Guerrero: Tlachinollan Highlights Need for Coordinated Action to Dismantle Criminal Organizations after Murder of Ten Indigenous in Alcozacan

Photo@ Milenio

On January 17th, after a conflict between the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Founding Peoples (CRAC-PF) and the community police who call themselves the Peace and Justice Group, ten Nahua indigenous people from the town of Alcozacan, municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez, in Montaña Baja in Guerrero were murdered. The CRAC-PF blamed the attack on Los Ardillos crime group.

According to La Jornada, David Sanchez Luna, coordinator of the House of Justice in Rincon de Chautla, reported that the ten indigenous people were “members of the group Sensacion Musical that had come to play at a party in the town of Tlayelpa,” and that some of them were members of the CRAC-PF. Other media, among them Animal Politico, reported that according to testimonies of the relatives of the victims “none was a musician (…) all were roadies who were hired to load the instruments, although two were hired as drivers and the youngest was the son of the manager of the musical group.”

Due to these events, the CRAC-PF installed a blockade on the federal highway that goes from the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez in order to demand that the state government hand over the bodies of the ten indigenous people. In this regard, on January 19th, the State Attorney General’s Office reported that they handed over five of the ten bodies to the relatives. They also asked the federal or state governments “to respond to the request that the National Guard remain within the limits of Chilapa and Jose Joaquín de Herrera.”

Similar demands were made by the CRAC-PF after, according to information from the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, since December 19th, 2018 the situation in the area around Chilapa became more violent, due to the emergence of community police who call themselves the Peace and Justice Group, in the Nahua community of Paraíso de Tepila, municipality of Chilapa. This resulted in a confrontation between the two groups that resulted in deaths on both sides.

This conflict received more attention at the national level when on May 12th, a group of children from the Rincon de Chautla community, in the municipality of Chilapa, announced their incorporation to the CRAC-PF to defend themselves against Los Ardillos. A week later, women from the Rincon Tapila village, also in Chilapa, reported that they opted to do the same.

The latest reported events were a new complaint from the CRAC-PF in which they announced that on January 20th of this year, Cenobio Morales Bolaños, a member of his organization, was taken at the place known as La Pasadita, municipality of Jose Joaquín of Herrera, bordering with Chilapa.

Despite interventions by the government, Tlachinollan said that “the murder of the ten musicians from Alcozacan, unfortunately is part of this flow of violence that the authorities of the three levels of government have allowed to increase, calling into question their commitment and impartiality for the adequate attention of this conflict (…) what worries most is that the state authorities have not taken strategic decisions to contain this violence.

It considered that the approach of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador “that it is necessary to calm down the country and work on a more comprehensive strategy that addresses the causes of violence, requires interventions at the highest level in order to contain this criminal avalanche. You cannot postpone responses in the medium and long term; it is necessary to implement coordinated actions to dismantle this criminal structure.”

For more information in Spanish:

CRAC-PF bloquea vía en Chilapa; exige los cuerpos de 10 ultimados (La Jornada, 19 de enero de 2020)

Emboscan y matan a 10 de la CRAC-PF de Guerrero (La Jornada, 18 de enero de 2020)

OPINIÓN | La cruda realidad: balazos, no abrazos (Tlachinollan, 20 de enero de 2020)

Los 10 sepelios de Alcozacán, Guerrero: la comunidad que se resiste al crimen (Animal Político, 20 de enero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Guerrero: Organizaciones Civiles denuncian agresión y robo contra defensores del Centro Regional de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos José María Morelos y Pavón (6 de enero de 2020)

Guerrero: Two Members of CRAC-PF and CIPOG-EZ Murdered (May 28, 2019)

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

Guerrero: Visita SIPAZ a desplazados de Leonardo Bravo y Zitlala (2 de mayo de 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/National: Fourth Assembly of CNI-CIG Held in San Cristobal de Las Casas

@Radio zapatista

On December 18th and 19th, the Fourth National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Government Council (CIG) was held at the Zapatista Caracol Jacinto Canek, at CIDECI-UNITIERRA, in San Cristobal de las Casas, with the participation of indigenous peoples from 24 Mexican states as well as guests from Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador and the United States. This was to “see and understand the neoliberal war that is covered with lies pretending to govern, when they put the country in the hands of large capital, which hinders the collective conscience of the peoples and starts their machinery of dispossession.”

