Juan Vázquez Assassinated in Bachajón, Chiapas

Bachajón Ejido Owners Demand that Juan Vázquez Guzman’s Death Not Be Left Unpunished

Juan Vázquez

** The indigenous leader “and Other Campaign” adherent was assassinated Wednesday

** They warn that the struggle over the defense of land and the natural springs “will not diminish”

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, April 28, 2013

The San Sebastián Bachajón ejido owners, adherents to the Other Campaign of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, in Chilón, Chiapas, demanded that the assassination of their compañero and representative Juan Vázquez Guzmán, which occurred Wednesday, “is not left in impunity” and warned that: “after the compañero’s death, the struggle will not diminish: we will continue forward, because we know well that his death was because of the defense of our Mother Earth because the mountains and the natural springs are masters of those who care for them.”

Directing themselves to the Good Government Junta of Los Altos and the National Indigenous Congress, to which the assassinated leader also belonged, the Tzeltal ejido owners relate that last April 24, at to o’clock “hour of God” (11 o’clock, “national time”) [1], Vázquez Guzmán “was resting in his house when a person came knocking on his door and he was riddled with six high-caliber bullet impacts, and the guy fled in a red pickup truck in the direction of Sitalá.”

In the communiqué “they make known” who Juan Vázquez was: “An active member of the ejido and of the Other Campaign adherents. We walked with him for seven years after the Sixth. On April 18, 2010, he was named Secretary General of the three centers of the ejido.”

On December 24, 2011, municipal and judicial police detained him without showing him an arrest warrant, when he was entering his house, and he was taken to prison number 16 in Ocosingo.” Hours later the then Commissioner Francisco Guzmán Guzmán arrived, “carrying a file in his hand and pointing to Compañero Juan as the leader against the neoliberal project but, thanks to the mobilizations of organizations and the intervention of human rights defenders, he was released at midnight and they returned him to his house without making him sign any release paper asking for pardon and forgiveness.”

On November 26 and 27, 2011, Vázquez Guzmán, “accompanied by Compañero Domingo García Gómez, he participated in a National Indigenous Congress workshop of dialogue and reflection at San Mateo del Mar (Oaxaca).” He was in charge of following up on the case of protective order (injunction) 274/2011 “against the Neoliberalism Project” and the accompaniment of the three political prisoners from his community

He maintained his participation in the political prison forums and the mobilizations for the freedom of the political prisoners in Chiapas, in particular of Alberto Patishtán, “and in all Mexico;” also in mobilizations for the defense of land, like the one on May 7, 2011 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and in the Tila and Mitzitón ejidos. He went to the country’s capital “in accompaniment of the liberation of the last five San Sebastián Bachajón political prisoners.” He also appeared in several video messages for distributing the community’s demands internationally.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Monday, April 29, 2013

En Español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/04/29/politica/020n1pol

 

 

 

An Interview With Gonzalo Ituarte on Maya Theology

The Church Weakened Its Social Leadership: Ituarte

Gonzalo Ituarte

** “Without the contributions of liberation theology, one cannot understand what happens today in the Vatican”

By: Blanche Petrich

Fray Gonzalo Ituarte Verduzco, provincial of the Dominican order in Mexico, assures that without the contributions liberation theology that was profiled in the 1960s and 70s –the era of the “red bishops” and persecution against the progressive clergy in Latin America– “one cannot understand what is happening today in the Vatican; one cannot understand Pope Francisco,” although the Argentine prelate comes from a current of conservative thought. He asserts this from a trajectory of almost three decades of construction of a different theology, at the side of don Samuel Ruiz, which placed the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas team in confrontation with the Vatican.

The former Vicar of the diocese that transformed the profile of Chiapas in the last century, a participant in the failed peace negotiations between the federal government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army in San Andrés Larráinzar and the parish priest of Ocosingo, at the epicenter of the conflict, Ituarte Verduzco gives the benefit of the doubt to the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now anointed as head of the Catholic Church, before the denunciations expressed about his complicity or silence in the face of the State terrorism that the Argentinian military dictatorship exercised.

–Yes, I give him the benefit of the doubt, because I give myself the same. I have lived an evolution; coming from a traditional Catholic family, with a very conservative view as student at the Latin American University. And because just like so many people in countries where there have been dictatorships, clerics had different capacities and lucidity in relation to the State and the context. The fact that Pope Francisco was not a militant opponent of the dictatorship does not necessarily make him an active accomplice. People go on changing, taking consciousness. Bergoglio was institutional and had the difficult papal role, with the obligation of protecting the Company of Jesus and the people with which he worked.

In the 90,s Ituarte lived in the headlights of the media, frequently as spokesperson for the bishop, as the port office for the denunciations and calls for attention from the communities of his diocese, since before the Zapatista Uprising until the failed dialogue in San Andrés (1995-1996). He was secretary of the National Mediation Commission (Conai, its initials in Spanish) and it fell to him, on the eve of the Acteal Massacre, to warn the deaf ears of the Chiapas government of the tragedy that was approaching (December 22, 1997). Since 2005, when he was elected the provincial for his congregation, that of the Preachers, he disappeared from the public scene. Now he returns to the arena and, in an interview, expresses optimism in the face of the change in the Vatican leadership.

Pope Francisco, seen from the rebel Church

–A Jesuit pope, Latin American, who opts for the name of Francisco as a signal for putting the vision of the poor at the center: how is he seen from the band of religious folks that, like you, lived the route of the option for the poor?

