Zapatista News Summary – May 2013

 

MAY 2013 ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY  

Is this where they want to sell beaches, coastal regions, borderlands and oil?

    

 In Chiapas

1. News Update on Alberto Patishtan - On May 31, the FPDT (Atenco), Las Abejas and Alberto Patishtan’s son, Hector, released a short documentary on YouTube about Alberto’s case. On May 27, Mexico’s Supreme Court sent its file on the Alberto Patishtan case to the federal circuit court in Chiapas via ground transportation. There is no explanation in these press reports for the long delay. However, Patishtan’s lawyers are hoping for a June decision (before the July vacation break). Newspaper reports also indicate that Patishtan was taken twice to Mexico City for medical follow-up on his brain surgery at the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Center, once in April and recently in May, but these reports give no  information about the results of the examinations.

2. San Sebastián Bachajon Legal Dispute Over Ticket Booth Continues – On May 16, a Chiapas court issued its decision in the case of San Sebastián Bachajon (SSB). The decision orders a replacement of the procedure allegedly authorizing the government to take several parcels of land away from the ejido, conveniently all on land belonging to adherents to the EZLN’s Sixth Declaration, for use as a ticket booth where visitors to the Agua Azul Cascades pay an entry fee. The SSB adherents went to court claiming that the procedure used to grant the government authority to do that was unlawful. They asked the court for the return of their land and an order restraining the government from taking it. The decision does not return the land to them, but rather orders that the matter be presented to the Ejido’s Assembly for its position in a lawful procedure. The SSB adherents are concerned that the pro-government contingent in the ejido, especially the ejido commissioner, will manipulate the process. Consequently, two SSB adherents went to Mexico City to present their position in the matter to a member of Mexico’s Supreme Court. They also visited the offices of the UN’s High Commissioner on Human Rights, asking for intervention, and the offices of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, seeking precautionary measures following last month’s (April 24) assassination of the community leader Juan Vasquez Gomez.

3. Two Campesinos Murdered in Venustiano Carranza – On May 5, two campesinos died of gunshot wounds in a confrontation that occurred in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, allegedly over agrarian and political disputes. Two campesinos were killed in the confrontation and 20 houses burned or damaged. There were also injuries. According to newspaper accounts, this attack stemmed from an old dispute for control of the Casa del Pueblo, which was aggravated with the arrival of a new president (in January of last year), who accused his predecessor of “misplacing” 67 heads of cattle. The dispute is between the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Casa del Pueblo (OCEZ-CP) and an internal dissident group. The dissident group of 49 families was expelled last year and is sheltered in government buildings near the state capital and demands a safe return to their homes. Those in the current OCEZ-CP leadership want the state government to relocate the dissidents. It arrears that 12 OCEZ-CP members have been arrested in connection with the May 5 violence and that the organization and its allies have set up an encampment and are occupying Cathedral Plaza in San Cristóbal. Supporters allege that paramilitary groups backed by the state government are responsible for the violence. The groups involved are not connected to the Zapatistas in any way, but are part of a large leftist campesino organization in Chiapas.

4. Chiapas Teachers Settle Strike - On May 15, National Teachers Day, Chiapas teachers belonging to Local 7′s Democratic Block went on strike over reforms to the federal education law passed in the federal Congress. Teachers throughout much of Mexico staged massive demonstrations on May 15 against the reforms which take away some of their union rights and job security, and can also lead to the privatization of education. The strike ended 5 days later after union negotiators reached an agreement with the state government. The state government signed a memorandum with the teachers committing that “the entry (hiring), promotion, recognition and permanence (job security) of education workers “will not be conditioned by any standardized evaluation with punitive character that might affect their labor rights.” The state administration also committed to guarantying that the agreements between the rector council of the Pact for Mexico, the federal government and the CNTE “will be ratified by the Chiapas government.” The education reform is part of Peña Nieto’s package of neoliberal reforms. See our blog for more information about the teacher protests and the education reform. Also see: http://newpol.org/content/mexican-teachers-rebel-against-governments-educational-reform

In Other Parts of Mexico 

FPDT Leaders

1. Seven Years After the Police Terrorism in Atenco - On May 3 and 4, the community of San Salvador Atenco commemorated the 7-year anniversary of the brutal police repression that resulted in 2 young people dead, more than 150 jailed and 26 women sexually assaulted by police while in custody. As a result of this police terrorism, the leadership of the Peoples Front in Defense of Land (FPDT, its initials in Spanish) were placed in a maximum-security prison with sentences longer than the lifespan of a human being. The FPDT is the San Salvador Atenco-based organization that successfully resisted (with raised machetes) the government’s plan to take away their agricultural lands in order to use them for building a new Mexico City international Airport. The state and federal police action of May 3 and 4, 2006 was seen by many as “payback” for the FPDT’s successful resistance to the airport; but, its significance went beyond the airport resistance. At that time, the Zapatistas were traveling the country during the “Other Campaign” and had visited Atenco just a couple of days before the police action. The police repression in San Salvador Atenco halted the Other Campaign for several months and, in general, put Mexico’s social movements on notice of what to expect in the future. On May 3 and 4, 2006, the governor of the state of Mexico, where Atenco is located, was Enrique Peña Nieto. He is now Mexico’s president and once again there are plans to build an airport, industrial park and urban sprawl on lands belonging to Atenco and surrounding ejido lands.

