Chiapas: Actions for the one-year anniversary of the Ayotzinapa disappearances

Zapatistas for Ayotzinapa @ Koman Ilel

On 26 September a year passed since the 43 students from the Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, were forcibly disappeared. In different states and abroad, actions and mobilizations were held to demand clarification for what happened to the youth as well as those killed and injured on the tragic night of 26-27 September 2014.

For its part, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced in a communique entitled “For pain, rage, truth, justice” that “on that day 26 September, thousands of Zapatistas, children, youth, women, men, others, elders, and the living and the dead will mobilize ourselves in our territories to embrace all those persons who have been affected by sorrow and rage due to the prisons, disappearances, and death imposed by those from above. We will embrace them also because thus we also embrace ourselves as Zapatistas. In this way we call on all honest and upright persons on Earth to do the same, according to your calendars and geographies, and in accordance with your times and means. While at the same time they seek to placate us with lies and insults using lack of truth and justice, humanity will continue to be nothing more than a grotesque face in the history of the Earth.”

Beyond this, the Las Abejas Civil Society of Acteal dedicated some words to the disappeared in a public communique, declaring that “we wish to be in the hearts of the parents of the young students; we wish to be in the heart of Ayotzinapa. We wish to be in the heart, the dream, the soul, the struggle, the memory, and the hope of the 43 disappeared, as well as the 3 murdered and the other comrade who remains in a coma. We also wish to be I the heart, dreams, memory, and hope of the thousands of disappeared throughout Mexico. We wish to be in the heart, dream, memory, and hope of the comrade women who have been victimized by femicides […]. But we do not wish to have a simulated justice, that justice full of corruption and hypocrisy, as the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) sought to sell to the parents of the 43 from Ayotzinapa and to the people of Mexico. Instead, what we wish for is a justice that would be as we always have stressed it must be: truthful, dignified, righteous, lasting, healthy, and human. This is what we call ‘The Other Justice.’ And this Other Justice we must develop ourselves from below, the women and women of good conscience […]. Ayotzinapa is a crime of State, and it must remain within the consciousness of the three levels of government in Mexico. As people of Mexico meanwhile we will walk and strive for the Other Justice, against this crime against humanity that targeted young students who had a dream of educating themselves to become educators in their communities. We will tell this to our children, our youth, so that it becomes living history.”

Beyond this, several people protested in the state in at least 40 municipalities, by carrying out marches, roadblocks, and cultural festivals.

For more information (in Spanish):

En Chiapas también el pueblo se organizó para exigir justicia y aparición con vida de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa (Voces Mesoamericanas, 29 de septiembre de 2015)

POR EL DOLOR, POR LA RABIA, POR LA VERDAD, POR LA JUSTICIA (EZLN 24 de septiembre de 2015)

Comunicado de Las Abejas de Acteal en solidaridad con Ayotzinapa (Las Abejas de Acteal, 26 de septiembre de 2015)

También en Chiapas hoy #DíaDeLaIndignación, manifestaciones de apoyo a Ayotzinapa (Chiapasparalelo, 26 de septiembre de 2015)

EZLN protesta en Chiapas por los desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa (La Jornada  26 de septiembre de 2015)

Congregan ciudades de Chiapas marchas por Ayotzinapa (El Universal, 26 de septiembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Guerrero/National: “Fruitless” meeting between relatives of the disappeared from Ayotzinapa and EPN (8 October 2015)

Guerrero: Group of Experts on Ayotzinapa case presents its report 6 months on (13 September 2015)

Guerrero: Tlachinollan dedicates its XXI activity report to parents of the disappeared of Ayotzinapa (11 September 2015)

National/Guerrero: Nine months after the Ayotzinapa atrocity, relatives express that they will not be silenced (3 July 2015)

Chiapas/Guerrero: Delegation of relatives and comrades of Ayotzinapa students tour CNI communities (29 June 2015)

Guerrero/National: 8 months after the forcible disappearance of the 43 students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, there is no progress (9 June 2015)

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Chiapas: Commemoration for those killed and disappeared during the conflict in the zone below Tila