–Through the instinct of the hope that there is in Christianity we find very positive signs. We don’t want to be ingenious, because a structure like that of the Church, with its more than a billion affiliated and with all the factors that fall into it, does not change so quickly and radically. A person, although he may have a conservative formation from a doctrinal point of view, but with a beginning and a social practice like that of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, indeed generates a different possibility. We hope that he attains it, with consistency, with perseverance, with spirit and solidarity.

–What elements, beyond the image and the gestures, seem hopeful in Pope Francisco?

–Since 200 years ago there has not been a pope that has opted for the priesthood not in a diocese but in a religious congregation. Besides, the Jesuits’ order has the logic of community life, close to the reality.

–How can he be different, because of having been a cardinal not diocesan?

–There is more feeling of itinerancy, of change, of advance, of the recognition of plurality, a broader vision of the Church, because the priests in congregations have more freedom and mobility by belonging to communities, not having properties, although sometimes we get trapped. But basically we take the oath of poverty to not be tied to our goods, our territory.

–With the new papacy, what’s going to happen with liberation theology?

–The debate about liberation theology passes to a second level, because it is also evolving. Liberation theology, as we live it, took the paradigm of the class struggle, the struggle for equality and justice as a central theme. We’re not going to have a Church like don Samuel’s again; that already passed. Today there is a contextual theology with a perspective from different environments and spaces. For example: feminist theology, theologies from the African, Latin American and Indian cultures and realities. The class struggle is no longer at the center.

But without liberation theology one cannot understand what is happening now in the Vatican, one cannot understand the current pope. Even with the incomprehension that did exist, the Church was touched by that era; it was enormously enriched.

Nevertheless, theology continues evolving. For example, today there is a new evaluation of cultures, which has permitted Indian theology to evolve. It is profoundly revolutionary that from the peoples of Central America and Mexico, basically the Maya culture, a theology is being developed from their cultures, not from Western ideology; that the ones who are writing this story are indigenous theologians. It is something very new, which is escaping the Western paradigms. Faith is visualized from the Indian cosmovision, with its myths, rituals and traditions. And dimensions continue appearing that are not going to have the name liberation theology, but that come from there and are profoundly liberating.

–Where, concretely, is this being generated?

–Chiapas, definitely, Guatemala, El Salvador, Yucatán. They meet systematically, do a review of their own tradition, of the old Maya testament contrasted with Western tradition and are seeing the different dimensions. That gives them a re-affirmation to dialogue as equals. And the women’s perspective: there are very lucid theologies that are opening paths for liberation. And the theology of migration: the Bible is the book of migrations; it is the fruit of many cultures that interact and Enright each other.

Saving an enormous distance

–The Church’s base communities, the liberation theologians, the religious people that were active in the option for the poor always paddled against the current of dominant ideas in Rome. The distance has been abysmal. How can one be saved now?

–It is difficult for a person that lives in an intellectual world, so far from the reality of the Latin American poor, as the high spheres are in Rome, to understand what was gestating and developing there below. The problem is that the Church transferred so much power to the papacy that it weakened the leadership of the social church, the diocese and the local pastors.

–Are there clear signs of that about which you speak –Bible, liberating theology or whatever it may be called in the future, commitment– is the new pope interested or will we have to point it out to him?

–The fact that he has been in close proximity with the poor makes me hope that it is indeed on his horizon. Argentina, with its crisis, with the recent struggles, including the confrontation that he has had with the current government, indicates that these themes are indeed present and he will have to address them. And we must help him.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Translation: Chiapas Support Committee

Saturday, April 6, 2013

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/04/06/sociedad/040n1soc

Zapatista News Summary – March 2013

MARCH 2013 ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

In Chiapas

1. EZLN Concludes THEM AND US Essay – During February, the EZLN  released Parts 5, 6 and 7 (the final part) of THEM AND US. All 7 parts are translated into English on our blog:        http://compamanuel.wordpress.com/      The last three parts, signed by Marcos, talk about how money is handled by the Juntas, some experiences in resistance, including critical comments about Rural Cities, the Mesoamerica Project, formerly the Plan Puebla-Panamá and the current Plan for Mexico. They also revealed a little history of their founding organization (the FLN) by revealing that several clinics are named for 2 FLN compañeras who died in the struggle. In Part 7, entitled Doubts, Shadows and one word, Marcos talks about the “shadows” that have made what they have done possible. He also talks about coming to the Little Schools to erase your doubts about the Zapatistas and learning and says that Sup Moisés will send out details about those schools.

2. Moisés Issues Dates and Other Details About the “Little Schools” – On March 17, the EZLN issued a communiqué signed by Subcomandante Moisés. It contains much of the information about the “escuelitas” or little schools” where they will teach Freedom According to the Zapatistas. For details, see: http://compamanuel.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/ezln-moises-dates-and-other-details-for-the-little-zapatista-school/  The Little Schools will begin immediately following the Celebration for the 10th Anniversary of the Good Government Juntas (August 8 to 11) and will last for one (1) week. Another of the details contained in the communiqué is that the Good Government Juntas are now closed to brigades, caravans, interviews or any visit that requires the time of the authorities because all the Zapatistas will be busy preparing for the little schools and the celebrations. The Caracoles remain open to visitors.

3. Mexico’s Supreme Court Denies Patishtán’s Appeal - On March 6, Mexico’s Supreme Court refused to grant a “recognitions of innocence” hearing to Alberto Patishtán, a teacher, human rights defender and prisoner in Chiapas. Sentenced to 60 years in prison for the ambush and murder of 7 police, the Court referred the appeal to a collegiate tribunal in Chiapas. Legal sources in Mexico think the chances are slim that a federal court in Chiapas will do what the Supreme Court refused to do. An international campaign in support of his freedom is underway.

