ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN CHIAPAS – MAY 2008
1. ATTACKS ON ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES
There has been a change in the nature of the threats, intimidation and aggression against Zapatista communities recently. While the paramilitary groups remain active, there has been a very worrying increase in incursions from the forces of the state and municipal authorities: a recent gathering in Mexico City itemised more than 20 acts of aggression and harassment from the military and police forces that had taken place against Zapatista communities so far this year.
This represents an intensification of the campaign on behalf of the Mexican government against all social and resistance movements, aimed at the destruction of opposition, in particular of the Zapatista’s support base, by creating a climate of fear, displacement, imprisonment, torture and aggression. This continues to be further enforced through the granting of land reclaimed and worked by the Zapatistas to other indigenous groups, promoting conflict.
The change in the nature of the state aggression coincides with the US government approving Plan Mexico, a multi-million dollar package to provide resources, equipment and training to the Mexican police and military forces, ostensibly for the “war against drugs” but in reality to be used against civilians, activists and indigenous communities. Amnesty International has just stated that there is a general, and in some states systematic, violation of human rights in Mexico, characterised by an excessive use of force.
INCIDENTS THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN MAY 2008:
CARACOL OF MORELIA
Ejido Morelia – the seat of the JBG of Morelia has experienced an attack by the police and PRI authorities aimed at taking the land on which the Caracol is situated. People were imprisoned in their houses, beaten, and attacked with sticks, stones and machetes. Doors and windows were broken and a number of people were injured, 6 of them hospitalised. 300 PRIistas cut the electricity supply to some of the houses, the next day a large number of masked support bases reinstalled it. There is a state of alarm in the community and the situation is very serious.
CARACOL OF OVENTIC
Zinacantan – a continuation of a long-term systematic process of harassment, characterised by the deprivation of the water supply (an ancestral spring) to the community of Sok’on since 2002. This week a man from the community of Elambo Alto was abducted by the PRD authorities of Zinacantan.
Huitepec – again there is a long-term campaign to take the land from the Zapatista ecological reserve – the most recent incident being the deliberate poisoning of a well.
CARACOL OF LA GARRUCHA
San Jeronimo Tulilja: Military helicopters overflew this community, followed by a convoy of army vehicles containing 300 agents of the Mexican army and military police. They were accompanied by an armed civilian who showed them where the Zapatista authorities live. Verbal threats were issued, and houses entered.
MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN NORTH CHIAPAS
There have been military incursions into various populations in the Tila region. 2 people were arrested and interrogated in Tila last week. On 27 April the community of Cruzton was attacked by 500 state preventive police guided by 7 armed civilians who issued threats, beatings, damage and destruction and threatened to finish off the community.
It is essential the authorities know they are being watched and that we remain alert to developments.
PROTEST TO:
The Ambassador Juan José Bremer de Martino, The Mexican Embassy, 16 St. George Street, London W1S 1FD
Send a message via the UK Mexican Embassy website.
Or email the Ambassador via the assistants to the Ambassador:
cmoye@sre.gob.mx
jlopezr@sre.gob.mx
2. POLITICAL PRISONERS
The situation of the Chiapas political prisoners from the Voice of El Amate, adherents to the Other Campaign, and the Group of Zapatista prisoners has worsened dramatically. They had called another 24 hour Hunger Strike for 27 May, to be accompanied by a protest march and sit-in in front of the Government Palace in Tuxtla. At 2.30 am members of the Grupo Lobo (wolf group), a specialist body of the state preventative police, violently removed at least 7 prisoners with excessive force and brutal beatings and dispersed them among different prisons. They said the government would not tolerate one more hunger strike. This is clearly a deliberate attempt to punish any protest in advance and to dismantle any organised groups of prisoners, and is in direct contravention of the human rights of the prisoners. The situation has been closely monitored by the human rights NGO Frayba.
Another NGO which has been taking action against the deliberate campaign of repression is Capise. They have called for a Global Campaign of information to denounce the Government of Chiapas and in support of the political prisoners.
