Xochicuautla obtains suspension of highway

 

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Photo: @Mexican Commission for the Defense and Protection of Human Rights (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos – CMPDH)

 

After a decade of struggle for the conservation of the natural wealth of their territory, the community of San Francisco Xochicuautla, Mexico State, obtained the definitive suspension of the construction of the Toluca-Naucalpan highway that threatened their forest. Following ten years of various strategies, political and legal, the suspension opposed the presidential decree of 2015 for the expropriation of 37 hectares of the ejido for the construction of the highway.

The infrastructure project was promoted by the then-governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. The company in charge of the construction of the highway, Autopistas de Vanguardia S.A., is part of the Grupo Higa, which sold the so-called “White House” to the wife of the current President of the Republic for seven million pesos, causing a huge scandal last year.

It is worth highlighting that the suspension is a “great step to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and communities, the defence of life, water, the forest, and the countryside”, although they haven’t yet obtained the definitive cancellation of the project, according to the statement from the community. In spite of the judicial ruling, the inhabitants of Xochicuaulta pointed out that machinery had recently arrived to their territories in violation of the said ruling. The comuneros demanded “that the state, federal and municipal authorities honour the suspension“, and that therefore, the companies “immediately vacate the territory of San Francisco Xochicuautla, removing machinery, workers and also that the state police who tend to accompany the works be removed.”

 

https://sipazen.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/national-xochicuautla-obtains-suspension-of-highway/

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Stop the Killings: Friends of the Earth petition on Honduras

 

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Stop the bloodshed in Honduras

 

In the space of 2 weeks, 4 activists have been shot. 2 are dead and 1 is currently in grave danger.

• Berta Cáceres, an indigenous environmental activist opposing a mega-dam project in Honduras, was shot dead in her home on 2 March.
• Gustavo Castro, director of Friends of the Earth Mexico and sole witness to Berta’s murder, was wounded in the same attack. Gustavo is being prevented from leaving Honduras. He is in grave danger.
• On 15 March Nelson García, an activist in COPINH, the same indigenous organisation as Berta, was shot dead in his home.
• On the same day Mauricio Alegría, from the peasant organisation Via Campesina, was shot near his office. He survived and was rushed to hospital.

It’s time for the Honduran government to protect its citizens and those within its borders. They need to know the world is watching.

Ask the Honduran government to end the killings

 

Sign Here

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Nelson Garcia, another member of COPINH, murdered; Gustavo Castro detained for 30 more days

 

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Photo @Resumen Latinoamericano

^{Following the murder of Berta Caceres last March 3, social activist, member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and member of the opposition to the building of the hydroelectric dam at Agua Zarca, COPINH reported another murder of one of its leaders. On March 15, Nelson Noe Garcia Lainez “was murdered when he arrived at his mother-in-law’s home for lunch, having spent the morning helping to move the shelters of the evicted families from the Rio Chiquito commuity”, COPINH declared in a statement. The events took place in the Rio Chiquito community, in the Cortes department of Honduras following the recovery of lands at Rio Lindo, an area which the same day “was violently evicted by the military police and special forces”, according to organizations that witnessed the events. The General Direction of the National Police denied any connection between the murder of Garcia Lainez and the eviction, which they claimed was carried out “in a peaceful manner.”}

^{Likewise, COPINH warned about capture threats that two more of its members are receiving from the police. “FOR HOW MUCH LONGER WILL WE CONTINUE TO PUT UP WITH MORE MURDERS OF THOSE WHO STRUGGLE FOR A MORE JUST WORLD, FOR THE RIGHT TO LAND, FOR A DIGNIFIED ROOF [over their heads], FOR A DIGNIFIED AND NOT EXPLOITED JOB [?]. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF THE EXTERMINATION OF INDIGENOUS AND BLACK PEOPLES AND CAMPESINOS”, they added.}

^{On another note, Other Worlds Chiapas (Otros Mundos Chiapas) member, Gustavo Castro Soto, who was injured during the murder of Berta Caceres as he was present in her home, remains in detention as a protected witness in Honduras. A range of organizations have expressed concern for the safety of the activist, describing as “arbitrary” the fact that his return to Mexico is impeded for 30 more days and demanding that the Honduran government lift the migratory alert. The most important of those was the demand of the special rapporteur of the UNO for the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Michael Forst, who asked the government of the Central American country for the return and protection of the activist. Furthermore, Castro Soto’s attorney added that the order to remain in Honduras “is illegal for a witness, it is not covered by the law, we have forwarded the legal resources that establish the norm, because this limitation of freedom does not exist in relation to witnesses.”}

^{They also announced the establishment of an International Mission “Justice for Berta Caceres”, called for by COPINH, the National Network for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras, and individuals, collectives and organizations of an international network for solidarity in support of the Honduran people. This Mission plans meetings with the authorities of the Central American country “to demand clarification of the murder of Berta Caceres, with the participation of an Independent Investigative Commission; to demand the immediate release of the Mexican Gustavo Castro and} guarantee his personal integrity.”

 

^{https://sipazen.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/chiapasinternational-nelson-garica-another-member-of-copinh-murdered-gustavo-castro-detained-for-30-more-days/}

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Progress on the Encounter “The Zapatistas and the ConSciences for Humanity”

 

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ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION

MEXICO

March 16, 2016

Compas and non-compas:

Now we are going to let you know how plans are going for the Encounter “The Zapatistas and the ConSciences for Humanity”:

As of March 14, we have received 50 applications for the event.

There are applications from Norway, Brazil, Chile, France, the USA, Japan, and Mexico.

Scientific disciplines: So far invitations are being considered for scientists of Astronomy, Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Medicine, Genetics, Paediatric Pathology and Nephrology, and Microbiology. We will continue to keep you informed of further developments with the invitations.

The scientists invited to the encounter “The Zapatistas and the ConSciences for Humanity” can offer a critical reflection on their scientific theory or practice, or an explanation of the general elements of their specialty given in an accessible manner (that is, an educational talk).

The email address where you can register to attend the encounter “The Zapatistas and the ConSciences for Humanity” is: conCIENCIAS@ezln.org.mx.

Date and location for the ConSciences Encounter: December 25, 2016 to January 4 2017, with an ‘intermission’ on December 31 and January 1. It will be held at CIDECI in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.

Only the invited scientists with their exhibitions and the selected Zapatista youth with their questions will be given the floor at the festival.

There is no cost for registration but the Zapatistas cannot pay for travel, lodging, or food.

Boys and girls may attend as videntes [seers/viewers] and escuchas [ears/listeners], but they should be accompanied by a responsible adult.

The production, consumption and sale of drugs and alcohol is strictly forbidden.

That is all for now.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés. Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano.

Mexico, March 2016.