4. Mexico’s Supreme Court Releases Another Man Convicted in the Acteal Massacre Case - One week after it refused to hear the request from the social struggler Alberto Patishtán Gómez for a recognition of innocence, the first hall of the Supreme Court resolved the immediate liberation of Marcos Arias Pérez, accused (and convicted) of participating in the Acteal Massacre on December 22, 1997 in the municipality of Chenalhó, Chiapas. Once again, the rationale for the release was because of due process violations. Patishtán’s case is also replete with due process violations, so what is prohibiting Patishtán’s release? Speculation is mounting that influential politicians in Chiapas may be to blame.

In Other Parts of Mexico

1. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Holds Hearing on Atenco Rapes - When the Mexican governments and the state government of Mexico jointly conducted a police operation to terrorize, repress and torture the population of San Salvador Atenco on May 3 and 4, 2006, the police included sexual torture (forced rape) on at least 26 women in custody. They filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a division of the Organization of American States, with headquarters in Washington, DC. A hearing was finally held in the middle of the month. The government offered an apology and a friendly resolution, but the women who suffered the sexual assaults rejected the offer.

2. Mexican Court Annuls Immunity for Zedillo – On March 6, a Mexican Court ruled that former president Ernest Zedillo was not eligible for immunity protection under the Mexican Constitution and invalidated a diplomatic note from the then Mexican Ambassador to the United States requesting that the US State Department recommend immunity to the Connecticut federal district court in which Zedillo has been sued by some victims of the Acteal Massacre. The court reasoned that Zedillo was no longer entitled to immunity because he was no longer president. He now lives in Connecticut and teaches at Yale. The lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the victims of the massacre is still an open case in the Connecticut court. For the full story: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/03/25/mexican-court-rules-zedillo-ineligible-for-immunity/

3. Drug Trafficking Is 5th Largest Source of Jobs in Mexico! – A report prepared for members of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies state that estimates are that drug trafficking employs around 468,000 people, more that PEMEX (the acronym for Petroleos Mexicanos), the oil company with the most employees in the world). The purpose of the report is to support a proposed legislative change to create a financial intelligence technical unit capable of investigating and pursuing money laundering. The report cites estimates of profits from drug trafficking at somewhere between $25 and 40 billion dollars per year and concedes that governmental structures, including police, are infiltrated with drug trafficking employees and corrupted with bribes, blackmail and threats. The conclusion seems to be that there is no way to stop the corrupting influence of that kind of money without putting dams in the way of money laundering.

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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).

 

Marcos Responds to Cartoon Critics

“If the Sup Doesn’t Speak, the EZLN Doesn’t Exist for the Media or the Politicians”

 ** In a new communiqué Marcos attempts “to throw fuel on the fire” from his graphic letter

** He also criticizes those who accuse the Zapatistas of being an invention of Carlos Salinas de Gortari

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

In a series of 16 “post-scripts to the graphic letter” published Thursday, Subcomandante Marcos now appears “throwing fuel on the fire.” And he proves, with data, in the new communiqué, that if he doesn’t speak, the EZLN and the rebel communities “don’t exist” to the media, the political class and public opinion (come in a tweet or in whatever). He also continue responding to his critics with soccer information, tips for navigating in the seas of piracy in Mexico City, ironies about television, print media, social networks and the partisan left.

One of these PS “gives advice to those who go to the IFE to ask for registry:” “Perhaps it would go better for you in the elections if instead of judging ‘the deaths from hunger’ (it is more tender than what you told them in the case of the pre-paid gift cards) that didn’t vote for you, you try to understand them. But okay, millions of Mexicans who did vote for you, can explain who are each one of the mentioned characters or series” (in the cartoon published by La Jornada, 01/10/13).

Further on, the Subcomandante “does a little bit from memory:” “When a part of the learned left still juggled to try to give a theoretical foundation to the unfortunate occurrence of the ‘beloved republic,’ and a torrid honeymoon was lived with the big communications media (and large quantities of money were dedicated to publicity in electronic and print media), the students of what later would be known as #YoSoy132 were already denouncing the role of the big communications media in Mexican ‘democracy.’ After what happened and that same learned left wanted to establish itself as the tutor of the young rebels (or ‘rioters’, as they say now). As they are no longer in fashion, they forgot about them and tell them ‘you lost your opportunity,’ ‘much noise and you didn’t get anything,’ ‘Starbucks revolutionaries (or however you say it),’ ‘you can’t change the world with a Smartphone (or however you say it).’ The calendar will continue losing blood and, suddenly, they will re-emerge, better, stronger. And those that now forget about them or criticize them will say ‘sure, I knew that they had not disappeared’ or ‘now I am going to say tell them what it is that they must do,’ but others will say ‘there is a lot of suspicion in that you appear every time that something happens.’”

Lesson in racism

In one more PS in his communiqué, the Zapatista spokesperson “gives lessons about racism with the following commentaries: “I read in various directions that ‘EZLN yes, Marcos no’ and that they want to hear the indigenous Zapatistas, not the egomaniacal Sup. Ok, go: The last time that el Sup wrote a communiqué in the name of the EZLN: May 2011, on the occasion of the march in support of the just and dignified movement headed by Javier Sicilia. In the communiqué of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN it greeted the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and its struggle for the victims of the absurd war of Felipe Calderón.”

And he adds: “Between May 7, 2011 and December 21, 2012 there are 27 denunciations from the Good Government Juntas, in other words, from indigenous Zapatistas WITHOUT INTERMEDIARIES mestizos, white and bearded (and the common places that they like to gather), all tweeted and facebooked (or however you say it) by the enlace Zapatista web page. On an average, the 27 denunciations were visited-read 1500 times each and all of them were several days on the principal heading of that web page.”

