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Mass arrests of Zapatistas in Chiapas
gatopardo - 05.02.2011 22:06
116 Zapatistas living near the tourist resort of Agua Azul, were arrested on February 3rd during a protest against their eviction from the tollbooth leading to the tourist resort. The Zapatistas had controlled the tollbooth for the past 2 years but on February 2nd state-backed priistas (supporters of the right-wing PRI party) backed by the police seized control of the tollbooth.
The following day the Zapatistas occupied and blocked the main road from San Cristobel to Palenque, but were removed and arrested by 500 state and federal police, then taken to the police station in Palenque. The State Attorney has said crimes such as murder, bodily harm, false imprisonment and an attack on the road network are being investigated - one priista was killed and two injured in the clash at the tollbooth. Trying to justify the mass arrests the authorities falsely claimed the Zapatistas had blocked the road leading to the tourist resort and that 17 tourists were being held hostage.
The Zapatistas had been expressing increasing concern about the intentions of the priistas and the Partido Verde (Green party) to develop the Agua Azul waterfalls and its surroundings with the funding of foreign multinationals into a mass tourism complex contrary to their own attempts to preserve the natural beauty of the area. On January 26th the Zapatistas had warned about an eviction of the tollbooth. Workers at the Fray Bartoleme de las Casas (Frayba) human rights centre in San Cristobel have also been documenting attempts by the priistas to invade the land occupied by Zapatistas since 2002 at Bolon Ajaw near the waterfalls.
Here is a translation of the statement issued by the members of the Other Campaign from San Sebastian Bachajon on February 4th:
'We publicly condemn the state government of Juan Sabines together with his collaborators in the bad government, and the following for organising the violent takeover of the Agua Azul tollbooth with the support of a 100 police from different security branches of the bad government - Francisco Guzman Jimenez, Carmen Aguilar Gomez, Juan Alvaro Moreno, Manuel Jiminez Moreno, Juan Jimenez Garcia, Miguel Ruiz Hernandez, Jesus Ruiz Hernandez, Manuel Deara Gomez, Sebastian Ruiz Alvaro, Melchorio Perez Moreno. Two years ago the organisation recovered the tollbooth as the government had seized control of it with a view to enrichment from multinational ecotourism investment and is now doing the same again after putting people in prison.
On February 3rd 121 members of the Other Campaign were violently arrested accused of various crimes in keeping with the ideology of Noe Castanon Leon, Juan Sabines' Secretary of State, to again violate human rights to claim control of the tollbooth.
These are those most responsible for what has happened, and there are currently two missing whose whereabouts we don't know. As an organisation we demand the immediate release of our comrades as we aren't criminals, those mentioned above are.
We are an organisation struggling and searching for a better world hoping to continue living in peace and tranquility to protect the natural resources of mother earth which have been handed down to us. We are an organisation with the dignity to show the government that we are not alone, we request the solidarity of national and international organisations in seeking the release of our comrades, detained for defending their land, its resources and autonomy.'
For more visit:
 http://mexico.indymedia.org/?article1882
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2011/02/03/ejido-san-sebastian-bachajon-adherente-a-la-otra-campana-denuncia-que-oficialistas-despojan-caseta-de-agua-azul/#ejido
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Mass arrests of Zapatistas in Chiapas
gatopardo | 05.02.2011 12:27 | Ecology | Social Struggles | Zapatista
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/02/473409.html
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| supplements | | Chiapas: 1 death & more injured at Agua Azul | SIPAZ Blog - 17.02.2011 20:06
http://sipazen.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/chiapas-confrontation-over-control-point-at-agua-azul-leaves-one-dead-and-several-injured/
Chiapas: confrontation over control point at Agua Azul leaves one dead and several injured
February 7, 2011
In the afternoon of 2 February 2011, a confrontation between indigenous adherents to the Other Campaign and a group of affiliated to the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) who are in conflict regarding the control of a payment control point located in the tourist center of the Agua Azul waterfalls, municipality of Chilón, has left one person dead and at least two others injured.
The conflict, which goes back many years, became violent in the morning, when PRI ejidatarios from San Sebastián Bachajón, Chilón, violently displaced the adherents who had for years had been operating the control point. During the afternoon this latter group organized itself to attempt to retake the control point, an act that brought about the confrontation. According to journalistic sources, PRI member Marcos Moreno García, of 26 years of age, died in the resulting confrontation, and two were left injured, one of them seriously. Shortly after the beginning of the conflict, the state police arrived to try to re-establish order. During the morning of 3 February, the State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE) and the state Secretary of Public Security (SSP) carried out an operation in which participated more than 500 state and federal police, supported by units of the Mexican Army. They displaced hundreds of indigenous adherents to the Other Campaign who had blockaded the Ocosingo-Palenque road to protest the happenings. The operation sought to rescue 17 national and international tourists who had been taken by individuals claiming to pertain to the Other Campaign. According to governmental sources, more than 116 people from the Other Campaign group find themselves “voluntarily” with the PGJE, so that they can undergo sodium rhodizonate tests and give their declarations to the ministry.
