SIPAZ Activities (From mid August to mid November 2019)
19/12/20192019
23/01/20202019
January 3: Human rights defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca is murdered near his home in the city of Arriaga.
January 5: The consultation process that was being carried out in Oxchuc to define the way in which the municipal elections will be held is completed. The normative system of customs wins, with 59.18% in favor.
January 13: The municipal president of Aldama, Ignacio Pérez Girón, reports that there has been a new attack against the inhabitants of the municipality in the Altos de Chiapas.
January 14: The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) makes public its recommendation (87/2018) to various state and municipal authorities in Chiapas in response to a series of omissions in the situation of forced displacement of 5,266 inhabitants of the Chiapas municipalities of Chalchihuitán and Chenalhó.
January 16: The Chiapas Attorney General’s Office reports that it has detained three men, allegedly responsible for the murder of human rights defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca, who was killed on January 3 in Arriaga.
January 17: In a public letter, more than 700 intellectuals, academics, artists, and activists express their solidarity with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the face of “the current campaign of disinformation, lies, and slander directed against Zapatismo.
January 17: The Movement for the Common Good, Peace, and Justice of Amatán denounces that in the early morning of the same day there was a shooting attack on the sit-in that it has maintained since November 2018.
January 18: The bodies of Noé Jiménez Pablo, members of the Independent Revolutionary Peasant Movement of the Coordinating Committee of the Ayala Plan (MOCRI-CNPA-MC) and José Santiago Gómez Álvarez, of the Movement for Well-being, Peace, and the Common Good of Amatán, were found dead and with signs of torture in a dump near the municipality of Amatán,
January 22: One person is dead and two more are wounded in a new confrontation over the age-old conflict between Aldama and Chenalhó
January 22: The Center for Indigenous Rights AC (CEDIAC) questions the proposal to militarize the municipality as a way of responding to insecurity.
January 22: Las Abejas Civil Society announces the names of those who will make up its board of directors this year, emphasizing that for the first time women will participate, and that the majority will be young people.
January 23: The Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) orders the installation of a military base in the community of Cocó, municipality of Aldama.
January 25: In the framework of the eighth anniversary of the death of Jtatic Samuel Ruiz, the People of Faith of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, undertake a pilgrimage to this city to remember the former bishop and well-known defender of human rights worldwide, in particular those of indigenous peoples.
January 31: The municipal president of Amatán, Manuel de Jesús Carpio Mayorga, and his entire cabinet resign after allegations linking them to the murder of human rights defenders Noé Jiménez Pablo and Jorge Santiago Álvarez.
February 1: The National Institute of Migration (INM) reports that the possibility of registration for migrants to obtain humanitarian visas is closed.
February 6: A detailed report from the Good Government Council (JBG) “Corazón Céntrico de los Zapatistas Delante del Mundo” based in Oventik, on the situation that has prevailed between the municipalities of Aldama and Chenalhó in the Chiapas highlands, is made public.
February 7: A judge issues an arrest warrant for David Parada Vazquez, now ex-mayor of Arriaga, as the alleged mastermind of the murder of human rights defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca.
February 8: Frayba reports that they began documentation work in the municipal seat of Chicomuselo, through the Civil Brigades for Human Rights Observation (BriCo).
February 11: Close to 900 organizations, collectives, networks, and individuals from Mexico and other countries send a letter to the women of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
February 13: The Chiapas state congress names a new municipal council for Amatán, which had been vacant since January 31.
February 14: Civil organizations call for the implementation of the recommendations that the CNDH has given to the authorities of Chiapas regarding forced displacement in Chalchihuitan.
February 14: The Commission on Indigenous Peoples of the Federal Chamber of Deputies urges the federal authorities, the Attorney General’s Office, Governor Rutilio Escandón, the Congress of Chiapas, and the municipality of Chenalhó to immediately attend to the victims of forced internal displacement in Chiapas.
February 21: The Institute of Elections and Citizen Participation (IEPC) approves the sanctioning of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for conduct against the democratic life of the State, by exercising political violence against women, in view of the assignment of rulings by the principle of Proportional Representation, during the Local Ordinary Electoral Process 2017-2018.
February 21: Approximately 150 displaced persons from the Ejido Puebla, Chenalhó, hold a march in the capital of the country demanding attention from the federal authorities.
February 25: From the head of the municipality of Solosuchiapa, thousands of people participated in a pilgrimage to demand the cancellation of the “Santa Fe” Mine in that community, and the cancellation of all other mining concessions.