PLEASE SEND YOUR COMPLAINTS TO:
Lic. Juan José Sabines Guerrero Jose Juan Sabines Guerrero
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Chiapas / Constitutional Governor of Chiapas
Secparticular@chiapas.gob.mx
Lic. Amador Rodríguez Lozano
Ministro de Justicia del Estado de Chiapas / Minister of Justice of the State of Chiapas
arodriguez@mje.chiapas.gob.mx
Lic. Juan Jesús Mora Mora
Secretario Ejecutivo del Consejo de Ejecución de Executive / Secretary of the Council of Execution
jmora@secesp.chiapas.gob.mx
sprs_chiapas@yahoo.com.mx
Favor de enviar copia a / Please send copies to:
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas AC
Correo electrónico / Email: accionurgente@frayba.org.mx
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UK Newsletters:
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DEMONSTRATORS BLOCKADE MEXICAN EMBASSY IN LONDON
MONDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2007
Demonstrators blockaded both the Mexican Embassy and Mexican Consulate in London, in solidarity with the Zapatistas and in opposition to the attacks on their communities by the state and paramilitaries.
The waiting police were caught by surprise at the Embassy in St Georges Street. Wearing the symbolic Zapatista red bandanas, demonstrators took over the doorway and draped a huge banner saying ‘STOP THE REPRESSION’ right across the front entrance, maintaining this position for several minutes. Then police moved in and manhandled the protestors over to the other side of the road, where the noisy protest continued. Deafening whistle blasts were interspersed with chants of “Zapata vive, la lucha sigue” (Zapata lives, the struggle continues).
Mexican Government forces evicted two indigenous villages in the Lacandona jungle on 18th August. What’s more the state is aiding paramilitary groups who are launching violent attacks on Zapatista villages,” said Esther McDonald of the UK Zapatista Solidarity Network. “Today’s demonstrations show that people all round the world are prepared to act in solidarity with the Zapatistas’ struggle for autonomy. The one thousand “communities in resistance” in Chiapas, with their autonomous health clinics and schools, are an inspiring example of people taking control over their own lives – but they are now under threat.”
We must act now to stop any possibility of another horrific massacre like Acteal when, on 22 December 1997, 45 people were massacred by paramilitaries with the connivance of Mexican state forces in the Chiapan Highlands,” she emphasised.
The protestors delivered a letter for the Ambassador, detailing the human rights abuses carried out in recent weeks against at least 21 Zapatista communities. On 24th November 80 members of the paramilitary-type group OPDIC invaded the village of Bolon Ajaw menacing the residents with guns and machetes and brutally beating a health worker unconscious.
After demonstrating at the Embassy for one and a half hours the protestors moved to the Mexican Consulate in nearby Halkin Street. The demonstrators were able to totally take over the entrance porch, once more completely closing off the entrance by draping banners right across it. The protestors controlled the entrance for around 15 minutes before the arrival of armed diplomatic police, who forced people to the other side of the road.
Among the 20-25 demonstrators were those who had travelled from York, Manchester, Dorset, Reading, Birmingham, Nottingham, Edinburgh and elsewhere to participate. The demonstration was organised by the UK Zapatista Solidarity Network and the new edition of the network’s newsletter was distributed, detailing not only the repression in Chiapas but the positive work of the Zapatistas and solidarity groups in building drinking water systems, health clinics and schools.
The Zapatista movement made world headlines when it staged an armed uprising in the southern state of Chiapas on New Years Day 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect. Following the rebellion many of the big local landowners fled. The Zapatistas took the land into communal control and have built their own autonomous communities, with their own health clinics, schools, justice system and grass-roots decision-making structures.
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More Info:
The increase in militarisation and civil repression throughout Mexico since Felipe Calderon became president last year is reflected in Chiapas under new state governor Juan Sabines, where the federal government strategy to promote conflicts over land is fully supported by the state government. In Mexico as a whole many people believe a new ‘dirty war’ is under way with detentions and disappearances, while in Chiapas acts of violence, intimidation and aggression towards indigenous Zapatista support base communities have become a daily occurrence.
