CNI/EZLN: Denunciation of Repression Against Arantepacua

 

 

 

CNI/EZLN: Denunciation of Repression Against Arantepacua

Joint Communique from the CNI and the EZLN Denouncing the Repression Against the Purépecha community of Arantepacua, Michoacán

 

To the Purépecha Community of Arantepacua, Michoacán,

To the alternative media,

To the peoples of the world.

The peoples, nations, and tribes who make up the National Indigenous Congress, express our outrage at the bad government’s cowardly attack against the Purépecha community of Arantepacua, Michoacán, on April 4 and 5 of the present year.

As a commission of community members sought dialogue with the bad government of the state of Michoacán, the governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo betrayed them: first, by obstructing their path with hundreds of riot police and dozens of trucks as they made their way to Morelia to try to come to agreements on the resolution of an old agrarian conflict; and again when, as the commission negotiated with government, large contingents of the Michoacán Police and the State Ministerial Police together with federal forces attacked the community, sowing terror, entering houses to detain community members, and opening fire indiscriminately, killing three Arantepacua community members :

• José Carlos Jiménez Crisóstomo (age 25)
• Luis Gustavo Hernández Cuenete (age 15)
• Francisco Jiménez Ajejandre (approximately age 70)

In addition, an unspecified number of community members were injured, two of whom are in critical condition, as well as 38 arrested by the Michoacán government on April 4 and 18 more on April 5 on fabricated charges that seek to criminalize their demand for their rights.

Brothers and sisters of Arantepacua, your pain over the murder of your compañeros is ours. We struggle because we are certain that punishment for the guilty will come from the dignity, resistance, and rebellion of our peoples. Sowing truth and justice amidst the destruction brought upon us by the powerful is what our peoples know how to do.

The bad governments think that by spreading terror in the indigenous territories of Michoacán and across a large part of the nation they will be able to silence the peoples and their voice, but this will not happen, because the words shouted collectively today by the originary peoples are born precisely of our rage, our frustration and the decision to not allow ourselves be killed, dispossessed, divided, or bought off.

We pronounce jointly with the communal assembly of Arantepacua our demands for:

1. An immediate halt to the escalated repression against Arantepacua and the Purépecha communities of the region.
2. The immediate release of the compañeros detained by the bad government.
3. Justice for the victims of this cowardly aggression and indemnification for all damages caused.
4. Punishment of governor Silvano Aureoles and all those responsible, materially and intellectually, for the crimes committed.
5. The withdrawal of the police and military forces from Aratepacua, given that as long as they are present the harassment of the community members will not cease.

Attentively

April 6, 2017

Justice for Arantepacua

Justice for the Purépecha People

For the Full Reconstitution of our Peoples

Never Again a Mexico Without Us

National Indigenous Congress

Zapatista Army for National Liberation

 

 

 

Comunicado conjunto del CNI y el EZLN denunciando la represión contra la comunidad Purépecha de Arantepacua, Michoacán.

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CNI/EZLN: Convocation to the Constitutive Assembly of the Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS

CONVOCATION

Given the decision made in the second phase of the Fifth National Indigenous Congress December 29, 30, and 31, 2016 and January 1, 2017, during which it was agreed:

FIRST: “…to name an Indigenous Governing Council with men and women representatives from each one of the peoples, tribes, and nations that make up the CNI. This council proposes to govern the country. It will have an indigenous woman from the CNI as its spokesperson, which is to say, a woman of indigenous blood who knows her culture. This indigenous woman spokesperson from the CNI will be an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico in the 2018 elections.”

SECOND: “…[to call] on the originary peoples of this country, the collectives of the Sixth, workers, coalitions and committees who struggle in the countryside and the city, students, intellectuals, artists, scientists, the elements of civil society that are not organized, as well as all good-hearted people to close ranks and go on the offensive. We call on you to dismantle the power of above and to reconstitute ourselves now from below and to the left, not only as peoples but as a country, to come together in a single organization where dignity will be our final word and our first action. We call on all of you to organize with us to stop this war, and to not be afraid to sow our seeds and build ourselves upon the ruins left by capitalism.”

THIRD: “…[to convoke] a constituent assembly of the Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico in the month of May 2017…to make the earth tremble at its core, to overcome fear and recuperate what belongs to humanity, what belongs to the earth, and what belongs to the peoples, to recuperate the territories that have been invaded or destroyed, for the disappeared of this country, for the freedom of all political prisoners, for truth and justice for all of those who have been murdered, for the dignity of the countryside and the city…making dignity the epicenter of a new world.”

