN and AMLO Supporters Floods Social Networks (January 18, 2019)

Chiapas: Encuentro zapatista en el Caracol de la Realidad a 25 años del levantamiento armado (2 de enero de 2019)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Pilgrimage-March to Demand True and Dignified Justice

Banner “Las Abejas Civil Society Demand True and Dignified Justice” Photo @ Sipaz

On August 12th, survivors of the Acteal Massacre and members of the Civil Society Organization of Las Abejas de Acteal, joined in solidarity by the Believing People of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas and several organizations in Chiapas and Mexico, held a Pilgrimage to remember that the “Acteal Massacre continues to go unpunished for almost twenty-two years and, because the material and intellectual authors of the crime enjoy impunity.”

They recalled that on August 12th, 2009 “the misnamed “Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation” (SCJN), in the first court, protected and released 20 paramilitary prisoners, perpetrators of the Acteal massacre” as a “political strategy to avoid investigation of the main intellectual authors of said massacre.”

In the pilgrimage-march “true and dignified justice was demanded for the Acteal Massacre” and the IACHR was asked to “issue the report for case 12,790 of Manuel Santiz Culebra and others of “Acteal Massacre”, where it held the Mexican State responsible for serious violations of human rights and guarantee the non-repetition of events such as Acteal.”

For more information in Spanish:


Marcha-Peregrinación por justicia a la Masacre de Acteal y que la CIDH emita ya el informe de fondo por el caso 12.790 Manuel Sántiz Culebra y otros “Masacre de Acteal” (Sitio web de la sociedad civil Las Abejas, a 12 de agosto de 2019)

Parroquia de San Pedro y San Pablo, chicomuselo,Chiapas; se solidariza con la organización las abejas de Acteal (Sitio web de la sociedad civil Las Abejas, a 12 de agosto de 2019)

Las Abejas exige a CIDH informe de fondo sobre matanza de Acteal (La Jornada, 12 de agosto de 2019)

Las Abejas de Acteal, Chiapas: ¿Acaso Escandón va a reproducir lo que hizo Ruiz Ferro (Desinformémonos, 14 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:


Chiapas: Forced Displacement of Four Families of Las Abejas Civil Society Denounced (August 18, 2019)

Chiapas: Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal rechaza solución amistosa en el caso de la masacre de Acteal presentado ante la CIDH (March 7, 2019)

Chiapas: A 21 años de la Masacre de Acteal (December 26, 2018)

Chiapas : Las Abejas recuerdan el inicio de la liberación de los perpetradores de la masacre de Acteal con una « Fiesta de la resistencia no violenta » (August 17, 2018).

Chiapas: Agresión armada a la sede de las Abejas de Acteal (April 26th, 2018).

Chiapas: Threats against Las Abejas Continue in Los Chorros, Chenalho Municipality(April 27, 2017)

Chiapas: Alejandro Diaz Santiz Free

Solidarios de la Voz del Amate, Photo @Sipaz

On August 8th, Alejandro Diaz Santiz, a Tsotsil indigenous, obtained the benefit of pre-release after twenty years and four months in prison. Alejandro became a member of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle in 2006 and is a member of the group Solidarios de la Voz del Amate.

In a press conference held on August 14th, Alejandro spoke of violations of his rights and due process of which he was a victim. He reported not having had the right to a translator during his detention. He denounced the criminalization suffered by being indigenous. He said he had been beaten several times for “being indigenous and from Chiapas.” He explained that in the prison of Ignacio Allende, in Verarcuz, in which he was imprisoned for about ten years, he was beaten under the orders of the sub-directorate for the reason of being from Chiapas and because it was thought that “all people from Chiapas were Zapatistas”.

Pre-release is a right that can be obtained under the following conditions: having more than 50 percent of your sentence purged, having participated in social reintegration activities and obtaining accreditation of the social work and health exams performed inside the jail.

