SIPAZ Activities (mid-February to mid-May 2023)

INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND ACCOMPAMIMENT

CHIAPAS

• In February, we attended parts of the quarterly assembly of the Diocesan Coordination of Women (CODIMUJ)
• In February, we attended the Regional Days for disappeared migrants that brought together groups of relatives and human rights organizations in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• In March, we accompanied the marches that were organized in San Cristobal de Las Casas within the framework of International Women’s Day to demand equality, and a dignified and secure life.
• In March, we attended the discussion “Women in Migration – Voices from the Chiapas Highlands” convened in San Cristobal de Las Casas by Voces Mesoamericanas.
• In April, we accompanied as observers the demonstration held in front of the Highlands Court of Justice, in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in which dozens of people, mainly from the municipality of San Juan Cancuc, demanded the release of five prisoners from this same town currently incarcerated in Prison No. 5, San Cristobal.
• In April, we accompanied as observers the simultaneous action of protests at national level, being present in the mobilization organized in front of the offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM) in San Cristobal de Las Casas; which was organized after the fire at the INM facilities in Ciudad Juarez, a city on the border with the United States, which left at least 38 dead.
• In April and May, we accompanied the route of the “El Sur Resiste” Caravan through Chiapas, convened by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI).
• In May, we were present at the International Meeting “El Sur Resiste 2023 – Global Corporate Capitalism, Autonomies in Rebellion”, convened by the CNI and held at CIDECI-Unitierra in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• In May, we attended the event in which the annual report of the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), entitled “Chiapas, A Disaster. Between Criminal Violence and State Complicity of the State”, was presented.
• In May, within the context of Mother’s Day, we accompanied a public gathering of searching mothers that was held in San Cristobal de Las Casas to demand justice and highlight the disappearance of people, convened by the United Families Committee of Chiapas Looking for Our Disappeared Migrants “Junax Ko’tantik”.

OAXACA

• In April, we accompanied the aforementioned Caravan during part of its passage through the Tehuantepec Isthmus. Within this framework and during the Encounter that was held at the end of the Caravan, we had the opportunity to talk with several of our co-workers and partners in Oaxaca.

 GUERRERO

• In April and May, we held online meetings with Teodomira Rosales Sierra, director of the Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon Human Rights Center, with whom we discussed the situation in Guerrero.

INFORMATION AND TRAINING FOR ACTION

DELEGATIONS

• In February, we received a delegation from the United States coordinated by Global Ministries.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

• In recent months, we have participated in several preparatory meetings with human rights organizations throughout Mexico to prepare a joint report before the next Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to Mexico from the United Nations Organization (UN).
• In March, we met with the international organizations Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) and Front Line Defenders in the framework of their visit to Chiapas to “document the situation of risk and violence experienced by indigenous defenders, organizations and communities in the state.”
• In May, we had a meeting in San Cristobal de Las Casas with the Swedish Ambassador as part of a visit to Chiapas.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

FEBRUARY

• We organized three sessions on basic elements of Positive Conflict Transformation (TPC) with the preparatory level of the Colegio Libre de Chiapas.
• We held a two-and-a-half-day workshop on “Interventions in Conflict Situations and Mediation” with seminarians and pastoral agents from the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas.

MARCH

• We facilitated a space for the analysis of the reality of the Estrella Region, belonging to the parish of Ocosingo, which was attended by more than 80 people.
• We gave a workshop on security and protection with members of the parish of Las Margaritas.
• We facilitated a space for a situational analysis with members of the parish of San Juan Cancuc.

APRIL

• We facilitated an analysis with women artisans who participate in the Mujeres de Maiz collective from various municipalities in the Highlands and the Northern Jungle.
• We gave a two-day workshop on Security, Protection and Non-violent Strategies with representatives of the Pastoral of Mother Earth from the Southeast area of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• Together with organizations specialized in digital security Sursiendo and the Guardian project, we co-convened a digital security workshop that was held with CSOs working in Chiapas.
• Following up on a space opened last year, together with Sursiendo, we held a workshop with a dozen journalists and communicators in which training and networking proposals for greater security for the group continued to be defined.
• We facilitated a workshop on institutional strengthening with members of the community government of the municipality of Chilon.
• We held a two-and-a-half-day workshop on “Peace Building” with seminarians and pastoral agents from the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas.

MAY

• We facilitated a space for analysis with various organizations that work on aspects of education with adults in Chiapas.

INTERNAL TRAINING

• In February, we attended a space to strengthen the heart with women in San Cristobal de Las Casas facilitated by the Commission for the Support of Community Unity and Reconciliation (CORECO).
• In March, we participated in a training space on gender violence facilitated by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
• In April, we were in a digital security training event in which organizations based in San Cristobal de Las Casas participated.
• In May, we participated in a space for analysis on security in San Cristobal de Las Casas, which was attended by various civil organizations with a presence in this city.

NETWORKING

• In February, we participated in the National Assembly of partner organizations of the Mennonite Central Committee (CCM) that took place in Morelos.
• In February, we attended the Summit for Peace that took place in Mexico City, an initiative that brought together civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and the general public from Mexico and the United States to discuss the impacts of violence, generate strategies and take joint actions to combat its causes.
• In February and April, we had a face-to-face meeting of our partners that participated in the “Latin America Project, between Violence and Hope – III Phase: Accompaniment to Communities in Non-violent Resistance against Extractivism”, coordinated by Pax Christi International.
• In March, we participated in a meeting with representatives of the pastoral areas that are part of the Follow-up Commission of the Congress of Mother Earth, a component of the social pastoral ministry of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• In March, we attended a meeting of partners of the German volunteer program coordinated by Welthaus/Casa del Mundo.
• In March, we participated in an online meeting of all the members of the Platform for peacebuilding in Mexico and outside of Mexico.
• In March, we attended various plenary meetings and commissions of the Slamalil Kinal Association for Peace in Chiapas.
• In April, we had an online meeting of our partners from the North American region of the Global Platform for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC) to outline the actions that will be carried out this year.
• In April, the formal opening of the project that we will develop with Mesoamerican Voices and Huridocs entitled “Strengthening the Self-protection Capacities of Human Rights Defender Organizations and Communities in Chiapas” was launched. We had a new session with the organizations that will participate in the project in May.