Marcos gives an “example,” the denunciation of the La Realidad Junta, August 15, 2012: “For 24 days it was posted as the principal note on the Zapatista web page and it received 1,080 visits-readers. The number of tweets (or however you say it) that it provoked: zero. The number of journalists that ‘made note of’ the denunciation: one. The number of comments from intellectuals in their writings: zero. The number of re-tweets (or however you say it): zero. The number of comments accusing the EZLN of being an invention of Salinas de Gortari: zero. The number of unfounded imaginations about why the EZLN only appears in electoral times: zero. The number of newspapers that published the denunciation in their print edition: zero. For sure, the text of the Junta denounced the alliance between the state and municipal government with the PVEM and the PRD to attack Zapatista communities.”

And next he points out: “The number of visits to the Sup’s cartoon that so offended the cultured people: more than 5 thousand in less than 48 hours (mostly twitters –or however you say it–, more the pingbacks –or however you say it–, the cut and pastes, etcetera). Now, review the period that goes from August 2003, the year in which the Juntas were formed and in which they became the direct spokespersons of the Zapatista peoples, and you will see how many time they made official statements, in their own words and without intermediaries. Count how many times you even knew that that word existed. Ok, now yes, they will write about the ‘suspicious’ silence of the Zapatistas and will question why the Zapatistas and Marcos ‘appear’ only when the PRI, that never went away, returns.”

Upon reviewing “the ‘suspicious’ affirmations about the EZLN,” Marcos indicates: “A good part of the arguments that they use when they criticize us are the same ones that the big television networks, commercial radio and the misnamed ‘sellout press’ used, from 1994-95 to this date.” And next “it suggests, insinuates, proposes” a “suppository:”

“A possible route that the ‘caricaturized debate’ (for sure, without the young female aide that so impressed Señor Quadri) could have followed: those alluded to answer with a caricature wherein the Sup is sprawled out, scratching what are very dear, bulging out and choking on junk food, watching television (probably with the Televisa logo, because best that they are careful not to glue themselves to Tv Azteca –ah, and we don’t accuse them of being paid for by Salinas Pliego or Carlos Slim, or that their campaign against the Soriana workers was paid for by Walmart–), the title or a dialogue globe with something just like ‘I am preparing my next communiqué.’

“El Sup counterattacks with another caricature, titled ‘The Recent Past,’ where he is in his wheelchair and an Indigenous in front says to him: ‘The compas say that they are ready, that it falls to you and that you already know what to do.’ The Sup responds: ‘Ok, I need to speak with Elías Contreras to order some DVDs from him.’ The media and friends that accompany them no longer would reproduce the caricature, but rather would start with unfounded kind of imaginations ‘Is the Sup an invalid and therefore does not appear publically?’ followed by ‘very serious’ investigations about the possible diseases that they could have as a consequence of being in a wheelchair.”

Low intellectual coefficient

Trying to submit oneself to the limits of Twitter, in a sudden appearance Durito suggests: “The Zapatistas are like Doctor House: the diagnosis and treatment almost always hit the mark, but the mode of the majority disgusts him. Of the patient, not speaking.”

Always in reference to reactions and responses that have stirred up his recent communications, the Zapatista military commander “clarifies:” “We have read them attentively. We see how, when one dissents from another, they are accused as a Pejezombie [1] or as a Televisa fan and their derivatives. We don’t thin that disparities necessarily have a political affiliation. For example, when someone says ‘the EZLN is an invention of Salinas de Gortari’ we don’t think that he is necessarily a troll, a Pejezombie, a Televisa fan or a Tv Azteca fan (or however they mutually say it). It can be, we think, that we’re just dealing with someone with a low intellectual coefficient, too lazy to read more than 140 characters, or that he is trying to link up with someone that already said that.”

Challenging geometry, he writes: “The world is round, it turns, it changes. But in the world imposed by those above it doesn’t matter how many turns it takes, we are always below. The world that we want is also round, also turns, also changes, but no one is above at the expense of those below.”

Finally, the Zapatista commander gives his opinion “about the millions against the thousands, the hundreds, the dozens or the few,” a theme also present in the latest reactions of his critics: “The argument of the majority against the minority makes us lazy and makes me remember an old graffiti (or how do you say it) on an old wall that I saw when it was old. With a fiesta of colors, it sentenced: Eat shit. Millions of flies cannot be wrong.”

[1] Pejezombie – Peje is the nickname for Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), twice the presidential candidate of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in Mexico, who has since left the PRD to start a new party whose acronym is Morena. Saying Pejezombie is like saying AMLO zombie.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Sunday, January 13, 2013

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/01/13/politica/005n1pol

 

 

 

Frayba: Recent Elections Fragmented Chiapas Communities

[Below is an article about a report from the Frayba Human Rights Center. It confirms and elaborates what our delegation learned in March 2011 about the massive infusion of money to divide Zapatista and Other Campaign communities. An excerpt from our report on the 2011 delegation follows the article.]

The Recent Elections Fragmented Chiapas Communities: Frayba Center

  ** It documents in a broad report political pressures, vote buying and acts of corruption

** It emphasizes the persistent practice “of counterinsurgency directed at the EZLN and its support bases”

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

In recent months the state and federal electoral campaigns converged in the state of Chiapas, with troubling social effects. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) documents in a broad report “the political pressure that was exercised in the towns and communities, to the end that through the purchase of votes and other classic means of electoral corruption electoral they would vote for the alliance of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the New Alliance Party (Panal), converting the Green Party into the first political force and leaving a deep fragmentation in the communities.”

