Chiapas: Hydroelectric Dam Canceled in the Lacandon Jungle

On August 20, the General Directorate of Environmental Impact and Risk (DGIRA) of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) denied the authorization to build the Santo Domingo hydroelectric dam on the Santo Domingo and Lacantún rivers in the municipality of Maravilla Tenejapa, Chiapas.

The project was intended to be developed in the municipality of Maravilla Tenejapa, in the region of the Lacandon Jungle, but the permit was denied because, according to the DGIRA, “it contradicts the stipulations of various legal systems, among which are the National Water Reserve Decrees, signed by President Enrique Peña Nieto on June 6, 2018, the Ecological Ordinance Program of the State of Chiapas and the Management Program of the Lagunas de Montebello National Park. In addition, the project is notoriously unviable from the technical and environmental point of view “.

Inhabitants of 51 communities in the municipality of Las Margaritas had rejected the hydroelectric project because, if it were to be carried out, “it will affect our communities and to a large extent the protected natural reserves of the region.”

 For more information (in Spanish):

Rechaza SEMARNAT presa hidroeléctrica Santo Domingo, en Chiapas (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, 23 de agosto de 2018)

Pese inconformidades ¡Va presa hidroeléctrica! (Cuarto Poder, 22 de agosto de 2018)

Frenan presa en la Selva Lacandona (Cuarto Poder 24 de agosto de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ :

National/International: Actions for International Day against Dams and in Defense of Rivers and Water March 28, 2018

Chiapas: Meeting of those affected by dams and mining February 4, 2016

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)

Chiapas: Despite conflicts amongst parties, PVEM and PRI gain the majority of votes in election

@eleccionesChiapas

On July 19^th, more than three million people from Chiapas voted to elect 122 majors and their staff members and 41 local deputies. Of the planned six thousand voting booths, 97% were installed.

The Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won in 91 of the 122 towns of Chiapas, according to the Program of Preliminary Electoral Results (PREP). The PVEM and the PRI are maintaining the same number of towns that they govern at the present time. United Chiapas and Move Chiapas, sponsored by the local governments, will administer 18 towns. The MORENA Party did not win anywhere, according to the PREP.

The Institution of Elections and Citizen Participation (IEPC) reported on the burning and robbery of four voting booths in the town of Las Margaritas and on the robbery of two voting booths located in the section La Hacienda in the capital city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. In two communities of Tila the voting booths could not be installed due to fighting during the last few days. In Pueblo Nuevo Solistahaucan an armed group stole the ballots of 4 voting booths and filled them with artificially marked ballots. The conselors of IEPC confirmed that nn Chenalhó, the electoral process was temporarily suspended because the ballots were not completed. According to the executive direct of the IEPC Jesus Moscoso Lorenca, in Ocosingo five voting booths were not installed for security reasons. In Venustiano Carranza the District Counsel had been taken and the protestors threatened to burn the building down. In Suchiate a voting booth had to be closed down because the people that had been registered there were migrants that received their birth certificates from the Civil Registry that had to be closed down for selling birth certificates.

For more information (in Spanish):
Chiapas: ganan PRI y PVEM 91 de 122 alcaldías (La Jornada, 22 de julio de 2015)
Las elecciones en Chiapas concluyen con casi 200 incidentes (CNN México, 20 e julio de 2015)
Elección en Chiapas: reportan robo de urnas, coacción del voto, acarreo y enfrentamientos (El Proceso, 19 de julio de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Climate of violence between PRI and Green Ecologist Party in days before elections (22 July 2015)
Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce confrontation between PVEM and PRI, with 4 injured (21 July 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN renders homage to the philosopher Luis Villoro Toranzo and the Zapatista teacher Galeano

(@La Jornada)

On Saturday 2 May in the Oventik caracol in the Chiapas highlands, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) rendered homage to the philosopher Luis Villoro Toranzo, who died on 5 March 2014, and to José Luis Solís López, the teacher “Galeano,” who was murdered on 2 May 2014 by members of the CIOAC-Historical.

