Guerrero: national and international organizations visit prisoners of the CECOP and the CRAC-PC

Press Conference at the Las Cruces prison (@La Jornada de Guerreo)

On October 5, members of Services and consultancies for peace (Serapaz), in representation of the Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC), and the International Service for Peace (SIPAZ) visited 16 of the 18 prisoners of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (Cecop) and the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC PC), held in the prison of Las Cruces, in Acapulco, since January 7. They were accompanied by the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, which has assumed the defense of said prisoners.

At a press conference outside the prison after the visit, Alberto Solís Castro, director of Serapaz stated that the struggle that has led the Cecop has been emblematic for the country: “they have resisted for more than 12 years the onslaught of different governments and faced unfair situations and repressions. What we are seeing is a new effort to criminalize them, to stop them and attack them, because they fight for the land, because they oppose a dam megaproject that would end the environment and a good part of community life in the region”. He reported that they will issue a recommendation to the state government to release the prisoners and stressed that at least eight cases of torture during detention were documented. The complaints on those case have not been addressed, despite visits by representatives of state and national human rights organizations. He announced that next week they will report this situation to the person that will be in charge of the Institute of Indigenous Peoples, Adelfo Regino; to the next head of the Welfare Ministry, as well as to Senators Félix Salgado Macedonio and Nestora Salgado García.

Tommy Van Straten, member of Sipaz, indicated that as an international organization with a presence in Guerrero since 2005, they are concerned about the mistreatment of the detainees. He said that in this visit they documented the cases of torture inside the jail and the differential treatment the prisonners have received, including the isolation of the rest of the prison population. He also highlighted the situation and traumas of the prisoners’ relatives.

For his part, Rogelio Téliz García, Tlachinollan’s lawyer, said that the defense process is progressing, that there will be a new hearing on October 26 where the prisonners are expected to be released, such as a group of eight community members already was. He pointed out that there are 50 arrest warrants against the same number of community members in Cacahuatepec who, he said, are being persecuted by the government. He said that this happens despite the fact that the Crac-PC is protected by Law 701.

For more information (in Spanish):

Visitan ONG a los presos del Cecop; documentan 8 casos de tortura (El Sur, 5 de octubre de 2018)

Documentan ONG 8 casos de tortura a presos del Cecop en Acapulco (Quadartín, 5 de octubre de 2018)
Visitan activistas a los presos del Cecop en la cárcel de Las Cruces (El Sur, 6 de octubre de 2018)

Visita una ONG internacional a miembros del Cecop y de la Crac (La Jornada de Guerrero, 6 de octubre de 2018)

Visita SIPAZ a los presos del Cecop y la CRAC PC (La Plaza, 6 de octubre de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Guerrero: 50 arrest warrants against members of CECOP (September 24, 2018)

Guerrero: 9 of the 25 detainees for a confrontation in La Concepción in January are released September 17, 2018

Guerrero: Judge Orders Guarantees for Rights to Water, Health and Dignified Treatment for 25 CECOP Prisoners April 24, 2018

Guerrero: Extrajudicial Executions and Arrests of Community Police and Members of CECOP January 22, 2018

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Chiapas: Humanitarian Aid for Displaced Demanded

(@ Chiapas Paralelo)

On November 27th, Civil Society organizations, including SIPAZ, issued an Urgent Action for the risk to life, security and integrity of communities in the Altos region due to an agrarian conflict between the municipalities of Chenalho and Chalchihuitan, which has been going on for more than 40 years without a solution.

The document reports that there are more than 5000 displaced people today. It details that the displaced communities of Chalchihuitan are: a) Ch’en Mut 700 people, 120 families, 8 pregnant women; b) Pom more than 2000 people, 436 families, 100 pregnant women; c) Tzomolton 800 people, 107 families, 6 pregnant women; d) C’analumtic 600 people, 191 families; e) Bejelton 150 people, 30 families; f) Tulantic 350 people, 50 families; g) Vololch’ojon. 150 people, 40 families; e) Cruz c’ac’al nam 200 people; f) Cruzton 73 people, 20 displaced families. Also affected by the situation of violence are the communities of Balunac’o, Cotolchij, Lobolaltic, Pacanam, Pat C’anteal, Chiquin xulum, Saclum.