We have agreed to convoke the authorities, representatives, delegates, and councilpersons named by the indigenous peoples, nations, tribes, barrios, communities, and organizations that participate in the CNI to celebrate the:

CONSTITUTIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL FOR MEXICO

To be held May 26, 27, and 28 of 2017 at the facilities of the Indigenous Center for Integral Learning (CIDECI-UNITIERRA) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Zapatista territory, in accordance with the following schedule:

PROGRAMME

May 26:

1. Arrival and in-person registration of indigenous council persons, authorities, representatives, and delegates, as well as of press and guests invited by the Coordinating Commission of the CNI.
2. Traditional Ceremony

May 27:

1. Inauguration and installation of the Constitutive Assembly of the Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico.
2. Working groups on the following topics:
   1. Proposals and strategies for the Indigenous Governing Council
   2. Functioning and Organization of the Indigenous Governing Council
   3. Links between the Indigenous Governing Council and other sectors of civil society
   4. Naming of the Spokeswoman for the Indigenous Governing Council

May 28:

1. Constitutive Plenary of the Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico and swearing-in ceremony of its members.
2. Discussion and approval of agreements, resolutions, and declarations.
3. Assembly closing ceremony.

• The naming of council members to the Indigenous Governing Council should be carried out according to the guidelines indicated in Appendix I of this Convocation and in the regions documented in Appendix II. Any concerns with regard to the proposed regions or necessary revisions should be communicated to the CNI coordinating committee.
• Advance registration of indigenous delegates can be made through the CNI email:catedrajuanchavez@congresonacionalindigena.org.
• Those who are explicitly invited by the CNI coordination or the EZLN may participate as INVITED OBSERVERS.
• Members of the national and international Sixth who would like to attend as observers can register beforehand at the email: cni20aniversario@ezln.org.mx.

Attentively,

March 2017

For the Full Reconstitution of Our Peoples

Never Again a Mexico Without Us

National Indigenous Congress

Zapatista Army for National Liberation

Appendix I:

GROUNDS FOR NAMING THE COUNCIL MEMBERS TO THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL FOR MEXICO ACCORDING TO THE AGREEMENTS ADOPTED BY THE FIFTH NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS IN ITS PLENARY ASSEMBLY JANUARY 1, 2017.

1. The Indigenous Governing Council (CIG by its Spanish acronym) will be made up of two council members, preferably one man and one woman, from each of the participating indigenous regions in the National Indigenous Congress (CNI by its Spanish acronym) as indicated in the following appendix, with the exception of those peoples residing in the metropolitan zones of Mexico City and Guadalajara, who will name one council member from each people.
2. The council members will be named through the assembly consensus of their people or in agreement with the traditions and customs of each people, and should be documented in writing.
3. Those who are proposed as council members should obey the mandate of the people that named them and that of the CNI assembly, and work collectively under the seven principles of the CNI.
4. Those who are proposed as council members should meet the following requirements:

• Have permanent membership in the CNI
• Practice the seven principles of the CNI
• Belong to an originary people
• Know the history and culture of their people and hold recognition and moral authority in their community
• Be nominated, named, and confirmed in Assembly or in the decision-making body of their people according to its traditions and customs.
• Have accompanied their people in struggle and have a congruent trajectory of struggle; they should be people who know how to work the land, who are humble, who listen to and serve their people, and who know the path of the CNI.
• Be anticapitalist, from below and to the left.

5. The council members’ position will rotate over the time period decided by each people and is immediately revocable by the assembly or the body by which it was named.
6. Council members should preferably be named before the CNI assembly programmed for May 27 and 28 in San Cristóbal de las Casas. The organization and functioning of the council members and the CIG will be agreed upon by that assembly.

