Chiapas: Food Crisis in Displaced Communities; Over Three Thousand at Risk of Hunger

@Frayba

At a press conference on May 26th, the Trust for the Health of Indigenous Children of Mexico (FISANIM) and the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, (Frayba) warned of the risk of famine for more than 3,000 displaced people in the Highlands of Chiapas.

They documented that based on direct information received from the population of the Maya Tsotsil People from the municipality of Aldama, Chalchihuitan and from the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal in Chenalho, people displaced in said municipalities face a food emergency situation that could lead to famine if prolonged. Being in itself one of the most marginalized municipalities in the country, the lives of 3304 displaced persons are also at high risk of contagion by COVID-19 when they are “in overcrowded conditions: in borrowed, rented houses and in critical situations, when armed violence begins they take refuge in the mountains. Several of the families have had their houses burned, destroyed and/or been shot, without access to their farms to cultivate their land and without being able to plant and harvest their corn, beans, fruits and vegetables. Up to now, they do not have the possibility of going somewhere to work, they have not been able to harvest their coffee, being one of the sources of economic income to complete their livelihood throughout the year.”

“In all three cases, the omission of the Mexican State and the lack of compliance with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement of the United Nations (UN) prevail,” they also denounced. This is due to “the constant lack of food, medical attention and emotional damage due to the permanent fear and despair of being attacked, girls, boys, women and the elderly women/men are the most vulnerable victims.”

Faced with this situation, they demanded from the authorities: the implementation of a Food Emergency Plan; the efficient action of the State Council for Comprehensive Attention to Internal Displacement of Persons in the State of Chiapas; the intervention of the International Red Cross to contribute to humanitarian aid; and to deactivate “the violence in these territories caused by armed paramilitary civilian groups that comes from decades of impunity, since today we are in the previous scenarios of what was the Acteal Massacre”, among others.

The two organizations also called for solidarity actions from national and international civil society, including the possibility of financial support to address the food emergency: Trust for the Health of Indigenous Children in Mexico. Scotiabank bank. Account: 00107853564 Interbank password: 044180001078535644.

For more information in Spanish:

Alertamos posible hambruna de Pueblos Mayas en desplazamiento forzado (Frayba, 26 de mayo de 2020)

En riesgo de hambruna más de 3 mil indígenas desplazados de Chiapas; coronavirus agravó su situación (Aristegui Noticias, 26 de mayo de 2020)

Más de 3 mil 300 desplazados en el umbral de la hambruna en Chiapas, alerta el Frayba(Proceso, 27 de mayo de 2020)

Centro Frayba alerta de un “desastre humanitario” en los Altos de Chiapas (La Jornada, 27 de mayo de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Injunction Granted to Protect Life, Integrity and Security of Displaced Tsotsil Communities in Aldama (May 4, 2020)

Chiapas: Authorities in Santa Martha and Aldama Denounce New Attacks (March 5, 2020)

Chiapas: Death of Displaced Baby Girl from Rio Jordan, Chenalho (February 28, 2020)

 

 

Chiapas: “ Not Only COVID Threatens Life” – Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society

@Radio Pozol

On April 22nd, within the framework of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre, Chenalho municipality, in which 45 people died in December 1997, the Civil Society Organization issued a statement in which it denounced that the context of the pandemic due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the “official plea to “stay home”, did not prevent feminicides from happening this month, it did not prevent violations of the human rights of migrants who cross our country; forced displacement continued in the case of Aldama, Chiapas, fellow Tsotsil Cristobal Santiz de Aldama was unjustly imprisoned.”

It warned that, in this same context, “what neoliberal governments have done together with the powerful in both Mexico and Latin America, is to take advantage of the COVID-19 emergency, for example they have made laws to reduce sentences in favor of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, as in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Guatemala.”

It also denounced that, in Mexico, the government “has taken advantage of the pandemic to advance the construction of its “Maya Train”, despite the fact that hundreds of social organizations and indigenous communities demand to cancel it.”