 

 

From the diaries of the cat-dog:

Echoes of March 8ⁱ

March 8, 2016. Place: EZLN Headquarters. Document obtained from the diary of someone calling himself “supgaleano,” thanks to the Trojan malware called “finders keepers, losers weepers” version 6.9.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés and the present writer were here discussing the upcoming CompArtefestival and how the Zapatista communities are organizing to participate. While we were talking a compañera insurgenta came in and said simply: “there is going to be a soccer game. We women were challenged to a game.” I knew the motivation behind this, because it was not the first time that it had happened. Let me tell you that in this barracks, the insurgent women [insurgentas] outnumbered the insurgent men [insurgentes] two to one. To explain this difference in numbers, there are two different stories: the official version is that it is because the majority of the insurgentes are doing highly specialized work which only men can carry out with panache and grace; the real version is that there are in fact more compañeras than compañeros. Publishing the real version is of course prohibited, so only the official version has been distributed to the Tercios Compas.

Despite this reality, obvious from a simple glance, it occurred to one of the insurgentes to say as he finished breakfast: “since today is March 8, we men challenge the women to a game of soccer.” The commanding officer realized the error almost immediately, but the deed had been done. A female official from the insurgent health service responded: “it’s on.” The men crowded around the naïve challenger to scold him. Realizing the reason for the frustration that was spreading through the masculine ranks, the insurgente tried to clarify, “but with an equal number of players on each team.” “No way,” said the women, “you said that the men challenged the women, and so it is all of the insurgentes against all of the insurgentas.”

Clouds began forming in the sky and a strong wind foreshadowed misfortune.

After lunch (the menu was tamale shakes and coffee with chili pepper), an insurgenta came by to let us know that the game was about to start and asked if we were going. Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés couldn’t go because he had to review the registration list for the festival. I abstained, intuiting that the environment would not be a propitious one for gender inequity. So neither of us went.

The horizon was already darkening when they returned. On earth and in the sky the storm is lady and mistress of everything.

The insurgenta arrived to report in. I asked her how the game had gone and she responded, “we tied.” “How many to how many?” I asked. “I don’t remember” she said, “but we won a game and then we changed sides on the field and they won, so we tied: one each.” She said it with such self-confidence that she seemed like the president of the National Electoral Institute reporting the official results of any election.

Something smelled fishy to me, and so I went to see the commanding officer and asked about the results: “We won 7 to 3” he responded tersely. “But the Health insurgenta said that you tied because they won one game and you all the other?” I asked. The official smiled and clarified: “no sup, we only played one game; what happened was that in the first half they were winning 3 to 2, and in the second half, after switching sides on the field, we made 5 goals. The result: insurgentes – 7, insurgentas – 3.” Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, spokesperson of the eezeeelen, in the name of all of the Zapatista men, women, children and elders exclaimed: “We men won!” Another insurgenta who was walking by admonished “what is this about ‘we men won,’ ha! you two didn’t even go.” “It doesn’t matter,” said the official spokesperson of the eezeeelen, “we men won.” The storm appeared to diminish and the wind and water settled down. But the horizon was far from clear.

Later that night, when as we toasted masculine supremacy with our coffee, Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés explained to me: “Look, what happened is that among the men, only two of them really know how to play soccer and both of them were on guard duty, so in the first half the insurgentes were down two players and the insurgentas, well, there’s already more of them. In the second half, those two guys finished their shift and they were incorporated into the game and well, the men won.”

I asked if the insurgentas knew how to play soccer: “they do,” he said, “but they also have one player who is young and runs up and down the field and everywhere; she is the team’s real strategist and tactician because when she gets tired of running she just yells, “ball, ball” and all of the insurgentas run and surround the guy who has the ball and they all kick and since there is only one ball, well, a whole lot of kicks get the compañero.”

We raise our cold cups of coffee and toast the new triumph of gender even in adverse conditions.

In the mountains, the wind and rain had already drunk of the nocturnal force. It was not yet morning when they subsided, with even more force if that is possible.

But (there’s always a “but”), the next day at breakfast one of the men, with ill intentions, asked how the soccer game had gone, “We tied,” an insurgenta rushed to say before the little machos managed to respond, and she turned to the other women around her: “Right compañeras?” “Yeessss!” they all shouted and, well, since they are the majority, well…anyway, the risks of democracy.

That is how the insurgentas converted a sports defeat into a triumph and won…with a tie. Final score: insurgentes – 1, insurgentas – 2.

 

 

 

But the machos didn’t give up so quickly, they asked for a re-match. “Sure” said the compañeras “but next year.”

Desperate, the insurgentes looked to the person who best encapsulates the highest values of machismo-zapatismo, which is to say, me. They asked me when “men’s day” was.

“What?” I asked them.

“Yes,” they said, “if there is a woman’s day, then there must also be a man’s day.”

“Ah” I agreed, understanding: “yes indeed there is one.” And I showed them what, with concise wisdom, one tiger had tweeted: “Men’s day” (when you celebrate the slavery of the woman to the work of rearing children) already exists. It is May 10.”

I think that they didn’t understand what you might call my sarcastic tone because they went away saying, “Ah, ok well then it’s still a little while off.”

-*-

Reading comprehension questions:

1.-Is the health insurgenta who subverted the semantics in FIFA’s rules a feminazi, a lesboterrorist, or someone who does away with the rules, destroying imposed [gender] roles and damaging masculine sensibility?

2.- Is the person who summarized with such grace what happened on this fateful March 8, 2016, in a Zapatista barracks: heteropatriarchal, Eurocentric, species-ist, ableist, classist and etceterist, one more victim of the system (well look at that, it sounds like the name of a music group), or does he not celebrate May 10 because he lacks the above listed attributes?

3.-As the women that we are, should we give a rematch to those damned men who, well, you know, you give them an inch and they want a mile?

Send your responses to the concierge of the Little School. Note: all not-so-nice comments will be returned to sender.ⁱⁱ

I testify under gender oath/protest:

SupGaleano

March 8, 2016

i March 8 is known around the world as International Women’s Day.

ii The original is “mentadas que no sean de menta.” “Mentada” is like a telling-off or insult. Menta is mint. Literally this would be unminty insults.

 

Progress on the Encounter “The Zapatistas and the ConSciences for Humanity”

 

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Calls for the release of Alejandro Diaz Santiz

 

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Press conference for the release of Alejandro Diaz Santiz, December 2015.
Photo @Red contra la Represión y por la Solidaridad

 

More than 70 organizations, collectives, networks, and individuals signed a statement demanding the release of Alejandro Diaz Santiz, who “has spent almost 17 years without seeing the open sky, locked up in different prisons in Veracruz and Chiapas.” The unjustly imprisoned 35-year-old Tsotsil indigenous was arrested in 1999, “accused of a murder he didn’t commit”. Moreover, he “didn’t speak Spanish at the time of his arrest, was tortured, never had access to an interpreter and didn’t have enough money for an adequate legal defence”, the statement claims. The prisoner, who is an adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and a member of the prisoners’ collective Sympathizers of the Voice of Amate, has been organizing with others deprived of their freedom to denounce human rights violations inside the prisons and to seek justice in their cases. The members of the Sympathizers of the Voice of Amate have published many reports and organized actions, notably the 39-day hunger strike of 2011.