From Chenalho, 300 people from Majompepentik and Fraccion Polho moved, in addition to Las Limas and other communities that sleep outside their homes such as Yabteclum, Campo Los Toros, Tsabalho, among others.

In the communique, the organizations urge the Mexican State to respond promptly and expeditiously to this situation of violence that may lead to greater violations of human rights. They request:

“First – The necessary and pertinent precautionary measures are urgently implemented in order to respect, guarantee and protect the life and integrity of the families of Chalchihuitan and Chenalho.

 Second – The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement of the United Nations Organization will be applied to protect the hundreds of families who have fled from the generalized violence and who are in total vulnerability, as well as the affected families who are living in a situation of terror due to the armed actions in the region that are also at risk of increasing the number of forced displacements.

 Third – Free transit and social peace in the communities of Chalchihuitan and Chenalho municipalities are guaranteed, prioritizing the dialogue between the parties under the essential respect of human rights.

Fourth – The murder of Samuel Perez Luna is investigated, those responsible are punished, and armed groups that act with impunity under the permissiveness of the government of Chiapas are disarmed.

 Fifth – In the face of the humanitarian crisis, international and national solidarity is necessary, due to the inefficiency and inability to address this emergency situation on the part of the federal and state governments. Humanitarian aid is urgent for the displaced communities: Food, medicines, blankets, cold clothes, doctors. Contact Caritas de La Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas at the telephone number: 9671203722.”

For its part, the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas issued a statement on November 28 where it expressed its surprise “at the impunity with which the armed groups act to the extent that neither the police nor the Army have been able to be present to prevent the violence, nor to disarm those who impose their control oon the territory and the population through fear.” It also requested actions from the State and called for solidarity to address the humanitarian crisis in which the displaced are.

For more infoemation in Spanish:

Alto al Fuego: Organizaciones urgen ayuda humanitaria para personas desplazadas (CDHFBC, 27 de noviembre de 2017)

Acción Urgente: Violencia generalizada en los municipios de Chalchihuitán y Chenalhó (CDHFBC, 21 de noviembre de 2017)

Acusan a Velasco de encubrir a alcaldesa de Chenalhó y proteger a grupo armado que provocó desplazamiento (Proceso, 28 de noviembre de 2017)

Escalan violencia y desplazados por conflicto agrario en Chiapas (Proceso, 27 de noviembre de 2017)

Entran comuneros de Chenalhó a terreno en disputa con vecinos de Chalchihuitán (La Jornada, 15 de mayo de 2014)

Pronunciamiento de la diócesis de San Cristóbal de Las Casas (28 de noviembre de 2017)

Para más información de SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Otra vez resurgió el conflicto agrario entre los municipios de Chenalhó y Chalchihuitán (14 de noviembre de 2017)

Chiapas: Resurgimiento del conflicto agrario entre los vecinos municipios de Chalchihuitán y Chenalhó (29 de mayo de 2014)

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, October 12th, 2017.

Joint communiqué.

International accompaniment and observation of human rights

The Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, (Frayba) and the International Peace Service (SIPAZ) report that they will be accompanying the caravan organized in the framework of the tour of the National Indigenous Congress and the Indigenous Council of Government, which will take place from October 13th to 19th of this year in the state of Chiapas according to the following announced program:

Friday, October 13th, 2017.- Start of caravan to Las Margaritas.

Saturday, October 14th, 2017.- Village of Guadalupe Tepeyac.

Sunday, October 15th, 2017.- Morelia Caracol.

Monday, October 16th, 2017.- La Garrucha Caracol.

Tuesday October 17th, 2017 .- Roberto Barrios Caracol.

Wednesday, October 18th, 2017.- Palenque.

Thursday October 19th, 2017.- Oventik Caracol.

The objective of the accompaniment will be to provide a presence for observation and documentation for the respect of human rights in the course of the caravan and in the planned events. Regrettably, in the face of the denunciations made by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI in its Spanish acronym) in recent months, which have included threats, attacks and aggressions, we see this deterrent presence as necessary. We consider it important that these activities be carried out with peace of mind, as part of a peaceful organizational effort aimed at defending the rights of indigenous peoples in the country.

The present communiqué is to inform the Mexican authorities and international human rights bodies, so that in their area of ​​competence, they provide guarantees of protection to the caravan, which we reiterate, is a civil and peaceful action.