2. Amnesty International (AI) Issues Report on Mexico Violence – Amnesty International (AI) recently issued its 2013 Report on human rights. It refers to the term of Felipe Calderón. A number of human rights abuses are described, including the fact that Mexican authorities do not recognize the gravity of the problem and that there is complicity in these abuses by public servants. The complete report on Mexico can be read  here. According to numbers released by the federal government and published by La Jornada, there were 5,296 murders in Mexico, allegedly related to organized crime, during the first 151 days of Enrique Pena Nieto’s presidency; in other words, from December 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013. This represents a slight decrease from the same time period  the previous year under Calderón, but it is, nevertheless, a tragic number of deaths.

In the United States

1. President Obama Visited Mexico on May 2 – United States President Barack Obama visited Mexico beginning May 2. He met with President Peña Nieto and gave a speech to an audience of students and business people. Press reports indicate that the two presidents talked less about security and more about economics, thereby prompting the shopping cart cartoon above. Obama said he was hopeful on immigration reform, but not so hopeful about restrictions on guns. The Mexican economy relies on money (remittances) that Mexicans living and working in the United States send to their families in Mexico. Those remittances are one of Mexico’s top three sources of income and foreign exchange. The United States is also Mexico’s largest supplier of illegal weapons that end up in the hands of organized crime groups and thus feed the current violence in Mexico.

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Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).

We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.

Click on the Donate button of  www.chiapas-support.org to support indigenous autonomy.

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Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box  3421, Oakland, CA  94609

Email: cezmat@igc.org

www.chiapas-support.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resumen de noticias de los zapatistas – Abril de 2013

Abril DE 2013 RESUMEN DE NOTICIAS SOBRE LOS ZAPATISTAS

Viaje de shopping

En Chiapas

1. Asesinato político de líder pro-zapatista en San Sebastian Bachajón – El miércoles 24 de abril, Juan Vázquez Gómez, líder de los pro-zapatistas en San Sebastian Bachajon, fue asesinado por individuos no identificados mientras caminaba hacia su casa. Era dirigente de los ejidatarios adherentes a la Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona en su resistencia al despojo de sus tierras por parte del gobierno para la explotación turística.  Es el primer asesinato político en Chiapas contra zapatistas o pro-zapatista en un largo rato, y puede indicar un aumento en la represión ahora que el PRI está en el poder.

2. Amenazas de desalojo forzado continúan en San Marcos Avilés, caravana  recibe amenazas – El 19 de abril, la Junta de Buen Gobierno en Oventik publicó una denuncia que enumera todas las amenazas contínuas y actos de hostigamiento sufridos por los bases de apoyo zapatista en el ejido San Marcos Avilés desde julio del 2011.  La Red por la Paz en Chiapas luego anunció que el 21 y 22 de abril una Caravana de Observación Civil iría a San Marcos para escuchar testimonios de los zapatistas.  La Caravana fué amenazada por “miembros de partidos políticos” en San Marcos Avilés.  Amenazaron con quitarles los vehículos a la caravana y que “correrá sangre” si no se los entregaban.  Afortunadamente, las amenazas no se convirtieron en acciones y la caravana logró recopilar testimonios sobre las contínuas amenazas de muerte, incluyendo amenazas con matar a niños, y robo de tierras.

3. Marcha en Chiapas por la liberación de Patishtán – El 19 de abril, el movimiento a favor de la liberación de Alberto Patishtán organizó una movilización en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital del estado de Chiapas, para exigir su libertad.  En la marcha participaron much@s tzotziles de los Altos del estado, además de la organización católica Pueblo Creyente, Las Abejas, y el Bloque Democrático de la Sección 7 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, quiénes en total sumaron unos 15,000 manifestantes.  Los inconformes marcharon hacia la sede del Poder Judicial federal en el estado, donde se espera se pronuncie una decisión sobre el caso de Patishtán en los próximos dias.

4. La Suprema Corte mexicana libera a otros 15 hombres encarcelados por el caso de la masacre de Acteal – El 11 de abril, la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación liberó a otros 15 de los indígenas procesados y sentenciados por su participación en el asesinato en Acteal de 45 indígenas tzotziles el 22 de Diciembre de 1997.  Esta liberación y reconocimiento de inocencia, al igual que en los casos anteriores, estuvo basada   en la falta de pruebas y violaciones al debido proceso. De los 87 que originalmente fueron condenados por el crimen, ya sólo permanecen 6 en   prisión.  El obispo Felipe Arizmendi, de la diócesis de San Cristóbal de Las Casas, lamentó esta nueva liberación de los sentenciados, muchos de cuáles habían confesado su participación en la masacre.  En su rechazo a esta nueva liberación, la Organización Civil Las Abejas denunció que muchos de ellos ya se han visto caminando por los alrededores de Acteal y comunidades cercanas.  Tanto Las Abejas como el obispo Arizmendi se preguntan, “Si los hombres anteriormente condenados y ahora liberados no son los responsables de la masacre, ¿quién fué?”.