Currently Diaz Santiz is deprived of his liberty in the high security federal prison at Villa Comaltitlán, Tapachula, Chiapas. At this prison, “those sentenced for federal crimes are held, which is NOT the case of Alejandro Diaz.” The statement adds that, “the forced transfer to Villa Comaltitlán is political vengeance by the bad government against Alejandro, punishing him for supporting and raising the consciousness of the other prisoners and for not remaining silent in the face of abuses against those detained.” It also mentions that the state government did not fulfil its promise to release Diaz Santiz, as well as the fact that there are legal grounds to free him due to benefits he is legally entitled to. The statement ends with the demand for his immediate release and announcing upcoming activities and actions “so that this injustice ends.”

 

https://sipazen.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/chiapas-calls-for-release-of-alejandro-diaz-santiz/

 

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Multiple events in Chiapas for International Women’s Day

 

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 Multiple events in Chiapas for International Women’s Day

 

Pilgrimage of the women of Las Abejas de Acteal. Photo @SIPAZ

Multiple events were organized in Chiapas within the framework of International Women’s Day. In a state which ranks in the top ten as regards violence against women, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Centre for Human Rights (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas – CDHFBC, also known as Frayba) published that “the right to life, personal integrity and safety, access to justice, to a life free from violence, among other fundamental rights is an outstanding subject in Chiapas, where women are the booty of war in the wide panorama of human rights violations that the Mexican State tolerates, perpetrates and reproduces, using terror as a strategy to detain multiple resistances.”

The Movement for Defence of Land and Territory and for the participation and recognition of women in decision making held an assembly, closing the encounter with a march and meeting. They published their agreements in a statement demanding the recognition and modification of Ejidal Rules and Statutes (Reglamentos Ejidales y Estatutos) to recognize women as co-owners of land and that their territories be declared free of megaprojects. Likewise, they rejected machismo and government programmes “in the form of aid” aimed at women, they demanded that their right to health be met, the cancellation of the San Cristobal-Palenque and San Cristobal-Frontera Comalapa highways, recognition of the autonomy of Tila ejido and of Chimalapas, the declaration of Gender Violence Alert (Alerta de Violencia de Género – AVG) in Chiapas, and the removal of the armed forces from their territories.

There was a pilgrimage called for by the women of the Civil Society of Las Abejas de Acteal, who have maintained their opposition to the militarization of their territory since the massacre of 45 people in 1997. In their statement they recalled the murder of “21 women, 15 children, and nine men; as well as 26 wounded and four pregnant women who had their wombs opened, their babies taken out and cut up” and made a call “to resist but not to take on [the path of] violence” because “it is time to open the ears, it is time to awaken all those who have been in a deep sleep.”

On their part, the women of Simojovel, who through People of Faith (Pueblo Creyente) have been struggling against alcohol, for the closure of cantinas, and against drug trafficking in the region, protested “for so many injustices, ambition, delinquency, prostitution, etc., that we are living through.”

It should be noted that in the majority of the events the recent murder of Berta Caceres, Lenca indigenous defender of human rights, land and territory in La Esperanza, Intibuca, Honduras, was condemned, and they expressed solidarity with Gustavo Castro and demanded that his safety be guaranteed and his immediate return to Mexico.

 

https://sipazen.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/chiapas-multiple-events-for-international-womens-day/

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The Heart Linked with the Land, 22 Years of the Community Cinco de Marzo

 

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To the EZLN

To the Good Government Junta Resistance and Rebellion for Humanity

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the adherents to the Sixth

To the brothers and sisters of the community of Cinco de Marzo

To the Network against Repression and for Solidarity

To the Space of Struggle against Oblivion and Repression

To the Centre of Human Rights Fray Bartolomé de la Casas

To the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in struggle and resistance for their territories

To those in solidarity that accompany us today and those that cannot be with us

To the alternative and free media

To public opinion

Pronouncement from the community Cinco de Marzo, indigenous Tsotsiles, Tseltales, and Ch’oles in struggle, resistance, and rebellion, adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle (EZLN):

We are campesinxs, simple, humble, workers from below, teachers, housewives, horse-traders, organized in our recovered land since 1994 through the energy following the uprising of the EZLN; with an autonomous thought. We resist so that we not forget our ideals that were inspired by the EZLN in a just struggle for everyone.

Today we celebrate 22 years of recovery, and the foundation of our community Cinco de Marzo following the EZLN uprising. Eight years ago we announced publicly…today, we return to speak anew, to tell you that our heart remains and we continue in struggle in defence of our Mother Earth and territory. The path has not been easy. The first compañerxs who arrived to inhabit these lands passed a long a difficult road to arrive to where we are today. We did not have dignified housing…our first houses were made of cardboard, wood chips, nylon, where rain and frost passed through. The streets that ran through the community, we installed them ourselves; the services of electricity we carried out ourselves, the access to water was not asked for, but taken autonomously. The church and school of the community we constructed together with our sweat and collective force. The murals that declare our autonomy, that are seen by the community, we made them ourselves so they can see us and see who we are here. These murals continue to be present because we continue in resistance. We value and do not forget this work because it is part of our struggle to have a dignified life.

The bad government has tried to disrupt and divide us through their programmes of “support” and projects that supposedly “benefit the community.” The only thing that has occurred is the intent to divide us from our other compañerxs. In spite of this, the bad government has failed to defeat us. On the contrary, all of this has strengthened us be more united and organized in our resistance and struggle for autonomy.

Right now, our community is passing a stage without access to light, to the vital liquid, and we are being harassed through a supposed eviction from our lands and territories. Since the 24^th of August, the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE) has cut our electricity because we are opposed to the high rate of electricity bills that we receive for light. We are indigenous who belong to Mother Earth where the energy is produced and it is an injustice and an abuse that they want to charge us for our natural resources. We do not see that it is just to pay a high cost that the state of Chiapas imposes upon us when it produces more than 50% of the electric energy for all of the country. We have tried to resolve the situation of the cutting of the electricity before the CFE, but they have remained in neglect of our petitions and demands that have been made regarding our respect and our right as indigenous peoples.

Like electricity, our Mother Earth also produces the vital liquid. We do not need to pay for this natural resource.   We: men, women, girls and boys, old ones, etc. together installed a pipe to have access to drinking water in our community. We remember how we got this service…through collective work. The intended eviction does not intimidate us, does not divide us, and does not distract us from our path. We are in resistance because we know the history of these sacred lands that were and are paid for by the blood of our compañerxs of the EZLN. Now, we have the responsibility to care for it and work on it.

We are in solidarity with those that find themselves walking in the same struggle of resistance and rebellion. Those who continue living amongst injustice and pain on the part of the bad government. We express our rage and sentiment that we are united in the pain that is felt by the families of our assassinated compañera, Berta Cáceres. She is an example to continue defending the natural world and Mother Earth for the love of her people. Her struggle animates us to raise our voice without fear of repression.

We also express our solidarity after nearly a year and a half of the forced disappearance of our compañeros of Ayotzinapa. We continue looking for them, and we say to their families, that we are with you. We are united in pain and in struggle. In spite of the bad government wanting to forget the case, the families remember their pain and continue in struggle. This example strengthens us and animates us. We know that the bad government intends to disappear our word, our feelings, and our thoughts in speaking out, to say the truth, by rebelling, by expressing our disagreement.

