March 25, 2020
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL AND CACIQUES ATTACK COMMUNITY MEMBERS OF AZQUELTAN
To the people of Mexico
To the media
We denounce that violence persists against the authorities and members of the autonomous Wixarika and Tepehuana community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, in the municipality of Villa Guerrrero, Jalisco, who are motivated by the collective struggle in defense of their ancestral and autonomous territory.
We condemn the cowardly aggressions perpetrated by persons in the service of Flavio Flores (alias La Polla) and of the municipal government of Villa Guerrero this past Sunday, the 22nd of March, when Teódulo Pérez Martinez, who is a municipal policeman in Villa Guerrero, Jalisco, along with Abram Pérez Bañuelos, Manuel de Jesús Herrera, Esteban Aguilar Herrera, Marcos Aguilar Bañuelos, Gustavo Pérez Bañuelos, Jairo Pérez Bañuelos, and Aldo Herrera González arrived at 11:15 pm at the home of our compañero Camerino Márquez Aguilar, an elder, throwing rocks at doors and windows as they shouted “The authorities, the comandante, and the topil [1] are asses” and “if any bastard comes out we’ve got a pistol to use on him.”
After that they went to the home of Genaro González Bañuelos, who is also elderly, where they similarly stoned his house saying that he should come out so that they could stone him to death, destroying his door and window and stealing the donkey that he had tied up there.
Despite the fact that these persons have been denounced on various occasions, they have been supported by the municipal government of Villa Guerrero, which has taken no actions to sanction them, but on the contrary has promoted violence and confrontation, for which we hold them responsible for these deeds, whose objective is repression and displacement. This is happening while the machinery of the municipal government, with the supposed objective of opening a road near the sacred site of Los Pilares, has been invading and destroying fences in the cuamiles [2] of various community members.
We demand the cessation of the violence and shameless robbery of the communal territory of Azqueltán, and that those responsible for these acts be punished.
Sincerely,
March 2020
For the integral reconstitution of our peoples
Never again a Mexico without us
National Indigenous Congress – Indigenous Governing Council
Notes
[1] A community role in that forms part of the traditional cargo system
[2] Fields on mountainous slopes
Original communiqué:
https://www.congresonacionalindigena.org/2020/03/25/denuncia-del-cni-cig-por-ataques-a-comuneros-de-azqueltan-por-parte-del-gobierno-municipal-y-caciques/