National: 20,390 Forcibly Displaced in 2017 – Over 329,900 in the Last 12 Years

(@CMDPDH)

On May 2nd, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH in its Spanish acronym) published a report on forced internal displacement in Mexico that indicated that in 2017, the climate of violence that prevails in the country caused 25 internal forced mass displacement events in nine states of the Republic, which affected 20,390 people. In the last 12 years at least 329,917 people have had to flee their homes, a figure that is “extremely conservative” as it only includes the cases in which entire communities have had to move. The CMDPDH estimates the figure could exceed one million people, although it affirms that the government has not published figures due to not wanting to “recognize the scale of the problem and the existence of an armed conflict.”

The report states that the states of Guerrero (seven cases), Sinaloa (five), Chihuahua (three), Chiapas (three) and Oaxaca (three) concentrated practically all mass displacement episodes registered in 2017. Chiapas was the entity where the phenomenon affected the largest number of people: 6,090, most of them originating in the municipalities of Altos de Chalchihuitan and Chenalho. 60.44% of the people affected were indigenous and the vast majority lived in rural areas

Of all the factors that led to forced displacement, the majority of them were caused by armed organized groups. Other causes were political violence, social conflict and territorial disputes and, to a lesser extent, the implementation of extractive mining projects.

The CMDPDH regretted that in Mexico the issue of forced internal displacement remains an issue without diagnosis, without public policies or official responses: “Internally displaced people do not have a framework of protection, they are like a kind of legal limbo where nobody confers them rights. The displaced people are left at the mercy of the will of local governments.” In addition, although it acknowledged the existence are two local laws, in Chiapas and in Guerrero, lack of regulations has prevented their proper enforcement to date.

For more information in Spanish:

Informe 2017 : Desplazamiento interno forzado en México (CMDPDH, informe completo, 2 mayo de 2018)

La violencia provocó el desplazamiento forzado de 20 mil 390 personas en 2017: CMDPDH (Proceso, 2 de mayo de 2018)

Más de 20 mil desplazados en México durante 2017; la mayoría, indígenas: Informe (Aristegui Noticias, 2 de mayo de 2018)

En 12 años, 329.9 mil víctimas de desplazamiento forzado en el país (La Jornada, 3 de mayo de 2018)

Los conflictos territoriales y la violencia llevan al éxodo a más de 12.000 indígenas en México (El País, 3 de mayo de 2018)

Por la violencia, más de 325 mil personas han dejado sus hogares a la fuerza en México (Animal Político, 3 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Persiste riesgo a la vida de indígenas tsotsiles en Aldama, denuncia el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (26 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: SIPAZ visitó a personas desplazadas de Chalchihuitán (20 de abril de 2018)

Guerrero: De la civilidad truncada a la desaparición de la razón, informe final de la Misión de Observación al Estado de Guerrero (16 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: Plantón desplazados ejido Puebla, Chenalhó (10 de abril de 2018)

Chiapas: Otro conflicto agrario en los límites de Chenalhó provoca desplazados en el municipio de Aldama [blog incluye antecedentes] (27 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas: desplazados de Chalchihuitán denuncian condiciones en las que se siguen encontrando(23 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas : sin condiciones de seguridad regresan a casa más de 4000 desplazados en Chalchihuitán (4 de enero de 2018)

SIPAZ: BOLETÍN URGENTE – Reactivación del conflicto agrario entre Chenalhó y Chalchihuitán : violencia generalizada e impunidad (16 de diciembre de 2017)

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National: CNI Will not Support any Presidential Candidate and Calls on Peoples to Organize

Marichuy in Oventik (@SIPAZ)

At a press conference in Mexico City on May 2nd, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym), the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym) and its spokesperson, Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, “Marichuy”, announced that they will not “seek or accept any alliance with any political party or candidate” before the elections on July 1st. They said that they will not call to vote or to abstain, but will continue looking for “all those below to dismantle the pestilent power from above”: “Vote or not vote, get organized. We will walk building the keys to heal the world.”

