Chiapas/National: Commission for Concord and Pacification Seeks to Meet Secretariat of Government to Explore Possibiity of Dialogue between Federal Government and EZLN

On May 26th, the Commission of Concord and Pacification (COCOPA in its Spanish acronym) stated its willingness to summon Olga Sanchez Cordero to the Interior Ministry to see the possibility of establishing a dialogue with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym).

The COCOPA is composed of federal deputies and senators, and was formed after the uprising of the EZLN in 1994 to mediate the negotiation process between the government and the EZLN. Although this commission has not been active in this role for many years, each legislature has renewed its existence.

Alfredo Vazquez Vazquez, deputy of the third district of Chiapas and part of MORENA, commented that the government has not complied with the San Andres Accords on indigenous rights and culture signed in February 1966 because “the Mexican government did not give it its deserved importance.”

For his part, the current president of COCOPA, Eduardo Zarzosa (PRI) who assumed this role in February, said, among other things, that: “We want to know the position of the federal government in relation to this issue that remained pending and given this climate of violence that we live in, it would be very useful for the country to achieve a lasting peace in Chiapas … It is not an easy matter, but we must promote actions that give continuity to the negotiations between the federal government and the members of the EZLN. Why? To achieve lasting peace in the region.”

For more information in Spanish:

Busca Cocopa restablecer diálogo entre Segob y EZLN (La Jornada, 26 de mayo de 2019)

Comisión Bicamaral de Concordia y Pacificación se reunirá con titular de Segob, para restablecer diálogo con EZLN (Cámara de Diputados,  26 de mayo de 2019)

Buscarán posición del gobierno de AMLO con el EZLN, para reiniciar diálogo y cumplir acuerdos de San Andrés Larrainzar (Chiapas Paralelo, 27 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/National: San Andres Accords unfulfilled 20 years later (February 29, 2016)

National: Forum advances legislative reforms for observance of San Andrés Accords on indigenous rights and culture (March 2, 2014)

Chiapas: 18 years after the signing of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, these continue not to be recognized by the State (March 1, 2014)

Chiapas: new governor calls for observance of San Andrés Accords (January 8, 2013)

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Guerrero: Two Members of CRAC-PF and CIPOG-EZ Murdered

(@(@CRAC-PF)

On May 23rd, Bertoldo Morales Hilario and Isaias Xantenco Ahuejote, members of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Peoples’ Founders (CRAC-PF in its Spanish acronym), from the town of Xicotlan, municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez, were both kidnapped and killed. Both were promoters of the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ in its Spanish acronym), part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym). Their bodies were found the next day in plastic bags on the Chilapa-Tlapa highway,

The CRAC-PF identified as alleged perpetrators members of the Peace and Justice group, which has links with Los Ardillos criminal gang and confirmed that residents of Xicotlan are holding Braulio Palatzin Tranquero, nephew of Tranquilino Tecorral Palatzin, one of the leaders of the Peace and Justice Group. According to the CRAC-PF, the residents warned that because the authorities do not solve the problems of insecurity they would do justice “by their own hand.”

For its part, the CNI recalled that “this artful crime is added to the recent murder of compañeros Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastian, councilor and delegate of the CNI-CIG, for which we denounce the terror policy that the narco-paramilitary groups, with the blatant help of the three levels of bad government, are implementing against the brothers of the CIPOG-EZ and all the indigenous territories of Mexico.”

This is in the same region where on May 12th, a group of children from the community of Rincon de Chautla, from the municipality of Chilapa, announced their incorporation into the CRAC-PF to defend themselves from Los Ardillos. A week later, women from the Rinilla Tapila village, also in Chilapa, reported that they had chosen to do the same. As a result of this, the State Government went to the area four times to leave food supplies and to stop the participation of children in the self-defense process; but the demand for greater security was not met. “The children of the community of Rincon de Chautla in Chilapa are a sign of the abandonment of the authorities and are a call for help to address their problems”, said the director of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, Abel Barrera Hernandez. “The fact that they have drafted children is a example of the limit in which they find themselves in defenselessness. Placing children as a last resort to be able highlight a problem where the authorities have not attended is a sign of desperation, an expression of abandonment”, he said.

