Chiapas: Celebration in Defense of Mother Earth in San Cristobal de Las Casas

Photo@ Cuarto Poder

On May 20th, Ecclesial Base Communities (CEB in its Spanish acronym), in coordination with the pastoral ministry of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas and various organizations of the city, made a pilgrimage, for the care of Life and Mother Earth in the Jovel Valley.

They walked from the La Kisst wetland to Cuxtitali square, stood in front of Na Bolom and Pronatura, to exhort them to work for the good of Mother Earth and “called on them not to deviate from their goals and their ideals.”

They also expressed concern about the health situation in Chiapas and expressed their solidarity with the nurses on hunger strike.

 For more information in Spanish:

Realizan celebración por la Madre Tierra, Cuarto Poder, 22 de mayo de 2017

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional: Relator Especial de Naciones Unidas sobre los derechos humanos al agua y el saneamiento concluyó visita a México, (16/04/2017)

Chiapas : llevan a cabo II Foro en defensa de la Madre Tierra y el Territorio, (17/04/2017)

Chiapas : Peregrinación de unos 400 católicos en defensa de los pueblos, la Madre Tierra y por la liberación de presos, (06/09/20

Chiapas: Celebration of Simojovel Believing People

Father Marcelo Perez at the Celebration in Simojovel, April 2017. Photo: @Acteal Las Abejas

From April 4th to 6th, Simojovel Believing People organized a series of events, including the appointment of two brothers who received the ministry of permanent deacons, and the fifteenth year of ordination as a priest of Father Marcelo Perez Perez, parish priest of Simojovel.

On April 4th and 5th, Father Arriaga Alarcon SJ, Father Gustavo Andrade Hernandez, parish priest in San Bartolome Carranza and Father Jose Aviles SJ, parish priest of the Chilon-Bachajon Mission participated in the masses and spaces for reflection on the Word Of God and the mission of the Believing People.

On April 6th, a Mass was celebrated, presided over by the bishops of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel and Bishop Enrique Diaz Diaz.

All the events were animated by the Simojovel choir “United in Jesus”, regional music from different villages.

SweFor and SIPAZ accompanying Father Marcelo at the celebration Photo: @PuebloCreyente

 For more information in Spanish:

Jtotik Marcelo hace 15 años Papá Mamá Dios te eligió para trabajar en su milpa. (Organización Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal, a 6 de abril de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Peregrinación del Pueblo Creyente

Chiapas: El Pueblo Creyente peregrinó en Tuxtla en apoyo a las y los maestros

Chiapas: Pueblo Creyente de Simojovel rechaza diálogo con los hermanos Gómez

Oaxaca/National: Fresh Death Threats against Father Solalinde

Taken from Youtube

Since March 27, a 20-second video of 20 has begun circulating on YouTube in which a distorted voice threatens Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, defender of the rights of the migrants and proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize, with death: “Father Solalinde, don’t talk bullshit, you have trafficked with the bodies of many migrant minors, and we ask you to shut your mouth or we will take the lives that you know scoundrel, greetings.”

A sheet of paper appears as background image on which is written “Father Solalinde”, and surrounded by seven bullets and a cross. It should be noted that the Twitter account and the image used to threaten Solalinde are the same as those used to attack journalist Andrea Noel last March 15.

These new threats could be due to statements made by the priest about organized crime during his tour of Veracruz to accompany the governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares at a meeting with mothers of disappeared persons and in the context of which many denunciations were made against the current administration and the Attorney General’s Office.

Faced with these new threats, Father Solalinde said in an interview with Imagen del Golfo: “A risk review has just been made, but I sincerely tell you: what can my security matter when the whole country is as it is?” In his Twitter account, he ratified “they will not silence me, I will make the voices of those who have less, of those forgotten be heard more strongly!”

For more information in Spanish:

Con VIDEO amenazan de muerte al padre Solalinde, defensor de migrantes y activista social (Sin Embargo, 27 de marzo de 2017)

Amenazan de muerte al sacerdote Alejandro Solalinde (SDP Noticias, 27 de marzo de 2017)

Amenazas de muerte en mi contra no paran, pero no seré omiso ante el dolor: Solalinde (Imagen del Golfo, 25 de marzo de 2017)

Iglesia calló sobre fosas por favores que recibió de Herrera y Duarte: Solalinde (La Silla Rota, 22 de marzo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Internacional: Nominan al padre Solalinde para Premio Nobel de la Paz 2017 (23 de marzo de 2017)

Nacional/Oaxaca: el padre Solalinde declara que el flujo migratorio no disminuirá a pesar de las nuevas medidas federales (1ero de agosto de 2014)

Oaxaca: Padre Solalinde recibe Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos por su trabajo a favor de migrantes (11 de diciembre de 2012)

Chiapas: Conflict between Parties Unleashes Violence in Chenalho

Families displaced due to violence in Chenalho Photo@:Quorum Informativo

In March, faced with the context of violence stemming from the post-electoral conflict in the municipality of Chenalho, several organizations and the Coordination of the Parish of San Pedro Apostol of this municipality issued statements to express their concerns, demand that the State to disarm armed groups and ensure the integrity and personal safety and life of the villagers of the municipality.

