Chiapas: San Isidro Los Laureles Community reclaims lands that “our grandfathers, grandmothers and parents worked as serfs”

Members of the community of San Isidro Los Laureles, municipality of Venustiano Carranza, decided to reclaim “about 165 hectares from various properties: “Tres Picos” (property of Octovín Albores, owner of 30 hectares), “Las Delicias” (property of Francisco Javier Ruíz, owner of 60 hectares), and “El Refugio’ estate (property of Rodrigo Ruíz, owner of 75 hectares)” on December 20th. The members of the community declared that, “our grandfathers, grandmothers and parents who were serfs worked these lands. Since 1940 they have worked on minimum wage and have never received loans or bonuses. We reclaim these lands for our families because we no longer have anywhere to live or work for the livelihood of the families as indigenous people.”

They also mentioned that in 1994 they had already used these lands after a failed attempt to reclaim them in which they were evicted “with convoy, the marine and helicopter,” and explained that “today the need has arisen for the families that have nowhere to live of work, nor livelihood for the family, where they can have beans to eat.”

In a communiqué issued after December 29th, ten days after reclaiming the lands, they reported they could be evicted between January 2nd and 5th from the lands that “legitimately belong to us, by those who say they are the owners, Francisco Ruíz, Rodrigo Ruíz, Octovin Albores, along with Jesus Orantes Ruíz, and other smallholders, from the three properties we have reclaimed.” Furthermore “we fear that the same eviction could occur with excessive violence as happened in 1994 when we decided to reclaim the same properties when the state intervened unleashing repression, violently evicting our people.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Para inicios de enero, amenazan de desalojo a campesinos de Chiapas que recuperaron las tierras de sus ancestros (Colectivo Pozol, 30 de diciembre de 2015)

Comunidad de San Isidro Los Laureles, se pronuncia por recuperación de tierras en municipio de Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas (Koman Ilel, 20 de diciembre de 2015)

Recuperan tierras comunales en Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas (Desinformémonos, 23 de diciembre de 2015)

Tsotsiles adherentes a La Sexta recuperaron tierras de manos de caciques priístas en Carranza, Chiapas (Más de 131, 27 de diciembre de 2015)

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National: Federal police deployed to states that reject the the performance evaluations; activities to repudiate the educational reform are announced

Photo @ Página 3

On 14 and 15 November, there was held the national exam on teachers’ knowledge, abilities, and competencies that forms part of the performance evaluation.  According to the Teachers’ Professional Docent, 40,303 teachers participated in 25 states of Mexican, comprising almost 97.8% of all teachers.  Following this first performance evaluation, protests raged in at least 10 states, and the Minister for Public Education (SEP), Aurelio Nuño Mayer, decided to dismiss the state delegates from Durango, Tlaxcala, Sonora, Zacatecas, and Morelos, after carrying out the first assessment of the evaluation.

In Chiapas, teachers affiliated with the National Coordination of Educational Workers (CNTE) mobilized from 13-15 November in marches wherein more than 30,000 teachers participated.  The CNTE teachers indicated that their demands are very clear: “suspension of the educational reform, rejection of punitive evaluations, and liberation for our political prisoners.”  With this last comment, they made reference to the 4 Oaxacan teachers who were arrested and transferred to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation in Altiplano, Mexico State, in October.  Amidst these protests, the evaluations were pushed back until December in Chiapas.

In Michoacán, 5,000 police arrived to the capital Morelia to guarantee that the exam take place on 21-22 November.  It was reported that the federal agents came prepared with anti-riot equipment, shields, and helmets, beyond their weapons.

In Oaxaca, Governor Gabino Cué Monteagudo sent his general secretary of governance, Alfonso Gómez Sandoval Hernández, to present the V Report of the State Government to the congress.  The absence of the governor had to with the fact that Section 22 of the National Union of Educational Workers (SNTE-CNTE) planned to mobilize at the site where the report was to be presented.  As such, it was surrounded by nearly 2,000 state and federal police.

