Chilapa de Álvarez, Guerrero, Mexico, December 20, 2020.
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
To the National Indigenous Congress CNI
To the Indigenous Governing Council CIG
To the Peoples of Guerrero, Mexico and the world
To the National and International Sixth
To the CNI-CIG Support Networks
To the Free, Honest and Autonomous Media.
We, women, men, grandfathers, grandmothers, boys and girls of the Emiliano Zapata Popular and Indigenous Council of Guerrero (CIPOG-EZ), belonging to the Na savi, Me pháá, Ñamnkue, Nahua, Afro-Mexican and Mestizo peoples of the state of Guerrero, are once again raising our voices in anger and pain. Our sisters María Agustín Chino, Amalia Morales Guapango, and our brothers José Benito Migueleño and Miguel Migueleño, were found murdered yesterday, December 19, 2020, at noon.
They were all Nahua Indigenous people from the Alcozacan community, in the municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez. Our brothers and sisters had been missing since Friday, December 18. Yesterday at noon their bodies were found in their own truck on the Chilapa – Tlapa road. They had been tortured, their hands tied, and executed with the classic “Coup de grace”.
Precisely one month ago, we broke the narco-paramilitary siege. On November 18, thousands of Nahua Indigenous people were once again able to move around in our territory. Twenty-two communities that had been surrounded by the narco-paramilitary group “Los Ardillos” (the Squirrels) decided to say ¡Ya Basta! (Enough!) because what we were living was not life. Now they begin to collect the blood toll, because they want us as slaves and they want to keep us subdued.
We dared to denounce Alejandro Encinas, the Secretary of Human Rights, Population and Migration of the 4T1, who came here to Alcozacan only to sow division and to buy consciences. On January 17, 2020, 10 compañeros2 were killed in a massacre . And now, far from giving us justice, they send more death and signs of war. Encinas and López Obrador, you are not different from the PRI, you have become what you pretended to fight.
Today and in the times to come, they will continue murdering us, because we are an obstacle for the Mexico that they want to build over our dead bodies. But we can no longer continue in slavery. Here in the low mountains of Guerrero, COVID-19 is the least of our problems. They are killing us like animals, and nobody is listening to us and nobody is doing anything about it. Our ¡Ya Basta! will continue and it will cost even more blood because the struggle for true freedom and justice is never easy. Never in history has freedom been given to the Peoples for free.
For the murders of María Agustín Chino, Amalia Morales Guapango, José Benito Migueleño and Miguel Migueleño, we hold responsible the Municipal government of Chilapa de Álvarez led by Jesús Parra García of the institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the State government of Héctor Astudillo Flores of the PRI, and the president of the republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement Party (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional, also known by its acronym MORENA). The three levels of government know perfectly well what is happening in Chilapa, but they just make their deals instead of ending organized crime.
Celso Ortega Jiménez is the operations commander of “Los Ardillos“, and Bernardo Ortega Jiménez is the political commander. The local police of Chilapa de Álvarez, as we have already denounced, are part of the problem and the National Guard knows this. After all the time they have been stationed here, instead of dismantling organized crime they just spy on our organization.
Our representatives at the state level continue to receive death threats and the intimidation against CIPOG-EZ, CNI-CIG communities is more intense than ever. Now once again the murders and the impunity by the authorities just shows us their complicity. That is why Encinas refuses to take precautionary measures, that is why the CNDH did not send any observers to record the human rights violations in Chilapa and the 22 communities that have suffered the narco-paramilitary siege.
Sisters and brothers who have not left us alone, help us disseminate these words so people can see what the 4T and its ally,the PRI, are doing in Guerrero. May our deaths not be relegated to the shadows of “progress”. May our blood sow the path of freedom for our peoples. We, men and women, will be mobilizing and we will reiterate our decisive “ Enough is enough”! Our fight is for life and for freedom. We do not want to be the slaves of organized crime, nor a bargaining chip for bad governments in disguise.
ATTENTIVELY:
Emiliano Zapata Popular and Indigenous Council of Guerrero (CIPOG-EZ)
Regions: Costa Chica, Costa Montaña, HIgh Mountains, and Low Mountains of Guerrero
Organización Campesina de la Sierra del Sur (O.C.S.S.).
Stop the paramilitary war against the Zapatista communities of the EZLN!
Stop the narco-paramilitary war against the indigenous communities of the CNI-CIG!
Justice for all our prisoners, murdered and disappeared from the CNI-CIG!
Never again a Mexico without Us!
14T or Fourth Transformation. López Obrador refers to the political movement under his administration as the Fourth Transformation or “4T” following other so-called transformations of Mexican politics: the War of Independence from Spain (First Transformation), the Reforms Period under Benito Juarez (Second Transformation), and the Mexican Revolution (Third Transformation).
2 Compañero (male) and compañera (female) and compañeroa (gender non-binary) have no exact translation in English. They lie somewhere between “comrade” and “companion.” In a political context, the term generally refers to someone who belongs to a particular organization or movement. For the CNI, CIG, and EZLN, “compa” is often used for short and refers to someone in the movement.