FOR THE FULL RECONSTITUTION OF OUR PEOPLES

NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US

FROM THE PROVISIONAL COORDINATION

Appendix II:

List of Regions for the Indigenous Governing Council

Region Number	People – Language
Baja California
1	Cucapá
2	Kumiai
Campeche
3	Castellano of Candelaria
4	Chol of Campeche
5	Maya of Campeche
6	Tzeltal of Campeche
Chiapas
7	Castellano of the Coast of Chiapas
8	Chol
9	Mam of Chiapas
10	Tojolabal
11	Tzeltal of the Selva Norte
12	Tzeltal of the Highlands of Chiapas
13	Tzeltal Zona Fronteriza
14	Tzotzil of the Highlands of Chiapas
15	Tzotzil of the Coast of Chiapas
16	Tzotzil of the Central Region of Chiapas
17	Lacandón
18	Zoque of the North of Chiapas
Chihuahua
19	Rarámuri
Mexico City
20	Nahua from the South Federal District
Colima
21	Nahua of Colima
Durango
22	Wixárika of Durango
Guanajuato
23	Chichimeca
Guerrero
24	Afromexicano
25	Mephaa of the Mountains of Guerrero
26	Nahua of Central Guerrero
27	Nahua Mountains de Guerrero
28	Amuzgo of Xochistlahuaca
29	Ñu Savi of the Coast of Guerrero
30	Ñu Savi of the Mountains of Guerrero
Hidalgo
31	Nahua of Hidalgo
Jalisco
32	Coca
33	Nahua of South Jalisco
34	Tepehuano de Jalisco
35	Wixárika de Jalisco
Mexico State
36	Matlatzinca
37	Nahua from Central Mexico state
38	Nahua from East Mexico state
39	Otomí- Ñatho
40	Otomí- Ñañhú
Michoacán
41	Mazahua
42	Nahua from the Coast of Michoacán
43	Otomí of Michoacán
44	Purépecha
Morelos
45	Nahua of Morelos
Nayarit
46	Náyeri
47	Wixárika of Nayarit
Oaxaca
48	Chinanteco of Chinantla Alta
49	Chinanteco of Chinantla Baja
50	Cuicateco
51	Ikoots
52	Mazateco
53	Mixe
54	Ñu Savi of the Costa Chica Oaxaqueña
55	Ñu Savi of the Mixteca Alta Oaxaqueña
56	Ñu Savi of the Mixteca Baja Oaxaqueña
57	Ñu Savi of the Mixteca Media Oaxaqueña
58	Triqui Alta
59	Binnizá of the Sierra Norte
60	Binnizá of the Sierra Sur
61	Binnizá of the Isthmus
62	Binnizá of Valles Centrales
63	Chontal of Oaxaca
64	Zoque of Chimalapas
Puebla
65	Nahua of the Mixteca Poblana
66	Nahua of the Sierra Norte of Puebla
67	Nahua of the Volcanes Puebla
68	Totonaco of the Sierra Norte of Puebla
Querétaro
69	Otomí- Ñañhú of Amealco y Tolimán
Quintana Roo
70	Maya of Quintana Roo
San Luis Potosí
71	Castellano of Wirikuta
72	Nahua of the Huasteca potosina
Sinaloa
73	Mayo of Sinalóa
Sonora
74	Guarijío
75	Mayo of Sonora
76	Seri
77	Tohono Odham
78	Yaqui
Tabasco
79	Chol
80	Chontal of Tabasco
81	Zoque of Tabasco
Veracruz
82	Nahua of the Huasteca
83	Nahua of South Veracruz
84	Nahua of Zongolica
85	Otomí- Ñuhú
86	Popoluca
87	Sayulteco
88	Tepehua of North Veracruz
89	Totonaco of the Coast of Veracruz
90	Totonaco of the Sierra of Totonacapan
Yucatán
91	Maya of Yucatán
Migrant Peoples
92	Peoples residing in the Mexico City valley
93	Peoples residing in Guadalajara

 

Convocatoria a la Asamblea Constitutiva del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno para México

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Violent Eviction of Road Block Protest by Chenalho Displaced

 

Protest by displaced families Colonia Puebla (@Kuuntik)

On the morning of March 28, a hundred state police evicted more than 200 displaced indigenous people from the municipality of Chenalho when they blocked the toll road between San Cristobal and Tuxtla Gutierrez to demand that the government guarantee the return of some 80 families. The operation left 14 civilians injured and, according to the authorities, 13 policemen.

 Javier Lopez Santiz, representative of the 241 people from Puebla Ejido who have been displaced since May 27, 2016 due to the post-electoral conflict in Chenalho, reported that “we were the 241 displaced, among men, children and women, some pregnant, and they launche tear gas at us; we have four injured: Pedro Lopez Mendez, Alberto Hernandez Mendez, Uvencio Arias Gomez and a girl, plus ten others beaten.”