Present at the event were relatives and close friends of Don Luis, including the intellectual Adolfo Gilly, his comrade Fernanda Navarro, his son Juan Villoro, and members of the Zapatista General Command, including Comandante Guillermo, who presided over the ceremony, as well Comandante David, who read a message from Pablo González Casanova, and the Subcomandantes Insurgentes Moisés and Galeano.

Those who spoke stressed the academic accomplishments of Luis Villoro and his relationship with the Zapatista movement, and they shared memories of him, including living anecdotes.  It should be stressed that Sup Galeano in his comments revealed that Don Luis, having uttered the words “I wish to become a Zapatista,” requested to join the movement.  He was assigned armed work.  The ashes of the fallen thinker were distributed under a tree in Caracol II in Oventik, thus expressing the philosopher’s profound connection to the movement.

In a parallel sense, relatives and friends of the Zapatista teacher Galeano also attended, including his comrade Luz, his daughter Lizbeth, his son Mariano, and comrades Selena and Manolo, from Nueva Victoria, where Galeano had lived.  Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano read some notes rom the personal diary kept by José Luis Solís López in which he relates how he and his family joined the Zapatista movement, participated in the guerrilla struggle, and speaks of his personal relationships with commanders such as Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro, who died during the takeover of Las Margaritas on 1 January 1994.  Sup Galeano, who changed his name from Subcomandante Marcos to give life once again to the murdered comrade Galeano, revealed that the nom de guerre was in fact not inspired by the radical journalist Eduardo Galeano, as some media had claimed, but rather had to do with the historical struggle of the guerrilla fighter Hermenegildo Galeana, who was associated with José María Morelos during the Independence War of Mexico.

The homage, which emphasized the continuing struggle of keeping alive the efforts of murdered comrades, closed with the words of Sup Moisés, calling on those in attendance to organize themselves to construct alternatives to the capitalist system.

For more information (in Spanish):

Palabras de la Comandancia General del EZLN en el homenaje a los compañeros Luis Villoro Toranzo y al Maestro Zapatista Galeano (Enlace Zapatista, 2 de mayo de 2015)

Homenaje a Luis Villoro Toranzo y al maestro zapatista Galeano (Radio Zapatista, 3 de mayo de 2015)

El filósofo y el maestro zapatistas (SubVersiones, 4 de mayo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

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

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

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

Chiapas: New threats against residents of Primero de Agosto

Photo @komanilel.org

“Today we have suffered 30 days of displacement, illness, and having to live under trees covered by a piece of plastic, in inhuman conditions.  These have been 30 difficult days in which we have demanded the government’s response, but it has not done anything.  We have suffered threats and pain,” said the 57 people who have been displaced for a month in the border jungle region in Chiapas.

In a communiqué released on 23 March, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) denounced new threats of attack and forcible displacement against residents of the Primero de Agosto community, Las Margaritas municipality.  A month after their forced displacement by members of the Independent Historical Campesino and Agricultural Worker Organization (CIOAC-H), the Tojolabal families still “find themselves vulnerable, under threat, and at risk of new attacks […].  The government of Manuel Velasco has not taken up its responsibility and commitments to the displaced families.  Instead, it has provided State protection to CIOAC-H members, as can be seen in the impunity in which all the legal denunciations made by the displaced find themselves […].  The events of 23 February 2015 led to a forcible displacement, even when State officials knew about the attacks and threats of displacement.  To date, the authorities charged with making justice have not clarified the events or arrested anyone for the aforementioned crimes.”