 For more information in Spanish:


Alejandro Diaz Santiz LIBRE YA! (Espoir Chiapas, 9 de agosto del 2019)

¡¡¡Alejandro Díaz Santiz Libre!!! (Voces de Jovel Radio, 8 de agosto de 2019)

Trasladan al indígena tzotzil Alejandro Diaz a penal de San Cristóbal (La Jornada, 1 de julio de 2019)

Padre Solalinde pide intervención de gobernador de Veracruz en caso de indígena preso (El Heraldo de México, 31 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Alejandro Diaz Santiz Reiterates His Demand for Freedom (September 12, 2016)

Chiapas: Alejandro Diaz Santiz Reports Mistreatment of Prisoners (June 8, 2016)

 

 

Chiapas: Forced Displacement of Four Families of Las Abejas Civil Society Denounced

On August 10th, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) reported that four families of the Civil Society Las Abejas de Acteal, an organization which is part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym), were attacked and forcibly displaced from Colonia Miguel Utrilla, Los Chorros, municipality of Chenalho. It explained that on the same day, in the afternoon, “authorities of the Colony (…) in the company of around 200 supporters of the Green Environmental Party, violently attacked four families of Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society, as well as their material goods.”

The Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights recalled that “the Miguel Ultrilla Los Chorros colony of the municipality of Chenalho, is where the armed groups proliferated in the 90’s and where violent learning structures persist, hence the material authors who perpetrated the Acteal Massacre. In addition, since 2015 the situation has been recurrent, the aggressions towards members of Las Abejas de Acteal are increasingly involving more violent acts.”

Likewise, it warned about the fact that these new displacements occur “in a regional context of spirals of generalized violence, with more than seven thousand victims of forced displacement, where the actions of the state and federal governments are deficient”, with which “the risk to the population deepens.”Frayba demanded that the Mexican State guarantee the life, security and personal integrity of the members of the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal and, more broadly, “address the conflict at the root, to stop acts of aggression, destruction, harassment and other human rights violations towards members of the Organization.”

For its part, Las Abejas denounced that “these violent events were orchestrated and overlapped by paramilitary supporters who trained since the 1990s in Los Chorros, who planned the Acteal Massacre and have continued to operate in Los Chorros and other communities, with more force since their release from prison ten years ago.” They pointed out the “strategy of persecution and harassment of the Chorros Abejas that are still in resistance to the bad government, seeking the construction of our autonomy”, emphasizing that this last aggression occurred “in retaliation for the refusal of one of our companions to accept a position in the Committee of the Official Clinic of their neighborhood.” They reported that “ten men, old men and young men of Las Abejas had to flee displaced to Acteal, to safeguard our life and freedom; while 25 women their wives and children have been resisting in their community, since they are not willing to be stripped of their lands, as has happened on other occasions when we have been forced to leave displaced by violence.”

For more information in Spanish:

Desplazamiento forzado de integrantes de Las Abejas de Acteal (CDH Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 10 de agosto de 2019)

Denuncia de la Organización Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal por agresiones en el Barrio Río Jordán, Los Chorros, Chiapas. (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, 11 de agosto de 2019)

Atacan a las Abejas de Acteal, la víspera de la protesta que realizarán por liberación de paramilitares (Chiapas Paralelo, 11 de agosto de 2019)

Denuncian ataque de simpatizantes del PVEM a líderes de Las Abejas de Acteal (Proceso, 12 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal rechaza solución amistosa en el caso de la masacre de Acteal presentado ante la CIDH (March 7, 2019)

Chiapas: A 21 años de la Masacre de Acteal (December 26, 2018)

Chiapas : Las Abejas recuerdan el inicio de la liberación de los perpetradores de la masacre de Acteal con una « Fiesta de la resistencia no violenta » (August 17, 2018).

Chiapas: Agresión armada a la sede de las Abejas de Acteal (April 26th, 2018).

Chiapas: Threats against Las Abejas Continue in Los Chorros, Chenalho Municipality (April 27, 2017)

Chiapas: FRAYBA Denounces Attack on Zapatista Autonomy

Member of EZLN transport cooperative, archive photo, Angeles Mariscal/Chiapas PARALELO

On July 22nd, in its statement “Attack on Zapatista Autonomy”, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (FRAYBA) denounced the confiscation of two vans that provide autonomous transportation service by the Ministry of Mobility and Transportation in the Municipality of Salto de Agua in the North of Chiapas.

FRAYBA considered that this action represents one more attack against the support bases of the EZLN in the context of military harassment of its territory. It said that “these acts of aggression and harassment contradict the statements of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who during his visit to Chiapas said on July 6 that ‘we endorse our respect for the Zapatista Army despite our differences.'”

For this reason, FRAYBA demanded that the attacks and harassment of the autonomy of the Zapatista peoples cease and that they desist from the acts of criminalization against the drivers and autonomous transport, as well as return the two vehicles retained by the delegation of Transportation in Palenque.

