Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Hold Commenoration 22 Years after Acteal Masacre

@Frayba

On December 21st and 22nd, Las Abejas Civil Society together with the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, other civil and social organizations, remembered the 45 victims of the Acteal massacre, which happened 22 years ago, on December 22nd 1997, by a paramilitary group from the same municipality of Chenalho.

The commemoration included several activities, including a pilgrimage, pronouncements, and a mass celebrated by the bishop of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez.

In a statement published the same day, Las Abejas rejected the offer of reparations proposed by the government and urged the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to proceed with the case: “Sisters and brothers who also work for the truth and justice, let’s not be afraid to continue organizing to build peace on our continents and stop the war that the rich and powerful wage against us. We cannot fall into the pitfalls of bad government. Our Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal does not accept or request a friendly settlement for the Acteal Case because a monetary remedy does not sow precedents so that these heinous acts are not repeated. On the contrary, their goal is to divide us and leave us humiliated. Within the framework of the commemoration of the 22 years of the Acteal Massacre, we insist on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that it already states the merits report of Case 12.790 Manuel Santiz Culebra and Others (Acteal Massacre) to curb impunity and wear down survivors and their families, who have been severely affected by their life project.”

For more information in Spanish:

A 22 años del Crimen de Estado cometido aquí, no hay voluntad política de crear estrategias para que hechos como el de Acteal jamás se repitan. Las Abejas de Acteal, 22 de diciembre de 2019.

A 22 años de la Masacre de Acteal se mantiene viva la resistencia y la esperanza CDH Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 22 de diciembre de 2019.

Acteal, 22 años de la matanza en Chiaps que cimbró al país El Universal, 23 de diciembre 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 marzo 7, 2019

Chiapas : Sociedad Civil Las Abejas denuncia allanamieno de su clínica en Acteal; Concejo Pacifista declara que es un “asunto entre particulares”; Sociedad Civil Las Abejas ratifica “por eso hemos rechazado la solución amistosa, porque traería división” . septiembre 23, 2019

Chiapas: Marcha-peregrinacion de las Abejas de Acteal para exigir justicia verdadera y digna agosto 14, 2019

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Celebrate 27th Anniversary

@Las Abejas de Acteal

On December 10th, Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society Organization held an event in Chenalho to celebrate the 27th anniversary of its founding in 1992.

The event began in the morning with a ceremony remembering the 45 people who were killed in the 1997 massacre in Acteal. Then, there was a choir, a play and a presentation that recalled the story of the birth of the organization.

Several members of Las Abejas shared their experiences linked to the events that led to the foundation of the organization. Five compañeros had been imprisoned for acts they did not commit. In the process to free them from jail (which was achieved on January 7th, 1993), they chose to come together as a civil society.

At the event, representatives of several organizations attended, including Services and Advice for Peace A.C. (Serapaz), the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), Otros Mundos A.C and the International Service for Peace (SIPAZ). The event was also broadcast via Las Abejas radio station.

On their 27 years of work, Las Abejas stressed that “the path of the organization has been thorny and tiring, but, with fasting and prayer and our conviction we have always found alternatives to overcome them. The path we have chosen is not a game, nor is it temporary, but it will continue with our young people, with our children, because we must always defend life and work for peace.”

Regarding the continuation of their work, they said that: “In the social and political context in which our organization was born, there was a lot of injustice, racist mestizos treated us like animals, political parties and bad governments treated us as objects. Currently we continue as native peoples in discrimination and social inequality, with injustice and impunity. Bad governments have not evolved, they have not improved their conscience, because the prisons are full of political prisoners, innocent people, poor people, people who do not speak Spanish, and are illegally locked up.”

On December 22nd, the 22nd anniversary of the 45 victims of the Acteal massacre will also be commemorated.

For more information in Spanish:

Un día como hoy, pero, hace 27 años, en el año de 1992, nació nuestra organización la que actualmente es conocida: Organización de la Sociedad Civil de Las Abejas de Acteal, Las Abejas de Acteal, 10 de diciembre de 2019.

La Abejas de Acteal celebrarán 27 años de fundación Prensa Libre Chiapas, 9 de diciembre de 2019.

Concejo de las Abejas de Acteal: indígenas no pedimos Tren Maya Político, 9 de diciembre de 2019.

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Sociedad Civil Las Abejas denuncia allanamieno de su clínica en Acteal; Concejo Pacifista declara que es un “asunto entre particulares”; Sociedad Civil Las Abejas ratifica “por eso hemos rechazado la solución amistosa, porque traería división” . 23 de septiembre de 2019.

Chiapas: Marcha-peregrinacion de las Abejas de Acteal para exigir justicia verdadera y digna 14 de agosto de 2019.