In the same way, we ask for guarantees of respect and protection of the integrity and safety of the members of the caravan, the right to life, and individual and collective rights and freedoms, guaranteeing in the immediate future the necessary conditions to carry out the caravan, without police accompaniment being considered in the activities.

The members of SIPAZ will be present in the activities wearing vests with the organization logo and the text ‘international observer’.

The members of the Frayba will be accompanying the Caravan as human rights observers.

See: https://www.congresonacionalindigena.org/

We call for permanent accompaniment by international human rights organizations.

We call for national and international solidarity to demand the Mexican State in its three levels of government:

1.- Guarantee the work of human rights defenders in Mexico.

2.- Immediately adopt appropriate measures to guarantee the safety and physical integrity of the members of the Caravan of the National Indigenous Congress as well as the Indigenous Council of Government.

3.- Ensure the implementation of the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9th, 1998.

4.- In general, ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with international human rights standards ratified by Mexico.

We declare that we will be attentive at all points of the tour, with the aim of ensuring respect for human rights and documenting any security incident.

This communiqué has been sent to the authorities of the Mexican State, as well as to international human rights bodies.

For more information:

Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI)

Este sábado se registra Marichuy, la aspirante presidencial zapatista (El Proceso, 6 de octubre de 2017)

La aspirante indígena a la presidencia de México rechaza dinero público para su campaña (El País, 9 de octubre de 2017)

Para más información en ingles:

Mexico’s Indigenous Congress: Decolonising politics (Al Jazeera, 27 de septiembre de 2017)

Zapatista-Backed Indigenous Woman Registers to Run for Mexican Presidency (teleSUR, 7 de octubre de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Nacional : Candidata presidencial “no es decisión de una persona” (Subcomandante Moíses) (15 de noviembre de 2016)

Chiapas / Nacional : CNI y EZLN realizarán consulta para nombrar a una candidata indígena hacia las elecciones presidenciales de 2018 (15 de octubre de 2016)

International/National: Over 100 Guatemalan Campesina Families Take Refuge at Mexican Border

Displaced from Laguna Larga, Guatemala in Campeche (Photo @Radio Pozol)

Since June 2nd, some 120 families of Guatemalan campesinos (between 500 and 700 people) have fled the Laguna Larga community in the Peten area of ​​Guatemala to the Mexican border, where they set up an improvised camp near the El Desengano ejido, Municipality of Candelaria, Campeche on the border line between Guatemala and Mexico. Their forced displacement occurred after the announcement of a massive eviction and the mobilization of more than a thousand members of the National Civil Police (PNC in its Spanish acronym) and the Guatemalan army.

On the Government of Guatemala’s part, according to a Prensa Libre article, the eviction is based on “an eviction order issued by a court in Peten, (where) the National Council of Protected Areas CONAP argues for the conservation of Biosphere as a pretext, but denies and hinders any process or alternative that resolves the recognition of the population that lives within Laguna Larga, Sierra Lacandona and Laguna del Tigre. “

On June 7th, civil organizations conducted an observation and documentation visit and reported “the critical conditions of the camp and the nearly 100 families housed there, and that a preliminary census counts about 450 people. They are conditions that allow us to speak of a humanitarian emergency, which endangers the lives and integrity of children and, in general, of women and all the people settled there.”

They denounced “the grave breaches of the Guatemalan and Mexican governments in the face of a situation of forced displacement and the evident violation of human rights committed by the Guatemalan Army and its government against the population of Laguna Larga, evicted and besieged by security forces of both countries.” They also questioned that “the Mexican government is not responding to the gravity of the situation. Certain food and medical aid, which has been provided by the civilian population rather than by the government, is far from addressing the emergency, to overcome the risk conditions for the vulnerable population under their responsibility.”

For more information in Spanish:

Cientos de campesinos guatemaltecos se instalan en municipio de Campeche (La Jornada,5 de junio de 2017)

Activistas reportan éxodo de 700 guatemaltecos a México (Proceso, 5 de junio de 2017)

Desplazados guatemaltecos quedan varados en línea fronteriza de Campeche (Desinformémonos, 5 de junio de 2017)

Alarma y preocupación ante condiciones de la comunidad Laguna Larga, Petén desplazada forzadamente en la frontera con México (Red TdT, 8 de junio de 2017)

Organizaciones documentan negativa del gobierno a brindar recursos a los desplazados de Guatemala (Desinformémonos, 9 de junio de 2017)

Oaxaca: Book Launch of “Fighting with a Woman’s Heart” in Oaxaca City

On Thursday, February 9 at 6:00 p.m., the International Service for Peace (SIPAZ) will launch “Fighting with a Woman’s Heart. The Situation and Participation of Women in Chiapas (1995-2015) “, a diagnosis of the main changes in the last 20 years, at the offices of Consorcio Oaxaca, Calle Pensamientos, 104, Colonia Reforma, Oaxaca City. Join us!