In a joint pronouncement, they denounced that “the bad federal government simulates consulting the indigenous peoples” to “impose the Maya train”, the Morelos Integral Project (PIM) and “the megaprojects of death that reconfigure our country to make it available to the multinational capital, mainly imposing the terrorist power of the United States.”

They said that “to advance in their war, the bad government bets on the dismantling of community fabrics, by promoting internal conflicts that mark communities wit violence, between those who defend life and those who decided to put a price on it, even at the cost of selling the future generations for the millionaire benefit of a few corrupt, served by armed groups of organized crime.”

They affirmed that “our peoples, nations and tribes will continue to care for and defend the seeds of resistance and rebellion in the midst of death. Building a path that will last in the midst of darkness; we, we will be there to heal our mother earth, together with the peoples of the world.”

For more information in Spanish:

Pronunciamiento conjunto de la Cuarta Asamblea Nacional del CNI-CIG y EZLN (CNI, 19 de diciembre de 2019)

EZLN acusa al gobierno de imponer el Tren Maya (La Jornada, 20 de diciembre de 2019)

Fue una consulta simulada para imponer el Tren Maya: EZLN-CNI-CIG (Proceso, 20 de diciembre de 2019)

Consulta fue simulación para imponer el Tren Maya (El Universal, 20 de diciembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional : CNI- CIG “vivimos la guerra del capital contra los pueblos del mundo”, convocatoria a la cuarta Asamblea Nacional (8 de noviembre de 2019)

Chiapas/Nacional/Internacional: EZLN invita a participar en el “Combo por la Vida: Diciembre de Resistencia y Rebeldía” (7 de noviembre de 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: movilización dislocada del CNI en el marco de la Jornada Global de lucha En defensa de la Vida y de Nuestros Territorios – “SAMIR FLORES VIVE” (16 de octubre de 2019)

Nacional: CNI invita a Jornada Global de Lucha “SAMIR FLORES VIVE” el 12 de octubre de 2019 (24 de septiembre de 2019)

Oaxaca : CNI realiza Asamblea Nacional “El Istmo es nuestro” en Juchitán (9 de septiembre de 2019)

Chiapas: Second Suspected Leader of Armed Gang in Santa Martha, Chenalho Arrested

Photo @ Gaby Coutinho

After the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym) arrested Mr. Efrain Ruiz Alvarez last month, another alleged leader of an armed group of the Santa Martha community, Chenalho was arrested by ministerial policemen, Enrique Lopez Perez, in recent days.

The arrests are related to the old agrarian conflict between residents of the Santa Martha community and the municipality of Aldama. Both alleged leaders are accused “of firing heavy caliber guns against residents of villages in Aldama.” In the case of Lopez Perez, he is accused “of the crime of attacks on peace (…) in October 2015 shooting with a firearm towards the community of Tselejopotoptic, which caused the displacement of families from Aldama.”

It should be remembered that on June 4th, in Tuxtla Gutierrez, constitutional and traditional authorities of Aldama and Chenalho, accompanied by Governor Rutilio Escandon Cadenas and the federal undersecretary for Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez, signed a non-aggression pact that they expected would put an end to an initially agrarian conflict over 60 hectares of territory between both municipalities that has lasted more than four decades, which has caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of displaced families.

Despite signing of the pact, different sources reported that attacks followed by both parties.