Por otras partes de México

1. Las comunidades forman sus propias patrullas de policías - Como resultado del crecimiento dramático del crimen organizado y la total incapacidad de las fuerzas de seguridad de México para tratar con él, un fenómeno nuevo está surgiendo. Algunas comunidades están tratando de proteger a sus residentes formando sus propias patrullas de policías comunitarias. Hasta el momento, al menos 40 comunidades en ocho estados han formado tales patrullas. Mientras mucha de la violencia que está plagando a las comunidades está vinculada al narcotráfico y los oficiales gubernamentales, la policía y los militares corrompidos por las narco pandillas, las comunidades también están buscando protegerse de la tala ilegal y la invasión de compañías mineras y sus “guardias” armadas. Algunas comunidades indígenas siguen la tradición de elegir a los policías/guardias que protegen a las comunidades de crímenes comunes como el robo o la embriaguez en vía pública, y los crímenes relacionados. Han estado haciendo esto por más de 15 años. Estas policías comunitarias tiene sus armas de caza, machetes y garrotes, ningunos de los cuales son ilegales. Sin embargo, otras comunidades tienen policías armados con armas de alto calibre que son ilegales. Los gobiernos estatales y federales están preocupados sobre este nuevo acontecimiento y quieren poner estas patrullas comunitarias bajo el control de autoridades locales con rango oficial. Pero las comunidades ven a las autoridades locales como parte del problema.

En Los Estados Unidos

1. El presidente Barack Obama visitará México y Costa Rica el 2-4 de Mayo – El presidente de los Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, tiene planes para visitar México el 2 de mayo. Mientras que México espera  lograr un acuerdo sobre más dinero para la Iniciativa Mérida, el Secretario  de Estado estadounidense John Kerry, dice que el presidente Obama también quiere enfocar su visita en tratar asuntos económicos y de comercio. Organismos de derechos humanos, sin embargo, enviaron una carta al Presidente Obama, al presidente de México Peña Nieto y a los presidentes de Centroamérica solicitándoles, entre otras cosas, re-pensar el modelo de seguridad regional (la guerra contra las drogas) y considerar la regulación de las drogas en lugar de su prohibición. También,  23 congresistas estadounidenses, de ambos partidos, enviaron una carta al Secretario Kerry para expresar su preocupación por el incremento en cinco veces más de las quejas contra personal militar sobre abusos en los derechos humanos en los últimos 6 años . La congresista Barbara Lee, de Oakland, firmó la carta.

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Compilación mensual hecha por el Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas.

Nuestras principales fuentes de información son: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista y el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (Frayba).

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Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

Email: cezmat@igc.org

www.chiapas-support.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zapatista News Summary for October 2012

OCTOBER 2012 ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

In Chiapas

1. Las Abejas (the Bees) Denounced the Reactivation of Paramilitary Groups -

Las Abejas of Acteal, a civil society organization, denounced the reactivation of the paramilitary group, Mascara Roja, in Chenalhó Municipality. They attribute this to the large number of paramilitaries imprisoned for participating in the Acteal Massacre who have been released over the last several years. Las Abejas states that those released have re-grouped with those who never were brought to justice, and that they are now carrying firearms on the highways, in the mountains and on the paths to corn and coffee fields. Las Abejas also states that a PRI member shot a Zapatista in the back about a month ago. Furthermore, they denounced the resurgence of Paz y Justicia, the paramilitary  group that is attacking 2 Zapatista communities in the region of the Roberto Barrios Caracol, near Palenque.

2. Alberto Patishtan Recovering from Neurosurgery – On October 3, Alberto Patishtan was transferred to the Manuel Velasco Suarez National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in Mexico City, and operated on October 8 to remove a brain tumor. The surgery was reportedly successful and he is recuperating now in the Vida Mejor Hospital in Tuxtla Gutierrez. His close friends report that he has recovered 70% of his eyesight! Meanwhile, Mexico’s Supreme Court accepted the request from Patishtan’s lawyer to consider whether the Court has the jurisdiction to  hold a hearing and issue a ruling on Patishtan’s innocence. Amnesty International sent a letter to the Court in favor of Patishtan.

3. The Siege Against Comandante Abel and Union Hidalgo Communities – The Good Government Junta in Roberto Barrios denounced the continuing siege of the two Zapatista communities, Comandante Abel and Union Hidalgo, by paramilitaries. In a communiqué posted October 30 0n Enlace Zapatista, the Junta described how paramilitaries have already redistributed the land they stole from Zapatistas on September 6. They have harvested and taken away all the corn and bean crop. They fire shots into the air in the middle of the night and the police are patrolling to protect the paramilitaries. The Junta suggests, describing certain actions, that the state police are training the paramilitary members, who engage in military-style exercises. It also alleges that police and paramilitary activities are coordinated under one command. Moreover, it appears that those who stayed behind to protect the Zapatistas’ homes and belongings remain in the communities under siege.