In other news, Section 22 of the SNTE-CNTE made public the agreements it had made at the Broad National Representative Assembly (ANRA) on 18 November in Mexico City.  Representatives declared that on 26 November, in observance of a global day of action for Ayotzinapa and Mexico, the teachers participated in a march in the city, at the end of which they installed an indefinite sit-in for the relatives of the 43 student-teachers from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, to pressure the government to implement the recommendations made by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR).  Beyond this, on 14 and 15 November they plan to march in the national caravan to Altiplano to demand the release of the politically imprisoned teachers.  Lastly, they called on the secretary of public education, Aurelio Nuño, to hold a public debate with the CNTE.

For more information (in Spanish):

Maestros se manifestaron el fin de semana (Chiapas Paralelo, 16 de noviembre de 2015)

Cué termina como Ulises Ruiz: acorralado por el magisterio y blindado por fuerzas estatales y federales (Página 3, 16 de noviembre de 2015)

Acuerdan maestros movilizaciones y debate con la SEP (Libertad Oaxaca, 19 de noviembre de 2015)

Remueve la SEP a 5 delegados (Reforma, 18 de noviembre de 2015)

Arriban a Michoacán 5 mil policías para garantizar evaluación docente (Proceso, 19 de noviembre de 2015)

Acuden a evaluación más de 40 mil maestros de 25 entidades (Proceso, 16 de noviembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Oaxaca: Low participation in teachers’ performance evaluation (26 December 2015)

Guerrero: Teachers in Acapulco successfully sabotage educational evaluation (26 December 2015)

Guerrero: Teacher from Acapulco dies after violent repression of a protest by the Federal Police (10 March 2015)

National: Thousands of teachers march against the educational reform (4 October 2013)

Chiapas: nine municipalities declare their lands free of mining and dams

Public reading of the declaration
Photo: @DesInformémonos

Nine municipalities of the Sierra Madre and the Soconusco in Chiapas state have ratified the declaration that their lands have been freed of mining operations and dams. Using the III Declaration of Tapachula for Lands Freed of Dams and Mining in the Sierra Madre and Llanura Costera of Chiapas, some 40 indigenous and campesino ejidos, communities, and social organizations reaffirmed their commitment (adopted in 2013) to the defense of their territories against plundering as carried out by transnational corporations. The municipalities of Tuzantan, Huehuetan, Motozintla, Tapachula, Escuintla, Acacoyagua, Chicomuselo, and Comalapa denounced the collusion of municipal and state governments with the firms to obtain permits for the exploitation of lands and rivers. They also rejected the models of development, water management, and energy policy that have been imposed in Mexico by structural reforms, particularly the energy reform.

“In light of the opposition against extractive projects on our lands, we propose to organize and link ourselves with other struggles that seek to defend their rights and the natural resources of water and land.” In this way, the representatives of the municipalities affirmed that they have ties with other movements, especially in Jalisco, Nayarit, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Veracruz. These are alliances with other struggles over the right to decide what happens on their lands, in favor of living well and strengthening oneself amidst the repression meted out toward defenders of the Earth.

It bears recalling that on 30 November the Union of Campesinos and Fisherfolk of the Sierra and Coast of Chiapas also declared their municipalities free of dams and mining operations.

For more information (in Spanish):

Declaran libre de minería y represas a nueve municipios de la Sierra , Costa y Soconusco (Chiapas Paralelo, 9 de diciembre de 2015)

TERCERA DECLARACIÓN DE TAPACHULA, POR TERRITORIOS LIBRES DE REPRESAS Y MINERÍA EN SIERRA MADRE del SUR Y LLANURA COSTERA DE CHIAPAS (Luna Sexta, 9 de diciembre de 2015)

40 ejidos de Chiapas se declaran libres de minería e hidroeléctricas (DesInformémonos, 11 de diciembre de 2015)