Chiapas: Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal rechaza solución amistosa en el caso de la masacre de Acteal presentado ante la CIDH 7 de marzo 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: 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: Tzeltal Women Tortured and Raped by Military in 1994 Denounce Total Impunity

@SIPAZ

On June 4th, dozens of members of civil groups (including SIPAZ), women from Las Abejas Civil Society and members of the San Cristobal de Las Casas diocese, accompanied the Tzeltal sisters Ana, Beatriz and Celia Gonzalez Perez in the symbolic takeover of the military barracks in this city, to demand that justice be done for the torture and rape of those who were victims, 25 years ago, of the military in the municipality of Altamirano.

The lawyer, Gloria Guadalupe Flores Ruiz, member of the Gonzalez Parez Sisters’ Committee, recalled that the three indigenous women and their mother Delia Perez de Gonzalez, were detained at a Mexican Army checkpoint in Altamirano on June 4th, 1994, accused of being support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in its Spanish acronym) and that “they were beaten, tortured and raped by the military, who forced the mother to witness the attacks” so that they would provide information about the Zapatistas.

In April 2001, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ruled on the case and recommended that the Mexican State “investigate the facts in a complete, impartial and effective manner in the ordinary Mexican criminal jurisdiction to determine the responsibility and sanction of all authors of human rights violations.” No government wanted to attend to the case and impunity and oblivion have prevailed. On May 7th, however, a working group of the IACHR was held in Jamaica and the Mexican government undertook to comply “in a comprehensive manner” with the 2001 recommendation.

The demands of the victims and their defense include: “Investigation and punishment of the military responsible for the rape and torture; to hold a public acknowledgment of responsibility in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and with the presence of military commanders, and integral reparation for the damage caused, in accordance with the worldview of the Perez Gonzalez sisters.”

Flores Ruiz emphasized that “the Mexican State refuses to recognize that the perpetrators of serious violations of the human rights of the Gonzalez Perez sisters were the military. This has been the point that has stalled the case in the previous administrations, because they did not want to go out and say that the Army was responsible for this violence generated in the context of the low intensity war in 1994, but we hope that this government of the fourth transformation shows that the civilian command is above the military.”

For his part, the priest Marcelo Perez Perez, responsible for the social pastoral of the three dioceses of Chiapas, asked “the maximum commander of the Mexican Army, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, president of the Republic,” that justice be done in the case of the Gonzalez Perez sisters and their mother. “If there is no justice for the Gonzalez Perez sisters, they will be accomplices and traitors to the indigenous peoples,” he stressed.

@SIPAZ

 Women of Las Abejas Civil Society stated that, “today we come here to join the demand for justice from compañeras Ana, Beatriz, Celia Gonzalez Perez and Delia Perez (…) and with all those hundreds, thousands and thousands of women who have been victims of the perpetrating army and violator of women and of human rights.” They also denounced that “we know that the Mexican army not only tortured and raped women 25 years ago, but, that they continued with their barbarism, they continued to humiliate women, either raping them or massacring them directly or indirectly as with the 21 women massacred by the PRI members from Chenalho, four of whom were pregnant, and after Acteal they followed, with the women of Atenco, compañeras of the Sierra Zongolica de Veracruz and, we can continue with an endless list. The Mexican Army is not an army that serves the Mexican nation, it is an army that is at the service of the capitalist system, which is trained to kill and exterminate the original peoples of Mexico and the women and men who criticize the bad government and the system of death.”

For more information in Spanish:

Exigen justicia a 25 años de la violación tumultuaria de tres hermanas cometida por militares en Chiapas (Proceso, 4 de junio de 2019)

A 25 años, hermanas violadas por militares en Chiapas exigen justicia (La Jornada, 4 de junio de 2019)

Mujeres indígenas de Chiapas acusan impunidad por violación de militares hace 25 años (Sin Embargo, 4 de junio de 2019)

Tzeltales en Chiapas exigen justicia por violación atribuida a militares (El Universal, 4 de junio de 2019)

El ejército mexicano no es un ejército que sirve a la nación mexicana, es un ejército que está al servicio del sistema capitalista. (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 4 de junio de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

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

Chiapas: 21 Years Since the Massacre in Acteal

(@SIPAZ)

On December 21 and 22, 2018, members of the Civil Society Las Abejas de Acteal and guests commemorated the 21st anniversary of the Acteal massacre, which took place on December 22, 1997, in which 45 Tsotsil indigenous people, mainly women and children, members of Las Abejas, were murdered in Acteal, municipality of Chenalhó, by alleged paramilitaries. The massacre “was committed with fury, treachery, and premeditation when they [the victims] were in the second day of fasting and prayer for the end of the violence unleashed in the municipality”, remembered Las Abejas.

Las Abejas denounced that they have “gone through 21 years of darkness that represents the impunity nourished by the PRI and PAN rulers, including the misnamed and corrupt “Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation,” which ordered the release of the perpetrators of the Acteal Massacre, despite the fact that they were directly pointed out by the survivors and that they had confessed to killing in Acteal, for which they had sentences of up to 30 years, now they walk with impunity in Chenalhó and around Acteal. And the intellectual authors [of the massacre] are free, mocking justice and the memory of our massacred brothers and sisters”.

