2011

2 January: a communique posted in the Web-page of “Enlace Zapatista” strongly denies that the EZLN or “La Otra Campaña” (The Other Campaign) participated in the kidnapping of PAN politician and former presidential candidate in 1994, Diego Fernandez de Cevallos as a statement from an alleged member of the EZLN released in medias the previous day suggested.

24 January: Don Samuel Ruiz García, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, dies. He was a key actor in the peace-talks between the EZLN and the federal government following the armed insurrection of 1994.

26 January: The Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee-General Command (CCRI-CG) of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) issues a public statement after nearly 2 years of total silence regarding the death of the bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casa, Don Samuel Ruiz García who is buried behind the altar of the San Cristóbal cathedral that same day.

January- February: a new communique of Subcomandante Marcos entitled “On the wars,” which is part of an exchange with writer Luis Villoro, is released. In this communique, Marcos analyzes the subject of the so-called war on organized crime in Mexico undertaken by the government of Felipe Calderón.

2 February: the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) publishes a report on the dreadful prison conditions found in the State Centers for the Social Rehabilitation of the Sentenced (CERSS) in Chiapas.

2 February: a confrontation between indigenous adherents to the Other Campaign and a group of affiliated to the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) who are in conflict regarding the control of a payment control point located in the Agua Azul waterfalls, municipality of Chilón, leaves one person dead and at least two others injured.

3 February: an operation in which participated more than 500 state and federal police, supported by units of the Mexican Army displaces hundreds of indigenous adherents to the Other Campaign who had blockaded the Ocosingo-Palenque road to protest the happenings on the previous day in Agua Azul.

5 February: 106 indigenous individuals from San Sebastian Bachajon among the 116 that were detained on the 3rd are released.

6 February: Juan Sabines Guerrero, governor of Chiapas, personally visits Agua Azul to open a “Table of Dialogue and Coordination to resolve this conflict in the Eco-tourist Center of the Agua Azul Waterfalls”. The ejidatarios adherents to the Other Campaign don’t participate in it.

8 February: ejidatarios from the municiality of Tila in the northern zone of Chiapas reject the compensation of 40 million pesos that the state authorities have offered them for 130 hectares in the main municipality from which they were stolen by a decree issued by the Chiapas-state Congress in 1980. They assert that they will turn to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), for the government to respect their right to territory,

11 February: the imprisonment sentence of 10 indigenous individuals from the community of San Sebastián Bachajón, following the confrontation on 2 February in area of Agua Azul is pronounced. The incarcerated adherents are accused of homicide, attempted homicide, and attacks on public peace.

22 de febrero: Three human rights defenders of the “Digna Ochoa” Center for Human Rights are detained, among them its director, Nataniel Hernández. They are arrested while carrying out documentation activities of possible human-rights violations after being informed that police units had been detaining individuals who had been engaging in a highway roadblock between Tonalá and Pijijiapan. They are arrested together with 19 other people of the Autonomous Council of the Coast, adherents to the Other Campaign who on another hand are released.

2 March: the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office releases Nataniel Hernández, director of the Digna Ochoa Center for Human Rights in Tonalá, Chiapas, as well as two lawyers from the same organization who had been detained since 22 February.

3 March: The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights presents its special report “Government creates and administers conflicts for territorial control in Chiapas,“ in which it carries out a documentary analysis that refers to that which occurred on February 2011 in the ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón.

5 March: women and men from different communities and organizations of the mountain border region of Chiapas meet at the Regional Forum in Defense of the Land, Territory, and Natural Resources, held in the “Costa Rica” ejido, municipality of Comalapa.

10 to 13 March: the 8^th National Meeting of the Mexican Movement of those Affected by Dams and in Defense of Rivers (MAPDER) is held in the municipality of Huitiupán, in northern Chiapas. Residents of more than 30 communities and of the town of Huitiupán declare themselves to be in civil resistance until the project of constructing two hydroelectric dams in the municipality be canceled. They affirm that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) plans to re-initiate those projects.

14 March: several civil organizations denounce serious irregularities in the judicial investigation into the massacre of Viejo Velasco, municipality of Ocosingo, on 13 November 2006. They demand the recovery of the remains discovered by the committees who have followed the case in 2007 which were presumably hidden by authorities.