According to information from La Jornada residents of Aldama “commented that since Ruiz Alvarez was arrested, firing of high-caliber firearms from Santa Martha to places in that municipality has reduced.” But that the situation remains tense since “after the arrest of the leader, representatives of Santa Martha have threatened to hold their neighbors from Aldama to exchange them for the detainee.”

For more information in Spanish:

Detienen a líder de grupo armado de Santa Martha en Chenalhó  (La Jornada, 6 de octubre de 2019)

Detienen a líder del grupo armado Santa Martha en Chiapas (La Jornada, 13 septiembre de 2019)

Detienen a presunto líder de grupo armado de Chenalhó (Diario de Chiapas, 8 de octubre de 2019)

Detienen a presunto dirigente de grupo armado de Chenalhó, Chiapas (El Universal, 13 de septiembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Sigue la violencia entre Aldama y Chenalhó a pesar de pacto de no agresión. (8 de junio de 2019)

Chiapas: Firman pacto de no agresión autoridades de Aldama y Chenalhó (5 de junio de 2019)

Chiapas: encuentran cuerpo del síndico de Aldama quien fungía como alcalde de dicho municipio (6 de mayo de 2019)

Oaxaca: Murder Attempt on CODEDI Member

@Educa Oaxaca

In the early hours of September 22nd, 2019, an armed group attempted to assassinate Cesar Luis Diaz, a member of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Peoples (CODEDI in its Spanish acronym) along with his family. Thousands of bullets were machine-gunned at his home in Santiago Xanica, Miahuatlan, he denounced.

According to the residents of the community and CODEDI, PRI politicians Ricardo Luria, Ermenegildo Martinez and Oscar Valencia would be responsible for the attempted murder.

“We have called for the intervention of the state and federal government but nevertheless they have turned their eyes away, they have become accomplices to these assassins, which reminds me that two years ago on February 12th they slaughtered three of our compañeros in the Cerro Metate Square; today they attempted again against my life and my family for which we urgently demand the immediate intervention of the state and federal government,” explained the victim, Luis Diaz.

He refers to the murders of members Alejandro Antonio Diaz Cruz, Ignacio Basilio Ventura Martínez and Luis Angel Martinez who were executed on February 12th, 2018 on the road when they were returning from a meeting with the state government. In addition to that, Abraham Hernandez González, Regional Coordinator of CODEDI in the Sierra Sur, was murdered on July 17th, 2018 and on October 25th of the same year they shot Noel Castillo Aguilar, also a member of the association.

Apart from these attacks, in 2018, three members of CODEDI were falsely accused of carrying a weapon and arbitrarily detained and the main leaders, general coordinator Abraham Ramirez Vazquez and CODEDI spokesman Fredy Garcia Ramirez, received threats because of their repeated reporting of illegal logging of trees in their region.

Faced with these incidents and the attempted assassination of Cesar Luis Diaz “[they blamed] the Government of the State of Oaxaca for not seeing to the multiple complaints of indigenous defenders.”

“We also want to state publicly that thanks to the action of the people and citizens of Santiago Xanica, we have today retained one of the hitmen who tried to slaughter my family,” added Luis Diaz, the CODEDI coordinator in the Santiago Xanica community.

For more information in Spanish:

Espacio Civil de Oaxaca denuncia 5 ejecuciones extrajudiciales, 4 detenciones arbitrarias y 3 allanamientos contra CODEDI en 2018 (Educa el 26 de octubre de 2018)

Denuncian atentado contra integrante de CODEDI en Xanica (Educa el 23 de septiembre de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Denuncian detención arbitraria de un miembro de CODEDI (13 de febrero de 2019)

Oaxaca: CODEDI denounces military harassment; CNI demands that the repression against its members stop (November 4, 2018)

Oaxaca: fifth member of CODEDI is murdered so far this year (November 2, 2018)

Oaxaca: CODEDI Denounces Military Harassment and Persecution (August 13, 2018)

Oaxaca: Three Members of CODEDI Ambushed and Murdered (February 26, 2018)

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)