September 13, 2020
To the people of Mexico
To the peoples of the world
To the National and International Sixth
To the media
With pain and anger we denounce the cowardly attack in which our compañero Pedro Alejandro Jiménez Pérez, from the Tila ejido [1] in Chiapas, was assassinated on September 11 when the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia, together with others close to the municipal council, attacked the people of Tila with high-caliber weapons. In accordance with the decision of the general assembly of the ejido, the group that was attacked was headed to liberate the blockades that the paramilitaries had installed at the ejido headquarters in order to surround our town. The paramilitaries had previously destroyed a security gate at this location on August 25.
In addition to the assassination of compañero Pedro Alejandro in said attack, Medardo Pérez Jiménez, Ángel Vázquez Ramírez, and Jaime Lugo Pérez were wounded by firearms.
We denounce that the paramilitary chief Arturo Sánchez Sánchez and his son Francisco Arturo Sánchez Martínez, together with the municipal president Limber Gregorio Gutiérrez Gómez, have been bolstering the armed groups and supporting their efforts to end the autonomy of the Tila ejido and deprive it of a legal fund in order to install their rotten center of corruption and… open the door to narco-paramilitary power.
By means of territorial dispossession and with the support of the three levels of the bad government, they would like to end the autonomy that has cost the Chol people of Tila so much, autonomy that has been and will continue to be fully recognized by the National Indigenous Congress and the Indigenous Governing Council (CNI-CIG).
These attacks are part of the increasing activity of armed groups and the proliferation of paramilitaries around the communities that make up the National Indigenous Congress in Chiapas and the support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, with the intention to surround, terrorize, displace, and dismantle organized peoples.
The Morena-Verde-PRI party, which is one and the same party, has dedicated itself to supporting violence, sowing division, arming the enemies of the people and, with its cowardly attacks, announcing the intensification of a war to end the collective life of the peoples, and the dignified resistance that protects our mother earth. As CNI-CIG, we will act accordingly and in solidarity with the ejido Tila.
We denounce the cynical complicity of the state government and the federal government, who are responsible for the increasing violence. We call on the people of Mexico, the peoples of the world to raise their voices to stop the tragedy that is coming.
Attentively,
September 2020
For the Integral Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress – Indigenous Governing Council
Original Spanish: https://www.congresonacionalindigena.org/2020/09/13/comunicado-del-cni-cig-ante-los-hechos-ocurridos-en-tila-chiapas
Notes:
[1] An ejido is communally held land. The ejido system was an important aspect of land distribution programs in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. Until the Mexican Constitution was changed in 1992, ejidos could not be divided or sold.