4. Zapatista Detained in Zinacantan in Reprisal for Delivering an Invitation  – In early October, the Good Government Junta in the Caracol of Oventik denounced that authorities in Jechvo (Zinacantan) once again used violence to cut off the water supply to the Zapatistas. One of the civilian Zapatistas, Mariano Gomez Perez, asked for help from the autonomous judge and the Junta. The autonomous judge sent a letter to the PRI agent, inviting the agent to a meeting to talk about the problem. When Gomez Perez attempted to deliver the written invitation, the PRI agent detained him and took him before a community assembly, which fabricated crimes against him and sent him to a Zinacantan municipal judge. The judge told the PRI agent not to accept the invitation. This situation is a repeat of 2004, when the same authorities, then PRD members, cut off the water supply to the Zapatistas. When Zapatistas from throughout the region brought water in a show of solidarity, the PRD members opened fire on them.

5. Six Zapatistas Detained in Guadalupe Los Altos – On October 12, the Good Government Junta in La Realidad denounced that 6 Zapatista support bases from  Guadalupe Los Altos community had been in jail for 12 days and that their families were being threatened with expulsion. Community authorities are part of the CIOAC Official organization and are members of the PAN and PRD political parties. It seems that there is a history of provocations over the degree of participation in community issues, specifically making financial contributions to projects such as schools and roads. The Junta maintains that the Zapatistas have their own school, but are current in their contributions for the benefit of the community, as long as they are not projects of the bad government. This is a common point of contention in divided communities with a mix of pro-government party members and Zapatistas.

In Other Parts of Mexico

1. Investigation Into Ambush of 2 CIA Agents Continues – Investigations continue into what is now being called “the attempted murder” of 2 CIA agents and a Mexican marine  on August 24 near Tres Marias. A judge extended the detention without charges (sometimes referred to as house arrest) of the 12 original Federal Police agents for an additional 40 days and 2 more federal police agents were detained in connection with the case. Mexico’s attorney general, Marisela Morales, termed the incident “attempted murder” the week following the testimony of the CIA agents who termed it a “direct attack.” Morales stated that all of the police agents currently detained will be charged within the next 2 weeks.

2. Police Raid 3 Michoacan Teachers Colleges, 176 Detained – State and Federal police raided teachers colleges in Tiripetio, Cheran and Arteaga, Michoacan to break up student protests. They detained 176 students who were protesting obligatory English and computer classes. Similar protests have occurred at teachers colleges in other states as the federal government tries to severely restrict and regulate them. Teachers colleges in Mexico prepare students to teach in rural and heavily indigenous areas. Many of the students are themselves indigenous. The schools have faced reduced budgets, admissions and staffing, as higher education in Mexico focuses more and more on business interests.

3. Urapicho Organizes Community Police – Another Purépecha community, Urapicho, a neighbor of Cherán, is constructing its own security force in the absence of any police protection from the official government. Urapicho posted a video on YouTube enumerating the problems they have faced from organized crime and woodcutters. Masked members of the community appear in the video talking about those who have been disappeared. One of them wears a hat with a Che logo and a Zapatista paliacate. The government has agreed to send the community police to the state’s police academy for training and has also added police encampments to the area. For those of you who participated in the March of the Color of the Earth in 2001, this community is in the general   area of Nurio. You can watch the video (in Spanish) at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=e851A-FoB_o 

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Resumen de Noticias sobre los Zapatistas – Septiembre del 2012

[Por favor, disculpe el retraso. Estábamos muy ocupad@s por la celebración el 14 de octubre.]

SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2012 RESUMEN DE NOTICIAS SOBRE LOS ZAPATISTAS

En Chiapas

1. Paramilitares causan desalojo de 2 comunidades Zapatistas: Comandante Abel y Unión Hidalgo – El 7 de septiembre, la Junta de Buen Gobierno en el Caracol de Roberto Barrios denunció que paramilitares invadieron y dispararon contra la comunidad Comandante Abel, una nueva comunidad de zapatistas que habían sido forzados a dejar la comunidad de San Patricio debido a ataques paramilitares por parte de miembros de Paz y Justicia. 73 personas huyeron de Comandante Abel hacia el bosque el 7 de septiembre cuando continuaban los disparos que empezaron el 6 de septiembre.  Llegaron a San Marcos, una comunidad zapatista, el 9 de septiembre, donde se les dió refugio.  Actualmente hay 27 zapatistas que todavía quedan en la comunidad Comandante Abel.  Están rodeados por un grupo agresor armado de Unión Hidalgo y miembros de la policía preventiva del estado.  El 8 de septiembre, 10 zapatistas fueron desplazados de Unión Hidalgo debido al constante hostigamiento y amenazas de muerte por miembros del PRI y PVEM. Están refugiados actualmente en la comunidad Zaquitel Ojo de Agua.  ¡El resurgimiento de paramilitares miembros de Paz y Justicia es más que preocupante!  Se debe en parte a la victoria del PRI y PVEM en las elecciones del primero de julio. El PRI ganó la presidencia de la república y el PVEM ganó la gubernatura de Chiapas. La Junta de Roberto Barrios publicó un comunicado de prensa el 30 de septiembre acusando al gobierno estatal de equipar a los paramilitares y la policía estatal para poder mantener el asedio contra los zapatistas.