Las Abejas and the Fray Batolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) indicated that they are not seeking dialogue with the current government but announced that they will continue to speak up, so that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) can make a pronouncement on the merits of the case. Pedro Faro Navarro, director of Frayba, indicated that “for a long time the situation has been closed at the national level, since the Mexican State has not only refused to take legal action, but has attributed to impunity with the release of almost all of the perpetrators”. For their part, Las Abejas clarified that “we will not exchange justice for money in any way. The real objective of our petition before the IACHR is for the Mexican State to recognize its responsibility for action and its failure in the Acteal Massacre and to guarantee the non-repetition of acts like Acteal”.

For more information in Spanish:

Nuestro país ha vivido un patrón sistemático de represión, corrupción, colusión, impunidad desde los años 60’, hasta el día de hoy (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 22 de diciembre de 2018)

Acteal 21 años de impunidad (Frayba, 22 de diciembre de 2018)

Insiste Frayba en que CIDH se pronuncie sobre Acteal (La Jornada, 22 de diciembre de 2018)

A 21 años de la matanza de Acteal, familiares y sobrevivientes recuerdan a las 45 víctimas (Sin Embargo, 22 de diciembre de 2018)

Conmemoran 21 años de masacre de Acteal, la justicia aún pendiente(Regeneración, 22 de diciembre de 2018)

Abejas de Acteal anuncian que no buscaran diálogo con AMLO; esperan dictamen de la CIDH (AlertaChiapas, 22 de diciembre de 2018)

A once días de la conmemoración de la Masacre de Acteal, les compartimos cartel de dicho evento (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, 11 de diciembre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Twentieth Anniversary of Acteal Massacre (January 14, 2018).

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal “Roots, Memory and Hope” Tour (July 28, 2017).

Chiapas: Launch of Acteal Campaign: Roots, Memory and Hope (March 30, 2017).

Chiapas: New Arrests of Members of Las Abejas in Rio Jordan, Chenalho

Arrested in Rio Jordan (@Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society)

The Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal denounced the arrest of two of its members, Manuel Jimenez Santiz and Alonso Jimenez Mendez, from the community of Rio Jordan, municipality of San Pedro Chenalho, on August 6th.

The arrest came after Manuel Santiz Vazquez, a municipal agent of Chenalho, called an assembly in which it was reported that Manuel and Alonso did not do community work in a local clinic, so “people from the political parties” agreed to punish them with 72 hours of prison, according to the Las Abejas statement, “without letting them eat or letting them go to the bathroom.” It explained that “this problem in Rio Jordan arose in the year 2015, but, both the community party authority and the municipal authority of the municipality of Chenalho, never showed interest and respect when, on several occasions, we looked for them to build a path of true dialogue. On the other hand, they have only defamed our colleagues for “breach of community services””. It recalled that in January of this year there was a similar case in which nine members of Las Abejas were detained, but, according to the statement, “they did not have the political will to resolve this conflict at the root, and what they did was to cover up their injustice and their inability to negotiate.”

In a later communiqué, Las Abejas clarified again: “the root is because of their decision [of Las Abejas] not to accept government programs that do not benefit them and not accept positions that are not community, such as the clinic, that those who benefit from this service are the women who receive the PROSPERA assistance program and the compañeras of Las Abejas from Rio Jordan do not accept this governmental program. We want to make it clear that our compañeros who on other occasions have been arbitrarily detained, by the people of the political parties of Rio Jordan, are not for “noncompliance with community positions”, as the agent and the local people are saying, but rather, that it is a punishment for our compañeros for criticizing the policies of bad government and for rejecting dispensable public works that damage Mother Earth.”

For more information in Spanish:

Nuestros dos compañeros llevan más de 50 horas en la cárcel, pedimos condenar y denunciar este grave atropello a los derechos humanos (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 9 de agosto de 2018)

Detienen a integrantes de las Abejas de Acteal (Chiapas Paralelo, 8 de agosto de 2018)

Retienen a integrantes de Las Abejas de Acteal (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 8 de agosto de 2018)

Denunciamos detención arbitraria de dos compañeros nuestros del barrio Río Jordán (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 7 de agosto de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Las Abejas desmienten versión gubernamental de lo sucedido en Los Chorros (18 de enero de 2018)

Chiapas: detención arbitraria y riesgo de desplazamiento forzado en Río Jordan, Chenalhó (10 de enero de 2018)

Chiapas : a 20 años de la masacre de Acteal (26 de diciembre de 2017)

Chiapas : Se mantienen amenazas contra Abejas de Los Chorros, municipio de Chenalhó (21 de abril de 2017)