After the eviction, the displaced people went to the offices of the State Commission on Human Rights (CEDH in its Spanish acronym), based in San Cristobal de Las Casas. After the last violent events in main town of Chenalho at the beginning of the month, the families moved to this city until they obtained the necessary conditions for their return.

 

Chiapas: Violent Eviction of Road Block Protest by Chenalho Displaced

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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?”

 

Chiapas: Conflict between Parties Unleashes Violence in Chenalho

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Mexico: “Struggling with heart” indigenous Tzeltal people from the ejido Bachajon Chiapas, unjustly imprisoned

 

 

Published by the Pozol Collective, 24 March 2017

Chiapas, Mexico. 24 March. “A lot of doves are around the prison, we are an organisation from different states and countries, different places”, reflects Esteban Gomez Jimenez, imprisoned since 2013 in the Playas de Catazajá Prison, and currently in Cereso 5 de San Cristóbal. He is held for organising against the dispossession of the ejido San Sebastián Bachajón, which borders on the tourist attraction the Agua Azul Waterfall. Esteban was accused by Manuel Jimenez Moreno, a Priista Verde Ecologista party member from Pamalha, of an assault he did not commit, but it’s on this pretence he was detained and later accused of other crimes.

“One day, at night, when I was asleep, in my dreams all of a sudden the image came to me of a lot doves of different colours and I said “Oh my God, what’s going to happen? I thought I was alone”. Esteban shared these thoughts in a letter published by the solidarity work group, We’re not all here (in Spanish, “No estamos tod@s”). “Oh Lord, I don’t know how the compas are getting along” was another thought that along with the imprisonment is a penalty the indigenous Tzetal prisoner lives every day: not being with his community, organising alongside them against mega-projects imposed on the region.

Santiago Moreno Pérez, a political prisoner from the same ejido Bachajón, requested “continued support for me because I am imprisoned in Playas de Catazajá Jail, I ask you to please share this information with your compas”. Santiago has been prisoner since 2009 in Playas de Catazajá, for accusations made by Priisstas from La Pimienta community. At the time he was detained he held the responsibility of Autonomous Security Advisor for the Other Campaign and he was accused of a crime he did not commit to strip him of his position. “The struggle continues, you too, compañeros, it’s necessary to keep fight on the outside, that’s how it is for me, struggle with my heart” shared Santiago, who is also an adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle.

 

In the same spirit, the spokespeople from the ejido Bachajon announced on 18 March the release of one of the three political prisoners from their community, Emilio Jimenez Gomez. They also asserted that they are “resisting and fighting together to say enough already” and they insist that they are not “accomplices of a system that imprisons the poor”, they oppose to a system where for speaking up you are attacked and sent to jail, “because you don’t want to participate in corrupt business that sells our lands to private businesses to make themselves millionaires”.

 

“That is why we are building our autonomy, forging a new road of solidarity struggles, seeking a future in freedom” also stated the members of the National Indigenous Congress.

 

http://noestamostodxs.tk/carta-de-esteban-gomez-jimenez/

http://noestamostodxs.tk/carta-de-santiago-moreno-preso-del-ejido-san-sebastian-bachajon/

http://www.pozol.org/?p=14735

 

Emilio Jimenez Gomez, Prisoner from San Sebastian Bachajon, Released

 

 

 

Logo @: VivaBachajon WordPress

On March 16, Emilio Jimenez Gomez, an ejidatario from San Sebastian Bachajon and adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (the Sixth), has been released from prison. He had been imprisoned in Playas de Catazaja, Chiapas (CERSS # 17) for two years and eight months.

According to the “No Estamos Todxs” working group, “he was identified by PRI members from the Xanil community for an assault on a foreigner but the same foreigner said that the compañero was not the person who assaulted him. The PRI took him prisoner to Playas de Catazaja with the complicity of the preventative state police.” Likewise, the adherents to the Sixth of San Sebastian Bachajon, in their last statement, assured that Emilio Jimenez Gomez had been arrested for fight against dispossession in the Agua Azul Waterfalls.

In the same statement, they recalled that two other ejidatarios were still “kidnapped by the state”, Esteban Gomez Jimenez, prisoner in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, (CERSS # 5) and Santiago Moreno Perez, prisoner in Playas de Catazaja, Chiapas (CERSS # 17). They denounced that they were also arrested “in an arbitrary manner, for defending their natural resources…for raising their voices and defending life and territory.”