15 March: Nataniel Hernández Núñez, director of the Digna Ochoa Center for Human Rights (Tonalá), is detained once again in the city of Tapachula

16 and 17 March: in observation of the 22^nd anniversary of the founding of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC), the meeting “With Memory, the Peoples build Justice and Truth” is held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

20 March: the National Network of Civil Human-Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” pronounces itself on the situation of human-rights defenders as regards the context experienced in southeastern Mexico, denouncing that “the generalized violence in the country and the deepening of impunity exacerbate the present context of repression, poverty, criminalization, migration, territorial looting, and attacks against those who promote, defend, and exercise all rights for all.”

21 March: residents of the New Population Center “Montes Azules”, municipality of Palenque, carry out a road-block to demand that their rights be respected and that the commitments made by the state government during the community’s relocation from Montes Azules in 2005 be observed.

29 March: in observation of an initiative that supports the meeting of the UN Millennium Development Goals, Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa oversees the opening of a new Sustainable Rural City (CRS) in Santiago El Pinar in Los Altos of Chiapas.

5 April: the Coordination of Women in Resistance make public their alarm, “due to the grave death-threats and aggressions suffered by our comrade Rosa Díaz Gómez in the community Jotola in the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas.”

6 April: mobilizations against violence and in favor of peace and justice in Mexico are carried out in more than 20 Mexican cities as well as elsewhere in the world. The mobilizations were called for following the discovery on 28 March of the corpses of 5 youth, an ex-military, and an adult women, all with signs of torture, who were found in Cuernavaca. One of the victims was Juan Francisco Sicilia, son of journalist and poet Javier Sicilia, columnist for La Jornada y Proceso.

6 to 9 April: OCEZ-Carranza Region carries out day of actions to demand observation of their demands regarding the regularization of several lands and economic support for productive projects as well as compensation for suffered aggressions. Some of these lands are sources of conflict with other organizations and groups that denounce that OCEZ-RC took them in an irregular and even violent manner.

9 April: the Good-Government Council (JBG) of the Zapatista caracol of La Garrucha denounces the attempt to loot the lands and ejidal rights of the Zapatista support-bases of Cintalapa, municipality of Ocosingo, if they do not renounce resistance.

9 April: a police operation involving some 800 state and federal officers retakes the control-point at the entrance of the Agua Azul waterfalls. In light of this, some 600 campesinos from San Sebastián Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, adherents to the Other Campaign who had retaken the control-point on the previous day decides to abandon it.

12 April: the second part of a correspondence between Subcomandante Marcos and philosopher Luis Villoro is released. In this latest part, Marcos reflects critically on the violence lived in the country, beginning by recognizing the poet Javier Sicilia and the struggle he is engaged in. Marcos also criticizes the state government of Juan José Sabines Guerrero, which “persecutes and represses those who do not conform to the false chorus that lauds his lies-made-government, which persecutes human-rights defenders in the Coast and the Highlands of Chiapas and the indigenous of San Sebastián Bachajón who refuse to prostitute their lands and encourages the actions of paramilitary groups against Zapatista indigenous communities.”

17 April: the Good-Government Council (JBG) of La Realidad, denounces that a supporter of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), was attacked on his ejidal property in Monte Redondo (Frontera Comalapa) by ejidal authorities, accused of false charges, kidnapped, and handed over to the Public Ministry. The JBG demands his immediate liberation.

26 April: the commander of the VII Military Region declares that Mexican Army troops are carrying out constant operations throughout Chiapas, especially in the municipalities that are adjacent to Guatemala. He announces the creation of two new military bases, each with 600 soldiers in Chicomuselo and Jiquipilas. He affirmed that the strategy forms part of a new phase of combat against organized crime (trafficking of drugs, weapons, and persons) that has had presence and activity in the area.

28 April: The Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee-General Command (CCRI-CG) of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation issues a new communique in which it stipulates that they will participate in the National March called by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in May.

3 May: The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDFHBC) denounces that efforts are made to discredit its work.