The parish of San Pedro Apostol recalled in its pronouncement how the Massacre of Acteal came about almost twenty years ago and declared with great concern “how history seems to repeat itself: acts of violence, threats, dead and wounded, displaced people, burnt houses, actions by armed groups, arms trafficking.” What most distresses the parish is that “the authorities do nothing to solve the problem (…) they abandon their responsibility to enforce justice and the law, which is the only reason for their existence as authorities.” It points out that the two sides of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) are armed with weapons considered “for exclusive use by the army.” So far, the conflict has resulted in over 200 displaced persons and four deaths: “It is public and notorious that in the municipality the armed groups have bee reactivated and are acting with total freedom and impunity.” The parish called on the inhabitants of Chenalho so that “as Christians they refrain from engaging in acts of violence against their own brothers.”

In a joint statement, civil organizations blamed the State for “action and omission, in a context of violence that could continue to escalate.” They also alleged that they had been insisting on the disarmament of the paramilitary groups that perpetrated the Acteal Massacre in 1997 and that “not only have they not listened to us in terms of disarmament, but also the armed groups have been reactivated under the current administration of Governor Manuel Velasco Coello.” They stated that, “the authorities cannot continue to evade their responsibility in the face of the evident and obvious consequences of the unpunished actions of armed groups and arms trafficking in the region.”

They asked if “this mode of action is a prolongation of the counterinsurgency in which the paramilitaries are the material executors of the plan drawn up by the Army? Is it connivance and active complicity of the authorities with criminal groups? Or is it simple and crass inability to govern? Or perhaps it is a question of creating a sense of ungovernability to justify the Internal Security Law that seeks to institutionalize the action of the Mexican Army in tasks that correspond by their nature to civil authority?”

 For more information in Spanish:

En Chiapas imposición y violencia son la forma de gobernar: ONGs; “confrontaciones son encabezados por PRI y PVEM” (Revolución 3.0, 21 de marzo de 2017)

Pronunciamiento conjunto: Chiapas: Imposición y violencia como modo de gobierno (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 20 de marzo de 2017)

Zozobra en Chenalhó ante inminente violencia por la disputa del poder político, económico y social (Chiapas en contacto, 15 de marzo de 2017

Manifiesta parroquia preocupación por violencia (La Jornada, 14 de marzo de 2017)

 For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas : Dos muertos y decenas de heridos en Chenalhó por disputa de la alcaldía (9 de marzo de 2017)

Chiapas: TEPJF ordena restitución de alcaldesa de Oxchuc (5 de septiembre de 2016)

Chiapas : Restitución en su cargo de alcaldesa de Chenalhó hace temer nueva situación de violencia (22 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: Riesgo de más violencia en Chenalhó después de secuestro y cambio de alcalde (31 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Protestas post electorales en el municipio de Chenalhó (6 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Call for the jTatik Samuel jCanan Lum 2018 Recognition Award

Photo@Denuncia Publica

On January 26, in San Cristobal de Las Casas, the call for jTatik Samuel jCanan Lum 2018 Recognition Award was launched. This call is extended to social and civil organizations, churches and religious groups, groups and grassroots organizations to participate in the promotion and presentation of candidates to receive this recognition in 2018 as part of its sixth installment.

The “JTatic Samuel jCanan Lum” Recognition aims at recognizing the work of women and men, organizations and groups that have been characterized by their contribution to the people in the construction of community and/or regional alternatives, as well as their work for unity and peaceful social transformation, as well as spreading and encouraging this work.

The sixth installment will take place in January 2018. The recognition has its roots in the year 1999, when after 40 years of service in the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, of accompanying and defending the then smaller ones of the Mexican southeast, the Zoque, Chol, Tojolabal, Tsotil, Tseltal peoples of Chiapas, recognized Tatik Samuel Ruiz as jCanan Lum/Caretaker of the People.

 For more information in Spanish:

Convocatoria reconocimiento jTatik Samuel jCanan Lum, enero 2017

For more information from SIPAZ:

Entrega del 5to reconocimiento jTatik Samuel Jcanan Lum, 1 de febrero 2016

Chiapas: Entrega del Reconocimiento jTatik Samuel, jCanan Lum 2016, 23 de enero de 2016

Chiapas: Convocatoria reconocimiento jTatik Samuel Jcanan Lum 2015,  28 de enero 2015

Oaxaca/National: Migrant’s Stations of the Cross Demands Right to Refuge for Migrants

Scene from Migrant’s Stations of the Cross 2016. Photo:@Istmo Press

For the ninth consecutive year, migrants associated with the “Hermanos en el Camino” [Brothers on the Road] hostel in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, enacted out the now traditional Migrant’s Stations of the Cross. As the moral reference point that Jesus represents for the migrants in this Stations of the Cross, the suffering of the prophet on the path to the cross was compared with the violations of human rights of people in transit through Mexico to the United States. Violations such as kidnapping or extortion, perpetrated by organized crime groups and elements of the Mexican State against undocumented individuals “causes quite a suffering Stations of the Cross for the migrants”, Friar Tomas, the director of the hostel “La 72” for migrants in Tenosique in Tabasco, pointed out. The acting out of the scenes from the Stations of the Cross was a way of visualizing and denouncing those violations, as well as recognizing the good will and bravery “of those who, despite suffering this violence, do not give up their path and continue to struggle”, La Jornada noted.