Altar for the victims @ SIPAZ

On 20 September, in the community of Masoja Shucja, Tila municipality, a commemoration was held to remember those killed and forcibly disappeared between the years 1994 and 1999 in the region below Tila. Around a hundred people participated in the event, designed to never “forget our fallen and disappeared comrades, and so we remember them. They will always be in our hearts,” as the People United for the Defense of Electrical Energy (PUDEE) expressed, being adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle from the Northern Jungle region, authored by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Following a mass, relatives of the disappeared and murdered spoke and demanded “true justice, the presentation with life of the disappeared, and compensation of damages and the suffering caused during the conflict in the communities,” adding that “the situation of the communities in the zone below Tila, Chiapas, has not changed. We do not live in peace or tranquility. The three levels of the bad government actually are the ones responsible for the low-intensity warfare we confront. We explain how our communities are now experiencing problems due to the divisions that surged during the recent elections, though there also exist families displaced by the armed conflict or counterinsurgency against the EZLN during the years 1996-1997.”

They also indicated that the paramilitary group “Development, Peace, and Justice” is being reorganized at present, affirming that “in its actions to control the communities and municipalities they use political functionaries, specifically their portable high-frequency radios, and carry arms which are for the exclusive use of the Army in public areas to threaten and intimidate their opponents. They hire young drug-addicts, go out hooded to block roads and highways, impeding free transit, and they attack and rob violently.” Beyond this, they recalled the proximate anniversary of the forcible disappearance of the 43 teacher-students from Ayotzinapa, noting that “we will continue to express our support for them; they are not alone.”

It should be observed that the conflict in the zone below the Tila municipality began with the imposition of the Chiapas Campaign Plan 94, a counterinsurgent strategy taken by the Mexican government to prevent the expansion of the EZLN during the 1990s.

For more information (in Spanish):

Familiares de víctima de la contrainsurgencia siguen exigiendo justicia (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 21 de septiembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Event “Heart of memory, sown on our lands” in Masoja Shucjá, Tila (12 November 2014)

Chiapas: 18 years since the disappearance of Minerva Pérez, her case remains unpunished (25 June 2014)

Chiapas: 17 years after the forced disappearance of Minerva Guadalupe Pérez Torres, her case is taken up at the IACHR (25 June 2013)

Chiapas: Death-threats and physical attacks against BAEZLN in the Tzakukum community

@ Enlace Civil A.C.

The support-bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN) in the Tzakukum community, official municipality of Chalchihuitán, have been threatened with death for months and have incurred physical aggressions. On 9 September, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights A.C. (Frayba) documented the threats and harassment against the BAEZLN. The information was provided by the Good-Government Council of Oventik, Central Heart of the Zapatistas before the World (Oventik JBG), which pertains to Caracol II, Resistance and Rebellion for Humanity.

According to testimony, the BAEZLN reported having been threatened with death on multiple occasions. On 10 August 2015, the BAEZLN Aurelio Gómez Girón was threatened with death by machete by a woman and man from the PRI, who then cut the water-house supplying Mariano García Núñez, another BAEZLN, who in turn was threatened with death by machete. On 14 August Librado Pérez Núñez, BAEZLN, was insulted and attacked on the path by a PRI leader who told him, “You are murderers. Little Zapatista, what are you doing here?” On 26 July a group of party militants detained four BAEZLN, threatening to burn them with gasoline. Beyond this, the bulletin mentions more examples that underline the urgency of the situation. The victims indicated that a group of approximately 25 people harassed and threatened them. In light of these acts, Frayba noted that “We are concerned that the authorities of Chiapas state encourage human-rights violations by being absent when attacks are directed against the BAEZLN.” The bulletin stresses that “these human-rights violations in Tzakukum take place within a context of counterinsurgency that is implemented by the Mexican State against Zapatista autonomy.”

It bears recalling that there were antecedents of this conflict in the same community in July 2015, when members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) began to build a school on common lands without consulting the BAEZLN, who insisted that the agreements on land be respected. In this sense, Frayba intervened toward the end of having the denounced acts be attended to. It is feared that for this reason the PRI members were angered and struck out, after having had to abandon the project on common lands.