Chiapas: Movilización 30 de Noviembre por la defensa de la tierra y el territorio (Otros Mundos, 29 de noviembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Mining reactivation is denounced in the state (3 March 2015)

Chiapas: popular rejection of dams and mining projects in the Tapachula, Motozintla, Huixtla, and Huehuetán region (December 17, 2014)

Chiapas: 5 years since the murder of mining critic Mariano Abarca (December 15, 2014)

Chiapas: Third Forum for the Defense and Care of Mother Earth in Chicomuselo (December 6, 2014)

Chiapas/National: National and international day for political prisoners, from 6 to 13 December

From 6 to 13 December was held a national and international action in solidarity with political prisoners in Mexico and the world. In recent dates, the Network against Repression and for Solidarity (RvsR) called for a national meeting with adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, students from the Zapatista Escuelita, communities, groups, and organizations in solidarity, toward the end of developing accords and tasks to “continue the struggle for the freedom of our comrade political prisoners.” From this National Meeting of the RvsR for Our Political Prisoners and the Eurozapatista Meeting of Barcelona came the call for this week of action that seeks to build bridges of dialogue with all those who “also build from their spaces places for struggle, because the struggle for our comrade political prisoners is not something to forget, but instead is a basic act of justice.” The action called on adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, students from the Zapatista Escuelita, communities, groups, and organizations in solidarity to carry out actions “in solidarity and camaradery with our friends taken by power.”

The action served to commemorate the men and women who have been politically imprisoned in Chiapas, Mexico City, Tlanixco (Mexico State), Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, and the U.S. whom the “capitalist system seeks to eliminate, using tools of isolation and forgetting.” This was accomplished through different events, meetings, expositions, murals, chats, flyers, performances, and conferences throughout Mexico and the world.

Presently, Chiapas has four political prisoners who adhere to the Sixth Declaration: Alejandro Díaz Sántiz, Emilio Jiménez Gómez, Esteban Gómez Jiménez, and Santiago Moreno Pérez. The families, ex-prisoners, friends, and comrades of Alejandro Díaz Sántiz, a Tsotsil indigenous man and a “struggling prisoner” who adheres to the Sixth Declaration, held a press-conference on 14 December regarding his case and transfer on 10 September to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation (CEFERESO) in Villa de Comamtitlán, Chiapas. At the press-conference, which took place at the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, the relatives, “ex-prisoners, friends, and comrades” of Alejandro denounced that “he finds himself in isolation, with a very limited ability to communicate with the outside […]. He is held all day in his cell, with only 30 minutes outside, without access to readings, photographs, and much less correspondence. Neither does he enjoy any right to an education, nor does he have access even to paper and pencils.”

In its communique, the RvsR reaffirmed its “commitment to not giving up the struggle for a world without political prisoners, repression, marginalization, exploitation, or plundering: in sum, for a world that is just, free, and democratic.” Besides, amidst the power of the “Capitalist Hydra that uses repression as one of its basic pillars, we are not intimidated, but rather we will learn how to respond with organization, rebellion, and resistance.”

For more information (in Spanish):

JORNADA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL POR NUESTR@S PRES@S DEL 6 AL 13 DE DICIEMBRE (Red Contra la Represión y por la Solidaridad, 1 de diciembre de 2015)

Jornada Nacional e Internacional por Nuestr@s Pres@s del 6 al 13 de diciembre (Enlace Zapatista, 2 de diciembre de 2015)

Presos Políticos (Red contra la Represión y por la Solidaridad)

Jornada por Nuestr@s Pres@s: Audios y Videos (Radio Zapatista, 8 de diciembre de 2015)

Red Contra la Represión: Actividades dentro de la Jornada Nacional e Internacional por Nuestr@s Pres@s y pláticas con familiares de Nuestr@s Pres@s (Enlace Zapatista, 12 de diciembre de 2015)

“No olvidamos a los hombres y mujeres que el sistema capitalista pretende eliminar, bajo sus instituciones de aislamiento y de olvido”, jornada x pres@s polític@s. (Radio Pozol, 14 de diciembre)