2. Eco Mundial en Apoyo a los zapatista se expande y continua – En solo dos meses, desde la elección de un nuevo presidente de la república y nuevo gobernador de Chiapas, los ataques y amenazas contra comunidades zapatistas se han incrementado dramáticamente.   La Campaña del Eco Mundial se ha expandido para incluir muchas comunidades zapatistas ahora bajo agresión, además del preso político zapatista Francisco Santiz López. Se puede encontrar información sobre la segunda fase de esta campaña, la cual consiste de acción directa, en la pagina web de la campaña:

http://sanmarcosavilesen.wordpress.com/

3. A Alberto Patishtan le diagnosticaron un tumor cerebral mientras la Corte Suprema aplaza su decisión – Está en marcha un esfuerzo para obtener una audiencia con la Corte Suprema para que Alberto Patishtan Gómez (o sus abogados) puedan demostrar su inocencia.  El abogado de Patishtan logró una reunión con el presidente de la Corte Suprema Mexicana. El propósito de la reunión era presentar una petición para la creación de un mecanismo legal nuevo que abra un espacio para que Patishtan pueda demostrar su inocencia. La Corte Suprema tiene que decidir si se abrirá ó no este nuevo espacio. Su decisión ha sido pospuesta. Mientras tanto, Patishtan está en un hospital en la capital del estado donde le han diagnosticado un tumor cerebral que requiere cirugía.

4. Liberan de prisión a otro hombre involucrado en la masacre de Acteal – El 26 de septiembre, la Corte Suprema de México ordenó la libertad del preso Manuel Santiz Pérez, encontrado culpable de participar en la masacre de Acteal de 45 mujeres, niños y hombres el 22 de diciembre de 1997. La Corte usó el mismo razonamiento que utilizó en los casos anteriores: el álbum de fotos mostrado a los sobrevivientes y testigos era perjudicial y violó los derechos legales y el procedimiento criminal.  Según un artículo publicado en La Jornada, este es el último de los casos apelado por parte de los que participaron en la masacre de Acteal. Vale notar que la Corte encontró el tiempo para liberar a un asesino confeso, pero no tiene tiempo para decidir si se oirá el caso de Alberto Patishtan o el caso de los miembros de la Otra Campaña en Tila.

En la frontera de Chiapas

1. Bases militares nuevas y 200 marinos de EEUU en Guatemala – El presidente de Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, anunció que  Guatemala construirá tres bases militares nuevas para redoblar la lucha contra el crímen organizado (el tráfico de drogas, armas y personas). Dos de estas bases estarán cerca de la frontera con Chiapas; una en el Departamento del Petén (al otro lado del río Usumacinta de Chiapas) y otra en el Departamento de San Marcos. San Marcos colinda con la región sudoeste de Chiapas. Una tercera base estará localizada en Puerto Barrios (cerca de Honduras). Se ha reportado ampliamente que unos 200 marinos estadounidenses ya están patrullando la costa pacífica de Guatemala para interceptar el narcotráfico por mar. Las y los guatemaltecos están reportando que el país se está militarizando bajo el lema de la guerra contra las drogas; pero la militarización también está siendo usada contra los movimientos sociales.

En otras partes de México

1. Investigaciones del ataque contra dos agentes de la CIA sugiere conexión al cartel Beltran Levya – En septiembre, continuaron las investigaciones sobre el caso Tres Marías, el ataque contra un vehículo blindado de la embajada de los EUA en México. La procuraduría federal mexicana requirió que la detención sin cargos (arraigo) de 12 polícias federales continúe por 40 días más. La Jornada reportó que el FBI está llevando a cabo una investigación paralela de lo ocurrido, y  ha ofrecido a los 12 agentes la “oportunidad” de convertirse de colaboradores en el ataque a testigos protegidos del gobierno estadounidense. Sus abogados dicen que han rechazado esta “propuesta.” Aunque no se ha publicado ningún informe final al respecto, parece ser que los oficiales estadounidenses ahora creen que el ataque lo perpetraron integrantes del cartel Beltran Levya como venganza por el asesinato de Arturo Beltran Leyva, ocurrido en diciembre del 2009.

2. El Departamento de Estado de los EUA recomienda inmunidad para Zedillo – El 7 de septiembre, el Departamento de Estado estadounidense anunció que recomendará inmunidad para el ex-presidente Ernesto Zedillo ante una Corte de Connecticut, en donde fue demandado por daños en el asesinato  de 45 mujeres, hombres y niños el 22 de diciembre de 1997 en Acteal, Chiapas. El Departamento de Estado anadió que esta decisión se tomó con el fin de mantener las buenas relaciones con el gobierno mexicano.