 

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Civil Observation and Solidarity Caravan in Los Chimalapas

 

Civil Observation and Solidarity Caravan to Los Chimalapas (@NVI Noticias)

On March 18 and 19, a motorized Civil Observation Caravan in solidarity with Nuevo San Andres visited the village in the Chimalapas region where, on 24 February last, nine villagers suffered attacks, illegal deprivation of liberty and violence from the so-called “Chamula Army”. About 20 people, including community members from Santa Maria Chimalapa, civil and social organizations as well as members of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the People of Oaxaca (DDHPO in its Spanish acronym) participated in this caravan.

About 100 people from 20 Tsotsil families from the Chiapas Highlands form the community of Nuevo San Andres, founded six years ago. Since the February aggression, they are practically living under siege for fear of being attacked again. Echoing their testimonies, the Caravan denounced the lack of actions by the federal and state governments to address the problems that endanger these families from Chiapas but installed in Oaxacan communal territory. 

Miguel Angel Garcia Aguirre, representative of the caravan, said that for more than 60 years indigenous communities have been confronted in this region of the Isthmus by border conflicts between Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz. The regional coordinator of the Committee for the Defense and Conservation of Chimalapa said that “we can not allow them to continue to live violence, we regret that the government of Oaxaca has not granted precautionary measures, we are waiting for the resolution of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), it is urgent that this case be addressed.”

Oaxaca/Chiapas: Civil Observation and Solidarity Caravan in Los Chimalapas

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Chiapas: Launch of Acteal Campaign: Roots, Memory and Hope

 

Launch of the Acteal Campaign: Roots, Memory and Hope. Photo@: Sipaz

 On 23 March, the Acteal Campaign: Roots, Memory and Hope was launched from the offices of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (CDHFBC) in San Cristobal de Las Casas. The campaign will take place within the framework of the XX anniversary of the Acteal Massacre and the 25th anniversary of the founding of Las Abejas Civil Society to “highlight our path as survivors and victims of the Acteal Massacre and as members of Las Abejas Civil Society of Acteal, […] exchange and share experiences with men and women from towns and cities who also fight for the same cause as us” and to “point out the material and intellectual authors of the Acteal Massacre so that the Mexican State recognizes its responsibility that Acteal is a state crime, a crime against humanity. And denounce that the Mexican State has so far been unable to ensure the non-repetition of events such as that of Acteal” (sic). They affirmed that, “it is the path of the search for truth and true justice. But, it is also memory, because we will be remembering, reporting and denouncing.”

The campaign will last nine months with cultural, political and religious activities. It will culminate with the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the massacre on December 20th, 21st and 22nd, 2017, in Acteal, House of Memory and Hope.

During the launch, Gonzalo Ituarte, Secretary of the Board of Directors of CDHFBC and Vicar of Justice and Peace of the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, shared his testimony. On the day of the massacre he reported receiving two calls from Chenalho informing him of the approach of an armed group shooting. He indicated that he had twice called the government secretary to address this situation. However, no aid was sent for which Gonzalo Ituarte denounced “the way the government had deceived us and how it had allowed, that is to say, how it had caused that massacre. The government that could stop all this did not do it and I am convinced that it did not because it was part of their plan, they wanted to kill, they wanted to destroy the heart of civil society, which sought just causes and a solution to the problem. They wanted to kill and they killed them consciously and this causes indignation and this is a crime unpunished today.”

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Mexico “One of the Worst Crisis of Human Rights and Justice”

 

 

 

National: Amnesty International Presents Report on Global Situation of Human rights. Mexico “One of the Worst Crisis of Human Rights and Justice”

On February 21, Amnesty International presented its annual report. In the section corresponding to events in Mexico in 2016, AI summarized: “Ten years after the beginning of the so-called “war against drug trafficking and organized crime”, military personnel continued to be employed in public security operations, and violence in the country continued to be widespread. Reports of torture and other abuses, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests continued to be reported. Impunity persisted for violations of human rights and crimes under international law. Mexico received the highest number of asylum applications in its history, the majority of people fleeing violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Intensive smear campaigns against human rights defenders and independent observers were carried out and homicides and threats against journalists due to their work continued to be reported. Violence against women continued to be a source of serious concern, and gender-based violence was reported in the states of Jalisco and Michoacan. Congress rejected one of two bills that would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.”

