Orcao Destroys Zapatista Building in Patria Nueva

Orcao Destroys A House of EZLN Support Bases, Denounces Good Government Junta

Para leer este artículo en español: 
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/08/21/politica/015n1pol

** It points out that the three levels of “bad government” organize attacks on autonomous territories

** The house served as a kitchen for civilian observers; was razed by some 150 people

Hermann Bellinghausen

The Good Government Junta Heart of the Rainbow of Hope, in the Zapatista Caracol of Morelia, denounced that last August 17 in Patria Nueva community, January 1st Region, Lucio Cabañas autonomous municipality, Chiapas, the Regional Organization of Ocosingo Coffee Growers (Orcao, its initials in Spanish) committed new aggressions, when some 150 people destroyed a house belonging to the EZLN’s support bases that was used as a kitchen for the peace campers and civilian observers.

The aggression was directed by Orcao’s local representatives Cristóbal Gómez López, El Saddam, and Manuel Bautista Moshan, El Empresario, coordinated by the directors Antonio Juárez Cruz, Alejandro Gómez Navarro and Carlos Ramírez Gómez, and advised by Nicolás López Gómez, El Tzirin, Juan Vázquez López and José Pérez Gómez.

The Junta maintained: “The courage of the three levels of the bad government is because they don’t want their bad practices to be made public, therefore it organizes ignorant people to inject its deadly projects into our autonomous territories, where we are also governing in our way, as the people want. We do not struggle by obligation or manipulation, like those local and regional representatives and advisors, and the alleged federal, state and municipal governments, where it has poor people under pressure and threat, obliging them to receive miserable projects and making provocations.”

It pointed out that the Orcao threatens to expel “those who do not comply with signals to provoke in Zapatista territory.”

The aggressors attempted to enter into a “wooden house” that serves as an autonomous secondary (middle) school and threatened to destroy it.

“We know that they are only some helpers, because the real intellectual authors are Felipe Calderón and Juan Sabines Guerrero, who execute projects of death and war for millions of pesos that are injected into our territories.”

A contractor arrived later with excavation machinery. “The Orcao members were looking after him and continued with their threats to kill the Zapatistas with machete blows or bullets,” the Junta pointed out. Later, the Orcao members formed seven groups, communicating with cell phones. “We saw that the governments have structured it (Orcao) well to provoke our compañeros,” it pointed out.

This is not the only aggression. On July 10, two cameramen from the Caracol of Morelia were assaulted in Ocosingo. Near the terminal for the Ocosingo-Altamirano route, three individuals obliged them to board a white Tsuru car, without license plates. They immediately transported them to the Sauzal barrio, in the same city.

The Zapatistas were robbed of a portable computer, two video cameras, a photo camera, a cell phone, 600 pesos and an equipment case. They stayed enclosed for four hours. Two of the kidnappers left, leaving another man on guard. According to the Junta, “our compañeros, upon seeing the possibility of confronting him, were able to escape with severe blows on the face.” One of the assailants was identified as Juan Decelis, a native of Balaxté.

One of the kidnappers had been invited several times “by a person that calls himself José Guadalupe,” who “initiates projects for the communities,” to “work as a spy.” In reprisal for not accepting, he was robbed of the equipment. The three levels [of government] are “the responsible authors” because “they develop and impel the provocations. They don’t use soldiers now, but indigenous people.

“For years they have executed millions of pesos wanting to destroy us in order to give our land away, finish with our customs and our language, but as the world can see, we continue alive and resisting as Zapatistas.

“We do not respond to their provocations; we know that we are constructing life and not death like the bad governments do. We are not beggars like them. Nevertheless, there is no government to fear, not with millions of pesos have they been able to eliminate us, much less with a little organization like the Orcao,” the Junta concluded.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Sunday, August 21, 2011

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/08/21/politica/015n1pol

Zapatista Bases Denounce Attacks by the Orcao

EZLN Bases Denounce Attacks by the ORCAO

para leer en español: 
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/08/16/politica/016n1pol

** They are paramilitaries and have the support of police, assure the Zapatistas

** The aggressors come from the Guadalupe Victoria, Las Conchitas and Pojcol Ejidos

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

The Good Government Junta, Path of the Future, of the Zapatista Caracol of La Garrucha, Chiapas, denounced armed attacks by groups from the Regional Organization of Ocosingo Coffee Growers (Orcao, its initials in Spanish)), who it describes as paramilitary that has the backup of state and municipal police. The aggressors come from the Guadalupe Victoria and Las Conchitas ejidos (Ocosingo), as well as from Pojcol (Chilón), where they have attempted to invade lands of the EZLN’s support bases in Francisco Villa autonomous municipality.

On August 12, organized and armed groups of Orcao members shot at Tzeltal campesinos that were driving to carry out collective work on recuperated lands. “Men and women, Orcao members from Guadalupe Victoria, impeded the pass of our compañeros, threatening to burn the vehicle with all the belongings that they were carrying,” the Junta reported.

“One of our compañeros wanted to film” it added, and his camera was snatched away from him by the Orcao members. “At the moment our other compañeros are arriving and the Orcao member José Alfredo Peñate Gómez takes out a 22 caliber pistol and begins to shoot, and a bullet touches Manuel Hernández López.” The Zapatistas opted to withdraw. A little later, another vehicle from the autonomous municipio was transporting more Zapatistas in the direction of their work, and “one thousand meter from the road an armed group from Pojcol” shot weapons, with two 22 caliber impacts reaching the vehicle.

According to the Junta, “the bad government has organized them as paramilitaries because at those moments people from Las Conchitas are arriving that are taking our recuperated land,” and after them came people from Pojcol “like wanting to surround our compañeros,” and upon them rejecting the circle, another Zapatista was injured by a stone thrown in the forehead, “and the aggressor touched him with a cudgel blow.”

Those from Pojcol, that “it is known are paramilitaries,” positioned themselves in the woods to shoot with high caliber weapons, together with the people from Las Conchitas, “that also have large weapons.” All the attackers “are equipped with radios for communication delivered by the three levels of government, because they know that the Army cannot use them. They prepare indigenous paramilitary groups for attacking the EZLN’s bases.”

Before that, the Zapatistas proceeded “to destroy the little huts that the invaders had put there.” On August 13, the people from Pojcol, “once again entered armed cutting down trees, protected by the paramilitaries,” and shot 18 bullets “of high caliber.” On the day of August 14, the shots continued.

The Junta placed responsibility on President Felipe Calderón, on Governor Juan Sabines Guerrero and Mayor Arturo Zúñiga, and remembered its previous denunciation, of July 7, about other aggressions. “It is seen clearly that (these actions) are prepared, directed and supported by the bad governments, because a police car arrived in Guadalupe Victoria that night with two ambulances. We believe that they were to leave more bullets and to pay well for them.”

The Junta points out that this “is one of the thousand ways of waging counterinsurgency campaigns against the Zapatistas” because the rulers “are experts at manipulating the leaders that let them,” and it asks: “Why does it please them so much that there are widows and orphans?”

Everything indicates that the Orcao is out of control. It’s important to remember that on July 27, according to official sources, some 200 members of said organization caused damage to Ocosingo’s Municipal Palace and to a neighboring hotel, protesting because the municipal president, Arturo Zúñiga, “has not fulfilled his campaign promises.”

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/08/16/politica/016n1pol

Tuesday, August 16, 2011