3. 25.000 – 30.000 desplazad@s por narcoviolencia en Sinaloa – La Comisión para la Defensa de Derechos Humanos del estado de Sinaloa informó que entre 25,000 y 30,000 personas han tenido que huir de sus comunidades tras actos criminales relacionados con el tráfico de drogas durante estos nueve meses. La Comisión dió a conocer que 12 de los 18 municipios del estado están siendo muy afectados por esta violencia, con un promedio aproximado de 2,000 desplazados por municipio.

En los Estados Unidos

1. La Caravana por la paz concluye – El Movimiento por la paz con Justicia y Dignidad (MPJD), encabezado por el poeta y periodista mexicano Javier Sicilia, terminó su caravana por los estados unidos en Washington, DC el 12 de septiembre. La caravana de un mes viajó por 27 ciudades estadounidenses y recorrió 6,210 millas, tratando asuntos politicos estadounidenses en su ruta hacia Washington DC: 1) financiamiento estadounidense de una guerra contra las drogas en México a través de la Iniciativa Mérida; 2) tratamiento humano a los inmigrantes; 3) tráfico de armas hacia México; 4) blanqueo de dinero de la droga por bancos estadounidenses; y 5) la militarización de la política exterior norteamericana. Al concluir la caravana, Sicilia dió a conocer que se retirará del MPJD por dos meses para reflexionar sobre la pérdida de su hijo.

 

Reactivation of Paramilitary Groups In Chiapas

[Editors' Note: The conflict in Chiapas is intensifying with the re-emergence of paramilitary conflicts.]

Las Abejas Denounces the Reactivation of Paramilitary Groups in Chenalhó

 ** The organization reports that an indigenous Zapatista support base was shot one month ago

** It asserts that they re-grouped after the massive release from prison of those responsible for the Acteal Massacre

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, October 4, 2012

The civil society organization Las Abejas of Acteal denounced the re-activation of paramilitary groups in Chenalhó Municipality, in the same way that is occurring in the state’s Northern Zone. “The massive of paramilitaries, in prison because of the Acteal Massacre, that goes from August 12, 2009 to the release of Manuel Sántiz Pérez last September 25, has favored their regrouping and they have now been revealed in coordination with those that were not judged, carrying firearms on the highways, the mountains, the path to the milpas and coffee fields.”

In Chenalhó communities “they display firearms anywhere,” add the accusers and announce that one month ago an indigenous Zapatista support base was shot: “The recent tragedy of last September 5, when a PRI member shot Manuel Ruiz Hernández in the back, near the plaza in Yabteclum, reveals the paramilitary actions and the presence of said armed groups.”

The Tzotzil organization, which maintains its independence with much effort for more than a decade, declared: “The governmental transition of Enrique Peña Nieto has unleashed violent acts that are a strategy of threats to counter social protest, not only against him, but it also goes against social organizations that denounce the injustices and human rights violations committed and developed by the governments.”

These actions are implemented “under the logic of counterinsurgency,” for the purpose “of creating division and community conflict until causing forced displacement, so that the same government may administer it, as Juan Sabines Guerrero has been doing against organizations in the Northern Zone (Tila, San Sebastián Bachajón) and other autonomous regions.”

This governmental attitude, Las Abejas abounds, “permitted the re-activation of the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia, in the Northern Zone, and Máscara Roja, en Chenalhó.”

“The State’s violent action is not limited to sowing fear: it continues the strategy of integral wear and tear with which it has harassed our pacifist organization since the times of Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía. It is painful for the government to accept its defeat in 2008, when Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Sabines Guerrero divided our organization thinking that they were going to disarticulate us, but were wrong. What they did strengthened us and defined us as the organization that we currently are.”

Nevertheless, “the predators don’t stop harassing.” As already occurred in April 2010, “they have reactivated their delegates or messengers; they now disguise themselves as survivors to deceive people and they arrive at the houses of paramilitaries, of PRI members, of members of the so-called Las Abejas Civil Association and at ours. They invite forming a survivors group for negotiating an indemnification and requesting assistance programs in the name of the martyrs.”

The Civil Society Organization Las Abejas and the survivors of the massacre denounced individuals that say they are survivors, but are not: Juan Oyalté Paciencia, paramilitary of Tzajaluk’um; Vicente Oyalte Luna, PRI member of Acteal community; Pedro Vásquez Ruíz and Juan Pérez Pérez, members of Las Abejas Civil Association.”

To the government “it’s not enough to kill us, it now tries to buy our conscience,” Las Abejas concluded this Wednesday, who later emitted a communiqué from Acteal: “The government knows how to murder the unborn, boys and girls, women, the elderly and men. We are never going to exchange the blood of our martyrs for money or assistance programs. We will not permit the dignity of our massacred brothers to be sold, and we will not cease pointing out or crying out for ‘justice’ against the material and intellectual authors of the Acteal Massacre.”