For more information in Spanish:

Agresión a la autonomía zapatista (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas , 22 de julio de 2019)

Frayba exige devolver a bases zapatistas vehículos asegurados (La Jornada, 23 de julio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Controversy between EZLN and AMLO Supporters Floods Social Networks (January 18, 2019)

Chiapas: Zapatista Mass Meeting in Realidad Caracol 25 Years after Armed Uprising (January 14, 2019)

Oaxaca: Conflict in Mixe Region between Inhabitants of San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla and Tamazulapam del Espiritu Santo Continues

Photo @ Red TdT

Last June, in the framework of the commemoration of the second anniversary of the armed attack, perpetrated against residents of San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla, the Gobixha Human Rights Integral Defense Committee (Codigo DH in its Spanish acronym) and the National Network of Civil Organizations All Rights for Everyone (Red TdT in its Spanish acronym) visited the affected area.

The “attack” occurred on June 5th, 2017, the result of an agrarian conflict between the people of San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla and Tamazulapam del Espiritu Santo. During the conflict “Luis Juan Guadalupe lost his life. In addition, six people were injured by gunfire and four women were held and tortured by local authorities.”

Through a statement, the organizations announced that: “Two years after these events, we found that Ayutla Mixes do not have a connection to their spring (Jënanyëëj), because their water and pipe system was destroyed, causing lack of the vital fluid, mainly affecting children and older adults, who have consistently presented profiles of gastrointestinal diseases.” According to the statement, also, “attacks and disqualifications against defenders have been present, including Elena Gil, academic and defender of the Ayuuk language and culture, who has repeatedly received death threats, as well as other people in  the community who have been victims of aggressions and intimidation in order to silence them, details of which we reserve because of the fear they show.”

They mentioned that according to official documents “27 families of the community have been stripped of their homes and land by an agrarian invasion of more than 200 hectares that seeks to cross the boundaries recognized by both communities.”

In addition, they informed that, in the disputed spring “an installation has been built unilaterally by the state authorities, according to the complaint of the local authorities, to replace the one that was allegedly dynamited on August 25th, 2017 by Tamazupalam and that may collate with archive photos. Given these facts, the state authorities such as the Secretary General of Government (SEGEGO) and the Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca, have ignored and progress is unknown on the complaints filed, violating the right to security and physical integrity of the residents of Ayutla, and her access to justice, with investigations related to the law.”

Currently, Ayutla is still without water despite more than 30 meetings and a “historic agreement” between the two communities [which was denied by the Ayutla authorities]. Also, it should be remembered that recently, the General Secretary of Government (SEGEGO) sent the State Water Commission (CEA in its Spanish acronym) to reconnect the water to Ayutla.

Codigo DH and the Red TdT called:

• “To the State Government to give priority to the solution to the agrarian conflict and guarantee at all times access to justice for victims, security against the risk of violence and new dispossession, as well as respect for the history and documents that keep the memory of the boundaries between both communities.
• To the General Secretary of Government, we demand that you adhere to the agreements signed and recognized by both communities, including May 2018, to avoid new acts of violence and dispossession towards settlers who have suffered repeated violations of their human rights. We also demand the cessation of attacks and disqualifications against defenders.
• To the State Water Commission to guarantee the completion of water reconnection works for Ayutla. It has been more than two years without a drinking water service that violates their human right to water and health, mainly for children and the elderly.
• To the Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca, to continue with the investigations for the clarification and punishment of those responsible for the acts perpetrated on June 5th, 2017, guaranteeing at all times free access to their victims’ information.
• To the Secretary of Public Security of the State of Oaxaca, to guarantee the security and help the population of San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla given the risk of future aggressions.
• To national and international Human Rights organizations to be aware of the events that may arise in the following weeks.”

For more information in Spanish:

Para Ayutla no hay fiesta, ni agua; solo duelo, injusticia y riesgo de más violencia ante la inacción gubernamental (Codigo DH, 18 de julio de 2019)

Sin solución conflicto por agua en zona mixe (Imparcial Oaxaca, 26 de julio de 2019)

Justicia y agua, para Ayutla (NVI Noticias, 26 de julio de 2019)

Denuncian inacción gubernamental en Ayutla (Red TdT, 18 de julio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Enfrentamiento entre pobladores en la región Mixe. (June 8, 2017)