In the presentation of the report in Mexico City, Tania Reneaum Panszi, Executive Director of the Mexican section of AI was even more succinct: “We are in one of the worst human rights and justice crisis in Mexico.”

On February 28, the Government of Mexico addressed the report, recognizing “the challenges it faces in the area of human rights, while reaffirming its ineludible commitment to respond to each of them.”

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IACHR finds the State responsible for death of Tzeltal

 

By: José Antonio Román

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded that the Mexican State is responsible for violating the right to life of the Tzeltal Gilberto Jiménez Hernández, executed at the hands of members of the Army in Altamirano, Chiapas, on February 20, 1995, inside the so- called Chiapas 94 Campaign Plan, with which it [the army] sought to retake the territory in which the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) had operated.

The IACHR points out that after 22 years the Mexican State has not complied with any of the recommendations issued to repair the damage and to guarantee that the acts are not repeated. They also committed offences and crimes against relatives of the victim and the villagers.

The acts occurred in the La Grandeza ejido in Altamirano municipality, when Army officials extra-judicially executed Jiménez Hernández while he was fleeing with his family and some 70 other residents. There were allegedly investigations in ordinary federal and state agencies, as well as military, but impunity prevailed.

The State’s version is that his death resulted from a confrontation between members of the EZLN, the group to which the victim belonged, and members of the Army.

These acts occurred after February 9, 1995, when then President Ernesto Zedillo launched the Army against the EZLN, betraying his offer of dialogue. That same day, the Attorney General of the Republic announced that members of the Zapatista leadership had been accused of the use of weapons for the Army’s exclusive use and also terrorism.

According to the testimonies of villagers, the soldiers “opened continuous fire” against the people that had taken shelter in an improvised encampment on the hill after being warned that the soldiers were coming. They also said that the Army destroyed the interior of the houses in the empty community.

The villagers fled after the shooting on February 20. Gilberto Jiménez attempted to hide, but he couldn’t because he was carrying his 2-year old daughter “tied to his back with a shawl.” Abner García Torres, a soldier, found him and in Spanish ordered him to stop.

Gilberto obeyed and was extended on the ground, but the soldier, “without any warning or motive, shot him without considering that he was carrying his daughter on his back.” One of the bullets penetrated his right eye and caused his immediate death. His wife and several of his ten children with whom he was fleeing were witnesses to the execution.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2017/03/21/politica/005n3pol

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee

 

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Indigenous Women: an expanding view

 

 

Chiapas Women march in San Cristóbal and Tuxtla Gutiérrez on International Women’s Day. Photo from proceso.com

By: Magdalena Gómez

March 8 is International Women’s Day. In the case of Indigenous women, as of today, the complexity is not fully realized that their belonging to a people and the dimension of gender involve. In the last 20 years, indigenous women, immersed in the dynamic of the indigenous peoples’ political movement, have constructed new spaces favourable to the vindication of their own demands as women. Many of them are similar to the generic demands of all women, but others question, from inside of their peoples, certain conceptions and practices endorsed by so-called custom.
A good example of this process is the document that was presented to the National Indigenous Congress for the purpose of its creation, in October 1996. In the first place, they again took up the spaces won during the discussion at the dialogue table between the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN, its initials in Spanish) and the federal government, because of that it was noted that the women’s law and the need for parity among men and women were recognized at the negotiating table for the San Andrés Accords; however, the mechanisms for implementing them and for making that law effective were not agreed upon.

It emphasized that there is no doubt that the indigenous woman fulfils a productive and symbolic role equally important to the man’s. Nevertheless, women are generally excluded from public decisions and have fewer rights than men. At the same time, it clarified that indigenous women set forth their demands and vindicate their rights, not to go against their culture or their group, but rather to think about the customs from a perspective that includes them and does not do violence to them. With respect to that, they concluded: “therefore we say together with other organized indigenous sisters that insistently advocate for changing the customs that we want to open a new path for thinking about customs from another view, which does not do violence to our rights as persons and that gives dignity and respect to indigenous women. We always want to change the customs that don’t affect our dignity.” They insisted on denouncing the triple oppression that indigenous women experience, because of being poor, being indigenous and being women.
The perspective of their political rights was already glimpsed when they supported the recognition of autonomy for Indian peoples, with the guarantee of parity to women in all representative bodies. They added themselves to the questioning the counter-reform to Constitutional Article 27 demanding it be modified so that women have the right to land, together with the right of all indigenous peoples. In this 1996 document we are able to appreciate that the demands are formulated directly, even if an image of embroidering is profiled about the inter-relation between their belonging to the indigenous peoples and in some way their vindication of participation in the political process with the situation that they live inside of those collectivities as women.