The CDHFBC indicated as well that it has information that “there exists a new threat against the life of Antonio Roman López, whom CIOAC-H leaders have indicated as having been in the presence of Frayba members and State authorities, and thus as the leader of the residents.  Similarly, they threat the families from Primero de Agosto with a new displacement from where they actually find themselves.”  Due to all this, the CDHFBC denounced “the failure of the governments to provide protection and to guarantee human rights, as is stipulated in the Law for the Prevention of and Attention to Internal Displacement in Chiapas State, which lacks reality and is in fact quite dead.  Its content recognizes the fundamental rights of displaced peoples in the state, which have not been applied since its entry into law in February 2012.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Boletín de prensa del CDHFBC (23 de marzo de 2015)

#Chiapas Denuncia publica de la comunidad Primero de Agosto a un mes del #DesplazamientoForzado (Koman Ilel, 23 de marzo de 2015)

“Hoy cumplimos 30 días desplazados, viviendo bajo los árboles, cubiertos por un pedazo de plástico”, indígenas tojolabales (Pozol, 23 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Families of the Primero de Agosto community “in precarious conditions” (21 March 2015)

Chiapas: 57 Tojolabal indigenous people forcibly displaced from their community, Primero de Agosto (8 March 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN announces dates for the exchanges between Zapatistas and indigenous peoples of the CNI (12 June 2014)

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

Chiapas: new communiques from the EZLN

Homage to Galeano, La Realidad, August 2014 (@SIPAZ archive)

In a communique published on 4 March entitled “On the Bulletin Board,” the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced a series of activities it has programmed for the remainder of 2015.  On 2 May, there will in the Oventik caracol be held an homage to Luis Villoro Toranzo  and the Zapatista support-base José Luis Solís López (Galeano), who was murdered in May 2014 in La Realidad, Las Margaritas municipality.  The EZLN announced the event as having special guests, including the relatives of Villoro Toranzo and of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, as well as members of the Sixth International.  It also noted that, from 3 to 9 May, the seminar on “Critical Thought in light of the Capitalist Hidra” will be hosted at CIDECI-Unitierra in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

The news also announces the second “grade” of the Zapatista Escuelita (31 July-2 August), the anniversary of the caracoles on 8-9 August, and the third level of the Escuelita in November and December 2015.

The EZLN added that, from 5 March onwards, being the anniversary of the death of Villoro Toranzo, there will be “many words regarding critical thinking, beginning with the report on the inauguration of the School and Clinic in La Realidad.”  Starting on 5 March, indeed, three more communiques appeared, entitled “Thank You I, II, III.”

For more information (in Spanish):

EN EL TABLÓN DE AVISOS. El Conserje (Comunicado del EZLN, 4 de marzo de 2015)

El EZLN realizará un homenaje a Luis Villoro y al zapatista José Luis Solís(La Jornada, 4 de marzo de 2015)

‘Toda la clase política vive de la actuación’, dice el líder del EZLN (CNN México, 5 de marzo de 2015)

Gracias I, Gracias II y Gracias III (Comunicados del EZLN, marzo de 2015)

La vida de un zapatista vale más que la casa blanca de Peña: EZLN (La Jornada, 9 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: threats against families sympathizing with the EZLN (29 December 2014)

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

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

Chiapas: Families of the Primero de Agosto community “in precarious conditions”

Displaced families from the Primero de Agosto community (@CDHFBC)

In an Urgent Action published on 6 March, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) denounced that the families displaced from the Primero de Agosto community, Las Margaritas municipality, find themselves “in precarious conditions” while the “state government fails to observe its obligations.”

After documenting the forcible displacement of 57 individuals, “a situation caused by the events which took place on 23 February 2015, due to the actions of members of the Independent Historical Campesino-Agricultural Worker Center (CIOAC-H), who are protected in the region by the municipal government of Las Margaritas and authorities from the Chiapas state government,”  the CDHFBC indicated that the Tojolabal indigenous individuals find themselves in “precarious conditions in terms of food, water, and health.  They are protecting themselves from the elements only using plastic, and there are several families living together in one space.”

The CDHFBC also noted that “despite the denunciation of the acts that occurred, to date the authorities have not carried out judicial inspections and have not verified the conditions of the forcible displacement.  Beyond this, the government of Manuel Velasco Coello has made no response, despite the fact that there exists a formal commitment to do so, in accordance with the agreement made in terms of the property of the lands from which the Tojolabal indigenous were expelled by the CIOAC-H.”