In a statement written after the second working session of the CIG, held on April 28th and 29th in Mexico City, they gave indications as to what they learnt when trying to collect signatures across the country so that Marichuy could participate as an independent candidate for the presidency: “We hear the pain of all the colors that we the Mexico of below are” and “we made our political proposal grow from below, from where the struggle of many native peoples, their problems and their proposals were made visible.” They affirmed, on the other hand, that “the electoral process is a great cesspit in which those who could falsify thousands of signatures and who have the billions of pesos that allow them to coerce and buy the vote contend, while most of the people of Mexico is torn between poverty and misery”; and that “the original peoples and those who walk below and to the left do not fit into their game; not because of our color, our race, our class, our age, our culture, our gender, our thinking, our heart, but because we are one with Mother Earth and our struggle is that it does not turn everything into a commodity.”

They asked “all of us who are the people of Mexico, the compas of the networks of support for the Indigenous Council of Government in all the states of the country, the compañeras and compañeros who made up the Hour of the Blossom of the Peoples Civil Association to continue consulting and evaluating us, making assessments, finding and walking the new paths that we decide, always organizing, even if they vote or do not vote for any candidate. Your words, feelings and proposals matter to us.” Finally, they revealed that in the month of October they will hold a General Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress, to know the results of the assessment of the original peoples grouped in the CNI, and to advance in the next step.

For more information in Spanish:

Falta lo que falta (CNI, 2 de mayo de 2018)

El CNI no buscará ninguna alianza política… el proceso electoral “es un gran cochinero”, dice “Marichuy” (Proceso, 2 de mayo de 2018)

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“No vamos a apoyar a ningún candidato”: CNI (La Jornada, 2 de mayo de 2018)

Marichuy dice que su movimiento no apoyará a ningún candidato: “esta elección es un cochinero” (Sin Embargo, 2 de mayo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional : Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar? (27 de abril de 2018)

Nacional : CNI convoca al “siguiente paso en la lucha” (17 de marzo de 2018)

Nacional: CNI denuncia ataque contra la caravana del CIG. (22 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Marichuy critica trampas del INE a su candidatura (26 de octubre de 2018)

Nacional: Marychuy se registra como candidata independiente a la Presidencia de la República (18 de octubre de 2017)

Chiapas/National: Roundtable Discussion “To Watch, to Listen, to Speak: Forbidden to Think?”

Roundtable discussion “To watch, to listen, to speak. Forbidden to think?”

From April 15th to 25th, the roundtable discussion “To watch, to listen, to speak: Forbidden to think?”, convened by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), was held at the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Indigenous Integral Training Center -University of the Earth (Cideci-Unitierra in its Spanish acronym) in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Academics, artists and activists participated in this event whose main objective was to take stock of the campaign of Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, “Marichuy”, in her aspiration to be an independent candidate for the presidency of the Republic in the next elections in July as spokesperson for the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG in its Spanish acronym).

Subcomandante Galeano stated that, contrary to the criticism that this initiative would divide the vote of the left or that it was an instrument of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), “if Marichuy did something, it was to lay bare the Mexican political electoral system in which illegality is rewarded with candidacies like those of Jaime Rodriguez ‘El Bronco’ and Margarita Zavala, who, even with accumulated false signatures, were granted registration”. He asserted that, “If everything is a game to divide the vote, why did the system not move to ensure registration? The truth is that there is no place for Marichuy, there is no place for the original peoples.” On the contrary, “those who violated all laws were left,” said Galeano. He stressed that, “The result of your mobilization, Marichuy, showed that the INE, is a” job placement agency.”

In a subsequent intervention, Subcomandante Galeano also warned that the economic powers of the capitalist system will do everything possible to stop the victory of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “We say that now the hydra is mad, goes for everything and everyone (…) Capital goes for everything and will not allow Lulas, Dilmas, Kirchner, Correas, Evos, or Lopez Obrador, or whatever you call anything that offers respite.”

On another note, “Marichuy” explained that, “There is a lot to do for this Mexico. They are waiting for us. We are going to have a meeting of councilors, and in this construction that awaits us we are many. We will not sit around thinking: ‘we did not do it’. We must continue to strengthen the work that is already being done by the peoples and communities.”