For more information (in Spanish):

Amenazas de muerte y agresiones físicas en contra de BAEZLN de la comunidad Tzakukum (Frayba, 9 de septiembre de 2015)

Denuncian agresiones contra bases del EZLN (Quadratin Chiapas, 9 de septiembre de 2015)

Ejército mexicano hostiga a la Junta de Buen Gobierno Zapatista de La Realidad (Frayba, 10 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Risks to the lives of Zapatista support-bases (BAEZLN) (3 July 2015)

Chiapas: Denunciation of paramilitary attack on the El Rosario community, pertaining to the La Garrucha caracol (30 June 2015)

Chiapas: La Garrucha Good-Government Council (JBG) denounces two paramilitary attacks (17 May 2015)

Chiapas: Update regarding forced displacement of EZLN support bases belonging to the La Garrucha caracol (2 September 2014)

Chiapas: Forced displacement of EZLN support-bases belonging to La Garrucha caracol (29 August 2014)

Chiapas: Monthly commemoration of Las Abejas of Acteal

Las Abejas de Acteal @KomanIlel

As during every other month, the Las Abejas Civil Society of Acteal commemorated the Acteal massacre using words compiled in a communique on 22 August. Las Abejas denounced that “in Mexico there exists a pestilent and chronic disease called impunity. To put an end to this condition we must do something; that is to say, we must work and struggle.”

Las Abejas recalled that on 12 August, while they were holding a press-conference to denounce the release of the paramilitaries who committed the Acteal massacre, “Mr. Víctor Manuel Zepeda López, the supposed judge of the circuit including Comitán de Domínguez, Chiapas, released Messrs. Carmelino Rodríguez Jiménez and Javier López Rodríguez, who are responsible for the attack on our brother and comrade Galeano […]. And as they know they have the support of the bad government, the murderous paramilitaries return here to do what they wish.”

Las Abejas finalized their communique affirming that “the deaf ears of the murderous bad government must come to know and understand our eyes and our consciences, which see the attacks and aggressions committed by the paramilitaries and party-members against our Zapatista brothers and sisters and other peoples in struggle” and the struggle “for Truth, Memory, Justice, and Non-Forgetting.”

For more information (in Spanish):

En México existe una enfermedad pestilente que se llama: impunidad. (Las Abejas de Acteal, 22 de agosto de 2015)

En #México existe una enfermedad pestilente que se llama: #impunidad. (Koman Ilel, 22 de agosto de 2015)

“En México existe una enfermedad pestilente que se llama: impunidad”, Abejas de Acteal. (Radio Pozol, 22 de agosto de 2015)

En México existe una enfermedad pestilente que se llama: impunidad. (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 24 de agosto de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Las Abejas of Acteal denounce 6 years of release of paramilitaries (10 September 2015)

Chiapas: A member of the Las Abejas Civil Society is murdered (2 July 2015)

Chiapas: Las Abejas announce that they will not vote in the mid-term elections (9 June 2015)

Chiapas: Civil Society Las Abejas denounce human rights violations in the country and show solidarity with various processes (24 April 2015)

Chiapas/National: EZLN announces second level of Zapatista School

(@Espoir Chiapas)

In a communique published on 27 July 2015 that is signed by Subcomandantes Insurgentes Moisés and Galeano, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced the second level of the Zapatista School.

The dates for the new course are for 31 July-2 August 2015. However, on this occasion, “it is not a question of coming to Zapatista territories” but rather “the second level will take place universally outside of Zapatista lands.” Arguing that the economic situation and the governmental repression toward indigenous peoples makes matters difficult, the EZLN has organized levels 2 through 6 in this way, so that students do not have to come “every so often” to Zapatista territory.

The students who passed the first level will receive an e-mail between 30 July and 1 August that contains the instructions to access the video that contains the contents of the second level.

The communique ends by calling for solidarity with the struggles from below and to the left, as in Ostula and Ayotitlán, in solidarity with the families of the 47 missing students from Ayotzinapa, the families of the children who died in the ABC Nursery, as well as relatives of political prisoners and the disappeared throughout the world, in solidarity with those in struggle in Greece, and the indigenous people who care for Mother Earth.

For more information (in Spanish):

Segundo Nivel Escuela Zapatista (Enlace Zapatista, 27 de julio de 2015)

El EZLN convoca al segundo nivel de la Escuelita Zapatista (Chiapas Paralelo, 28 de julio de 2015)

Chiapas: El EZLN anuncia el segundo Nivel de la Escuela Zapatista ‪(Pozol Colectivo, 27 de julio de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Risks to the lives of Zapatista support-bases (BAEZLN) (3 July 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered Support-base and announces organizational changes (10 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN communiqué “Pain and rage” (18 May 2014)

Chiapas: Meeting of CNI communities in Chiapas with adherents to the Sixth Declaration

(@Pozol Colectivo)

On 27 July communities pertaining to the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) from Chiapas met with adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle, written by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).  The meeting was held in the community of Cruztón, Venustiano Carranza municipality, Chiapas, where the communities of the CNI-Chiapas discussed the problems they confront.