For this reason, Las Abejas considered that the Covid-19 virus “is not life-threatening”. “It is useless for us to take care of the malignant disease if there are people who continue to be manipulated by the caciques and politicians who only think of their own interests and monetary gains at the cost of innocent lives,” they added.

Finally, they proposed that “this health situation we are going through is a message that makes us talk and think with our hearts and leads us to carry out new and healthy actions for us humans and for Mother Earth; because the way of life that the neoliberal capitalist system and colonialism have imposed on us, is useless, it is rubbish.”

For more information in Spanish:

«No sólo el Covid-19 amenaza la vida» (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, 22 de abril de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Las Abejas Civil Society Denounces Persecution and Murder of Human Rights Defenders and Protectors of Mother Earth and other Violent Situations (February 25, 2020)

 

Chiapas: “This year begins with a lot of violence and it is increasing” – Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society (January 28, 2020)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Hold Commenoration 22 Years after Acteal Masacre (January 13, 2020)

Chiapas: Death of Displaced Baby Girl from Rio Jordan, Chenalho

@Otros Mundos

In a statement published on February 26th, Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society denounced the death of Maria Angelica Jimenez Ramirez, an 11-month-old baby, who was part of the displaced families of the Rio Jordan neighborhood who have been refugees in Acteal since August last year in the municipality of Chenalho.

It recalled that they are displaced due to the threats of “the members of the Green Ecologist Party and paramilitaries of the Rio Jordan neighborhood, when their homes were destroyed and looted, on August 10th, 2019, all for refusing to accept charges that are not from the community and not accepting a drainage work.”

It lamented that Maria Angelica died “being a victim of forced displacement and without enjoying the full right to childhood, to health and to live in peace, like other girls and other children who were also displaced with the deceased girl, who are not being guaranteed their rights to peace while living forcibly displaced.”

It claimed that behind this forced displacement is a conflict that “has now been unresolved for five years, although Chenalho’s municipal president Abraham Cruz Gomez has pledged to intervene so that this problem is resolved and as a result, our displaced companions return with justice to their community of origin, but, to date, no meeting has been made with said official authority since he has only been postponing the dates and so the suffering of the displaced has been prolonged.”

Las Abejas Civil Society announced that family members and executives of their organization will bury the infant in the Rio Jordan community cemetery neighborhood, “so we ask that you be aware of our physical and psychological integrity, otherwise we will hold the rural agent in the Rio Jordan neighborhood, Vicente Perez Ruiz, the president of Chenalho, Abraham Cruz Gomez, and Rutilio Escandon Cadenas Governor of Chiapas, responsible”.

For more information in Spanish:

Fallecimiento de una hermanita desplazada (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, 26 de febrero de 2020)

Niña lluvia (Regeneración Radio, 26 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Desplazan a 36 personas del barrio Río Jordán, Chenalhó (September 18, 2019)

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

Chiapas: Las Abejas Civil Society Denounces Persecution and Murder of Human Rights Defenders and Protectors of Mother Earth and other Violent Situations

@Area de comunicación de Las Abejas

On February 22nd, within the framework of the monthly anniversary of the Acteal massacre (1997), Las Abejas Civil Society issued a statement in which it denounced not only impunity in that case but that “in Mexico of the era of the “Fourth transformation “human rights defenders, protectors of Mother Earth are persecuted and murdered, the truth is still covered up and women and girls are murdered, just as the criminal governments of the PRI and the PAN did.”

It also stated that “if we had a premature conscience, we would swallow the tale of the MORENA president that uncontrollable violence in the country, femicides, kidnapping and murder of girls is the fault of previous governments. It is outrageous that this president does not have the decency to admit that once he assumed power in Mexico, he assumed to serve a rotten system of government that can only persist causing destruction and feeding on blood.”