8 May: Marches for Peace with Justice and Dignity called by the poet Javier Sicilia, are held in different places of Mexico. From 5 to 8 May 2011, Sicilia traveled from Cuernavaca (Morelos) to Mexico City and finished with a meeting in the Zócalo of the Mexican capital. The same day, EZLN support-bases succeed in filling the Cathedral plaza in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. During and following the March of Peace with Justice and Dignity held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a group of Mitzitón residents who are adherents to the Other Campaign denounced aggression and shots fired on the part of the so-called Army of God.

18 May: the constitutional reform regarding human rights is approved.

4 to 10 June: More than 500 persons travel nearly 3000 kilometers in the seven days of the Caravan of Consolation, called by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity that traversed 12 Mexican states and carried out public events in 9 such states.

7 June: Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, ex-governor of Chiapas (2000-2006), is detained by agents of the Federal Police (PF) on the charges of inappropriate exercise of public authority, abuse of public function, abuse of authority, and criminal association.

10 June: The National Pact for Peace with Justice and Dignity is signed in Ciudad Juárez. The central point of the pact is the demilitarization of the country, but it also calls for a change in strategy with regard to combating organized crime, the struggle against governmental corruption, the restructuring of institutions, and a new social policy.

10 June: the Fray Matías de Cordova, AC Center for Human Rights (headquarters in the border-town of Tapachula) denounces that the National Institute on Migration (INM) has been impeding the work of organizations that defend the human rights of migrant peoples.

21 June: The Zapatista Good Government Council (JBG) of the Morelia Caracol denounces aggressions and attempts to expel and loot EZLN base-members in Los Mártires on the part of members of the Regional Organization of Coffee-growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO).

22 June: Following 3 months of detention, the eight campesinos from the so-called first Sustainable Rural City in the world (ejido Nuevo Juan de Grijalva, municipality of Ostuacán) are released together with their defense attorney.

23 June: representatives of social movements and civil human-rights organizations launch the “National and International campaign against judicial harassment and the criminalization of human-rights defenders in Mexico.”

23 June: several members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity meet with President Felipe Calderón.

25 June: in a public letter, journalists Angeles Mariscal (CNN, Animal Político) and Isain Mandujano (Revista Proceso) detail the harassment, slander, and surveillance to which they have been subjected on the part of different governmental authorities of Chiapas in recent weeks.

27 June: the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (CDHFBC) warns that in the ejido San Marcos Avilés, municipality of Chilón, Zapatista support-bases (BAEZLN) find themselves harassed, threatened with death, and running the risk of a new forced displacement. The same communique informs as well that the Civil Camp for Peace, constituted by civil observers there placed to dissuade possible violent actions is also object of death-threats and harassment.

29 June: the State Council on Human Rights in Chiapas (CEDH) requests the implementation of preventive measures for Mariscal and Mandujano, in light of the denunciation presented by them in previous days. Members of the House for the Rights of Journalists meet with Juan Sabines Guerrero, governor of Chiapas and other members of the cabinet who commit themselves to respect the integrity of the threatened journalists.

2 July: the Good Government Council (JBG) from the Oventic Caracol denounces the situation of Zapatista support-bases in San Marcos de Avilés, where, it suggests, the death-threats and aggressions on the part of groups linked to political parties have increased, as has the looting of lands and the violation of rights.

6 July: in observance of the official visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, an accord to establish the foundation of a Mechanism for the Protection of Human-Rights Defenders is presented.

7 July: the Good-Government Council (JBG), with headquarters in the Caracol of La Garrucha, makes public a denunciation that considers three cases in the zone that corresponds to this Caracol (Nuevo Paraíso, Nuevo Rosario and problems linked to the archaeological zone of Toniná). They define the cases as part of an intensification of the counter-insurgency campaign carried out by the federal, state, and municipal governments.

8 July: Navathem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, concludes her six-day visit to Mexico.

12 July: the Supreme Court for Justice in the Nation (SCJN) determines unanimously that the human-rights violations committed by soldiers will have to be sanctioned by civilian tribunals. In the same session, the court declares that all Mexican judges must analyze and interpret the laws applicable to concrete cases so that their sentences do not contradict the Constitution or international human-rights conventions.