In this regard, Subcomandante Galeano affirmed that they will unconditionally support what the CIG decides, even if at a certain moment they decide to join a political party: “We support them unconditionally. What they decide. We will wait for you (for the consultation to take place) and listen in silence and respect (…) We can understand your reasons and we will support you. They will not receive attacks and criticism from us.” Marichuy and several other participants stressed, however, that the objective of their movement is the construction of autonomies in the different communities that join, “autonomies of government and in each of their development processes.” Galeano confirmed that, “this has nothing to do with the quest for power. For the EZLN this is the most important political initiative since the beginning of the war.”

Within the framework of the event, Dr. Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, 96 years old, was appointed commander Pablo Contreras of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (CCRI-EZLN). Commander Tacho explained the decision underlining that “To be a Zapatista one has to work and he has worked for the life of our peoples. He has not tired, he has not sold out, he has not given up.” He noted that, “If things go well, the Zapatista is rewarded with more work. (…) The gift that we are going to give [to Pablo Casanova] is more work.”

For more information in Spanish:

Cobertura completa del evento (incluyendo audios) :

Sigan bailando porque la lucha sigue – Arranca el Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” con concierto musiquero (Radio zapatista, 16 de abril de 2018)

¿Cumplimos o no cumplimos? – Día 2, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 17 de abril de 2018)

¿Revolución? ¿Reforma? ¿Lucha por la Vida? – Día 3, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 18 de abril de 2018)

¿Y la posibilidad de que ganemos es casi nula? – Día 4, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 19 de abril de 2018)

¿Y entonces, quiénes? – Día 5, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 20 de abril de 2018)

¿Juntxs ante el colapso? – Día 6, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 21 de abril de 2018)

¿Y cómo hablamos la verdad? – Día 7, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 22 de abril de 2018)

¿Escucharnos para sentirnos? – Día 8, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 23 de abril de 2018)

¿Heredar el deber y la memoria? – Día 9, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 24 de abril de 2018)

¿Un nosotrxs sin México? – Día 10, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 25 de abril de 2018)

El corazón está listo – Día 11, Conversatorio “Miradas, escuchas, palabras: ¿prohibido pensar?” (Radio zapatista, 26 de abril de 2018)

Cobertura en medios

“Los que violaron todas las leyes quedaron”: EZLN (Proceso, 16 de abril de 2018)

“Lo que Marichuy hizo fue exhibir, desnudar, el sistema político-electoral en México”: EZLN (Aristegui Noticias, 17 de abril de 2018)

Al tramposo lo premian, al justo (a Marichuy) lo castigan: EZLN; ya ven, ¿no que éramos de Salinas? (Sin Embargo, 17 de abril de 2018)

El sistema capitalista buscará frenar a AMLO, advierte el EZLN (Proceso, 19 de abril de 2018)

El EZLN apoyará a Marichuy y al CIG… aun si deciden sumarse a un partido político: subcomandante Galeano (Proceso, 20 de abril de 2018)

Pablo González Casanova, exrector de la UNAM, es nombrado comandante del EZLN (Proceso, 22 de abril de 2018)

González Casanova se convierte en el ‘comandante Pablo Contreras’ (La Jornada, 22 de abril de 2018) EZLN, “Marichuy, apoyo a los candidatos presidenciales”: o cómo los medios mutilan el mensaje (Regeneración Radio, 25 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : CNI convoca al “siguiente paso en la lucha” (17 de marzo de 2018)

Nacional: CNI denuncia ataque contra la caravana del CIG. (22 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Marichuy critica trampas del INE a su candidatura (26 de octubre de 2018)

Nacional: Marychuy se registra como candidata independiente a la Presidencia de la República (18 de octubre de 2017)

Chiapas: Mass Mobilization of CNTE in Chiapas

March on April 10th, 2018 (@Pozol)

Under the slogan “48-Hour Teachers and Popular Strike Towards National Teacher and Popular Strike”, on April 10th, thousands of teachers of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE in its Spanish acronym), parents of families, displaced indigenous peoples, student teachers and members of more than 60 campesino social organizations, marched in Tuxtla Gutiérrez against educational reform and declared themselves in favor of creating a “national united front” to face “the onslaught of the federal government with its public policies and legal reforms that criminalize social protest, which generate unemployment with massive layoffs, suspended payments to teachers, which continues to reduce spending on health and education while increasing it for electoral campaigns.” The mobilization was led by 59 families of displaced indigenous people from Puebla ejido in Chenalho who stated that the government still has not meet their demands to return to their homes.