As adherents of the sixth of the community Cinco de Marzo, we emphasise that:

Our struggle is to defend and care for our Mother Earth

Our struggle is to recover and conserve our Usos y Costumbres from our indigenous being and our grandmothers and grandfathers

Our struggle is to defend our form of organizing ourselves

Our struggle is to have a dignified life without repression or violence, exploitation, discrimination, extortion, or displacement

Our struggle is to conserve and care for our memory of who we are and of where we come from; of our brothers and sisters of 1994.

We share with everyone that our struggle is to care for our Mother Earth because it feeds us and strengthens us; equally, we hope that our struggle feeds you and serves your motivation to continue organizing for the people, for humanity, for those of below and to the left and for the children that are yet to come. We continue constructing the other world that is possible.

Here we continue, here we will continue, here we will be. Here we resist.

Long live the community Cinco de Marzo!

Long live the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle!

Long life the EZLN!

Long live the committees of good government!

Love life the bases of support of the EZLN!

Love long the National Indigenous Congress (CNI)

Long live the organized civil society in resistance!

Long live the people of the world in resistance and rebellion!

Adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle, community of Cinco de Marzo

 

Translated by Palabras Rebeldes

http://chiapasdenuncia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/comunidad-cinco-de-marzo-celebro-22.html

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Insumisión: victories don’t slow the struggle

 

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March 17, 2016

Originally posted to It’s Going Down
By Scott Campbell

In the past two weeks, social movements in Mexico racked up significant victories while continuing to organize in the face of constant state repression. Detractors will point to the several successes won in the courts as examples of the reasonableness and functionality of a democratic government. Those on the ground know that it was not due to a wise and benevolent judiciary that they won, but through years of organization, mobilization and struggle that forced the state’s hand. Even in victory they remain on guard, knowing that the state cannot be trusted and these battles are part of a larger war. That war rages daily as neoliberal capitalism, racism and patriarchy continue to plunder the peoples and territories of Mexico and beyond.

Readers may have heard of the assassination of indigenous land and water defender Berta Cáceres in Honduras on March 3. Wounded during the attack was Gustavo Castro Soto, a member of Otros Mundos from Chiapas. Fearing for his safety, he attempted to leave Honduras only to be detained by authorities and ordered to remain in the country for 30 days. A few days later on March 14 movements around Mexico participated in the International Day of Action Against Dams and in Defence of Rivers. The Chiapan Front in Defense of Water, Land and Life held an action in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, while the Mexican Movement of those Affected by Dams and in Defence of Rivers (MAPDER) released a map documenting the 40 people from Mexico to Colombia killed since 2005 for organizing against dam construction. The map quickly became outdated the following day when Nelson García, a member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) – the same group Berta Cáceres belonged to – was assassinated.

In Oaxaca, Fortuna Silver Mines, a Canadian mining company responsible for the murder of Bernardo Vásquez in 2012, is seeking to expand its operations despite resistance from several communities. Vásquez was a leader of the Ocotlán Valley United Peoples Coordinating Body (CPUVO) when he was ambushed after leaving a meeting with the state government. Also in Oaxaca, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) released a declaration on February 24 summarizing the agreements reached during the gathering held there at the end of January, attended by delegates from 32 communities and 14 indigenous peoples. They write, “We gathered to see and to listen to the other, to those who every day experience dispossession, repression, disdain and exploitation in each one of the corners of the indigenous geography, where lightning announces the storm that is covering our territories, a storm conceived in the darkness of capitalism.” Meanwhile, the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca – Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM) denounced a campaign of harassment and surveillance currently being carried out against them by the state government.

A three-day National Dialogue for Education was held at the Raúl Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School in Guerrero, 43 of whose students remain missing after being disappeared by the state in 2014. The conference focused on precarity in education and government attacks on normal schools. These schools are a legacy of the Mexican Revolution that train students to become teachers and advocates for rural, marginalized communities. They are inherently political and as such the Mexican government has carried out a campaign to shut down and defund them and ensure their graduates are not hired. The most well-known students from Ayotzinapa are Lucio Cabañas and Genaro Vázquez Rojas, who formed various armed movements in Guerrero in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Party of the Poor. Government attempts to crush those and other student movements led to what is known as Mexico’s Dirty War, the legacy and practices of which are still utilized by the government today. Also in March, a 300-page free online book was published about Ayotzinapa called Faltan Más (More Are Missing) and the relatives of the disappeared students established an email and phone number where the public can provide information about the kidnapped students.

 

 

International Women’s Day on March 8 was utilized by social movements to call attention to the crisis of femicide in Mexico, where 47 percent of women 15 and older report experiencing physical, emotional, sexual or economic violence. Under the Peña Nieto government, at least 6,488 women have been murdered. The State of Mexico, where Peña Nieto was previously governor, has the highest rate of femicide, with more than 50 women being killed there so far this year. On March 5, demonstrators gathered in Ecatepec in the State of Mexico and from there rode on public transportation throughout the state and neighbouring Mexico City handing out information and whistles to women and listening to testimonies from survivors of sexual violence or the family members of those whose lives were taken. In Chiapas, the Movement in Defence of Land and Territory and for the Participation of Women in Decision-making issued a statement on March 8 following their second assembly, condemning “the capitalist, neoliberal, patriarchal and extractivist system [that] has the objective of enrichment from natural resources and taking control of the lives of the people, directly affecting women.” After she denounced a sexual assault she survived on International Women’s Day in Mexico City that was caught on video, misogynist trolls came out of the online woodwork, viciously attacking journalist Andrea Noel in a display of the powerful internalization of patriarchy. On March 13, several human rights groups called attention to the torture of women prisoners while being transferred to a new private prison in Morelos owned by Carlos Slim, the world’s second richest person. The statement related that the women “were victims of torture and maltreatment, including acts of sexual torture such as rape, molestation and other gender-based forms of discrimination.” These attacks led to the death of one women and the serious injury of another.

Dozens of organizations from ten countries issued a statement calling for the release of Alejandro Díaz Santiz in Chiapas. Locked up since 1999 for a murder he did not commit, Díaz is an indigenous Tzotzil member of the collective Solidarios de la Voz del Amate, a group of political prisoners and prisoners who became politicized on the inside. Adherents of the Zapatista Sixth Declaration, after years of mobilizing all other members of the collective gained their freedom in 2013. They continue to work for the freedom of Díaz, Roberto Paciencia Cruz – another politicized indigenous prisoner – and all political prisoners. As the statement reads, Díaz “was arrested and jailed for being poor and indigenous, something very common according to the racist logic of the colonial justice system in Mexico and Chiapas.” According to a recent report by the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples, there are at least 9,000 indigenous prisoners in Mexico, most of whom did not commit the crime they are imprisoned for.