Likewise, the event called on the authorities to recognize people expelled from their countries of origin due to situations of violence or poverty as refugees, guaranteeing them free transit through the Republic. Friar Tomas stated that, “our country has the obligation to protect citizens, including those from other countries that pass through our country, especially those who flee because of violence or poverty.” In an interview for MVS Noticias, the friar claimed that in the last 12 months “Mexico deported more migrants than the United States”, expelling 300,000 people in recent months. According to the human rights defender, two out every three undocumented people are rejected through the Frontera Sur [Southern Border] program, designed to prevent migration to the neighboring country. In the words of the founder of “Hermanos en el Camino”, Alejandro Solalinde, “we struggle for a country where human rights are respected and we respect everybody.”

For more information in Spanish:

Encabeza Solalinde el Viacrucis del Migrante (La Jornada, 25 de marzo de 2016)

Pide quinto Viacrucis Migrante reconocer a refugiados (Noticias MVS, 21 de marzo de 2016)

Viacrucis migrante en Ixtepec, Oaxaca 2016 (Istmo Press, 26 de marzo de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Internacional: WOLA presentó nuevo informe: “Siguen violaciones a Derechos Humanos de migrantes” (19 de noviembre de 2015)

México: 5 años de la masacre de 72 migrantes en San Fernando, Tamaulipas (26 de agosto de 2015)

Nacional/internacional: La CIDH expresa su preocupación ante el endurecimiento de las autoridades mexicanas hacia los migrantes y sus defensores en la frontera Sur (17 de junio de 2015)

Oaxaca/Nacional: Detenciones de migrantes una vez finalizado el Viacrucis “Fronteras Aliadas” (21 de abril de 2015)

National/Chiapas: Visit of Pope Francis to Mexico and San Crsitobal de Las Casas

Photo @ Alejandra Carrilo

A few days ago the bishops of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas published a letter about the visit of Pope Francis on February 15, including criticisms of the organization of the event: “it still pains us in our hearts that many of you, indigenous and mestizos, from near and far, could not enter the place where mass was celebrated, in spite of having arrived very early, having your entrance ticket, and having made a great effort to come. We do not know if it was only disorganization of the Presidential General Staff, on whom entrance depended, of if there were other perverse and exclusive intentions. What happened was unjust, inhumane, inexplicable, and very painful. This did not depend on the diocese, but on the federal civil authorities. We express our solidarity with those who couldn’t enter and make our word known to those responsible.”

On another note, it is important to mention that during the Pope’s mass in San Cristobal, which included some common rituals in the indigenous religious ceremonies and which had parts in regional languages such as Tsotsil, Tseltal and Ch’ol, religious celebration in indigenous languages was formalized by papal decree.

Another act of Francis, which had very little media coverage, was the visit to the tomb of Samuel Ruiz Garcia, who was bishop of San Cristobal for 40 years. “This visit, even if short and undervalued, is a very important sign to understand the type of church that Pope Francis wants to promote. With this visit, Francis is supporting the more than 40 years that Samuel had as bishop promoting an autochthonous church in Chiapas, a church where being Catholic does not imply ceasing to be indigenous. This church, more coherent with the message of the gospels than with the dogmas of Rome was criticized and attacked by his ‘brother’ bishops for a long time. With this visit Francis says Samuel and his episcopal practice were correct, five years after his death.”

The other notable locations that the Pope visited during his trip to Mexico from February 12 to 17 were the State of Mexico, with high levels of femicide; Ciudad Juarez, also known for its high levels of femicide and the exploitation of workers in sweatshops; and Michoacan, which stands out for violence related to organized crime.

For more information in Spanish:

Lamenta Arizmendi que 10 mil indígenas no hayan visto al Papa (La Jornada, 21 de febrero de 2016)

La iglesia autóctona y Francisco (La Jornada, 17 de febrero de 2016)

Honra el Papa a Samuel Ruiz, el obispo defensor de los pobres (Proceso, 15 de febrero de 2016)

Papa Francisco reivindica la defensa de los pueblos indígenas con su visita a Chiapas (Proceso, 15 de febrero de 2016)

‪VIDEO:  Pope visits Mexico’s indigenous Chiapas state (Al Jazeera, 15 de febero de 2016)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Entrega del 5to reconocimiento jTatik Samuel Jcanan Lum (1 de febrero de 2016)

Chiapas/Nacional: Varias actividades en el marco del cuarto aniversario luctuoso del obispo emérito de San Cristóbal de las Casas, Samuel Ruiz García (29 de enero de 2015)

Chiapas: Peregrinación del Pueblo Creyente en el marco del cuarto aniversario luctuoso de Don Samuel Ruiz (25 de enero de 2015)