For this reason, the CDHFBC requested the following: the adoption of measures that guarantee the human rights of the displaced, the investigation and punishment of those responsible for their displacement and the damages committed against the goods of the residents of the Primero de Agosto community, as well as a comprehensive treatment of the victims, in accordance with the laws governing internal displacement, humanitarian aid, and compensation for damages, violated rights, and the return of the displaced families under secure conditions.

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente del CDHFBC: Familias del Poblado Primero de Agosto en condiciones precarias (CDHFBC, 7 de marzo de 2015)

Familias indígenas desplazadas en Chiapas, presentan problemas de salud (Animal Político, 7 de marzo de 2015)

Poblado Primero de Agosto denuncia desplazamiento forzado sincondiciones de seguridad (7 de marzo de 2015)

Mujeres del Poblado Primero de Agosto exigen retorno a su comunidad (8 de marzo de 2015)

La expulsión violenta y el desplazamiento forzado, una constante en Chiapas (Chiapas Paralelo, 11 de marzo de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: 57 Tojolabal indigenous people forcibly displaced from their community, Primero de Agosto (8 March 2015)

Chiapas: EZLN announces dates for the exchanges between Zapatistas and indigenous peoples of the CNI (12 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN announces upcoming activities (10 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN communique “Pain and Rage” (18 May 2014)

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

Chiapas: 57 Tojolabal indigenous people forcibly displaced from their community, Primero de Agosto

On 23 February 2015, the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) released an urgent action regarding the forcible displacement of a group of Tojolabal indigenous people from the Primero de Agosto community, Las Margaritas municipality, Chiapas.

The CDHFBC “has received trustworthy documentary evidence regarding the displacement of the 57 Tojolabal indigenous persons, including 12 minors and one neonate, 20 women, and 25 men from the Primero de Agosto community, with this being an action perpetrated by members of the Independent Historic Campesino Agricultural Worker Center (CIOAC-H), who have been protected in this region by the municipal government of Las Margaritas.”

The bulletin adds that “according to the received information, today at 8am, 50 members of the CIOAC-H, including Reynaldo López Pérez, the ejidal commissioner, Antonio Méndez Pérez, the auxiliary agent, as well as other authorities from Miguel Hidalgo ejido, Las Margaritas municipality, entered the Primero de Agosto community, carrying high-powered firearms and surrounding the homes of the residents, leading to the displacement of the residents who fled to the closest highway, where they now reside in grave conditions: women and children lacking shelter, food, and security guarantees amidst the possibility of attacks from the group affiliated to the Miguel Hidalgo ejido.”

For this reason, in its Urgent Action the CDHFBC urgently calls on the Mexican governments to take the necessary measures to guarantee the human rights of the displaced, that those responsible for the forcible displacement and other harms of the group from Primero de Agosto be investigated and sanctioned, and that comprehensive attention be provided in accordance with the appropriate laws regarding internal displacement.

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente: Desplazamiento forzado de familias tojolabales del poblado Primero de Agosto, CDHFBLC, 23 de febrero de 2013

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: amenazas contra familias simpatizantes del EZLN (29 December 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN announces dates for the exchanges between Zapatistas and indigenous peoples of the CNI (12 June 2014)

Chiapas: EZLN announces upcoming activities (10 June 2014)

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

Chiapas: EZLN communique “Pain and Rage” (18 May 2014)

Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)

Chiapas: threats against families sympathizing with the EZLN

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) denounced on 17 December in an Urgent Action that 17 Tojolabal families that sympathize with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) who had taken a piece of land in the Las Margaritas municipality have been attacked and currently face threats of displacement on the part of members of the Historical Agricultural and Worker Independent Center  (CIOAC-H).

The document explains that “at approximately 6am, 50 members of CIOAC-H entered the Primero de Agosto community from the Miguel Hidalgo ejido, carrying sticks, machetes, and even firearms.”

It adds that “the situation of violence is critical due to the fact that CIOAC-H members have been attacking Zapatista-sympathizing families, setting free their domesticated animals, and destroying their homes.”