22 July: In observation of the dialogue between the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and the federal government, five worktables between both parties are initiated.

23 and 24 July: a meeting of the National Network of Civil Resistance to High Electricity prices are held in the community of El Naranjo, municipality of Palenque (Chiapas).

25 July: four prisoners of the San Sebastián Bachajón ejido, municipality of Chilón are released. The fith prisonner (a minor 17 years of age) had been conditionally released on 7 July.

5 July: the state Congress of Chiapas declares it had done with away with the practice of “arraigo” (type of informal detention) , a precautionary measure in the penal system

2 August: the Zapatista Good-Government Council (JBG) from La Realidad, frontier jungle zone, publicly denounces provocations and attacks on the part of official authorities.

12 August: the Las Abejas Civil Society of Acteal holds a day of Action for Justice and Truth: “Acteal 2 years after the release of the paramilitaries by the Supreme Court of Injustice in the Nation; our memory lives; struggle against impunity”.

16 August: the Zapatista Good-Government Council (JBG) from the Caracol La Garrucha, denounces armed attacks on the part of members of the Regional Organization of Coffee-cultivators of Ocosingo (Orcao), whom it describes as “paramilitaries” who are supported by state and municipal police.

18 August: the Good-Government Council (JBG) from the Morelia Zapatista Caracol denounces that in the community of Patria Nueva, the Regional Organization of Coffee growers of Ocosingo (Orcao) committed new aggressions, when some 150 persons destroyed a house of EZLN support-bases.

29 August: Javier Sicilia responds to Subcomandante Marcos making references to the third letter between the latter and Luis Villoro.

From 27 August until 3 September: a brigade of observation and solidarity with Zapatista communities is organized in Chiapas.

7 and 8 September: “La Otra Campaña” (The Other Campaign) calls for a forum of its adherents in San Cristóbal de las Casas and begins a campaign under the title “Halt the War against Mother Earth and her Peoples“.

12 September: the Good-Government Council (JBG) from Roberto Barrios denounces aggressions and threats against Zapatista support-bases in San Patricio, official municipality of Sabanilla, in the northern zone of Chiapas. It explains that since September 10, the community has found itself surrounded by some hundred persons from different communities of Tila and Sabanilla who have installed a camp not far away.

14 to 16 September: The Caravan to the South of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity visits Chiapas, including the cities of Tapachula and Ciudad Hidlago (first day); Tonalá, Cahuare, San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Acteal (second day) ; Ocosingo and Palenque (third day).

19 September: The Caravan to the South of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity concludes its journey with a protest in the Zócalo of Mexico City, following a campaign of more than 4000 kilometers that saw visits to eight states, with the objective of giving a voice to victims of organized crime, as well as victims of the political-economic system of the country.

19 September: The Good-Government Council (JBG) from La Garrucha denounces provocations and looting of recuperated lands in Nuevo Purísima on the part of persons residing in the neighborhoods of Ocosingo, who say they do not pertain to any organization, although the Junta notes that they receive support from the local PAN city council.

22 September: The Civil Society “Las Abejas” distance themselves from the legal demand recently presented before a court in the United States against ex-president Ernesto Zedillo for the Acteal massacre. Las Abejas note that they had nothing to do with it.

21 September: in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, indigenous individuals of the Emiliano Zapata Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) and members of the community Candelaria El Alto who are adherents to the Other Campaign has a confrontation regarding possession of 185 hectares of land. At least 8 persons are injured.

24 September: in the community of Guaquitepec, municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, a group of 100 campesinos led by four caciques violently entered the installations pertaining to the project of the Communal Development of the Patron for Mexican Education A.C. provoking a confrontation and partial destruction of the school.

29 September: 7 prisoners being held in prison no. 5 of San Cristóbal de Las Casas begin a total and indefinite hunger strike, while 4 others initiated a daily fast to last 12 hours.

29 September: the Good-Government Council (JBG) from the Zapatista Caracol based in Roberto Barrios publishes a new communique denouncing new death-threats, robbery, injuries, and looting against Zapatista support-bases in the community of San Patricio in the northern zone of Chiapas.