In other protest actions, they also took over the toll booth on the Tuxtla-San Cristobal highway, conducted an information dissemination brigade in public markets and commercial centers, and visited public and private radio and television stations to publicize the reasons for their protests.

Teachers mobilized despite threats that there would be deductions from their salaries for days they did not show up for work. In this framework, the Ministry of Education stated that “our position is clear: there will be discounts if they do not show up for work. We have met our part of the agreement, for that reason we make an attentive call to the teachers so that they do not put their union interests before the continuity of educational services.”

The CNTE said that if there are no negotiations with the Ministry of the Interior, there will be stoppages on April 30th, May 1st and 2nd.

For more information in Spanish:

Marchan en Chiapas contra la reforma educativa y proponen un frente nacional (Proceso, 9 de abril de 2018)

Desplazados se suman a marchas (Aquí Noticias, 9 de abril de 2018)

CNTE en Chiapas levanta paro y anuncia otro de tres días en protesta contra la reforma educativa (Proceso, 10 de abril de 2018)

Maestros levantan plantón, pero amenazan con regresar (NVI Noticias, 11 de abril de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca/ Nacional: La CNTE y la Segob acuerdan mesas de negociación (13 de julio de 2016)

Chiapas/Oaxaca/Nacional: Ante falta de acuerdos sobre la reforma educativa en el diálogo, el magisterio sigue con las movilizaciones (28 de junio de 2016)

Chiapas: Military Spying and Harassment of Indigenous Communities in Palenque, Ocosingo, Chilon and La Libertad Reported

Press conference (@Fray Bartolome de Las Casas)

At a press conference held at its offices on March 21st, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Fryba) and indigenous representatives of 120 communities and Tseltal ejidos, Choles, Tsostiles, Zoques and Mestizos reported that they documented acts of spying and harassment by the military against indigenous peoples in recent times.

They argued that “under the pretext of the application of the Internal Security Law and the “fight against crime”, communities living on the so-called southern border road in the municipalities of Palenque, Ocosingo, Chilon and La Libertad, Chiapas, have been violated in their right to security and personal integrity by elements of the 18th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army, based in Tenosique, Tabasco.” They detailed that the acts of “surveillance, harassment, intimidation, threats and criminalization by the Mexican Army (…) put at risk the life and freedom of those who make up the Organization of Autonomous Peoples in Defense of Uses and Customs.”

For the same reason and since February 21st, by community agreement, the Autonomous Peoples Organization began to hold peaceful demonstrations with the distribution of flyers in the stretches of El Tulipan, Tabasco, and Chancala, Chiapas, to request the return of livestock confiscated in a protest on February 16th and the cessation of harassment.

In the framework of these actions they retained a person who took photos of them, who identified himself as Ezequiel Lopez Lopez, originally from Puebla and who, they discovered, was a soldier in civilian clothing, spying on them. Several soldiers went to the place where he was being held to negotiate his release. However, “while a negotiating table was being set up, the SEDENA besieged the community: some 200 soldiers from Tenosique arrived in the vicinity, cut off access, as well as communication to the outside and electricity and were stationed in attack position, while deploying a media campaign to discredit the organization. On February 24th, government authorities released the confiscated livestock and signed an agreement, which established that there would be no reprisals against members of the Organization. In addition, Ezekiel was handed over without harm.”

However, after these events, the communities and ejidos of the Organization of Autonomous Peoples in Defense of the Uses and Customs of Palenque have reported “greater vigilance and military patrols in the region, as well as an increase in intermittent lockdowns of elements of the Mexican Army, who have shown hostile, threatening and discriminatory behavior.”

When their behavior was questioned, they argued aggressively that “they are powers that the Internal Security Law gives them and that, as indigenous people, they have to abide by the new rules.”

For all the above, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Fryba) urged the Ministry of National Defense to cease acts of harassment, intimidation, threats and criminalization against those who are organized peacefully in the construction of alternative of ways of life, and also respect for the collective rights of indigenous peoples.