The Frayba has monitored the armed conflict in Chiapas from its beginning, giving an account of the diverse junctures, always characterized by a counterinsurgency policy directed at the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) and its support bases. This is sharpened “when it is dealing with a change of diplomatic couriers and the distribution of political control.”

The lawyer Pedro Faro, a member of the Fray Bartolomé Center, says: “We have located a pattern of recurring violence during the electoral changes, which unleashes rancor and conflicts between the power groups for government posts, and once the essential scenario is established, actions are let loose for beating up the enemy. In these circumstances the dispute for the EZLN’s recuperated territories is specific.”

Between May and September 2012, Faro points out, “we have documented the continuous strategy of community confrontation that the government, at all three levels (municipal, state and federal), carries out in the autonomous Zapatista communities by means of local power groups, which benefit from the protection” that it offers them. Since 2000 “an integral war of wear and tear has been constructed,” and the government jointly “distorts” in the communications media the forced displacements, the armed attacks and the harassment that the EZLN’s support bases now receive. This scenario is corroborated with the hostilities underway against the Zapatista rebel autonomous municipalities and the communities of San Marcos Avilés, Comandante Abel, Jechvó and Banavil.

The “double discourse”

On the one hand, the federal government makes the EZLN invisible, and on the other, the state (government) expresses attending to their demands, removing itself as a contender and presenting itself as the administrator of the scenarios and the mediator of the conflicts, classified as “intercommunity.” Nevertheless, “the state government plays a fundamental role in the war of wear and tear, especially with the use of economic resources for confronting and coopting organizations or communities that resist the system.”

In the communications media we’re “dealing with blocking the EZLN’s posture and that of the organizations that differ with governmental policies.” The government “imposes its opinion or diverts attention with tourist publicity or the diffusion of ‘vanguard’ achievements, being that it gives continuity to the policy of displacing the autonomic process and the civil and peaceful resistance constructed starting at the beginning of the ceasefire, on the gamble of unilaterally fulfilling the San Andrés Accords, disavowed by the Mexican government.”

The Frayba registers that the counterinsurgency strategy has operated very patently in the armed incursions of groups of a paramilitary cut of Sabanilla, in Comandante Abel community, which already provoked the forced displacement of 87 people.

These are the facts, despite the fact that the local government “tries to hide the consequences of its policy of violence using a discourse of ‘human rights’ through reforms that are dead laws, and through the State Human Rights Council, which serves as a political operator for endorsing and maintaining impunity.”

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En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/11/13/politica/006n1pol

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Report on the 2011 CSC Delegation to Chiapas

By: Mary Ann Tenuto

Shiny new cars slithered over the dirt road like snakes. “Lots of traffic,” a delegate commented in Spanish to a small group chatting nearby. Sitting in front of his home by the side of the unusually busy road, a Zapatista elder responded to that observation about the parade of vehicles: “The government is sending money and projects to all the non-Zapatistas and even trying to buy off individual Zapatistas and Other Campaign adherents. The three political parties are doing the same thing because next year is an election year for all three levels of government. They’re looking for votes and trying to divide people.” He frowned as he finished talking, obviously upset by the government’s economic counterinsurgency tactic.

The topic of the government trying to divide the Zapatista and Other Campaign communities with tons of money received equal attention with that of the war and violence throughout Mexico during the two and a half weeks spent in Chiapas at the end of March 2011 preparing for and participating in the Chiapas Support Committee’s 10th delegation to Chiapas.

As a matter of principle the Zapatistas do not accept money from government aid programs. That applies to all three levels of government: federal, state and municipal (county). Consequently, these different levels of government have always used the aid programs to divide people from the Zapatistas. Now, it seems that both the amount of money and the amount of effort have increased/intensified. One wonders where the money comes from in a state where many have no money to buy medicine or school supplies. Are the corporations that want indigenous lands giving money to the state government?

One of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) visited summed it up this way for the delegates: “Governor Juan Sabines Guerrero is known as the man with the checkbook.” Another NGO said: “The government has an economic strategy: give lots of money to the campesino communities they know can be divided.” Those include some campesino communities belonging to the Other Campaign.

Regardless of where the delegation went or with whom delegates spoke, the vast quantity of pesos being spent to divide pro-Zapatista communities and the political conflict it was causing dominated the conversation and is a cause for genuine concern.

During a long interview with the Good Government Junta in La Garrucha, Caracol 3, Tzeltal Jungle Zone, we asked about the government’s strategy to divide people. Different members of the Junta responded to the various strategies being used. “The government is taking communal land and privatizing it. Government agents tell the people that the land will be theirs, but the people end up without any land and poorer than they were before,” one Junta member told delegates. Another man on the Junta said: “The Government offers housing with strings attached and people in the community are refusing it because most people don’t have confidence in the government and don’t believe it will keep its promises.”

Asked about money the government is offering to people in the region, the Junta responded: “The government’s plan is pretty powerful because they are using a lot of money to entice people away and divide the communities. But, the Junta is trying to keep everyone united and keep everyone participating together.” This Junta is in the last month of its three-year term of office and has learned a lot during those three years of experience governing the large region.