Los presos del Ejido de San Sebastián Bachajón, del municipio de Chilón. (6 de diciembre, Kolectivo Zero)

Alejandro Díaz Santiz (Kolectivo Zero, 8 de diciembre de 2015)

Sin acceso a lecturas, imágenes, correspondencia y con visitas cada 15 días, mantienen preso injustamente a indígena tzeltal en Chiapas. (Radio Pozol, 15 de diciembre de 2015)

Pronunciamiento de Solidaridad y comunicado de los familiares y amigxs de Alejandro Diaz Santiz (Espoir Chiapas, 15 de diciembre de 2015)

Álvaro Sebastián (8 de diciembre de 2015, Subversiones)

Audio del mitin de solidaridad con Ostula y por la Libertad de Semei Verdia Comandante Comunitario.Casa de Michoacan en DF (Noticias de Abajo ML, 14 de diciembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Alejandro Díaz Sántiz and 386 other prisoners transferred to high-security prison (8 October 2015)

Chiapas: Alejandro Díaz expresses his solidarity with the disappeared students of Ayotzinapa and their families (30 December 2014)

Chiapas: Annual report from Frayba on “Human-Rights Insurgency”

Participation by Estela Barco during presentation of report @ SIPAZ

On 5 November, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) presented its annual report that carries the title “The Human-Rights Insurgency,” which deals with the “perspective, questions, and situations” that the CDHFBC has documented and monitored in Chiapas from March 2014 to March 2015. During the presentation of the document, several members of the directive council of CDHFBC spoke, including Blanca Martínez Bustos, director of the Fray Juan de Larios Center for Human Rights; Jorge Santiago Santiago; Estela Barco Huerta, general coordinator for the Social and Economic Development of Indigenous Mexicans; and the president of the council, jtatik Raúl Vera López, bishop of Saltillo.

The CDHFBC described the present context as a moment that “is a dark time, amidst the implementation of saddening repressive measures that constitute State terrorism, whereby military occupation and the state of siege are normalized. With this, the violations that make up crimes against humanity such as torture, forcible disappearance, extrajudicial executions, femicide, and forcible displacement, among other crimes, are daily occurrences in Chiapas and Mexico.”

The document proclaims the comprehensive defense of human rights that is the work of the CDHFBC. The questions it addressed include torture, impunity, defense of land and territory, as well as the ongoing war context, which in the report corresponds to four chapters: Torture, an implicit negation; A look at the cracks of impunity; War in Chiapas, territory, and peoples; and Reality of war-context.

The CDHFBC expressed that torture “is engrained and generalized in the Mexican justice system, and it is not only denied but even rationalized.” From the perspective of historical memory, remembrance is the principal pillar “of the struggle of victims and their families in the cases of crimes against humanity […]. They collectively protect and transmit memory against forgetting and impunity.” With regard to the “internal armed conflict in Chiapas,” the “communities and organizational processes persist and resist in defense of their autonomy and territory amidst State policies that seek to plunder land, spirit, and culture.” Lastly, the chapter on “Reality” is dedicated to the Zapatista teacher Galeano, who was murdered on 2 May 2014 in La Realidad, official municipality of Las Margaritas, Chiapas.

For more information (in Spanish):

Informe: La Insurgencia de los Derechos Humanos

Boletín Frayba presenta su Informe Anual: La Insurgencia de los Derechos Humanos (CDHFBC, 4 de noviembre de 2015)

Despojo territorial, espiritual y cultural, una constante en Chiapas: Frayba (Chiapas Paralelo, 6 de noviembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: 25-year anniversary of “Frayba” (30 March 2014)

Chiapas: Presentation of the six-year report from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights (26 March 2013)

 

Chiapas: Ninth anniversary of the Viejo Velasco massacre

Beginning at dawn on 13 November, members of the XINICH organization, which pertains to the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and adheres to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, in their proper communities began a day of prayer and fasting that will last 13 Sundays in commemoration of the nine years since the Viejo Velasco massacre. Relatives of victims and survivors of the massacre called on “all brothers and sisters from civil society to join this action so that, with your families, organization, and communities, you carry out symbolic actions to accompany us.”