For more information from SIPAZ :

Artículo : SIPAZ: “Luchar con corazón de mujer – Situación y participación de las mujeres en Chiapas (1995-2015)”

Libro completo : « Luchar con corazón de mujer : Situación y participación de las mujeres 1995-2015 »

Chiapas: Frayba Presents its Annual Report “Paths of Resistance”

On December 19, the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) presented its “Annual Report: Paths of Resistance”, in an event attended by Marina Pages, coordinator of the International Service for Peace (SIPAZ); Ana Valadez Ortega, member of the Center for Studies for Change in the Mexican Field (CECCAM); Rafael Landerreche Morin, member of the Pastoral Team of Chenalho; Marcelo Perez Perez, parish priest of Simojovel and coordinator of the Social Pastoral of the Chiapas Province, as well as Pedro Faro Navarro, director of CDHFBC.

 The objective of the book is to “make visible the men and women, people and communities organized in the construction of dreams and hopes that crack the system, generate life and dignity, ways of resistance to this cruel and bloodthirsty reality that we live in Mexico.”

It has five chapters: “Detention and Megaprojects, Impacts on Human Rights”, “Forced Displacement in a War Context”, “From Discredit to Repression” (focused on human rights defenders), “From Internal Armed Conflict to Widespread Violence”, and “In the Midst of the Whistling of the Mountains, the Call to Truth and Justice ” (on historical memory and the “Other Justice “).

For more information in Spanish:

Informe completo “Los caminos de la Resistencia” (CDHFBC, diciembre de 2016)

Lucha de EZLN por DH de indígenas, blanco de ataques: Frayba (La Jornada, 20 de diciembre de 2016)

« Andamos los caminos de la resistencia » (Boletín de prensa, CDHFBC, 19 de diciembre de 2016)

Persisten violaciones a derechos a 19 años de masacre de Acteal: Frayba (Proceso, 19 de diciembre de 2016)

Los caminos de la resistencia: Informe Frayba 2016 (Audios, Radio Zapatista, 19 de diciembre de 2016)

Documenta Frayba, despojos, megaproyectos y ataques contra defensores de DH; en Chiapas, “ocasionadas por el Estado mexicano” (Revolucion 3.0, 20 de diciembre de 2016)

 For more information from SIPAZ :

Nacional : presentación del informe “Defender los derechos humanos en México, la normalización de la represión política” (31 de agosto de 2016)

Chiapas: SIPAZ event – 20 years accompanying lights of hope

SIPAZ Forum “20 years Accompanying Lights of Hope”

Photo @SIPAZ

On 27 and 28 November was held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas the Forum “20 years Accompanying Lights of Hope” to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the International Service for Peace (SIPAZ). Those participating in the event included women and men from communities, organizations, human-rights centers, the academy, as well as activists, both from Mexico and other countries. By means of panels, the invited speakers shared reflections regarding their experiences, situating them also within an historical analysis incorporating the principal tendencies, challenges, and obstacles. The event stressed concern for the present situation in the country, given that participants agreed that we are in a war situation.

Two media based in the lessons learned through SIPAZ’s years of work in Mexico were presented at the event. One was a documentary, entitled “That the Heart Not Break. Non-Violent Struggles for Justice and Defense of Land,” produced in collaboration with the Koman Ilel community media collective. The video was presented with the participation of the involved communities and organizations: communities displaced below Tila and the Las Abejas Civil Society, based in Chiapas, along with the Council of Peoples United in Defense of the Green River (COPUDEVER), from Oaxaca. In parallel, the book Struggle with a Woman’s Heart: The Situation and Participation of Women in Chiapas (1995-2015), was presented and discussed. This volume brings together the major experiences and lessons from women’s struggle to participate and for gender equality.

For more information (in Spanish):

SIPAZ: 20 años acompañando luces de esperanza (EDUCA, 1 de diciembre de 2015)