On the topic of indigenous political prisoners, judges threw out three kidnapping charges against Nestora Salgado and ordered her release on March 7. Salgado, head of the community police in Olinalá, Guerrero, has been held captive by the state since August 2013. Instead of being freed, however, prosecutors filed three new charges against her, for kidnapping, theft and homicide. The evidence against Salgado is so flimsy – for example, at the time of the murder she is being charged with she was 90 miles away – that her lawyers are confident she will be released shortly. In a recent letter, Salgado wrote about the creation of the community police,

The people had no other option but to arm themselves. They rang the church bells, they took the streets, and decided to detain the municipal police who were in league with the criminals, and took the security of the people upon themselves. October 27, 2012 was the key date for Olinalá because the people took up arms, not to make war, but to return to the people the tranquillity and peace that the authorities didn’t care to ensure.

In some good news, compañero Yorch, whose situation was covered in the last column, had his charges reduced from drug dealing to possession and was released on bail on March 9. The state is appealing that ruling and the Anarchist Black Cross-Mexico warns that the struggle is far from over, as media outlets in recent days have been publishing names and photographs of “compañerxs that are supposedly being investigated for various offences.” In a March 14 statement that is essentially an FAQ on their upcoming CompArte Festival, the Zapatistas – along with commenting on the gastronomic impact of tamale smoothies – dedicated a lengthy postscript narrated by the cat-dog to condemning the framing of Yorch and the attacks on Okupa Che, as well as ridiculing the President of UNAM.

Nowadays the state will have to get a little more creative when it comes to locking up compañerxs as movement lawyers from the December 1^st Lawyers League succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to rule as unconstitutional two crimes that the state often uses to repress protests and keep people in cages – “insults to authority” (six months to two years) and “attacks on the public peace” (five to 30 years).

In another victory in the courts, a judge ruled that the Mexican government cannot allow the commercial planting of genetically modified maize until a lawsuit brought by the Maize Collective – a grouping of scientists, farmers and social movements – is resolved. Monsanto announced it will be appealing that ruling, obviously. Another court ordered the definitive suspension of a government decree that expropriated territory belonging to the indigenous Otomí community of San Francisco Xochicuautla in the State of Mexico for the construction of a highway. After ten years of organized struggle, the community is celebrating their victory, but aware that much work remains as the project itself has not been cancelled. They affirmed that, “The only occasion we will sit down to negotiate with the State will be when they tell us that the project is cancelled and how they are going to repair the impact on the forest and village.”

 

 

Finally, a few more pieces of news to share from the past few weeks. Collectives and human rights groups in Querétaro have denounced the threats of murder and rape received by Aleida Quintaba, who works to document and call attention to forced disappearances in that state. Due to previous threats, Quintaba is already supposed to have protection provided by the federal government, yet these groups stated that has been inadequate, as along with the threats, she continues to be followed and harassed, including by one man identifying himself as from the State Attorney General’s Office. On March 9, thousands of teachers and their supporters blockaded the highway in front of the Department of Education in Durango and occupied the building, blockading the Secretary of Education in his office for hours, to protest the firing of 436 teachers who refused to participate in the newly imposed performance evaluation, part of the scheme to standardize education in Mexico. 30,000 people demonstrated throughout the state of Veracruz on March 10 to demand the governor, Javier Duarte, pay Veracruz University the 2-billion-peso debt the state owes the school, as well as in opposition to a seven percent budget cut to the school passed by the state congress. Also on March 10, more than 50 organizations released a statement opposing the construction of a 400 kilometre aqueduct called Monterrey IV whose main purpose will be to divert rivers to provide water for fracking. State police in Morelos on March 15 evicted the Chamilpán Community Center near Cuernavaca, a space that housed a school, silk-screening workshop, medicinal garden and hosted various events and projects linked to social movements in the area.

Desinformémonos published a short video on twelve communities in the Milpa Alta district of Mexico City who have organized over the past six years to conduct community patrols of the forest to stop logging and hunting. And in Chiapas, the indigenous Tzeltal community of Banavil and the indigenous Tojolabal community of Primero de Agosto each marked one year of displacement in February, following attacks on their communities from various paramilitary groups linked to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

 

https://itsgoingdown.org/insumision-victories-dont-slow-struggle/

 

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Enough! Second COPINH member assassinated in Honduras

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March 15, 2016
The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) calls public attention to today’s murder of our compañero Nelson García, from the Río Chiquito community in the Cortés Department, at the hands of two unknown persons.

We regrettably inform you that compañero Nelson García was murdered when he arrived at his mother-in-law’s house to have lunch, after spending all morning helping move the belongings of displaced families from the Río Chiquito community.

The murder occurred in the midst of an eviction carried out against the community of Río Chiquito in the Río Lindo area, in the Cortés Department, during which approximately 100 police officers, 20 military police officers, 10 soldiers and several people from the DGIC (General Criminal Investigations Administration) invaded the territory reclaimed by 150 families, on which more than 75 had built their houses with the materials and efforts at hand.

The eviction took place at noon today, using tractors and heavy machinery to destroy the wood houses that the compañeros and compañeras from COPINH had lived in for almost two years, leaving them without a roof over their heads. Similarly, they destroyed the community’s garden and fields, using tractors to destroy the yucca, sugarcane, banana and small corn fields, violating all kinds of rights. They even destroyed an artisanal oven and killed chickens belonging to the community.

The community of Río Chiquito has protected its territory since it was first donated to the women of the community. However, they have been attacked by the municipal authorities, especially by the former mayor, who used three front men in order to displace the compañeros and compañeras and to sell the land.

Compañero Nelson García was an active member of COPINH in defense of the right to housing, we remember him for his active participation in the process of reclaiming the land and establishing the community of Río Chiquito. We lament this new death, 13 days after the vile murder of our General Coordinator, Berta Cáceres.

The murder of our compañero Nelson García and the displacement of the community of Río Chiquito add to the war against COPINH, which seeks to do away with its more than 22 years of advocacy, resistance and building.

Today’s attacks join the large number of threats, attacks, murders, intimidation and criminalization directed against COPINH.

Since the murder of our compañera Berta Cáceres we have been subjected to a large number of incidents which demonstrate the complete lack of interest on the part of the Honduran State to safeguard our lives and the work we carry out. As well as its disregard in implementing the preliminary injunctions accorded us by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH). The injunctions were issued on March 6 and today, nine days later, they murdered a compañero.

How is one supposed to trust the State’s investigation if it is criminally harassing the coordinating body of our organization with the statement that it is investigating our supposed participation in the murder, while it doesn’t investigate the sources of the threats?

How is one supposed to believe that justice will be done in the case of our leader Berta when they won’t implement the measures necessary for the protection of her family, and the daughters and compañeros of our compañera Berta have been chased by an armed man in the city of Tegucigalpa during meetings with the authorities?

Since the day of Berta’s murder, the offices of COPINH in La Esperanza have been monitored by unknown persons, intimidating those who are still resisting, following the legacy of our leader.

Similarly, the compañeros and compañeras of the community of Río Blanco suffered attacks when they traveled to the city of Tegucigalpa in order to present their case to entities such as the Ministry of the Interior and representatives of the diplomats of the G16.

In addition, there was an incident in which compañeros from the community traveled to Río Gualcarque and were attacked with shotgun fire by security guards from the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project that fortunately did not wound any members of the community.

