SIPAZ Activities (From mid-November 2018 to mid-February 2019)

INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND ACCOMPANIMENT

CHIAPAS

Civilian Observation Missions

• In January, we went to Tapachula for three days to participate in a joint observation mission between several national and international human rights organizations to accompany the arrival of new migrant caravans, mainly from Central America, on their arrival in Mexico.

North Jungle Region

• In November, we attended a press conference of members of the Tseltal community governments of Chilón and Sitalá after they demonstrated outside the Electoral Tribunal of the State of Chiapas (TEECH) to demand a favorable sentence that would allow them to install Community Councils in their municipalities through a system of customs and practices.
• We participated in the Assembly of Representatives of the Believing Peoples (Pueblo Creyente) in November.
• In December, on two occasions we were present as observers in the consultation process that took place in the communities of the municipality of Oxchuc to determine if the elections in this municipality will take place through political parties or through a system of customs.
• In January, we attended the closing of the consultation process that had taken place in Oxchuc since the end of 2018.
• In February, we accompanied a pilgrimage-march in Amatán, in which justice was demanded for the murders of human rights defenders Carlos Guerrero Mayorga, Noé Jiménez Pablo, and Jorge Santiago Álvarez, who had led demonstrations against the political corruption of the Carpio Mayorga brothers in the municipality.

Highlands Region

• In November, we attended several meetings to analyze and plan in the case of the forced displacement of more than a thousand people from the community of Chabajeval, municipality of El Bosque.
• In November, we accompanied the pilgrimage carried out by members of the parish of Cancuc in defense of land, territory, and life.
• On December 21 and 22, we were present at the commemoration of the Acteal massacre in the municipality of Chenalhó.
• On December 27, we attended a press conference held at the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, where the Board of Directors of the Maya neighborhood of San Cristóbal de Las Casas denounced the arrest warrants against its members and demanded their cancellation.
• In December, we attended an analysis meeting on new aggressions against the displaced people of Chalchihuitán.
• In January, we were present at the mobilization held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in homage to the work of Sinar Corzo Esquinca, a human rights defender murdered in the city of Arriaga on the 3rd of January.
• In January and February, we met with displaced people from Banavil, municipality of Tenejapa, who have been living in San Cristóbal de Las Casas for 7 years without any significant progress in the resolution of their case.

Border Region

• In November, we visited several partner organizations in Comitán and Las Margaritas. We attended the anniversary of the Las Brisas community in the municipality of La Trinitaria.
• In January, we participated in an analysis meeting with various civil and religious actors in the area to discuss the regional context.

Caracoles/EZLN/CNI

• In the time period covered by this report, we visited 4 of the 5 Zapatista Caracoles at least once.

Women

• In November, we attended the Sixth Assembly of the Movement in Defense of Land, Territory, and for the Participation and Recognition of Women in Decisions organized within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women that took place in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
• We were present at the Assembly of the Diocesan Coordination of Women (CODIMUJ) in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in February.

Prisoners

• In December and February, we visited prisoners who are members of the organizations Solidarios de la Voz del Amate and La Voz de Indígenas en Resistencia. Both groups adhere to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and are being kept in the San Cristóbal de Las Casas prison.

Events

• In December, within the framework of the International Day of Migrants, we attended the public conversation “Recounting of forced displacements in the Mesoamerican region in 2018”, convened by the organization Voces Mesoamericanas.
• In January, we accompanied the pilgrimage convoked by the Believing Peoples of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, in the framework of the eighth anniversary of the death of Jtatic Samuel Ruiz, former bishop of San Cristóbal and globally recognized defender of human rights, particularly those of indigenous peoples.
• In February, we participated in the three days of the “Meeting on Context Analysis and Methodological and Strategic Development in Chiapas” convened by the Swedish Movement for Reconciliation (SweFOR).

OAXACA

• In December, we spent several days at the Training Center of the former German Farm of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI). Five of the organization’s members were assassinated in 2018.
• Likewise, in December we attended a protest in front of the Government Palace of the City of Oaxaca, in which towns, communities, and organizations that participated in the Community People’s Trial against the State and Mining Companies in Oaxaca last October publicly presented the final ruling of the trial.

OTHER

• In January, we met in Mexico City with members of the Mexican Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights to share information and advocacy strategies on Forced Internal Displacement.

INFORMATION AND TRAINING TOWARDS ACTION

PRONOUNCEMENTS AND URGENT ACTIONS

• Request for precautionary measures before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in favor of the members of the indigenous organization Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI) signed jointly with organizations from Oaxaca and Chiapas.
• In February, a letter addressed to the members of the Mexico-European Union Joint Parliamentary Commission (CPM) who traveled to Mexico to propose ways to strengthen the dialogue of Mexican civil society with legislators in Europe and in the European Parliament.

VISITS, DELEGATIONS, AND TOURS

• We received visits from delegations, students, journalists, and members of our coalition interested in learning more about the situation in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero, and the work of SIPAZ.
• A presentation on our work was shared in the parish of Hoog Karspel, Amsterdam, the Netherlands in November.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

• In December, we accompanied representatives of the displaced peoples from Chalchihuitan in a meeting with the government secretary Ismael Brito Mazariegos and several other government officials, in which the representatives made several demands stemming from their situation.
• In January, we met with members of the Embassy of the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States in Mexico City to share concerns regarding human rights.
• In February, we met with the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Chiapas as part of her visit to the region.

PEACE EDUCATION

• In December, we held workshops on human rights, risk analysis, and security measures for members of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Peoples (CODEDI) in Oaxaca. We worked with three groups: adults, youth, and children.
• In January, we facilitated an analysis space with the task force of Voces Mesoamericanas.
• In January, as a member of the Mother Earth Support Network (RAMAT), we co-facilitated a space for analysis and planning of activities for 2019 with representatives of all the pastoral areas that are part of the Follow-up Commission of the Congress of Mother Earth, convened by the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas in 2014.
• Also in January, we facilitated two working sessions with the Commission for Reconciliation and Community Unity (CORECO), in which the team finalized its annual planning.
• In February, we facilitated a session in the Analysis Meeting convened by Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz (Serapaz) in Ocosingo, in a space which included participation of more than 60 people from the highlands and jungle of Chiapas.
• Also in February, we facilitated a space of context analysis with priests working in the tzeltal zone of Chiapas.
• In the same month, we facilitated a similar space with 30 women artisans from the organization Ixim Antsetic (Women of Corn).

INTERNAL TRAINING

• In November, we received training from the Electoral and Citizen Participation Institute (IEPC) to become observers in the consultation process that was about to take place in the municipality of Oxchuc.
• In December, we participated as a team in a self-care workshop facilitated by the Swedish Movement for Reconciliation (SweFOR).

ARTICULATION

• We attended the bimonthly meetings of the Network for Peace, a space for action and reflection made up of 10 organizations that seek to support peace and reconciliation processes in Chiapas.
• In January, we participated in the Regional Meeting of GPPAC (Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict) North America with partners from Mexico, the United States, and Canada, which worked on the strategic planning of this network.
• In January, we attended a meeting of organizations receiving volunteers from the German Welthaus program.
• Also in January, we participated in a Forum that brought together people, collectives, and organizations that have received the Jtatic Samuel Jcanan Lum recognition, a process of which we are co-organizers.
• We participated in several online meetings of the Continental Christian Network for Peace. Among other activities, work is being done to complete an initial research entitled “Strategies of dispossession and ecclesial actors. The struggle for territory in Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and Mexico”.