For more information in Spanish:

Asesinan a dos dirigentes de autodefensas en Guerrero (La Jornada, 25 de mayo de 2019)

ALTO A LA GUERRA NARCOPARAMILITAR CONTRA EL CIPOG-EZ (CNI. CIG, 25 de mayo de 2019)

Dos policías comunitarios que grabaron a niños autodefensas son asesinados en Guerrero (Sin Embargo, 25 de mayo de 2019)

Niños comunitarios, un llamado desesperado de auxilio: Tlachinollan (Bajo Palabra, 17 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: CNI Denounces Kidnapping and Murder of Two Members (May 11, 2019)

 

Chiapas: Indigenous Prisoner Released after 16 Years Awaiting Sentencing and 60 Days Hunger Strike

Chiapasparalelo: After 16 years without sentence and 60 days on hunger strike, tortured indigenous prisoner is released

On May 14th, 60 days after starting a hunger strike along with five other companeros, Juan Perez Alvarez was released from the Social Reintegration Center for the Sentenced No.10 (CERSS 10) in Comitan de Dominguez, having spent 16 years in detention. His release was granted for penitentiary benefits of work and conduct.

The indigenous argued that he was arrested in 2003 without an arrest warrant, while moving to his place of work, then, was approached by security authorities to force him to sign blank papers and self-incriminate under torture for a crime he did not commit.

Given the irregularities of his arrest and accusation of kidnapping, Perez Alvarez decided to start a hunger strike, despite being diabetic, which represented a serious risk to his health and life.

The Working Group “No Estamos Todxs”, an organization that accompanies prisoners, warned about the fact that the Public Ministry can appeal the decision to release him, and therefore they ask him to present himself within 20 days, which could lead to his detention again.

“It has been 16 years and two months of life stolen, long years in which our compañero has had to live separately from his family, deprived of seeing his children grow up. Years of confinement and injustice that there is no way to recover, serious damage to his life and integrity, impossible to repair”, the Working Group stated.

They, also spoke about the situation of the prisoners who are still on hunger strike since March 15th to say that Adrian Gomez Jimenez, a hunger striker imprisoned in the CERSS no. 5 in San Cristobal de Las Casas, had to be transferred on May 22nd to the Hospital de las Culturas, in the same locality, for a severe infection in the urinary tract due to dehydration and a decrease in his defenses that derive from the lack of food intake.

For more information in Spanish:

Tras 16 años sin sentencia y 60 días en huelga de hambre, liberan a indígena torturado, Chiapasparalelo, 22 de mayo de 2019

INIKETIK EN RESISTENCIA ANUNCIA LA LIBERACION DEL COMPAÑERO JUAN PEREZ ALVAREZ, Grupo de Trabajo No estamos Todxs, 19 de mayo de 2019

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Six Prisoners Resume Indefinite Hunger Strike in San Cristobal and Comitan Prisons (May 17, 2019)

Little Progress 60 Days after Start of Hunger Strike in Various Sate Prisons (May 15, 2019)

Chiapas: Press Conference for Prisoners on Hunger Strike (May 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Chiapas Prisoners Enter Fourth Week of Hunger Strike (April 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Thirteen Prisoners on Hunger Strike (March 24, 2019)

Chiapas: Six Prisoners Resume Indefinite Hunger Strike in San Cristobal and Comitan Prisons

@SIPAZ

On May 13th, a press conference was held by the organizations The Voice of Indigenous in Resistance (La Voz de Indigenas en Resistencia), The True Voice of Amate (La Voz Verdadera del Amate) and Viniketik in Resistance (Viniketik en Resistencia), their families, the working group No Estamos Todxs and the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights to announce the resumption of an indefinite hunger strike by six people “in the absence of an adequate response from the government.” Six indigenous prisoners had begun a hunger strike on March 15th this year, demanding their immediate release and denouncing the conditions of life inside the prison in terms of food, health, security and justice. Shortly after, another seven prisoners joined the strike.

In a subsequent press conference, on April 12th, they announced that their hunger strike became a partial fast while a negotiating table with the government was opened. However, this process did not prosper: “We make public that our relatives and we have been the object of mockery and object of lies on the part of the Government by named: Ismael Brito Mazariegos together with the President of the Reconciliation Table, because last April 15th they asked our relatives to lift the hunger strike in exchange for the review of our files and followed by our freedom, but we gave an “show of trust” demonstrating our trust by making the strike a fast, eating every three days, so that a period of 20 working days was given. The Reconciliation Board emphasized that it would take them ten days, but like any official they do not care about our physical health, but we have not seen satisfactory answers from them.” The prisoners added that “they have faced discrimination and have witnessed that the government did not comply with the necessary measures to guarantee access to justice” and that “they do not have an adequate defense, because they are in a situation of cultural, social and economic marginalization.”

In addition, they questioned the absence of an “in-depth investigation” of the accusations of torture and fabrication of files that is “an everyday practice” and “habitual with which it locks people up and that immediately dismantles all that discourse of ‘Rule of Law’ with which fill the mouth and bags (sic.).”” The State seeks to perpetuate torture with its denial,” they denounced.

The conference took place 18 days after the presentation of the “Alternative Report of Civil Society Organizations of Mexico” before the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) on torture in Mexico. This report confirms that “there are structural causes, scale and specific characteristics of torture committed against indigenous people and peoples.” The UNCAT will present its conclusions on May 17th.

