Communiqué by the Network for Peace concerning the context of violence in Chiapas distinguish
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, October 9, 2007
COMMUNIQUÉ BY THE NETWORK FOR PEACE
As the Network for Peace, we wish to denounce the increasing violence of the political context in Chiapas in recent months.
The elections: the tip of the ice-berg
The pre-electoral and electoral context was marked by impositions, recompositions and decompositions by the political parties and social organizations that participated in the process. The day of the elections, a series of violent actions occurred in Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, Venustiano Carranza, Simojovel and Comitán, among others. These actions were minimized by the majority of the media, electoral authorities and the government itself.
Another concerning factor is in regards to various winning candidates who have historically been linked to repression against the organized social movements.
Reactivation of the conflictive nature across the state
Beyond the electoral context, during the first nine months of Felipe Calderón’s federal government and Juan Sabines Guerrero’s state government, the indigenous territories in Chiapas and in particular the zones under Zapatista influence have suffered a new offensive. This repressive strategy implies coordinated actions between the approximately 80 permanent military camps, local authorities, agrarian institutions and groups signaled as undercover paramilitary organizations who go by the names of agrarian organization (*).
To promote conflicts over land – revived with the elections – seems to form part of the federal government’s strategy, taken on and supported by the state government. In the last six months the following agressions and threats have occurred against resistance movements and organisations which are constructing social alternatives:
- In May, support-bases in the community El Nance, in the municipality of Altamirano, were threatened with attack from an opposition group.
- Since May, the settlement “24 de diciembre” in Las Margaritas has been threatened with eviction by members of the Union of Land Communities of the Jungle, la Unión de Ejidos de la Selva (UES). The question is about the “recouperated lands” to which members of the UES have received the legal titles.
- In June, members of the Other Campaign from Cruztón, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, were threatened with eviction by PRI members and public forces.
- On September 10 in Bolom Ajaw, community of Agua Azul (municipalities of Tumbalá and Chilón), OPDDIC, Organización de la defensa de los derechos campesinos e indigenas A.C., Organization for the defense of the rights of campesinos and indigenous people, attacked EZLN support-bases, woudning three Zapatistas. The official media tried to accuse the Zapatistas, even showing photos of armed EZLN militia-men from 1994 as if they were current images, whereas in reality they were unarmed.
- On August 18 the communities of San Manuel and Buen Samaritano (Ocosingo, the region of Montes Azules) were evicted from their lands by police and Army forces.
- On August 25 the Sectorial Police and the OPDDIC threatened to evict the settlement “6 de octubre” (Ocosingo).
- Since May, on various ocasions OPDDIC attacked and threatened to evict the Autonomous municipality of Olga Isabel (Chilón).
- At the end of August, members of the OCEZ, Organización Campesina Emiliano Zapata, the Campesino Organization Emiliano Zapata, were victims of threats and hostilities, including the incursion of the Army into the village “28 de junio” (Venustiano Carranza).
- On September 25 the first death-threat was directed against five members of the Autonomous Council of San Andrés Sakamch’en de los Pobres. According to the Good Governance Council in Oventic the group that calls itself “OPDDIC-Roja” and the group Juvenil (from the Frente Juvenil Revolucionario, the Revolutionary Youth Front, belonging to PRI) are responsible. This threat had nothing to do with land ownership, but is part of the wave of aggression suffered by the Zapatista communities.
- On September 30 two members of EZLN support-bases from Chactoj in the municipality of Zinacantan, were detained during eleven hours and deprived of their belongings by the community authorities, which are PRD militants. Once again on October 4, the six families belonging to the support-bases in this community were attacked by PRD members supported by municipal police-patrol from Zinacantán. At the same time as they were evicted from their lands, their hoses, water pipes and taps were stolen from them.
Even though these events have supposedly occurred in isolation, when considered together they form a worrying map of the increasingly conflictive situation in Chiapas. In addition, since the start of this year, the CFE, la Comisión Federal de Electricida, the Federal Electricity Commission, accompanied by the state Sectorial Police have been carrying out massive cuts of electricity, which have caused confrontations in various communities.
We cannot understand these events without considering the national context, where we find an increase in militarization and a tendency to repress civil organizational processes.
Confronting these circumstances we demand that the local, state and federal governments respect the collective rights of the peoples; a suspension of the impunity and the repression; and that pacific solutions be found for the problems which have generated the violent events described above. The Network for Peace declares and commits itself to continue promoting actions that strengthens popular processes.
Cordially,
The Network for Peace
- Alianza Cívica-Chiapas
- CAPISE (Centro de Análisis Político y de Investigaciones Sociales y Económicas)
- Colectivo de Educación para la Paz (CEPAZ)
- Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas
- Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada
- Centro de Derechos de la Mujer de Chiapas
- CIAM (Centro de Investigación y Acción de la Mujer Latinoamericana)
- CIEPAC (Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas para la Acción Comunitaria)
- COFEMO (Colectivo Feminista Mercedes Oliveira)
- CORECO (Comisión de Apoyo a la Unidad y la Reconciliación Comunitaria)
- DESMI (Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Mexicanos Indígenas)
- Edupaz (Educación para la Paz)
- Enlace, Capacitación y Comunicación
- Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste
- PROPAZ (Plataforma Suiza para la Paz en Chiapas)
- Serapaz (Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz)
- SIPAZ (Servicio Internacional para la Paz)
(*) Blanche Petrich Jornada 26 de septiembre de 2007 (in spanish) 
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