August 31, 2020
To the peoples, organizations, and networks of resistance and rebellion in the US, Mexico, and the world
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)
To the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG)
To the indigenous communities of Chiapas in rebellion and resistance
To the independent press
The Sexta Grietas del Norte network denounces the recent aggressions against indigenous communities of Chiapas in the last few days, and which continue as we write these words. These recent attacks, which were launched almost simultaneously against the inhabitants of Aldama and the Autonomous Municipality of Moises Gandhi, are perpetrated by paramilitary style groups of armed civilians that are reactivating policies of counterinsurgency, typical of military manuals on how to conduct low-intensity warfare against organized communities. We refute the characterization of the bad government and the comments circulating on social media that attempt to present these aggressions as “indigenous conflicts.” Labeling them this way hides the true nature of the conflict. We stand with the persons and organizations who point out that local, state, and national groups in power are either direct accomplices or responsible by omission of these attacks.
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) denounces that 12 Tzotzil communities of the Municipality of Aldama have been being attacked since the beginning of August by “paramilitary style groups of civilians” from Santa Marta, Chenalhó. These communities have been under siege for 17 days and have suffered at least 56 aggressions with high-powered weapons. This has caused the forced displacement of over 100 persons. In addition, Frayba denounces that police have not intervened to stop these attacks.
In another instance, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) denounces the attack by members of the paramilitary group Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO) against Zapatista support bases in the Autonomous Municipality of Moises Gandhi (in the town of Cuxuljá, official Municipality of Ocosingo). The paramilitary group attacked on Saturday, August 22nd, robbing and burning down buildings of the Nuevo Amanecer del Arco Iris (New Dawn of the Rainbow) commercial center.
This is not the first attack against these communities. The paramilitaries of Santa Martha Chenalhó currently attacking the peoples of Aldama have been denounced by the Frayba Human Rights Center for their links to the same group of murderers that carried out the Acteal Massacre in 1997. After having been set free by the Mexican Supreme Court, these murderers have returned to continue their criminal actions. In fact, the Frayba Human Rights Center warns that the current situation in Chiapas is very similar to that which existed on the eve of the Acteal Massacre.
ORCAO, the group that attacked the Autonomous Municipality of Moises Gandhi, had previously been one of the organizations to participate alongside the EZLN in the struggle to reclaim the land. However, ORCAO later decided to accept so-called “help” from the bad government, and entered into a process of decomposition and corruption, leading them to transform into a paramilitary group. The CNI accuses ORCAO of seeking to “halt the autonomous organization” of CNI communities, and “to privatize the lands that have cost the struggle and organization of the indigenous communities that are the support bases of the Zapatistas.” This is not ORCAO’s first attack. In February of this year, ORCAO joined with another paramilitary group, the “Chinchulines,” and members of Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party to kidnap and brutalize dozens of people, including two babies, members of the CNI, from the municipality of Chilón, while they were participating in an event commemorating the anniversary of the assassination of the social activist Samir Flores. The aggressors demanded, as a condition for setting them free, the payment of thousands of pesos and that they withdraw from the CNI. The CNI blames “the paramilitary organization ORCAO, the MORENA party, and the state and federal governments” for these attacks.
“The owners of these paramilitaries gave them free rein,” affirms the writer Luis Hernández Navarro. “Empowered (by high-level political backers), they do as they please. They attack the rebel communities with firearms, and are so brazen, as in Santa Martha, to show themselves in public, armed and in uniform, and disarm agents of the State Preventative Police.”
Unfortunately, say collectives of rebellion and resistance in solidarity with the National Indigenous Congress, “the scenario of war is not happening only in Chiapas. As can be seen by consulting the CNI web site (www.congresonacionalindigena.org), the denunciations of indigenous peoples and their organizations against the violence of criminal, para-state, and state groups are constant, contributing to the fragmentation of the community social structure and the weakening of the struggles against displacement and the megaprojects in Mexico.”
In fact, members of these collectives of resistance and rebellion affirm that these attacks, together with a “campaign of disinformation and a media war against the EZLN” are occurring “in the midst of a struggle in defense of indigenous territories against megaprojects such as the badly named ‘Maya’ Train, and the COVID 19 health emergency.”
These attacks sow violence and terror, asserts the CNI, for the purpose of punishing “all of the peoples that dare to dream of fighting for life, and the healing of our mother earth.” We join in the call of the CNI “to speak out and mobilize against this war of extermination that is increasing dangerously against our sisters and brothers of the Zapatista communities, who teach us to never stop sowing rebellion and hope.”
We call upon all collectives of resistance and rebellion in the United States, Mexico, and the world, and to civil society in general to be on the alert for new attacks, and to spread this information through all media possible, and to mobilize to prevent new attacks. If they attack and destroy the Zapatistas, what will be the repercussions for other autonomous movements in Mexico and the world?
Stop the attacks on the indigenous communities of Chiapas!
Respect the peoples’ autonomous organizations!
Defend the EZLN, the CNI-CIG, and the communities in resistance and rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico, the US, and the world!
The Sexta Grietas del Norte network