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado de regreso a la huelga de hambre ante la falta de respuesta adecuada del gobierno (Grupo de trabajo No estamos Todxs el 14 de mayo de 2019)

Inician presos huelga de hambre en Chiapas (El Universal el 13 de mayo de 2019)

Reos indígenas reinician huelga de hambre; alegan detención ilegal y tortura (El Proceso el 14 de mayo de 2019)

Denuncias por tortura no se investigan en Chiapas (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas el 13 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Little Progress 60 Days after Start of Hunger Strike in Various Sate Prisons (May 15, 2019)

Chiapas: Press Conference for Prisoners on Hunger Strike (May 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Chiapas Prisoners Enter Fourth Week of Hunger Strike (April 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Thirteen Prisoners on Hunger Strike (March 24, 2019)

Little Progress 60 Days after Start of Hunger Strike in Various Sate Prisons

Prisoners’ relatives (@“No estamos todxs” Working Group)

On May 7th, the “No estamos todxs” Working Group published a statement on the situation of prisoners on hunger strike almost 60 days after starting it.

It recalled that on March 6th, six prisoners in different prisons of the State of Chiapas initiated this action demanding “justice and immediate and unconditional release,” with seven more inmates initiating an indefinite strike three days later. At the same time, relatives and friends, ex-prisoners and different civil and social organizations began “dissemination, accompaniment and denunciation activities, adding to the same demands.”

The Working Group again denounced that “the legal processes of these people are plagued by irregularities and serious violations of their human rights. Arbitrary arrests without arrest warrants, humiliation of dignity, fabrication of crimes, statements extracted under torture, lack of translator, loss of files, violation of the right to an adequate defense, delays of up to 14 years in obtaining a sentence, lack of presence of the accusatory party, among others.”

Before the strike, the state government opened a dialogue process between March 20th and 29th to address the following issues: review and study of the files and files; improvements in the conditions of the strikers (ending isolation, degrading treatment, threats and coercion); as well as investigation and immediate, effective and adequate documentation of the cases of allegations of torture. The relatives left the negotiating table after that, noting in a press conference “the discrimination they felt on the part of government interlocutors and the lack of real interest in solving the demand for freedom.” They demanded the state and federal government to create a “suitable space, with competent authorities and decision-making capacity that could fully meet the demands of this process of struggle”

On April 10th, a new process of dialogue began in which the state government asked to review the files without additional “pressure” from the strikers. By that time, 20 people were participating in the process, and “symbolically” agreed to give the authorities 20 days to show progress, a deadline that ends on May 13th. Meanwhile the strikers decided to eat food every third day “so that their agency has the capacity to return to the hunger strike in case their demands are not heard.”

The Working Group affirmed that to date “beyond the administrative management of the conflict itself, there has been no progress in concrete responses. Alluding to the workload, the holiday period, the difficulty of the agenda and communication problems with other agents necessary for progress, they have been delaying the processes and avoiding giving concrete answers about the real situation of the evolution of the procedures to find a solution to the conflict.”

It is worried that, “there is nothing to suggest an exit other than the extreme action of a hunger strike demanding justice and freedom. Everything points to the integrity, health, safety, life of these people, as well as their freedom, it is not something that is on the agenda of the government. The changes, of which they boast so much in their speeches, do not seem to coincide with the reality of their actions and that the only alternative in the search for justice is to risk life to try to achieve it.”

For more information in Spanish:

A casi 60 días del inicio de la huelga de hambre en los penales del Estado de Chiapas y sin respuestas concretas en la resolución del conflicto (Grupo de Trabajo “No estamos todxs”, 7 de mayo de 2019)

Sin respuesta, presos indígenas se mantienen en huelga de hambre (Sie7e de Chiapas, 8 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Press Conference for Prisoners on Hunger Strike (May 7, 2019)

Chiapas: Chiapas Prisoners Enter Fourth Week of Hunger Strike (April 8, 2019)

Chiapas: Thirteen Prisoners on Hunger Strike (March 24, 2019)

Guerrero: CNI Denounces Kidnapping and Murder of Two Members

@Aristegui Noticias

On May 5th, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) denounced “the kidnapping and murder of the Nahua council member of the Indigenous Council of Government Jose Lucio Bartolo Faustino and of the delegate of the National Indigenous Congress Modesto Verales Sebastian, of the Nahua indigenous communities of Xicotlan and Buenavista respectively.” The two victims participated on May 4 in a meeting with the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) in the city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, at approximately 3 pm. On their return trip they were attacked “by narco-paramilitary groups that operate in the region with the complicity and protection of the three levels of bad government, which with contempt and lies pretend to meet the demands of security and justice of the indigenous communities.”