For this reason, Frayba urgently demands that the state governemnt immediately act to protect the lives and physical safety of the EZLN sympatherizers in the Primero de Agosto community, prevent the forcible displacement of these same families, thus respecting and guaranteeing the rights stipulated in the international declarations and conventions having to do with indigenous autonomy and self-determination, and punish the CIOAC-H members who have been engaged in destruction and assault against the Primero de Agosto community.

For more information (in Spanish):

Acción Urgente: Amenazas de Desplazamiento y agresiones a familia tojolabales simpatizantes del EZLN, Frayba, 17 de diciembre de 2014

Denuncia Frayba amenazas contra familias simpatizantes del EZLN, La Jornada 17 de diciembre de 2014

Nueva agresión de la CIOAC contra familias del EZLN, chiapasparalelo, 18 de diciembre de 2014

Chiapas: Mobilizations against the planned San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Palenque highway

Photo @ SIPAZ

On 16 and 17 September, there were held new mobilizations against the planned construction of a highway between San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Palenque, both in the Tseltal ejido San Jerónimo Bachajón, Chilón municipality, as in the Tsotsil ejido of La Candelaria, San Cristóbal municipality.  The Movement in Defense of Life and Territory was created through the mobilizations organized against this project.

On 16 September, banners and signs were raised in communities and parishes to express popular opposition to the highway project.  On 17 September, ejidatarios from San Jerónimo Bachajón blockaded the Temó crossways en route to Palenque to demand “the cessation of harassment and threats against our ejidal authorities and other comrades, in light of the decisive defense of our territory and our disagreement with the highway project.”

Furthermore, on 17 September there was held in Laguna Suyul, La Candelaria ejido, a ceremony and joint declaration of more than 2,000 Tsotsil, Tseltal, Ch’ol, and Tojolabal persons from the San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Zinacantán, San Juan Chamula, Huixtán, San Pedro Chenalhó, San Pablo Chalchihuitán, San Juan Cancuc, Tenejapa, Amatenango, Chilón, Tila, Salto de Agua, Comitán, and Las Margaritas municipalities expressing opposition to the highway project.  In the declaration of Laguna Suyul, considered sacred land of the peoples of the Highlands of Chiapas, the writers indicate that “we will defend the environment, the fabric and veins of mother earth: rivers, lakes, springs, mountains, caves, and hills.  We will defend the lives of animals, sacred places, the ecosystem of Mother Nature, and the lives of human beings.”

Also, on 21 September, some 3000 Ch’ol indigenous persons from the Tila parish carried out a pilgrimage in the municipal center against the planned highway projects between San Cristóbal and Palenque as well as between Villahermosa and Palenque, as against the plundering of lands for mineral extraction, and they denounced the increase in drug addiction rates, alcoholism, and prostitution.

For more information (in Spanish):

Acciones de protesta contra la Autopista Sancris-Palenque (Chiapas Paralelo, 15 de septiembre de 2014)

Anuncian nuevas protestas contra construcción de supercarretera San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Palenque (La Jornada, 14 de septiembre de 2014)

Casi 3000 personas rechazan la autopista y organizan la resistencia a la autopista. + historia de Suyul(Espoir Chiapas, 18 de septiembre de 2014)

Chiapas: Desde Laguna Suyul indígenas manifestan su rechazo a la Supercarretera San Cristóbal – Palenque (Pozol Colectivo, 17 de septiembre de 2014)

Denuncian en Bachajón acoso y persecución judicial por protestar contra autopista (Chiapas Paralelo, 18 de septiembre de 2014)

Peregrinación en Tila contra autopista San Cristóbal-Palenque, megaproyectos y cantinas (Chiapas Paralelo, 22 de septiembre de 2014)

Audio-Video:

Ejido La Candelaria: “No a la autopista San Cristóbal – Palenque (Koman Ilel, 12 de septiembre de 2014)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Candelaria express their opposition to the construction of the San Cristóbal-Palenque highway (16 September 2014)

Chiapas: An assembly of Tzeltal communities from Chilón municipality reject the SCLC-Palenque highway (9 September 2014)

Chiapas: Los Llanos and San José El Porvenir reject passage of highway from San Cristóbal to Palenque through their communities (14 February 2014)