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Friday, October 5, 2012

English Translation: Chiapas Support Committee

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/10/05/politica/023n1pol

 

 

 

Zapatista News Summary – February 2012

FEBRUARY 2012 ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

In Chiapas

1. Seven More Released in Acteal Case – On February 1, 7 of the men convicted of murder and other crimes in the Acteal Massacre case were released from prison after serving 14 years of a 35-year sentence. Lawyers for those released also obtained a finding of innocence by the court. Their were released and found innocent based on the fact that the evidence used against them by the Attorney General was tainted. The same lawyers said they are also suing the PGR for damages caused by the “false” imprisonment. Bishop Arizmendi, who many in the diocese of San Cristóbal consider conservative, spoke out against the release, questioning whether anyone would end up being punished for this crime against humanity? The 7 released will be relocated in Villaflores Municipality, in the center of Chiapas state, where the 45 previously released have also been relocated. 28 more men who were convicted and sentenced for the massacre remain in prison and await decisions in their appeals.

2. Update On Chiapas Prisoners – The General Labor Confederation of Spain, adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and participant in the EZLN’s International Campaign, visited Chiapas political prisoners during February. Their report indicates that all Other Campaign and Zapatista support base prisoners, including those from Banavil, are in good spirits, although there are still complaints about the lack of medical care. That lack was confirmed in a denunciation from Alberto Patishtan from the federal prison in Guasave, Sinaloa. Patishtan reported that he is still being denied treatment for glaucoma. The Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) is asking the court for an order returning him to the prison in San Cristobal de las Casas Municipality, Chiapas.

3. Other Campaign Communities Deprived of Electricity by CFE Workers - The Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center in Tonala, Chiapas, denounced that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, its initials in Spanish) dismantled a transformer in La Central, a community in resistance to high electricity rates, belonging to the Regional Autonomous Council of the Coastal Zone of Chiapas. The residents of La Central (municipality of Pijijiapan) have been without electricity since January 3. The Regional Autonomous Council of the Coastal Zone of Chiapas is an adherent to the EZLN’s Other Campaign. Its members refuse to pay their electricity bills, which they believe are outrageously high. (See item #1 in Other Parts of Mexico below.)

In Other Parts of Mexico

1. Francisco Hernandez Detained and Imprisoned for Refusing to Pay Electricity Bills - Federal agents detained Francisco Hernández and placed him in a Chihuahua state prison, accusing him of robbery because of his participation in the payment strike against the CFE due to its high rates. The MARC is an organization that has struggled for more than 10 years against the high charges for electric energy service. Its members maintain a payment strike and reconnect service to users whose service has been suspended, while the cases and complaints are reviewed and the charge for the real consumption that the family has is adjusted, principally in precarious settlements in the state capital. Francisco Hernández, an electrician, is one of its principal leaders. The MARC is an adherent to the EZLN’s Other Campaign and a member of the National Network in Resistance to High Electricity Rates.

2. Mexico’s President Puts Up A Billboard on the US / Mexico Border – On Thursday, February 16, Mexican President Felipe Calderón made a speech at the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso Border. The backdrop for his speech was a three-ton billboard built with crushed weapons illegally exported from the US and confiscated by various authorities. Calderon said: “One of the main factors that allows criminals to strengthen themselves is the unlimited access to high-powered weapons, which are sold freely, and also indiscriminately, in the United States of America.”  The billboard, posted on the border at Ciudad Juárez, read in English “NO MORE WEAPONS.” (What politicians won’t do during an election year!)

In the United States

1. US Officials in Mexico - From February 18-20, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was in Los Cabos (Baja California Sur)  for a G-20 preparatory meeting of foreign ministers. While in Mexico, Clinton signed an agreement with her Mexican counterpart for joint oil exploration in cross-border underwater oil fields. On February 27, Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security also signed a joint agreement with Mexico for increased Customs Security at the border. She continued on to visit Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama. Her visits were scheduled to conclude on February 29. At the beginning of February, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman delivered 17 million dollars worth of equipment for computerizing clinic records of individuals receiving treatment for drug addiction in Mexico’s 332 drug treatment centers. The technology enables the centers to share clinical records and is part of the Merida Initiative.

2. US Vice President Joe Biden to Visit Mexico – The White House announced that Vice President Joe Biden would visit Mexico on March 4, where he will meet with President Felipe Calderón to discuss a broad range of issues to forge cooperation ahead of April’s Summit of the Americas. Vice President Biden will continue on to Honduras for a visit with its president, Porfirio Lobo, and will attend, at Lobo’s invitation, a meeting of Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish). SICA is Central America’s regional security organization to which the United States, the Inter-American Development Bank and some European countries are giving funding to fight a “war on drugs.”

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Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.

The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).

We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.

Click on the Donate button at: www.chiapas-support.org  to support indigenous autonomy.