It outlined several more recent cases, also stating that “every day there is news of murders that make the news of the previous day remain forgotten, taking away from the fact that there is a new woman or girl murdered and raped.” It mentioned the case the repression against the fathers and mothers of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa, during their visit to the Mactumatza Normal Rural school in Chiapas; the detention of Miguel Lopez Vega, delegate of the National Indigenous Congress, member of the Zacatepec community radio station and member of the Puebla Peoples in Defense of the Land and Water Front, Morelos and Tlaxcala (although he was released through social pressure, Las Abejas believe that it was to intimidate the movement against companies in the Huejotzingo Industrial corridor) and femicides; among others.

For more information in Spanish:

Hoy sólo vamos a poder mencionar algunos casos de violencia, de injusticia y de asesinatos contra hombres y mujeres (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, 22 de febrero de 2020)

Se deslindan Abejas de Acteal de supuesto integrante de su Mesa Directiva (Reporte Ciudadano, 23 de febrero de 2020)

Se deslindan Abejas de Acteal de supuesto integrante de su Mesa Directiva (Noticias Primer Plano, 23 de febrero de 2020)

Se deslindan las Abejas de supuesto integrante (Diario de Chiapas, 24 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: “This year begins with a lot of violence and it is increasing” – Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society (January 28, 2020)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Hold Commenoration 22 Years after Acteal Masacre (January 13, 2020)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Celebrate 27th Anniversary (January 4, 2020)

Chiapas: “This year begins with a lot of violence and it is increasing” – Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society

@Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal

On December 22nd, in the framework of the monthly commemoration of the Acteal massacre (1997), Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society issued a statement in which they denounced that “this year begins with a lot of violence and it is increasing (…) The MORENA government does not have the capacity or does not have the will to stop the violence that the PRI and PAN governments created in our country, because in order to impose megaprojects in the territories of the original peoples, it is convenient for them to have violence. We see how they use organized crime to justify their crimes against human rights defenders, as in the case of compañero Samir Flores Soberanes, killed for opposing the Morelos Integral Project (PIM), on February 19th, 2019 This crime remains unpunished, like many other crimes, including the Acteal Massacre itself.”

In addition to pointing out several other attacks on human rights defenders, members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in Guerrero and Jalisco, they reflected on the apparent desire of the capitalist system to kill women and generate violence towards this sector “because women are givers of life, they are guardians of the cosmovision and memory of the original peoples and because they have a strong conviction of struggle and resistance to transform the world.”

Faced with “this context of violence and femicide” as well as “dispossession of our territories and the life of Our Mother Earth,” they reaffirmed their struggle and commitment to continue organizing. They also denounced that “the bad government is always looking to weaken us or buy our conscience or bring divisions into our communities,” recognizing that their organization was divided on two occasions, in 2008 and 2014. They reported that the group of survivors of the Acteal massacre that left in 2014 “is negotiating with the federal government a friendly solution and reparations for damage for the Acteal Massacre”, a strategy that they do not share when considering that “the lives of our fathers, mothers and brothers and sisters, daughters and sons are not compensated for with infrastructure, with cement or fences.” In return, they continue to urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to “issue the merits report where the Mexican State is responsible for the Acteal massacre and the material and intellectual perpetrators of the Massacre are brought to trial, who to date are still free.” They also demanded that state and federal government officials “respect our identity, work and autonomous political project.”

For more information in Spanish:

Las políticas del sistema capitalista y el mal gobierno, es destruir a la Madre Tierra y a las mujeres. (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, 22 de enero de 2020)

El gobierno morenista no tiene voluntad para detener la violencia: Las Abejas de Acteal (Prensa Libre, 23 de enero de 2020)

Atenderá Gobierno demandas de Acteal (Cuarto Poder, 18 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Hold Commenoration 22 Years after Acteal Masacre (January 13, 2020)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Celebrate 27th Anniversary (January 4, 2020)

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” . (September 23, 2019)

Chiapas: Las Abejas de Acteal Pilgrimage-March to Demand True and Dignified Justice (August 19, 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: 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)