In September 2007 the EZLN 6th Commission took the difficult decision to suspend the second phase of the Other Campaign which was to visit the South and Central parts of the country, and instead to undertake civil and peaceful actions in defence of the Zapatista communities. Their communiqué says:
“At this time, the state government of Chiapas and the federal government are waging a campaign against the Zapatista communities. ‘Official’ evictions, paramilitary attacks, invasions sponsored by officials, persecutions and threats, have become once again part of the surroundings of the indigenous communities who have set upon constructing their own destiny and improving their living conditions, always without losing their indigenous identity….. Just like in the worst times …. the government is attacking the poor and needy, while catering to and benefiting the powerful. …. In contrast to other occasions, these aggressions have been met by the silence of those voices that before rose to protest and demand justice. …….. We will do what we have to do, resist.”
PARAMILITARY ORGANISATIONS
These are ‘peasant’ organisations with names like OPDDIC, ARIC, URIC and UES,which are undercover paramilitary groups going under the names of agricultural organisations. These have been re-activated and armed by the state in order to provoke confrontation with the Zapatistas through land seizures and forced evictions. Using these paramilitary groups, the state agrarian authorities have started a strategy of eviction of Zap communities from the 250,000 hectares of land in the Altos, Selva and Norte regions which were “recuperated” in 1994-5 following the uprising. The authorities are legalising these evictions with official documents making them into ‘ejidos’ (communal landholdings) in favour of the paramilitary organisations. The idea is to make the Zapatistas look like invaders, and to provoke conflicts in order to destroy the movement. They attack the basis of Zapatista autonomy, which is the land. The result is communities living under constant threats of eviction and violence, enduring the destruction of their crops and livestock and the theft of their possessions, and the undermining of any security or stability in their daily lives.
MONTES AZULES AND PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA
This ‘biosphere reserve’ is being plundered of its resources by national and multinational companies. The government expropriation of 14,000 hectares in the Lacandon Jungle in the interests of ‘ecology and conservation’ has recently led to the violent displacement of 2 communities (one of these a Zapatista support base community) and threatens 15 more Zapatista communities. Organisations like Amnesty International have condemned these evictions and called for a halt of expulsions in the area. It is believed by the local NGOs that the motives behind the expulsions, far from being in the interests of the natural environment, are to open the door for businesses to privatise and exploit the natural resources of the area.
There is also the question of ‘eco-tourism’, a highly profitable undertaking. As well as issuing the paramilitary groups with arms and ammunition, the authorities are also giving them permission to develop eco-tourism projects.
THE FEDERAL ARMY
There are now 79 permanent military camps in Chiapas, 56 of which are in the indigenous areas. A recent report by the San Cristobal-based NGO CAPISE states that the nature of the military in these camps is changing to ‘elite special forces’. The government hopes to provoke a confrontation with the army through this ongoing counter-insurgency war in order to finish with the Zapatistas altogether.
THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ACTEAL MASSACRE
There are fears that the situation of 1997, when the federal army together with armed paramilitary groups attempted to dismantle the Zapatista autonomous communities, is being repeated. On 22 December 1997 the attacks culminated in the massacre of 45 members, mainly women and children, of an unarmed pacifist group . Don Samuel Ruiz, Bishop Emeritus of the Chiapas Highlands, stated recently “in Chiapas repression is being offered, not dialogue. A massacre like that at Acteal could be repeated at any moment”.
ACTION
In a recent report CAPISE has called on people to break the silence. To remain silent is to support the repression.
It is necessary to state our concern and alarm at the recent increase in acts of intimidation and aggression, to condemn the militarisation of the area, and to demand a respect for human rights, a cessation in aggressions, a cancellation of forced evictions, and a halt to the intensification in the counter-insurgency war.
In September 2007, after 22 years, the United Nations General Assembly finally approved the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This gives indigenous people the right to autonomy, to maintain their culture and not to be displaced from their land. Simple, obvious basic rights? Not to the Mexican state.
The Zapatistas continue to endure, as they have endured for 515 years, a war lived day by day which permeates the entire life of their communities. And they continue to resist, as they have resisted for 515 years. Let us again support their call for democracy, liberty and justice.
Please write to the Mexican Embassy to demand the cessation of military and paramilitary activity in Chiapas:
Mexican Embassy
16 St. George Street
Hanover Sq.
London
W1S 1LX