February 28: Teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) in Chiapas break off negotiations with the federal and state governments.
March 5: Unidentified persons raid the house of Cecilia López Pérez, member of K’inal Antsetik, based in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
March 6: The Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal publicly reaffirms its position to continue demanding justice and stresses that they will not accept the settlement proposed by the Mexican government.
March 6 and 7: Many activities are organized in Chiapas in the days leading up to and in the context of International Women’s Day.
March 15: The No Estamos Todxs Working Group reports that six indigenous prisoners have begun an indefinite hunger strike to demand their immediate release as well as “another series of demands that have to do with living conditions inside the prisons in terms of food, health, security, and justice.
March 18: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador states “that the Federal Government will respect all mining concessions in the country and that the permits will not be revoked.” He announces that no more agreements of this kind will be signed during his government, since more than 25% of the national territory has been handed over in the past 36 years.
March 23: The Committee for the Promotion and Defense of Life “Samuel Ruiz García” reports that the military is spying on pastoral activities of the San Pedro and San Pablo parish in Chicomuselo.
April 12: Lawyers from 10 countries form the Group of Litigants against Torture in Latin America.
April 13: The municipality of Oxchuc elects its new municipal government through customary methods.
April 20: The CNI denounces the persecution and harassment of indigenous community members Mateo López Cruz and Juan Sánchez Torres by the authorities of the Chol Suclumpa community, municipality of Salto de Agua.
April 29: The Movement in Defense of Life and Territory (Modevite) ratifies its opposition to the construction of the superhighway between San Cristóbal de las Casas and Palenque.
April 30: The National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur) publishes the bidding terms for the contracting of the basic engineering services of the Mayan Train.
May 1: Frayba denounces that two members of the 101st Infantry Battalion, belonging to the Mexican Army, carried out acts of espionage during the meeting of defenders of the territory that took place in March in the community of Lázaro Cárdenas, municipality of Chicomuselo.
May 2: Frayba denounces that “Since December 2018, the Mexican State has increased militarization of territories of Native Peoples, and of Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN).”
May 2: The “Report of the Human Rights Monitoring of the Central American Exodus in the Southeast of Mexico: October 2018-February 2019” is presented
May 6: The remains of the body of Aldama’s trustee, Ignacio Pérez Girón, 45 years old, husband of Mayor Verónica Ruiz Pérez, and who was acting mayor, are found.
May 10: The Institute of Elections and Citizen Participation (IEPC) of Chiapas has not begun the cultural study that the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) will carry out in the municipalities of Chilón and Sitalá in order to determine the viability of implementing a customary system of election of their municipal authorities.
May 18: The National Migration Institute (INM) announced that the recently created National Guard will support “perimeter surveillance” tasks in the facilities of the Siglo XXI Migratory Station in Tapachula, Chiapas.
May 26: The Commission for Concord and Pacification (Cocopa) informs that it wants to summon the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, to see about the possibility of establishing a dialogue with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
May 27: The Social Pastoral area of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas warns of the “vulnerability and greater impoverishment of our people in the face of mega-projects and new government programs.”
May 27: Three years after their forced displacement, 53 families of the Ejido Puebla, municipality of Chenalhó, organize a series of activities to denounce the fact that they still cannot return to their homes.
May 31: A Global Action of Solidarity for Life and against the War is carried out in Zapatista communities in Mexico and other countries.
May 29-31: Different organizations carry out the “Civilian Mission of Observation of the Humanitarian Crisis of Migrants and Refugees in the Southeast of Mexico” in which they emphasize that “the southern border is a silent torture”.
June 4: In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, constitutional and traditional authorities from Aldama and Chenalhó, accompanied by Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas and the federal Undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, sign a non-aggression pact that they hope will put an end to an initially agrarian conflict over 60 hectares of territory between the two municipalities that has lasted more than four decades and has caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of displaced families.
June 7: Agents of the municipal government of Chilón begin to collect signatures and fingerprints on a form titled “Rejection of elections through customary measures; yes to the ballot box by political parties”.
June 7: It is reported that the violence between Aldama and Chenalhó continues despite a non-aggression pact.
June 10: Tabasco ecologist José Luis Álvarez Flores is found murdered in the municipality of Palenque.
June 12: Irineo Mujica and Cristobal Sanchez, human rights defenders of migrants, are released after a judge in Tapachula, Chiapas, decides not to prosecute them.