All these attacks form part of an extermination plan against our organization and we are calling for national and international solidarity in order to fight against it.

We demand an end to the persecution, harassment and war against COPINH.

We demand that the Honduran State respond to the death of our compañeros and compañeras and for there to be no more impunity.

We demand justice for our compañera Berta Cáceres.

With the ancestral force of Lempira, Mota, Etempica, Berta, our voices rise up, full of life, justice and peace.

Berta lives, the struggle continues!!!

La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras. Issued on March 15, 2016.

 

Translated by Scott Campbell

http://elenemigocomun.net/2016/03/enough-assassinated-copinh-honduras/

http://www.copinhonduras.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/copinh-basta-ya.html

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Letter from Gustavo Castro to the Honduran People

 

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Tegucigalpa, Honduras – March 15, 2016

TO THE PEOPLE OF HONDURAS

I don’t know if these words will reach you one day.

I came to Honduras with hope and anticipation. It had been many years since I visited, but I am thankful to Berta for inviting me. She and her family have been deepest friends for so many years. In spite of all I have gone through, I do not regret coming, nor being chosen by fate to be able to say goodbye to my dear friend.

My wounds hurt greatly even as they heal into scars, but what hurts me more is the pain of the beloved Honduran people who do not deserve this fate; none of us deserve it. We have always admired this noble people so full of courage, who struggle so that all may have a life of dignity, where everyone belongs without exception and in justice. This was Berta’s struggle.

Just as I feel the love of the Honduran people for Mexico, this is the love that I feel for this beautiful country, for its landscapes, its natural areas and above all, for its people, for their pride as Catrachos. We cannot allow murder to cloud our hopes nor plagues darken the countryside.

When I come across migrants from this land in Mexico, I can’t resist approaching them to offer my greeting and to recognize their courage, because I know the journey that they must make, and the pain of leaving their homeland to seek a new path in life, one of hope and of finding something better. I tell myself and I tell them not to go, but to return, that the journey is difficult and our people and our land need us. And I say goodbye with a simple word that Berta always said to me: “Cheke!”

Our land is generous, our blood is the same blood; these are the Mesoamerican bonds that will always unite us and invite us to struggle, as Berta did, for a better and more dignified life for all.

As I wait now to be reunited with my people, many Hondurans have sent me their solidarity and their affectionate greetings. I thank you all so, so much. Berta meant so much to me and to all of you. Berta was an exceptional woman who fought for a better, more dignified and just Honduras for all. Her spirit grows in the heart of the Honduran people, because we have not buried her: we have sown her in the earth so that from La Esperanza, hope itself may grow.

There should be no doubt that I have supported all the legal processes asked of me by the authorities as soon as they requested them, over ten in total, and I will continue to do so for justice to be served. Although the authorities told me on multiple occasions that I could go, including providing a helicopter to leave La Esperanza for Tegucigalpa, at the last moment they asked me to stay for new legal processes, and I always accepted. At this time, I have done everything that is in my capacity. I have a life; I have a family. I will never stop supporting once in Mexico and will always be willing to help you uncover the truth. For that purpose, there is a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between the United States of Mexico and the Republic of Honduras.

 

From Mexico, I will continue to bear the historic responsibility that I have to the Honduran people, to Berta and her family, and with the COPINH. For the rest of my life, I will carry wounds etched onto my body that will never allow me to forget this commitment.

I am grateful to the COPINH for having received me. They are a beautiful and unassuming people, worthy of their ancestors, worthy of these amazing lands; they are a people with an unflagging spirit of struggle to preserve their identity and place of origin, with an admirable respect for nature and love of Honduras. And I also admire and am very grateful to them for this. They are also what the world knows and respects about Honduras, they are hope, they are the seed where the spirit of Lempira will germinate with greater strength, that of the ancestral peoples, of the Honduran people. They have been an example and inspiration to many throughout the world, just as they have been for the Honduran people. All of the social, rural, indigenous and Garifuna organizations are likewise an example of dignity, who struggle for a better country. I am so grateful to all of them for such solidarity.

I am grateful to my ambassador and the Consul for all of their invaluable support, for having received me with open and protective arms in order to face this very difficult situation.  I am grateful for all of the Honduran and international solidarity, for your care and affection for Berta, and for your generous demonstration of concern, and your thousands of letters, signatures, and messages that I can never repay.

Soon, there will be justice.

Gustavo Castro Soto

 

Original: Palabras de Gustavo Castro al pueblo de Honduras

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Nestora Salgado Vows – “We are still missing 500 Political Prisoners, and I am going to fight to get them out.”

 

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Aristegui Noticias

After leaving prison, Nestora Salgado, leader of Community Police in Olinalá, Guerrero, said she will seek the release of “500 political prisoners.” At the press conference held on Friday at the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre, Nestora said, “We are missing 500 political prisoners, and I am going to fight to get them out … I’m going to manage the release of my colleagues. Wherever I might have to go to put a stop to it, there I’ll be, because I am with you in your struggle and all the struggles of the people.”

However, she explained, first she will travel to the United States to address her health problems.

The Comandanta related part of what she went through in prison: “For 20 months, I was in solitary confinement, isolated, they made an example of me. They did what they could. It’s difficult to fight against a government when you are made an example, for defending our people … It is horrible that I have paid for a crime I did not commit, for having wanted to defend my people, my pueblo [‘pueblo’ refers both to the people and their village].

“It hurts me to have known the prisoners’ situation. They are beaten, punished. After paying with a conviction, they are still cruelly punished. Prisoners arrived at the hospital with their intestines torn apart by the police,” she denounced. “I was charged with crimes I did not commit … we did not commit any crime, but we have a big weight in there. It is horrible psychological damage.”

She held Ángel Aguirre, Guerrero’s former governor, responsible for the “terrible times” she lived through in prison. Nestora called on the government of Guerrero to release the remaining Community prisoners, and she asserted that she will initiate a “campaign for their freedom”.

Regarding the allegations made against her by the activist Isabel Miranda de Wallace, she said: “May God forgive her. I have already forgiven her.”

She critized some media for having criminalized her: “The media made me into an image of a kidnapper, a killer, a pickpocket … no sir, I am not a murderer. I am a mother who fights. I am not a criminal, and they imprisoned me unjustly.”

“I hold my head up high, because I am not ashamed of anything,” she said.

Salgado also sent a message to President Enrique Peña Nieto: “Tell the señor that he might respect our people and our Community Police, the pueblo does not defend criminals, and I ask support for our indigenous peoples.”

Translated by Jane Brundage

http://aristeguinoticias.com/1803/mexico/nos-faltan-500-presos-politicos-y-yo-voy-a-luchar-por-sacarlos-nestora-salgado/

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Nestora Salgado To Be Released on Friday 18th March

 

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At present, the Commander of Community Police in Olinalá, Guerrero, is awaiting notification of her release, and tomorrow morning she will leave the prison.”Family, social organizations, defenders have joined forces to achieve her freedom. Today with satisfaction, we can say: Mission accomplished, comandanta Nestora.”Desinformémonos:  Nestora Salgado, comandanta of the Community Police of Olinalá, Guerrero, will be released. Criminal Court 67 of Mexico City gave the formal order for her freedom, with the dismissal of the last three criminal proceedings that were opened in Guerrero for kidnapping, robbery, illegal deprivation of liberty and homicide.