For more information in Spanish:

Ejército mexicano realiza espionaje a pueblos originarios en Chiapas (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 21 de marzo de 2018)

El Frayba denuncia espionaje y hostigamiento militar contra indígenas en Chiapas (Proceso, 21 de marzo de 2018)

Municipios de Chiapas, prisioneros del ejército: Frayba (Juicio Político, 22 de marzo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : EPN promulga Ley de Seguridad Interior. CNDH promoverá acciones de inconstitucionalidad. (29 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Más aprobaciones controvertidas de Leyes Mexicanas (20 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Senado aprueba Ley de seguridad interior (16 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Ante rechazo a la Ley de Seguridad Interior, EPN pide ampliar “los espacios de diálogo y acercamiento con las distintas organizaciones de la sociedad civil” (11 de diciembre de 2017)

Nacional: Entre protestas se aprueba Ley de seguridad interior (1 de diciembre de 2017)

 

Chiapas/National: The Sixth Commission Convokes Roundtable Discussion “To Look, to Listen, to Speak: Forbidden to Think?”

Zapatista Caracol at Oventik (@SIPAZ archivos)

On March 20th, through a communiqué, the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) convoked the roundtable discussion “To Looks, to Listen and to Speak: Forbidden to Think?” to be held at the CIDECI-Unitierra facilities in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, from April 15th to 25th, in which “various people from the National Indigenous Congress, from the Indigenous Council of Government, from the arts, sciences, political activism, journalism and culture, will share with us what they see and hear” in the current pre-electoral context.

The address to register is: asistentesemillero@enlacezapatista.org.mx

For more information in Spanish:

La Comisión Sexta del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional convoca al CONVERSATORIO (o semillero, según): “Miradas, Escuchas y Palabras: ¿Prohibido Pensar?” (Comunicado de la Comisión Sexta del EZLN, 20 de marzo de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional : CNI convoca al “siguiente paso en la lucha”(17 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas : 2do Encuentro del « ConCiencias por la Humanidad » convocado por el EZLN (4 de enero de 2018)

Chiapas: La Comisión Sexta del EZLN anuncia el programa de la gira del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno en Chiapas (18 de septiembre de 2017)

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

National: CNI Calls for “the Next Step in the Struggle”

Marichuy, touring Chiapas (@SIPAZ)

In a statement published on March 16th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) called for the “next step in the struggle”, recognizing that its candidate for the presidency in the 2018 elections failed to gather sufficient support signatures to obtain the registration before the National Electoral Institute. It acknowledged that “obtaining enough signatures would have allowed us to take advantage of this space to continue to reveal the suffering and struggle of indigenous peoples, as well as pointing out the criminal nature of the system, to echo the pain and rage that ooze throughout the whole national territory, and to promote organization, self-organization, resistance and rebellion.” However, it said: “We did not achieve it, but we must continue on our path looking for other ways, methods and means, with ingenuity, creativity and audacity, to achieve what we want.” And it appreciated that “this stage was characterized by involving more people and sectors, beyond the indigenous peoples and the CNI, in a civil and peaceful, inclusive struggle, with a just cause, with a horizon of radical transformation of the reality that we all suffer, with legal, legitimate and honest methods, and this is something that none of the members of the institutional political class can say.

In the new stage that is opening up and beyond the electoral context, the CNI proposes “an analysis and assessment that, as was the whole process, be collective, participatory, inclusive, honest and truthful”, sending analysis and evaluations to the email assessments@congresonacionalindigena.org. They also announced that “the civil society organization “For the Blossoming of the Peoples”, the National Indigenous Congress, the CIG and the Zapatista brothers, will invite all to a series of public activities open to those involved in the process, to follow up on this fight that, we know, has just begun.”

For more information in Spanish:

Convocatoria al siguiente paso en la lucha (CNI, 16 de marzo de 2018)

Llama CNI a nueva etapa de lucha política (La Jornada, 16 de marzo de 2018)

El CIG: los saldos de la irreverencia (La Jornada, 15 de marzo de 2018)

El Congreso Indígena no va con AMLO, aún con Marichuy fuera; “es un candidato más del sistema” (Sin Embargo, 26 de febrero de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: CNI denuncia ataque contra la caravana del CIG. (22 de enero de 2018)

Nacional: Marichuy critica trampas del INE a su candidatura (26 de octubre de 2018)

Nacional: Marychuy se registra como candidata independiente a la Presidencia de la República (18 de octubre de 2017)

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