Before the confrontation, the adherents to the Other Campaign placed responsibility for the events on the authorities of the official ejidal commisariat of San Sebastián Bachajón and the mayors of both municipalities. They added that “We are not provoking anyone, much less insulting anyone. We are work and searching for alternatives to protect and conserve our natural resources. We are building internal autonomy while these delincuents are operating under the orders of high-level government functionaries. It should be clear that we as organizations will defend our resources regardless of what happens.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Dispute over ecotourist center leaves an indigenous man dead (Proceso, 3 February 2011)
Blockade of the Other Campaign is displaced on the Ocosingo-Palenque road (La Jornada, 4 February 2011)
Confrontation among indigenous in Chiapas leaves one dead and two injured (La Jornada, 3 February 2011)
Confrontation leaves one dead in Chiapas (El Universal, 3 February 2011)
Communiqué of the ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón, adherents to the Other Campaign (2 February 2011)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón distance themselves from land-appropriation (18 January 2011)
Chiapas: Ejidatarios de Bachajón denounce governmental strategy and escalation of aggression by Opddic (25 November 2010)
Chiapas: Adherents to the Other Campaign from San Sebastián Bachajón denounce torture and illegal detention of ejidatario (8 November 2010)
| | Chiapas: update in the Agua Azul case | SIPAZ Blog - 17.02.2011 20:10
http://sipazen.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/chiapas-update-in-the-agua-azul-case/
Chiapas: update in the Agua Azul case
On 5 February, the State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE) of Chiapas released 106 indigenous individuals from the municipality of Chilón adherents to the Other Campaign who had been detained on Thursday the 3rd following a confrontation with militants of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that took place the previous day regarding the control of a control point located at the entrance of the tourist center of the Agua Azul waterfalls. In a communiqué, the PGJE added that it continues to hold 10 Tzeltal persons accused of homicide, attempted homicide, kidnapping, attacks on communication media, and damages. Five are accused of having used firearms and the other five of being associated with the aggressor group, carrying machetes, sticks, and stones. The PGJE indicated that in the confrontation were used weapons of .22, .213, and R15 caliber, all exclusively Army-grade. The 116 indigenous individuals were arrested a day after the confrontation, when they supposedly blocked the road that connects the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas with Ocosingo and Palenque; they were taken to the latter city so that they could make their declarations before the ministry.
In a special bulletin that follows its visit to Agua Azul to document the happenings, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights denounced that those detained had indicated several irregularities in the legal process: they lacked a defense attorney and official translator and were moreover threatened by state police and harassed by local authorities charged with the administration of justice. The report assured that among the imprisoned is a minor and a youth with mental challenges. The CDHFBC affirmed that 117 adherents to the Other Campaign were “detained arbritarily,” that there were no foreigners on-site, and that there never was a road-block.
It indicated moreover that “[t]he state-government’s repressive action is clear, as it acts together with official authorities (PRI members) to arbitrarily indicate and detain the ejidatarios who are adherents to the Other Campaign, an action that has provoked violent acts in the interest of territory in the region. This Center of Human Rights condemns the actions of the state government to persecute and criminalize the ejidatarios adherents to the Other Campaign, given that it was these who were attacked and had their contro point taken by a numerous group of ejidatario PRI militants who violently occupied the control point on 2 February that it currently under the control of the state police.”
For its part, the Center of Indigenous Rights A.C., which has a strong presence in the area, denounced that “having had the possibility of avoiding the confrontation between the ejidatarios of San Sebastián and the ejidatarios who pertain to the Other Campaign, the government took no such action; being on-site to avoid the confrontation between the two groups and the death and severe injuries (of a person from the group of ejidatarios from San Sebastián), it adopted a delaying strategy.”
On 6 February, Juan Sabines Guerrero, governor of Chiapas, personally visited Agua Azul, where he said that “we came to listen and participate in the accords that you determine. What we want is that the control point stop being a reason for violence in Chiapas, that it generate common income for the indigenous ejidatarios of Bachajón, for their groups as well as for the residents of the community of Agua Azul.” He opened a “Table of Dialogue and Coordination to resolve this conflict in the Ecotourist Center of the Agua Azul Waterfalls.” The journalist accounts of the visit left unclear whether ejidatarios adherents to the Other Campaign were also in attendance.
For its part, Juan Carlos Cal and Mayor Franco, secretary of tourism in Chiapas, affirmed that the flow of visitants to the zone has now been normalized. The incumbent of the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) added that the site continues to have the presence of units of the state police, toward the end of “protecting the integrity of tourists as well as avoiding new confrontations among the groups in dispute.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Urgent Action: Kidnapping of ejidatarios in Chiapas (Urgent Action of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, 7 February 2011)
Sectur: Flow of tourists to Agua Azul has normalized (Cuarto Poder, 7 February 2011)
Table of dialogue to solve conflict of Agua Azul opens (La Jornada, 7 February 2011)
EZLN sympathizers are brought before authorities in Chiapas (El Universal, 6 February 2011)
106 indigenous individuals are released in Chiapas; another 10 are accused of several crimes (La Jornada, 6 February 2011)
Frayba accuses the government of criminalizing the Other Campaign (La Jornada, 6 February 2011)
Pro-Zapatista indigenous individuals denounce looting and torture in Chiapas (CNN México, 6 February 2011)
Bulletin: 117 ejidatarios from San Sebastián Bachajón are arbitrarily imprisoned (informational bulletin from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, 5 February 2011)
CEDIAC communiqué regarding the events (CEDIAC, 5 February 2011)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: confrontation over control point at Agua Azul leaves one dead and several injured (7 February 2011)
Chiapas: Ejidatarios de Bachajón denounce governmental strategy and escalation of aggression by Opddic (25 November 2010)
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