June 14: An agreement is signed between Mexico and the United States to contain the flow of migrants, which implies a militarization of both borders, according to human rights organizations.
June 17: Numerous intellectuals and national and international social and political organizations express their concern about the renewed militarization in Zapatista territories since the change of government.
June 17: The Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus denounces the attacks and escalation of violence against members of its Mission in Bachajón.
June 21: In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, three armed men intercept the vehicle in which Diego Cadenas Gordillo, Director of the Ku’untik Human Rights Center, Julio César Pérez Ruiz, a member of the same center, and a displaced person from the Puebla ejido in the municipality of Chenalhó are riding.
July 5: Frayba reports that last June 25, 28 families were forcibly displaced, of which 64 are children: 26 girls and 38 boys, from the community of San Pedro Hidalgo, municipality of San Andrés Duraznal.
July 6: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a public assembly in Ocosingo announces the modernization of the San Cristóbal de las Casas – Palenque highway.
July 15: Huehuetán declares itself free of hydroelectric dams.
July 16: Environmentalists and defenders of Mother Earth from different neighborhoods, colonies, and subdivisions of San Cristóbal de las Casas express their concern about the current situation of the defense of ecological spaces in the city, in particular about the “criminalization of the defenders of the Maya Neighborhood movement.
July 18: A Canadian federal judge admits the possibility that Mariano Abarca “might not have been killed” if the Canadian embassy in Mexico had “acted differently.
July 18: Frayba denounces that in the municipality of Salto de Agua a group of people violently entered the territory of the community San José El Bascán and provoked the forced displacement of 36 Chol people.
July 18: Family members of prisoners on hunger strike begin a fast in front of the doors of the Chiapas Government Palace, to make a new call to the governor of Chiapas, Rutilio Escandón, to attend to the situation of their relatives.
July 20 and 21: In the framework of the Process of Free, Prior, and Informed Consultation for Constitutional and Legal Reform on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Mexicans, several regional consultation forums are held in Chiapas.
July 22: Frayba denounces the confiscation of two vans that provide autonomous transportation services by the Secretary of Mobility and Transportation in the municipality of Salto de Agua.
July 28: Journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and citizens march in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez against the situation of violence in the city and the surrounding area.
August 10: Frayba denounces that four families of the Civil Society of Las Abejas de Acteal, an organization which is part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), were attacked and forcibly displaced from the Miguel Utrilla neighborhood, Los Chorros, municipality of Chenalhó.
August 12: Spokespersons of the Community Government Council of the municipality of Chilón denounce “the disastrous attitude of the local government of this municipality” and CEDIAC points out that “the municipal government of Chilón, in Chiapas, violated the right to free self-determination of indigenous people.
August 16: Women from San Cristóbal de la Casas march to express their indignation and mourning in the face of so many femicides, trans-femicides, and gender violence.
August 17: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announces that, in accordance with the proposals of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), to “go on the offensive and extend the word and action of resistance and rebellion,” it has decided to “break the siege” by forming new Caracoles (12 autonomous regions) and more autonomous Zapatista rebel municipalities in new areas of the Mexican southeast.
August 20: The Movement in Defense of Life and Territory (MODEVITE) holds a mega-pilgrimage in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in which more than a thousand people participate with the goal of “making visible the null political changes of the current government headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
August 22: The Popular Campaign against Femicide in Chiapas manifests its “repudiation” of the “lack of commitment of the governments at different levels, given the serious increase in femicide violence in Chiapas and throughout the country.
September 1: A peaceful march is held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas to demand that the trans-feminicide of Aylin “N”, murdered in August in the city, be clarified.
September 18: Las Abejas Civil Society denounces that former members of their organization who are claiming land in the community of Acteal, raided the health clinic and destroyed three houses in the community, in the municipality of Chenalhó.
September 19: Journalists and relatives of Mario Leonel Gómez Sánchez, a journalist murdered in Yajalón on September 21, 2018, protest in Tuxtla Gutiérrez to demand the arrest of the intellectual authors of the murder.
September 23: The first meeting of the Citizen Observatory for the rights of the LGBT+ population is held.
September 26: People from the municipality of Bochil are surrounded after the death of a member of the National Guard.
October 7: The authorities of the Lacandon Zone Communal Properties denounce that “there are serious tensions in the Lacandon Jungle, and as such government intervention is urgently needed to avoid a confrontation.”
October 7: The second presumed leader of an armed group from Santa Martha, Chenalhó, is detained.