Present at the meeting were the Las Abejas Civil Society, the ejidatarios from Tila, and constituent groups of the Semilla Digna (“Dignified Seed”) organization.  In a joint pronunciation, they expressed solidarity with the communities of San Francisco Xochicuautla, Mexico State, for the plundering of their lands; Santa María Ostula, Michoacán, where the Army killed a girl of 12 years of age and arrested a commander of the communal police; and with the communities pertaining to the La Garrucha caracol that live on lands appropriated by the EZLN and have faced several attacks by paramilitaries.  In the communique, the CNI affiliates declared themselves in favor of autonomy, the defense of Mother Earth, and resistance gainst megaprojects.  In this way, they also demanded the release of the spokesperson for the Yaqui nation, Mario Luna, and the appearance with life of the 43 forcibly disappeared students from Ayotzinapa.

For more information (in Spanish):

Encuentro de las comundades del CNI de Chiapas en Cruzton integrante de Semilla Digna (Kolektivo Zero, 27 de julio de 2015)

Desde la zona Norte, Altos y centro de Chiapas, se solidarizan con Ostula Michoacán, Xochicuautla Edomex Y EL EZLN (Pozol Colectivo, 27 de julio de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Nation: Denunciations of new attacks against indigenous community of Santa María Ostula, Michoacán (10 June 2015)

CNDH: PGR’s investigation of Iguala case continues to be lacking: CNDH (10 September 2015)

Nation: A minor murdered and ten others wounded in Santa María Ostula (16 August 2015)

National: Inauguration of the First World Festival of Anti-Capitalist Resistance and Rebellion (30 December 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN denounces the release of the murderers of Zapatista teacher Galeano

“It is once again made clear that truth and justice will never, ever come from above.

From above the only thing we can expect is pretense, deceit, impunity, and cynicism.

The criminal above will always receive absolution and reward, because the one who judges him is the same one who pays him. They are the same, criminals and judges. They are poisonous heads of the same Hydra.”

The Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) denounced in a communique signed by Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés y Galeano (previously Marcos) on August 18th that the two people accused of the murder of the Zapatista teacher Galeano were freed. Galeano, José Luis Solís López, was murdered on May 2, 2014 en La Realidad, municipality of Las Margaritas, Chiapas.

In the communique, they informed that on August 12th, the self-proclaimed judge declared innocent the two intellectual authors of the murder, “despite that fact that they and their accomplices in the CIOAC-Histórica know that they are guilty of organizing the crime. They aren’t the only ones responsible, but they are guilty”. They further stated: “fat and happy, to their homes in the village of La Realidad. They were supposedly being held prisoner for the murder of our teacher and compañero. We already know that they have been declared innocent of this crime by the same people who financed and supported them: the federal and Chiapas state governments.”

For more information:

Truth and Justice Will Never, Ever, Come from Above (EZLN, August 18, 2015)

EZLN: Truth and Justice Will Never, Ever, Come from Above. (Radio Zapatista, August 18, 2015)

EZLN denuncia liberación de homicidas de mastro Galeano (El Universal, August 19, 2015)

Exculpan y liberan a autores intelectuales del asesinato del profesor Galeano: EZLN )La Jornada, August 19, 2015)

Cada crimen e injusticia impunes abren camino para que el odio y rabia se organicen: EZLN (Radio Formula, August 18, 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ in English:

Chiapas: EZLN renders homage to the philosopher Luis Villoro Toranzo and the Zapatista teacher Galeano (May 14, 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN requests support for the reconstruction of the autonomous school and clinic in La Realidad (June 13, 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered support base and announces organizational changes (June 10, 2014)

Chiapas: indigenous organizations and communities also affected by “counterinsurgency and war of extermination” express their solidarity with the EZLN (June 9, 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN announces homage to Zapatista murdered in La Realidad and announces primary results of investigation on the case (May 18, 2014)

Chiapas: Chiapas Peace Network repudiates attack on EZLN support bases (May 18, 2014)