Nestora was imprisoned first in the high security federal prison in Tepic, Nayarit, and then at the Medical Tower of the Women’s Criminal Prison in Tepepan [southern Mexico City] which she hopes to leave this Friday, March 18, in the morning.

The office of her legal counsel, Strategic Defense of Human Rights, wrote on its Facebook page:

“Family, social organizations, defenders have joined forces to achieve her freedom. Today with satisfaction, we can say: Mission accomplished, comandanta Nestora.”

At present, the Commander of Community Police in Olinalá, Guerrero, is awaiting notification of her release, and tomorrow morning she will leave the prison.

Translated by Reed Brundage

http://desinformemonos.org.mx/liberan-a-nestora-salgado-este-viernes-sale-de-prision/

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About CompArte: A few questions, a few answers. Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés. Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano

 

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Zapatista Army for National Liberation.

Mexico

March 14, 2016

Compas and non-compas:

We write to tell you a little about how plans are going for the activities in July, October, and December of 2016. We have received a few questions, so here are a few answers, but only regarding the festival “CompArte for Humanity.”

“How is the registration for the art festival looking?”

As of March 12, 2016, we had registered:

21 attendees from Mexico and 5 from other countries.

99 participants from Mexico and 30 from other countries (Chile, Argentina, Greece, Canada, United States, Spanish State, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, Cross-border or Without Borders, Uruguay, France, and the Sufi Community with Islamic music).

“What kind of activities or artistic works are registered so far?

According to those who have registered so far, there is: rap, poetry, visual arts, contemporary dance, painting, engraving, literature and stories, theatre, puppets, embroidery, iron work, silk-screening, photography, documentaries, cinema, sculpture, ceramics, short films, illustration, reggae, rock, graffiti, gastronomy, aerial dance, murals, music, music, and more music.

“What is this about “alternate sites” for the CompArte Festival?”

We are hoping that the compas of the Sixth in Mexico and in the world understand what you might call the subliminal message of the convocation and organize activities—in their own geographies and in accordance with their own calendars—either before, during, or after the festivals/gatherings convoked by the Zapatistas. That is, we hope that whether at local, regional, zone, or national levels, the Sixth organizes festivals and gatherings to give space for and echo to artistic activities. And of course, also to celebrate the National Indigenous Congress’ 20 years of rebellion and resistance, as well as a space where scientists will find attentive ears and critical thought.

“Is it necessary to register to attend, without participating in, the ‘CompArte’ festival?”

Yes, just clarify that you are registering as an attendee.

“Is necessary to register to attend and participate in the “CompArte” festival?”

Yes, and we ask you to specify the form your participation will take.

“What is the email where one can register for the ‘CompArte for Humanity festival’?”

The email is comArte@ezln.org.mx

“Can you tell me again the dates and locations for the ‘CompArte for Humanity’ festival?”

No, those are already in the communiqué from February 29…. Okay, okay okay, here they are:

Dates: July 17-30, 2016

Location:

July 17-22 in the caracol of Oventik. Only Zapatista bases of support will participate in this part. Attendance is open for escuchas [ears/listeners] and videntes [seers/viewers], but requires registration.

July 23-30, 2016 in CIDECI, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. All registered artists can participate. Attendance is open for listeners and viewers, but requires registration.

“Is there a registration fee, either for attendees or participants?

No.

“Are you (Zapatistas) going to pay for travel expenses, food, and lodging?”

No.

“According to Zapatismo, is gastronomy an art?”

Everyone can categorize their practice as they see fit. In the case of the difficult culinary arts, the insurgentas, as an echo of March 8, will contribute a menu that is…hmm… how can I put it… disconcerting: “tamale shakes and coffee with chili pepper” (note: for the tamale shake they don’t use a blender or any other machine, only the cooking fire and their “wisdom”). I already suffered… I mean, tasted it and it is… disconcerting.

“Can children participate?”

Yes, children can register to participate or attend. Except for the girls, because what a shame, the deadline has passed, it was March 8, so oh well…eh? But it’s that… ay! Okay, okay okay: the girls can register too. Note: all minors should be accompanied by a mother or father or tutor, tutora, or tutoroa.

“Is anything banned from these events?”

Yes, the production, consumption, or sale of drugs and alcohol is strictly forbidden. If you aren’t capable of making or enjoying art without taking something before or during, well your method is mistaken.

“There still isn’t a report back on the Little School?”

No. The questions sent by students are currently being reviewed. When something is ready, we’ll let those interested know.

That’s all for now.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.  Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano.

Mexico, March 2016.

From the diaries of the cat-dog:

The time of the police (part one):

One: In Mexico, a Latin American country that suffers the global crisis like they all do, but which is fuelled by the solid triad of corruption-clumsiness-ignorance made into a government, the official in charge of public education, Aurelio Nuño Mayer, cannot hide his passion for the policing profession. Encouraged by his accomplices, Mr. Nuño believes that he can win the presidential candidacy for his party, the PRI, if he functions more as paid thug than as promoter of Mexican education. Fond of making threats, running his own repressive squads, and operating like any boss in the early stages of savage capitalism, Mr. Nuño finds special pleasure in converting the teaching profession into a destination not for better schools, training, and salaries, but for arbitrary injustices, beatings, and firings. Playing the role of prosecutor, judge, and jury; of Labour Minister (decreeing firings without severance); of Minister of the Interior (using the police and the army at his whim); of clumsy media spokesperson, dismal builder of “spontaneous” support, and twitterer in permanent slow motion, Mr. Nuño’s only resumé merit is having sheltered himself within that group of criminals who engage in criminal activity with total immunity. Despite his suits and ties, his heavily made up and photo-shopped media image, Mr. Nuño cannot hide what he has always been: a sad and mediocre policeman who gets pleasure from and money for repressing and humiliating others. Mr. Nuño has always longed to be a good policeman, but… when the den of thieves is insufficient to accommodate so many, when his secret protector falls, Mr. Nuño will also show he is a good runner… when fleeing becomes the order of the day.

Another one: In this country known in the realm of the world cups (although no further than the quarterfinals) as “Mexico,” in the so-called “highest place of study,” the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), Mr. Enrique Graue Wiechers has reached the highest bureaucratic position (and ladder to governmental post): the title of rector [like chancellor or dean]. In addition to the fact that his academic and professional career has been located within the bureaucracy of the academy and carefully guided by the Zedillo Ponce de León family’s psychiatrist, Mr. Graue did his graduate work in a North American university known for having invented the energy drink self-named “Gatorade,” which should give you an idea of how advanced he is in his specialty field of ophthalmology. A few days ago, Mr. Graue declared he was “outraged” because of the insufficient quantity of drugs police planted on one of the activists from the Che Guevara Auditorium (which the university authorities are futilely trying to call the Justo Sierra Auditorium). Mr. Graue was not enraged that the federal budgeting for higher education would not be sufficient to cover hundreds of thousands of young people; nor was he enraged by the mercantilist conditions that academic faculty and staff are subjected to; nor was he enraged because the UNAM has become a nest of undesirables, that is, of bureaucratic functionaries who don’t even know how to write the name of their overseer (that is, the rector); nor was he enraged by the lack of security endured by faculty, staff, and students on the UNAM campuses (assaults, rapes, and murders); and he was not enraged because an anti-democratic gangsterism had placed, in the highest post of the “highest place of study,” a mediocre bureaucrat.