Nine years after the massacre, they manifested that they have not “found justice. The government has not punished those responsible, and there has been no effective or efficient investigation of those intellectually and materially responsible for these human-rights violations.” Beyond this, they denounced that the “bad government has not sought out and thus does not know the whereabouts of our brothers Antonio Peñate López and Mariano Pérez Guzmán, who continue to be forcibly disappeared.”

It bears mentioning that on 13 November 2006, at 6am, in the community of Viejo Velasco, Ocosingo, Chiapas, adjacent to the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in the Lacandon Jungle, a group of 40 persons from the New Palestine community accompanied by 300 units from the sectorial police invaded the community and attacked its indigenous Tseltal, Tsotsil, and Ch’ol residents, leaving four dead, four others disappeared, and 20 men, 8 women, and 8 children forcibly displaced, being survivors of the assault.

For more information (in Spanish):

Noveno aniversario de la Masacre de Viejo Velasco (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

Jornada de oración y ayuno en el noveno aniversario de la Masacre de Viejo Velasco (Frayba, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

Jornada de oración y ayuno en el noveno aniversario de la Masacre de Viejo Velasco (Rostros de Despojo, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

Chiapas “Civiles armados, policías, funcionarios y servidores públicos, cometieron la Masacre de Viejo Velasco en Ocosingo”, DDHH. (Radio Pozol, 13 de noviembre de 2015)

A nueve años de la masacre de Viejo Velasco, pobladores anuncian jornada de oración y ayuno (14 de noviembre de 2015)

Jornada de oración y ayuno en el noveno aniversario de la Masacre de Viejo Velasco (CGT Chiapas, 16 de noviembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Pilgrimage in Palenque, eight years after the Viejo Velasco massacre; beginning of “Faces of looting” campaign (6 December 2014)

Chiapas: 7 years since the Viejo Velasco massacre (7 December 2013)

Chiapas: 5 years after the Viejo Velasco massacre (26 November 2011)

 

Chiapas: Believing People of Simojovel continue to defend “life, peace, justice, freedom, and democracy” y democracia”

On 3 November by means of a public denunciation, the Believing People from the San Antonio de Pádua parish in Simojovel expressed gratitude for the accompaniment by all those who have walked beside them, reviewing the different meetings of the past few months as well as the mass-pilgrimage from Simojovel to Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Furthermore, they reported on the present situation that they are experiencing, noting that they are “disappointed with the different levels of government” and that despite their “peaceful actions, the situation remains the same” amidst their demands. They denounced that “the number of bars has actually increased,” and furthermore that “these firms have more power than state and federal officials, such that it is clear that the governors are not governmental but rather financial […].”

In light of a situation that “does not improve,” the Believing People will continue to organize themselves “so as to find the true freedom for our people, as we see clearly the complicity due to the omission of the authorities at the three levels of governance in terms of the beer-making firms and the drug-traffickers.” They assured that “true change does not come from a political party, because the major problem is the governmental and political-economic system,” adding that they will not “keep silent, because to do so would be to become complicit.” The principal demand made by the Believing People continues to be “the closure of all bars, legal and clandestine.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Pueblo Creyente de Simojovel continúa la lucha por la vida, paz, justicia, libertad y democracia. (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 3 de noviembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Cries of liberty from the Believing People in Simojovel (23 de septiembre de 2015)

Chiapas: New threats against the priest and members of the Believing People (2 July 2015)

Chiapas: Believing People of El Bosque march for a halt to violence in their region (30 June 2015)

Chiapas: OMCT and FIDH urge protection of Simojovel priest (23 April 2015)

Chiapas: New threats against members of the Believing People in Simojovel after their fifth pilgrimage demanding security and peace (12 November 2014)