(…)

 

 

Resumen de Noticias Sobre los Zapatistas – Junio del 2012

JUNIO DEL 2012 RESUMEN DE NOTICIAS SOBRE LOS ZAPATISTAS

En Chiapas

1. Campaña por la liberación de Alberto Patishtan y Francisco Santiz López – El 8 al 15 de junio se realizó la segunda semana de lucha, llamado “!Derribamos los muros de las prisiones!” para ganar la liberación de Alberto Patishtan y Francisco Santiz López. Patishtan es miembro de la Otra Campaña y es base de apoyo zapatista. La semana nacional e internacional de protesta, apoyada por los Zapatistas y los familiares y amigos de Alberto Patishtan, de nuevo recibió apoyo de much@s alrededor del mundo.  El Obispo de Saltillo, Raul Vera, es presidente de la mesa de directores del Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas en Chiapas y conoce bien los dos casos. Él recientemente informó que puede haber un espacio para el dialogo con el gobierno sobre el caso de Patishtan.  También indicó que el apoyo nacional e internacional es un factor en abrir ese espacio de dialogo.  El Comité en Apoyo a Chiapas agradece a tod@s quienes firmaron la carta que mandamos al Presidente Calderón durante la segunda semana de protesta.

2. San Sebastian Bachajon toma la casilla – El 21 de junio a las siete de la mañana, miembros de la Otra Campaña en San Sebastian Bachajon otra vez tomaron control de la casilla en una acción en apoyo a Alberto Patishtan y Francisco Santiz y tres hombres de su ejido que están encarcelados en Chiapas. La policía llegó a las nueve de la noche, forzándolos a abandonar del edificio.  Muchas personas resultaron ligeramente heridas, pero no se reportó ninguna detención o heridas graves.

3. Frayba publica informe sobre la tortura en Chiapas – El 26 de junio, el Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (Frayba) publicó su informe sobre la tortura en Chiapas. El informe concluye que se emplea la tortura con frecuencia para obtener información y extraer una confesión. Se puede leer en informe aquí: http://www.frayba.org.mx/archivo/boletines/120626_boletin_₀₉_tortura.pdf

Por otras partes de México

1. Comicios mexicanos – El 1 de julio, los mexicanos votaron para elegir representantes a nivel nacional, incluyendo la presidencia de la república, y  en algunos  casos también estatales y municipales. Con más del 90 por ciento del voto total contado, el candidato presidencial príista Enrique Peña Nieto sigue siendo el líder con 37.89 por ciento de los votos. El candidato del PRD, Andres Manuel López Obrador, ocupa el segundo  lugar con 31.85 por ciento. El PRI obtuvo el triunfo también de la gubernatura en el estado de Chiapas, mientras que el PRD ganó la alcaldía del Distrito Federal.

2. Caravana por la Paz de Sicilia viene a los EU – El lunes 18 de junio, Javier Sicilia y otros integrantes del Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad (MPJD) anunciaron en rueda de prensa una Caravana por la Paz en los Estados Unidos que durará un largo mes. En su invitación a la conferencia de prensa, el MPJD se refirió a las 71,000 muertes inocentes debido a la guerra contra el narcotráfico. Acompañando a Sicilia estuvieron representantes de organizaciones no-gubermentales tanto estadunidenses como mexicanas, que están trabajando conjuntamente en la planeación de dicha movilización. La Caravana pretende construir una base de apoyo para cambiar la política sobre las drogas en EU, con el fin de reducir las ganancias económicas de las organizaciones criminales que han evolucionado en México a partir del tráfico de drogas. También esperan  lograr reducir el número de armas que cruzan la frontera de los EU hacia México, y abogarán por un mejor trato a los inmigrantes. La ruta de la Caravana se puede encontrar en nuestro blog: http://compamanuel.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/javier-sicilia-and-the-caravan-for-peace-us-schedule/a

En los Estados Unidos

1. Rápido y Furioso: ¿Cuáles son los hechos reales? – El 27 de junio, la revista Fortune publicó un profundo informe sobre la operación del gobierno de los EU conocida como Operación Rápido y Furioso. Depués de una investigación de 6 meses, el informe cuenta una historia muy diferente a la reportada originalmente por la cadena CBS News. En este, se afirma que el agente de la ATF que apareció en CBS News era en realidad un empleado descontento en busca de venganza contra un supervisor con quien estaba en desacuerdo. Según el agente descontento, el buró de Alcohol, Tabaco, Armas de Fuego y Explosivos (ATF)  de los EU permitió el movimiento de algunas armas a través de la frontera Arizona/México a fin de realizar un seguimiento de su destino. El informe de Fortune afirma que en realidad era muy poco lo que los agentes de la ATF legalmente podían hacer para impedir cruzaran la frontera, debido a las limitaciones de las leyes  sobre armas en Arizona y a la interpretación de esas leyes por un abogado en EU. Asegura también que la Asociación Nacional del Rifle conjuntamente con políticos conservadores tomaron la historia del agente de ATF y fueron más lejos para promover una agenda pro-armas y avergonzar a la Casa Blanca en un año electoral.

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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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY for MAY 2012

MAY 2012 ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

 In Chiapas

1. Campaign To Free Alberto Patishtan and Francisco Santiz Lopez – The Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) in Chiapas called for an intense national and international campaign to win freedom for Alberto Patishtan and Francisco Santiz Lopez, both of whom are “political prisoners.” Patishtan is a member of the Zapatistas’ Other Campaign and Santiz is a Zapatista support base.  The international week of protest took place between May 15 to 22 and may be extended for another week. A very large protest took place in El Bosque Municipality, where Patishtan is from, and the Oventik Junta demanded the freedom of Santiz Lopez, who they referred to as a “political hostage.”

2. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Grants Protection to Patishtan - While solidarity organizations and collectives around the world took actions to demand Alberto Patishtan’s freedom, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced that it granted urgent precautionary measures in favor of prisoner of conscience Alberto Patishtán Gómez, faced with the grave danger to his life and health due to the worsening of untreated glaucoma. The IACHR asked the government of Mexico to instruct the competent authorities “to carry out the medical examinations that permit evaluating the beneficiary’s health and to offer him adequate treatment.” Patishtan has started to denounce de-humanizing conditions in the federal prison located in Sinaloa.

3. Morelia Junta Denounces Land Grabbing by ORCAO Members - The Good Government Junta in Morelia denounced a land grab by members of ORCAO in Patria Nueva community (Lucio Cabañas autonomous municipality) on the outskirts of Ocosingo. It also denounced attacks and harassment by ORCAO members on the El Nantze Ranchería, in the community of 21 de Abril (17 de Noviembre autonomous municipality), near Altamirano. The Junta alleges that the attacks are being orchestrated with support from all 3 levels of government. This is the same organization that the Zapatista Junta in La Garrucha denounced last month for attacking land in Pancho Villa autonomous municipality.

4. Campesinos Reject An Adventure Tourism Hotel on Lake Miramar – A series of articles in La Jornada this month reported that many of Emiliano Zapata’s ejido owners, whose lands are adjacent to Lake Miramar, reject a government plan for a hotel on the shores of the virgin lake. The plan includes 11 double rooms, 4 suites, a restaurant and bar, laundry and an “employee area.” Lake Miramar is located on the edge of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in the Lacandon Jungle. More information and a beautiful photo of the lake can be found at: http://compamanuel.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/chiapas-communities-reject-adventure-tourism-project/

5. Paramilitary Members of Opddic Threaten Cintalapa Women With Death – Paramilitary members of the Organization for Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Opddic, its initials in Spanish) have threatened to kill the women who remain in their homes in the Cintalapa ejido, according to a denunciation by a representative of a group of families displaced from that ejido since 2007. The denunciation alleges that on May 16 two PRI members who are also members of Opddic threatened that if the women did not abandon their homes they would be killed. This is the same group of displaced people that reported the 2011 kidnapping of a little girl in Busiljá. The representative also demanded freedom for 2 prisoners from

their group and reported that paramilitaries intimidated those in Busiljá by throwing stones on the roofs and wearing uniforms and bullet-proof vests and being heavily armed.

6. San Sebastian Bachajon Denounces Armed Attack by UCIAF – On Sunday, May 6, members of the Indigenous and Forest Campesino Union (UCIAF, its initials in Spanish) attacked 2 residents of San Sebastian Bachajon (SSB) with guns. A 17-year old youth was severely injured and was taken to a hospital in San Cristobal. His brother was not injured. A week before, another attack by the same person from the same group attacked a man from SSB with a steel object, seriously injuring him. When they went to demand that the authorities execute an arrest warrant against the assailant, they were told that they would have to pay 6, 000 pesos for that and that “justice costs money.” The UCIAF used to be the paramilitary group known as Paz Y Justicia (Peace and Justice). Its members are also affiliated with the Green Ecologist and Institutional Revolutionary Parties. Moreover, SSB reports constant harassment and the detention of another ejido member.

In Other Parts of Mexico

1. Mexican Spring: #YoSoy132 Student Movement Forms Around Elections – Mexico will hold elections for national office on July 1st of this year, including the election of a new president. The electoral scene has become more interesting with the appearance of the student movement #YoSoy132, which is in touch with the #Occupy movement in the US. According to an account in La Jornada, the university students met several days ago at UNAM and demanded: political trial against President Felipe Calderón, for the more than 65, 000 deaths that his struggle against drug trafficking has left; against the PRI candidate, for the repression in San Salvador Atenco in May 2006, and against president-for-life of the National Education Workers Union, Elba Esther Gordillo Morales, for corruption and for harming education. They demanded her immediate exit from that union and the investigation of her relatives, name lenders and wealth. Moreover, the student movement opposes the return of the PRI to State power, “whose current face is Peña Nieto,” the PRI presidential candidate.

In the United States

1. State Department Report on Human Rights in Mexico – On May 24, the US State Department issued its 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The section on Mexico reports that members of security forces have been involved in killings, forced disappearances, torture and other abuses, while a high degree of impunity and official corruption persist. It emphasized that the transnational criminal organizations are the ones principally responsible for violent crimes in Mexico. The report has prompted some legislators to look at the Merida Initiative’s human rights provisions and consider whether a cut in funding is appropriate. The (weak) provisions allow for a very small reduction in security aid if human rights violations by security forces persist. The report on Mexico is found at:

www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?dynamic_load_id=186528#wrapper

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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

http://compamanuel.wordpress.com

Commodification of Chiapas Forests

The Commodifiation of Forests, Motive for Removing Communities in Chiapas

  ** El Triunfo, the reserve with which the state government entered the carbon credit market

** They accuse that conservation arguments consist of to stop planting corn in the zone

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, May 20, 2012

Among the principal economic motives for removing communities from the forests that they inhabit is the sale of carbon credits, maintain civilian organisms belonging to the Network for Peace Chiapas (Sipaz, Desmi, Frayba and others). At COP 16 (Conference of the Parties) in Cancún, in December 2010, Mexico entered the program Reduction of Emissions product of Deforestation and environmental Degradation (REDD Plus), whose basic idea is that countries that are willing and can reduce carbon emissions that come from deforestation ought to be financially compensated.

In a 122-page report, critical of the rural cities project and environmental policy in Chiapas, divulged this week, the civil organisms remind that, simultaneously, the governor signed an agreement with his then counterparts from California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Acre, Brazil, Arnobio Márques de Almeida, which started “a market for buying and selling carbon credits that is part of the project known as REDD Plus.”