8 and 9 October: a “Forum for the defense of human-rights defenders“ is held in Tonalá, Chiapas.

12 October: the Good-Government Council from La Realidad denounces death-threats and aggressions against Zapatista support-bases in the community Che Guevara (recuperated territory). It indicates that persons from surrounding ranches who are protected by governmental functionaries robbed, looted, attempted to murder, and directed death-threats against Zapatistas there.

12 October: Some 10,000 persons from different social organizations, unions, and adherents to the Other Campaign march through the principal streets of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, to observe the commemoration of the 519 years since the arrival of the Spanish to America.

14 October: President Felipe Calderón and members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) hold a second dialogue in the Castle of Chapultepec in Mexico City.

14 October: Two prisonners of Mitzitón are released after having been held for 9 years and 4 months, 16 days after initiating a hunger strike and fasting with other prisoners.

17 October: President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa inaugurates the VIII Global Meeting for Adventure Tourism in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Calderón mentions that the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in 1994 was a reflection of the marginalization suffered by its participants. This is the first time in years that he had referred to the Zapatista movement. This Global Meeting is questioned by various civil organizations.

20 October: Professor Alberto Patishtán, spokesperson of the prisoners in hunger strike is transferred against his will to the federal prison of Guasave, Sinaloa, more than 2000 kilometers in distance from his place of origin.

20 October: a death-threat is left at the house of the human-rights defenders Margarita Martínez Martínez and Adolfo Guzmán Ordaz although they are supposed to be protected with precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

23 October: the governor Juan Sabines Guerrero visits the La Lámpara stretch of land belonging to the community of San Patricio in the Sabanilla municipality so as to take account of “the reconciliation work that Chiapas authorities have undertaken”.

24 October: approximately 60 organizations and collectives as well as hundreds of people acting personally distribute a public letter directed to Felipe Calderón and Juan Sabines Guerrero. In this they question the strategy of both levels of government regarding the management of the conflicts in different communities of the state of Chiapas.

4 November: the historical conflict between entities in Oaxaca and Chiapas for the possession of 4,975 hectares in the region of Los Chimalapas ends in two confrontations, which left 10 injured and 2 disappeared.

7 November: 39 days after beginning an hunger-strike and fast, the participants imprisoned in San Cristóbal de Las Casas decide to suspend their action in light of the peril in which their lives found themselves and in front of the absence of response of the Chiapas government to their demands.

15 November: 2 of the 8 indigenous individuals who for 39 days had engaged in a hunger strike in the prison of San Cristóbal de Las Casas are released.

24 November: approximately 8,000 Catholics from the 54 parishes of the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas carry out a pilgrimage in the city, and pronounce themselves in favor of the defense of lands, territories and natural resources.

24 and 25 November: several activities to observe the International Day against Violence against Women are held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

7 December: after having taken the control-point at the entrance of the Agua Azul waterfalls for two days, the ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón, adherents to the Other Campaign, denounce the intervention of the Secretary for Governance of Chiapas, Noé Castañón, who arrived to the ejido personally and who, according to them, offered them money before threatening to call the police to displace them.

7 December: the fourth letter from Subcomandante Marcos to the philosopher Don Luis Villoro in their exchange on ethics and politics, entitled “A death… A life“ is published. He principally deals with the question of power and the coming presidential elections in the country (2012).

8 and 9 December: The Regional Forum for the Defense of Human Rights is carried out in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

14 December: members of the Front of Ejidos in Resistance from Cintalapa and Busiljá, municipalities of Ocosingo, and adherents to the Other Campaign initiate a sit-in at the Cathedral Plaza in the city of San Cristóbal to demand the release of two prisoners who are being held in the Cereso no. 17 in Playas de Catazajá, as well as the presentation with life of a child who was taken last July.

21 and 22 December: 14 years after the massacre in Acteal, municipality of Chenalhó, the Las Abejas Civil Society organizes a series of activities to commemorate these acts during the “Day of Fasting and Prayer for Memory, Resistance and Life“.

23 December: the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization- Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC) denounces invasions by the Army in its zone of influence since 11 December and demands a halt to the harassment on the part of soldiers against its members.