Today the indigenous women’s movement has expanded and diversified its agendas. In relation to their political rights some, very few, have participated in local and federal deputations or in the municipios through the political parties or in the case of de Oaxaca through election by uses and customs. Those individual trajectories are added to the generic agenda of the political parties and they seek to introduce some similar demand. We find an example of this tendency in the case of a Zapotec woman Eufrosina Cruz, who expressed: “let’s go grabbing more; what I have understood in my experience is that if you don’t grab for something, then you’re not going to get it; sensitivity is needed in public spaces in every rubric of decision-making, backwardness is in all sectors.” (Milenio, 5/3/17)

The National Indigenous Congress (CNI, its initials in Spanish) with the EZLN’s support set this profile of electoral political participation with the postulation of an indigenous woman as an independent candidate to the Presidency of the Republic, and without a doubt it will mark a significant turn. We’re talking about a radical change that an indigenous woman will head; it is in and of itself an affirmative action, which entails a rupture with the patriarchal hegemony of the political elites. The other element that constitutes an authentic parting of waters is that this indigenous woman will bring with her an anti-capitalist program, which marks a rupture with the profile of the electoral agendas underway.

From this perspective, what the CNI pointed out last January 1 makes sense: “we want to shake the conscience of the nation, which in effect means that we seek that indignation, resistance and rebellion figure on the 2018 electoral ballots, but it’s not our intention to compete in any way with the parties and all the political class that still owes us a lot… Don’t let us confuse you, we don’t seek to compete with them, because we are not the same.”

Such is the challenge.
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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2017/03/07/opinion/017a2pol
Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee

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How Zapatistas Will Help Trump Victims With ‘Fuck You’ Coffee

How Zapatistas Will Help Trump Victims with ‘Fuck You’ Coffee

Zapatista women outside a militant-run store in Chiapas | Photo: AFP

 

“Always remember that we must resist, we must rebel, we must fight and we must organize.”

Mexico’s Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN, announced Saturday that it will begin selling organic coffee from Chiapas in order to help migrants persecuted by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Working alongside allied international distributors, the EZLN will use coffee sale funds to provide financial assistance to U.S. deportees in Mexico. They will also use funds to support pro-immigrant resistance groups around the world protesting anti-immigrant governments.

The project is part of the group’s “Global Campaign against the Walls of Capital,” which calls for worldwide immigrant solidarity against detentions and deportations.

“It’s 100 percent Zapatista coffee, cultivated in Zapatista lands by Zapatista hands,” EZLN insurgent subcommanders Moises and Galeano wrote in a statement.

“We hope that with this support they will be able to initiate work of support for all persecutions and discriminations of the world.”

The EZLN insurgent subcommanders signed their statement with the words “fuck Trump.”

Since Trump’s election, the radical Mexican group has worked with its international support group, the Sixth Commission, to “support the resistance and rebellion of those who are persecuted.” This includes calling for boycotts of pro-Trump commercial and media organizations while providing free legal assistance to those in need.

The EZLN has also announced plans to present an Indigenous female candidate in Mexico’s 2018 election. Their proposed candidate, who has yet to be named, is described as someone who will “call for Trump’s wall to be torn down.”

Despite the EZLN’s participation in fundraising and electoral politics, the group continues to advocate for mass civil resistance as its primary form of struggle.

“Always remember that we must resist, we must rebel, we must fight and we must organize,” Moises and Galeano also wrote in the statement.

“We must fight for those people who today are persecuted simply for having a certain skin colour, culture, belief, origin, history and life.”

The EZLN, inspired by Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, became active in 1994 after Mexico joined the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then, the group has declared war against the Mexican government and its allied multinational corporations.

Correction: This article originally claimed the Zapatistas were founded in 1994. The group were actually founded in the early 1980s, but became public much later, on Jan. 1, 1994, when NAFTA officially came into force.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/How-Zapatistas-Will-Help-Trump-Victims-with-Fuck-You-Coffee-20170318-0021.html

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