In 2009, the Action Program before Climate Change in Chiapas (PACCCH, its initials in Spanish) had been established with support from the British Embassy, Conservation International, a conservationist NGO (“that they use as intermediary with the communities”) and academic institutions like the Southern Border College (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur), which has collaborated to implement the REDD Plus Project with the National Forest Commission; though recently it has attempted to distance itself publicly, it has not done so with sufficient clarity.

The governor of Chiapas, the report emphasizes, “is convinced that adding on to the ‘payment for environmental services’ is a project for life,” and it quotes the governor: “Your children and grandchildren are going to thank him because they are going to live, they are going to receive money for taking care of it, let’s gamble for them, those who are little, so that you have the certainty that your children are going to live in the future, are going to live from conservation of the reserves, from tourism and the production of rubber or palm for oil.”

“Ecological” interests of the development plans imply the commercialization of the forests, for which the authorities consider it necessary “that the communities inside the reserves be relocated or not use the lands for small farming activities, like occurs in El Triunfo, Reserve with which the Chiapas government entered the carbon market.” But the crown jewel in this market, as will be seen in the next reports, would be the Montes Azules Reserve, in the Lacandón Jungle.

The report on the mission of the Network for Peace points out: “As is well known, to the indigenous peoples the corn, which has been cultivated on Chiapas lands since thousands of years ago, has a big nutritional and cultural importance.” Nevertheless, one of the government’s arguments for “conserving biodiversity” consists of stopping the planting of corn. The governor has said that: “it does a lot of damage to the planet, while the reserve, the great wealth that its residents have, would be finished.”

REDD Plus promotes a “productive reconversion” so that the campesinos stop producing their own foods, like corn, and cultivate products for fuels or construction materials (rubber, African Palm). The sale of carbon to transnationals that it seeks to establish in the forests of Chiapas also “implies the displacement of the communities for carrying out another government project: sustainable rural cities.”

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Monday, May 21, 2012

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/05/21/politica/014n1pol

 

 

 

 

Paramilitaries Surround Zapatista Village and Threaten to Kill Everyone

para leer en español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/09/14/politica/021n1pol

Paramilitaries Surround Zapatista Village and Threaten to Kill Everyone, the Junta denounces

** We will defend our land against whatever takes place, the autonomous authorities of San Patricio warn

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, September 13

The Good Government Junta (Junta) New Seed That Is Going To Produce, Zapatista Caracol of Roberto Barrios, in the state’s Northern Zone, denounced that San Patricio community, in La Dignidad autonomous municipality (Sabanilla official municipality), is surrounded by more than one hundred paramilitaries from different communities in Tila and Sabanilla, who fire shots, have blocked all the roads, have burned 18 hectáreas in the last few hours, looting milpas, and they threaten to assassinate the Zapatistas that refuse to abandon their lands.

The aggressors –from officialist groups– hold fast to the sadly famous paramilitary group Paz y Justicia, that devastated the area during the decade after the 1994 Zapatista Uprising. They come from Ostelukum, El Porvenir, Los Naranjos, Velasco Suárez and Unión Hidalgo. Rogelio Ramírez Vázquez, the Tila municipal policeman Mario Vázquez Cruz and Samuel Díaz Díaz, from Sabanilla head them.

The Junta describes the threats and aggressions as “very critical and unsupportable,” and gives a recent account: last September 7, three alleged paramilitaries (Ambrocio Díaz Gómez, Santiago Díaz Cruz and Miguel Díaz Díaz) were present at the home of an autonomous authority of San Patricio and threatened “that they are going to enter to invade and evict the community, because it is not paying the property tax, as a pretext for entering to provoke, that if they don’t deliver the lands willingly they will enter to massacre everyone; the first thing that they say they are going to do is kill three of our compañeros so that the rest seek shelter in other places without defending themselves.”

On September 10, “these paramilitaries fired several shots on the edge of the community.” That night, some 100 aggressors were positioned 200 meters from the community and they camped in the “the big house that was the finquero’s.” We’re dealing with lands recuperated by the Zapatistas fifteen years ago. At daybreak on September 11, “several shots were heard from the same position. At 10 o’clock they began to cut all the mature trees in the community pasture.” Later they cut all the milpas around where the aggressors are positioned “and took it to their houses.”

They sacrificed two pigs that “they tried out” from a Zapatista on the outskirts of San Patricio, and another one “was injured from a machete blow.” At 3:00 in the afternoon there were nine shots, “they destroyed the collective pasture’s wire fence and burned 18 hectares.” In the wee hours of the morning of September 12 “the paramilitaries fired diverse shots with high-caliber weapons.”

The paramilitary leader Samuel Díaz Díaz had threatened Manuel Cruz Guzmán, official authority San Patricio’s commission, that the Zapatistas “have to be evicted, and that now their firearms are prepared, which are of different calibers.”

These “paramilitary criminals –the Junta says– go around stealing in different communities and now they act against our compañeros, they watch them in their milpas and on the roads, day and night, and the EZLN’s support bases cannot go out to work their fields.”

Currently, “the paramilitary invaders are distributed in the woods, on the roads, so that if any of our compañeros and compañeras go out to look for their necessities they stop them to interrogate them, torture them and murder them at one time.”

The Junta maintains: “Our compañeros and compañeras are in grave danger” at the same time it warns that they will defend the land recuperated “against whatever takes place.” It places responsibility for the situation and for what may happen on the government of Juan Sabines Guerrero and the mayors of Sabanilla, Jenaro Vázquez López, and Tila, Sandra Luz Cruz Espinoza.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/09/14/politica/021n1pol