The identities of the deceased were confirmed by the Prosecutor’s Office that initiated an investigation into the murder by firearm as the vehicle of Jose Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastian was found with bullet entry holes.

Both participated in the collection of signatures for the CNI presidency candidate, Maria de Jesus Patricio, Marichuy, as well as in mobilizations and meetings of the CNI/EZLN. In addition, they organized the Community Police in their communities “to resist violence, extortion and the imposition of the poppy cultivation by two criminal groups, Los Ardillos and Los Rojos, who control the municipal presidencies of the region with the complicity of the Mexican Army and the state and municipal police and even succeeded in imposing, at some point, one of its leaders as president of the Congress of the state of Guerrero.”

“We denounce the intensification of neoliberal repression against the peoples, nations and indigenous tribes that do not agree with their death plans in Guerrero and throughout Mexico, nor with the violence they use to impose them and repress, kidnap, disappear and assassinate those of us who decide to plant a new world from the indigenous geographies that we are”, the statement concluded.

For more information in Spanish:

COMUNICADO DEL CNI-CIG Y EL EZLN ANTE EL COBARDE SECUESTRO Y ASESINATO DE LOS COMPAÑEROS DEL CONCEJO INDÍGENA Y POPULAR DE GUERRERO – EMILIANO ZAPATA (Enlace Zapatista el 5 de mayo de 2019)

Dos activistas indígenas son asesinados en Guerrero; el CNI, vinculado al EZLN, culpa a AMLO (Sin Embargo el 5 de mayo de 2019)

“Narcomilitares” emboscan y asesinan a líderes del CNI en Guerrero (Grupo Fórmula el 6 de mayo de 2019)

Asesinan a dos activistas indígenas del CNI en Chilpancingo, Guerrero (Político el 5 de mayo de 2019)

Matan a dos integrantes del Congreso Nacional Indígena en Guerrero (Aristegui Noticias el 5 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: denuncian dos comunidades choles de Salto de Agua amenazas, persecución y hostigamientos (El 22 de abril de 2019)

National: Third Assembly of National Indigenous Congress and Indigenous Council of Government (CNI-CIG) in Mexico City (March 14, 2019)

Chiapas : CNI denuncia amenazas y agresiones en la zona Norte (El 16 de agosto de 2018)

Chiapas: denuncia aumenta de violencia en los municipios de Sitalá y Chilón (El 6 de marzo de 2018)

Chiapas: A year since the “unjust” incarceration of communal defender from Salto de Agua: Chiapas Denuncia Pública (October 8, 2015)

National: Bidding Process Begins for Maya Train without Previous Consultation with Indigenous Peoples

@CC News

On April 30th, the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (FONATUR in its Spanish acronym) published the bidding rules for the contracting of services for the basic engineering of the Maya Train, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government project that will connect several tourist sites of the southeast of the country. The tender published in Compranet is national and aims to contract the basic engineering of the seven railway sections that make up the 1,525 km of the project, Fonatur said.

It was opened without having carried out an environmental impact study or consultations with nearby indigenous populations as proposed by both national legislation and several other international treaties signed by Mexico, including Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In press conference, AMLO affirmed, however, that it is valid to begin this process, without taking into account these factors. He declared “that there is no problem because citizens want the train to be built” and that “of course there is dissidence and it must be respected, but in democracy it is the majority that decides, minorities are respected, but it is the majority opinion that should have the ability to decide at the end. That is what is being done”, he emphasized. In this same conference, AMLO also explained that the Maya Train, the Trans-isthmus corridor, among other “regional development projects” will serve as “curtains” to “capture the migratory flow in transit” to the United States and “anchor those fleeing from the poverty” in these regions.

A week before, Josefa Gonzalez Blanco, head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT in its Spanish acronym) acknowledged that the projects of the Mayan Train, the Trans-isthmus Train, the Dos Bocas Refinery in Tabasco and the New Mexico International Airport in Santa Lucia, still do not have environmental impact studies.

For more information in Spanish:

Fonatur lanza licitación para diseño del Tren Maya (La Jornada, 30 de abril de 2019)

Válido proceso de licitación aún sin consulta : AMLO (El Universal, 1ero de mayo de 2019)

AMLO defiende licitación del Tren Maya sin consultar a pueblos indígenas (El Sol de México, 1ero de mayo de 2019)

Abren licitación del tren maya, sin previa consulta a pueblos indígenas (Chiapas Paralelo, 2 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Mexico: Consultations on Maya Train and Nine “Priority” Projects of New Government (December 13th, 2018)

National: AMLO Announces Consultation for the Construction of the Maya Train (November 14th, 2018)

Mexico: proposal from future AMLO government – Mayan Train to tour the southern states of the country and attract more tourism  (September 15th, 2018)