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Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box  3421, Oakland, CA  94609

Email: cezmat@igc.org

www.chiapas-support.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686

Las Abejas Remember the Acteal Massacre

Neither Calderón Nor Sabines Want to Do Justice for the Massacre in Acteal, Las Abejas Points Out

** That is the only path that will bring us peace, warns Bishop Raúl Vera during a mass

** 14 years after the 49 murders no intellectual or material author has been punished

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

Acteal, Chiapas, December 22, 2011

Upon commemorating the massacre that occurred at this spot in the mountains of Chenalhó on a day like today 14 years ago, the Bishop of Saltillo, Raúl Vera López, maintained that: “defending justice is the only path that can bring us peace.” He remembered that in those years, while President Ernesto Zedillo extended a hand to the insurgent Zapatistas with the San Andrés dialogues, “with the other [hand] he was organizing death and destruction for the indigenous communities of Chiapas.”

At its turn, the organization Civil Society Las Abejas, to which the victims belonged, declared in its message during the concurrent civil and religious ceremony that the governments of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Juan Sabines Guerrero “have not done justice, other than to ridicule our organization and struggle.” They “do not want justice, peace, or liberty at all,” and they continue “with the policies of the previous governments, and even worse.”

Homage to jTotic

Vera López, who received a special homage from Las Abejas, that call him jTotic (in Tzotzil), exposed with clarity: “Faced with the panorama that we live in the country, of an open war by the current President, where he once again places the Mexican people as the principal victims, as here in Chiapas, justice is not important. In this supposed war against organized crime he once again uses the Army, which is violating human rights and carrying out extrajudicial executions, and their crimes remain unpunished.”

The police –he continued– “are accomplices of those who commit robberies, murders, kidnappings and forced disappearances. The criminals have allies inside the three levels of government: federal, state and municipal; otherwise they would not have the protection that keeps 98 percent of their crimes unpunished.”

The Catholic prelate of Saltillo, who was a bishop here jointly with Samuel Ruiz García at the time of the massacre, summarized that 14 years ago, “victims of the Mexican government’s low-intensity war, which had paramilitary groups, armed, paid for, and trained by the Army as its principal actors, were 49 murdered people: nine men, 16 children and adolescents, 20 women and four not yet born, still in their mother’s womb.”

Accompanied by the bishop of San Cristóbal, Felipe Arizmendi, Vera spoke this noon having on one side two large canvases, one with the printed names of all those murdered on December 22, 1997, and the other, with the crimes’ intellectual and material authors: Ernesto Zedillo, Emilio Chuayffet, Julio César Ruiz Ferro, Homero Tovilla Cristiani, Uriel Jarquín Gálvez, Jorge Enrique Hernández Aguilar, David Gómez Hernández, Antonio Pérez Hernández and Generals Enrique Cervantes and Mario Renán Castillo. “They are the principal intellectual authors of the Acteal Massacre,” Las Abejas had asserted minutes before.

According to the Dominican prelate, the preliminary investigation by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) “was prepared in such a way” that even now the intellectual authors cannot be judged, and the material ones “achieved their release from prison with the intervention of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).” The crime remains unpunished –he said– because the PGR considered that every one of the murderers were held to account, and not as criminal associates constituting a paramilitary group.” Besides, the SCJN’s inquiry in 2010, which permitted the release of more than 40 paramilitaries from prison, “was only based on the PGR’s records,” because the survivors were not called [to testify].

“Those armed groups attacked the peoples to expel them from their lands, pull them out of their houses and burn them, steal their belongings, the product of their harvests and their scarce heads of cattle. They destroyed their dispensaries and made a gala of violence against their chapels.” “Soldiers and state police were also responsible for the looting, forced disappearances and murders by the paramilitaries.” They were established in the communities “with the excuse that there was violence in those places.”

Vera López explained that the governmental counterinsurgency strategy sought “to take the water from the fish,’” the fish being “the Zapatista insurgents, milicianos and bases, and the water the social fabric.” The paramilitary action, “driven by the Army,” sought “to impede that the communities could provide any kind of support to the insurgents, because of which they were not able to produce food nor form any kind of organization that would empower the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).”

Said strategy was proposed “to annul any organization that would strengthen the insurgents, thus they went against Las Abejas, which were neither Zapatista bases nor were in a violent attitude, but were pacifists, and nevertheless living as displaced, were organized to vindicate rights and generate conscience faced with the injustices that are lived in here since before the beginning of the armed movement.”

He thanked Las Abejas “because it continues resisting so many abuses by the state government as well as the federal, preserving the memory of this abominable crime and reviving our conscience, today, for defending justice.”

The Tzotzil organization’s board of directors, adherent to the Other Campaign, pointed out that the commemoration “is not a political theater or act with electoral and economic interests, but for the fallen of Acteal and the victims of war by a repressor and undemocratic government.”

In reference to the civil proceeding that is continuing against former president Zedillo in a US court, Las Abejas clarified that it does indeed want him to be punished “for his responsibility in this State crime, but not that they profane the respect and the memory that the martyrs deserve, with hidden, electoral and economic interests.” At the commemoration, they gave Vera López a “cane of power for service to the people, a power not corrupt or with impunity.”

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Friday, December 23, 2011

Para leer en español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/12/23/politica/011n1pol