No, Mr. Graue was enraged because the police didn’t do a good job of setting someone up to be framed. And this outrages Mr. Graue because all his life he has endeavoured to be a good police agent. With his indignant police discourse (seconded by people who don’t even know where the Justo Sierra Auditorium is, much less the Che Guevara), Mr. Graue gives a lecture: “the problem with higher education in Mexico lies with a vegetarian cafeteria, a screen printing workshop, and a bakery training space, among other things. These subversive activities are promoted by a group of anarchists, that is, dirty, ugly, and bad people who contrast sharply with the neatness and style of the university bureaucracy. They don’t even sell Gatorade, but rather water and juices of unknown origin. They are drug addicts (the high, medium, and low-ranking officials hide cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy, and even crack and an occasional roach in their desk drawers —even within bureaucracy there are classes, my friend), they’re anarchic-anarchists, not part of the university community (various officials swallow hard) and that auditorium… the auditorium, what’s that auditorium… secretary quick, what’s the name of that auditorium that we want to liberate … ah yes, the Justo Sierra Auditorium in the School of Medicine… eh? …It’s not in the School of Medicine? … huh? … you’re recording? Give notice! … okay… in the School of Philosophy and Letters of Acatlán … no? … is it in Ciudad Universitaria? …Oh isn’t CU where the Pumas play?…So there are academic departments there too?… I’m only familiar with the rector’s suite… well anyway, wherever it is, it should be “liberated” by the police, and by police who know how to plant the evidence properly, not those scatter-brains that don’t even know how to place a bit of “spearmint” in a backpack. That’s why an elite group of my officials are going to start a degree program on how to place drugs in briefcases. Yes, yes I know that’s not the same, but we don’t carry backpacks, we carry briefcases. As I have said… what, no applause? … Turn on the recorder man! No, not that one, you’ll ruin my cabinet career ambitions. The other one! Yes, that one! Thank you, thank you to the authentic university community members who know that the university serves to domesticate, not to teach nor investigate! Thank you, thank you, thank you! How was that? Wha? I said turn that recorder off! No not the one with the cheering, the other one, the one that’s recording!

Mr. Graue is furious, he was just trying to be a good police agent.

I testify: woof-meow.

Cat-dog.

Copyleft 2016. Permission from the Good Government Council under conditions of “we’ll be back tomorrow to see if its ready, who knows, maybe it will be a new Council rotation by then, but in the meantime let me tell you the history of Zapatista autonomy. You already know it? Well then we should review it, as they say, until it truly sticks in your head. Did you bring your notebook? Write in “resistance and rebellion” or “rebellion and resistance,” it’s the same thing, because the order of the “r’s” doesn’t’ affect our autonomy. Haven’t you studied mathematics? Just songs? Well look, you need arts and sciences, there’s no way around it.”

 

About CompArte: A few questions, a few answers. Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés. Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano

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Organizations of Chiapas Denounce the Criminalization and Death of Indigenous Compañeros and Environmental Activists

 

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Original peoples of the northern region of Chiapas demand justice and liberty for Gustavo Castro detained in Honduras

March 12, 2016

To Juan Orlando Hernandez, President of Honduras

To the Consulates of Honduras in Tapachula and Comitan, Chiapas

To Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico

To the national and international press

To the organization of the United Nations

To the national and international defenders of human rights

To all of the solidarity of the world

Communities of indigeous Tsostil, Tseltal, and Ch’ol peoples of the northern region of Chiapas, Mexico, in a regional assembly in the Ejido of La Illusión, Municipality of Simojovel de Allende, Chiapas, organized by the Pueblo Creyente of Simojovel, analyzed the critical situation of our environmentalist and patriotic compañero Gustavo Castro Soto, in this situation we protest the criminalization and death of indigenous compañeros and environmental activists. The cowardly assassination of the indigenous Lenca compañera Berta Cáceres and the attempted assassination of our environmentalist Mexican brother Gustavo Castro Soto is not a coincidence and much less an isolated act; this cowardly act is the practice of extermination that has been imposed by international capital with the complacency of national governments.

The justice system of the country of Honduras should continue the line of investigation into the company from China that has pressured the indigenous compañerxs of COPINH in order to take their land and flood it with the hydroelectric dam, which is the motive for the assassination of Berta Cáceres and of the attempted assassination of compañero Gustavo Castro.

We solicit and demand the immediate transfer to Mexico of environmental compañero Gustavo Castro Soto. The compañero is one of the victims of the cowardly assassination of the indigenous compañera Berta Cáceres that occurred on Thursday, 3^rd March in the early morning, in the town of La Esperanza in Honduras. It is arbitrary to keep Gustavo Castro Soto for 30 more days in that country on the order of the Attorney General of Honduras.

We ask for the security of Gustavo Castro during the entire process of expanding his witness statement and during his stay in the embassy of Mexico in Tegucigalpa. We demand the government of Honduras comply with the promise to lift the migratory alert that they put on Gustavo Castro, so that he can immediately leave Honduras ending this last judicial process required without any other action that would prevent his exit.

We hold the two governments of Mexico and Honduras responsible for his security, physical and psychological integrity. We demand the intervention at the highest level of the two governments so he can immediately leave Honduras.

Sincerely,

Pueblos originarios de la región norte de Chiapas México
Organización sociedad Civil de las Abejas de Acteal
Pueblo Creyente de Simojovel
Parroquia San Juan Bautista El Bosque
Parroquia San Juan Dieguito de San Cristóbal
Parroquia Santa Catarina Pantelho
Consejo Estatal de Nuevo Constituyente de Chiapas
Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo de Huitiupán
Centro de Derechos Humanos Oralia Morales de Frontera Comalapa
Luz y Fuerza de Chiapas

Signed in the presence of:

Observadores Nacionales e Internacionales del Movimiento Sueco por la Reconciliación (Swefor), Integrantes del Reconocimiento Jtatik Samuel Jk’anan Lum: Centro de Derechos humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas A.C (Frayba), Servicio Internacional para la Paz (Sipaz), Comisión de Apoyo a la Unidad y Reconciliación comunitaria A.C.(Coreco), Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Mexicanos Indígenas A.C (Desmi), Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz A.C. (Serapaz), Instituto de Estudios e Investigación Intercultural A.C. (Inesin), Coordinación de mujeres (Codimuj) y Vicaria de Justicia y Paz de la Diócesis de San Cristóbal de Las Casas

 

Translated by Palabras Rebeldes

http://espoirchiapas.blogspot.mx/2016/03/organizaciones-de-chiapas-denuncian-la.html

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