October 9: The CNDH issues Recommendation 71/2019 for “the conditions of violence, insecurity, constant risk, and lack of protection” in the municipality of Aldama.
October 18: The Mexican government publicly apologizes to the Gonzalez Perez sisters in Ocosingo for sexual torture 25 years ago.
October 18: Two years after the massive displacement of more than 5,000 indigenous people from 11 communities on the border between Chenalhó and Chalchihután, they demand justice and punishment. Frayba denounces that armed attacks on Chalchihuitan communities continue to this day.
October 23: The TdT Network denounces that defamatory information has been circulating on social networks that seeks to delegitimize the “Digna Ochoa” Human Rights Center, located in Tonalá, Chiapas Coast, as well as its director.
November 4: The Comité Cerezo denounces serious violations of the human rights of the inhabitants of the community 2 de Noviembre, municipality of Socoltenango, where 45 people belonging to the National Front for the Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) live.
November 8: The Committee for the Promotion and Defense of Life Samuel Ruiz García and the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas AC Human Rights Center (Frayba) express their concern about the militarization of the municipality of Chicomuselo.
November 11: The authorities of the Communal Goods of the Lacandon Zone (BCZL) accuse the group Natura y Ecosistemas Mexicanos – related to Julia Carabias, former head of Environment in the government of Ernesto Zedillo, and his collaborator Javier de la Maza – of unleashing a campaign to discredit, threaten, and provoke the people in order to divide and conquer.
November 13: A Commemoration of the 13th anniversary of the Viejo Velasco massacre in the community of San Martín Chamizal, municipality of Palenque, takes place.
November 17: The Community Governments of the municipalities of Chilón and Sitalá denounce that the authorities have obstructed and stopped the process that would allow them to exercise their right to self-determination.
November 20: In the framework of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Network for the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Chiapas (REDIAS) disseminate a communiqué entitled “Without public policy or a budget, children and adolescents in Chiapas do not have the conditions to exercise and enjoy their rights”.
November 21: Different organizations report on the impact that Mexico’s migration policy has on the southern border.
November 25: In the framework of the International Day for the Eradication of Violence against Women, several civil organizations and collectives carry out various activities in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
November 27: The first Environmental Defense Forum in Chiapas, “Mariano Abarca”, is held, in which the “Mariano Abarca Award” is presented, the first recognition of environmental defense in Chiapas, to the indigenous organization Movement in Defense of Life and Territory (MODEVITE).
December: At the invitation of the EZLN, the “Combo for Life: December of Resistance and Rebellion” is held. This includes the Second Edition of the Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic Cinema Festival (December 7-14); the first dance event “Báilate otro mundo” (December 15-20); the Forum in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth in coordination with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) (December 21-22); the Second International Meeting of Women who Fight (December 26-29); and, the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the beginning of the “war against oblivion”.
December 3: Lawyers from the Ku’untik Human Rights Centre report that a federal judge protected a group of 16 Tzotzil people from the municipality of Zinacantán who were displaced from their community in 2015.
December 6: The Center for Indigenous Rights (CEDIAC) and the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center A.C. report that 65 people were forcibly displaced from the community of San Antonio Patbaxil, municipality of Chilón, after being attacked by the same group that displaced the population of the Carmen San José community in 2018.
December 8: Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas presents his first government report to the local Congress.
December 10: The Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal holds an event in Chenalhó to celebrate the 27th anniversary of its founding in 1992.
December 11: Members of the parishes of Oxchuc, Tenejapa, and Huixtán accompanied by the human rights area of the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, report that they delivered a letter with seven thousand signatures to the United Nations (UN) organizations in which they expressed their disagreement because the federal government has not consulted them on the construction of mega-projects such as the Mayan train and the San Cristóbal-Palenque highway.
December 15: The Indigenous Consultation on the Mayan Train ends and according to the authorities, the participants in the consultation approved the mega-project “by consensus and without opinion against it.
December 18 and 19: The 4th National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG) is held in the Zapatista Jacinto Canek Caracol, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, with the participation of indigenous people from 24 states within Mexico.
December 21: A meeting is held in the ejido Las Flores, in the municipality of Chicomuselo “in the framework of the celebration of the corn festival and the commemoration of our brothers and sisters- martyrs of Acteal, in Chenalhó.
21 and 22 December: Las Abejas Civil Society, together with the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and other civil and social organisations remembers the 45 victims of the massacre in Acteal (1997).
December 31: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) holds an event to commemorate their armed uprising on January 1, 1994.