The JBG Central Heart of the Zapatistas before the World denounces the attacks, provocations, threats, plunder and violence from people affiliated with political parties in San Marcos Avilés

GOOD GOVERNMENT JUNTA

CENTRAL HEART OF THE ZAPATISTAS BEFORE THE WORLD

CARACOL TZOBOMBAIL LEKIL YU’UN J’AMTELETIK

TA O’LOL YO’ON ZAPATISTA TA STUK’IL SAT YELOB SJUNUL BALUMIL

 20 APRIL 2013

TO PUBLIC OPINION

TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS

TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY

TO HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

TO THE ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

TO THE ADHERENTS TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN

TO THE ADHERENTS TO THE SEXTA INTERNATIONAL

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

THE GOOD GOVERNMENT JUNTA CENTRAL HEART OF THE ZAPATISTAS BEFORE  THE WORLD, BASED IN OVENTIC CARACOL II RESISTANCE AND REBELLION FOR  HUMANITY, IN THE HIGHLAND ZONE, DENOUNCE THE MULTIPLE ATTACKS, PROVOCATIONS, THREATS, PLUNDER AND ARROGANT ATTITUDES, VIOLENCE AND ABUSE FROM PEOPLE AFFILIATED TO THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND THEIR AUTHORITIES FROM THE COMMUNITY OF SAN MARCOS AVILÉS, OFFICIAL MUNICIPALITY OF CHILÓN.

In our last denouncement on July 1, 2011 we described all the barbarities committed by people affiliated to the different political parties, supported by the three levels of the bad official government; since that time the attacks, threats, thefts, destruction of crops and acts of harassment, led by Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez against our Zapatista support bases in the community of San Marcos Avilés have not stopped; we would now like to mention the following events:

1. On July 29, 2011 the compas of San Marcos Avilés realized that one of the attackers had made a deal with another party member from the Tacuba community to exchange a modular for a rifle, they saw it was a 16 rifle of 22 caliber and afterwards he was showing off the gun and he pointed it at the daughter of the compa Juan Velasco Aguirre. Another compa realized that he was carrying the rifle to the coffee plantation that he had stolen from the compas.

The aggressor who is called Santiago Cruz Diaz says that he bought the gun to kill some Zapatistas and also to use against the [human rights] observers.

2. On August 1, 2011 the aggressors went to Chilón to talk to the former municipal president, the accountant Antonio, and the accountant told the aggressors that he would help them with the problems they have. The former municipal president said that he would ask for a hearing in Tuxtla and asked the aggressors to make a statement to be signed by all the ejidatarios and also by the women, and young people. The statement should say that everything for which they are blamed in the denouncements of the Good Government Junta and the Frayba Human Rights Center, is all lies.

3. On January 17, 2012 our support base companero Gerardo and his companeros were  cutting their coffee collectively; there were eight Zapatista support bases in the coffee plantation when at 11:30 am they met the party supporter and leader Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez from the Green Party (PV) with his son Ismael Ruiz Núñez. These people from the political party, principally Juan Velasco Mendoza, began to say that the coffee plantation did not belong to the compas and that they should leave now and if they did not they would be made to leave, he also said that the support bases were of no worth, that the international observers were useless, he also said that FRAYBA was worthless and so was the good government junta.

4. On January 18, 2012 Vicente Ruiz López (PRI) and his sons Vicente Ruiz Méndez (PRI) and Samuel Ruiz Méndez cut down 100 coffee trees and pulled up the chayote plants from the piece of land of our support base companero Gerardo. The party supporters said they were going to continue to do this and to keep repeating their same words.

5. On February 9, 2012, the companeros Javier Ruiz Cruz and José Hernández Ruiz. The first was owner of a field of coffee, and at 1:00 pm they found 108 coffee trees were destroyed, 94 uprooted, 14 cut from the trunk, the youngest coffee trees were 1 year old, most of the trees were two years old, but in the upper part near the boundary a pile of 35 trees were found  thrown into a ravine in the direction of Tacuba Nueva community, the economic value of these plants would be an average price of 130.00 for each tree, meaning the total value would be 14,040.00 pesos.

6. On February 19 the ejidal commissioner Ernesto Lopez Nuñez was heard on the radio talking to the agent Aristeo Cante Cruz accusing the Zapatista support base Mariano Pérez of throwing a stone at a car driving down the road. The houses of our support bases who were accused were attacked with stones.

7. On February 21, 2012, the party supporters covered the road with stones at 9 pm in front of the autonomous school, but to the ejidal commissioner of San Marcos they accused the Zapatista support bases who live opposite the school of covering the road.

8. On February 28, 2012, they cut with machetes and pulled up 75 coffee trees from the field of the companero Enrique Pérez Núñez. Also the companero Enrique Cante López  had 100 pumpkins stolen from his field by people from the official (ruling) party.

9. On March 2, 2012, Enrique Pérez Núñez spoke with one of the aggressors who said the party supporters had a new plan to evict our Zapatista support base companeros. They also  said they were going to continue with the second phase of taking away the rights of the support base companeros and to continue destroying and stealing from the cornfields of our companeros because these attacks have no repercussions for them; at 9 pm the same day the party supporter  Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez and his son Andrés Ruiz Nuñez, when returning to the community of Tacuba, stopped to kick the planks of the house of support base Diego Velasco Aguilar, from there they carried on and threw a stone at the house of the support base Juan Velasco Mendoza and also threw another stone at the autonomous Zapatista school and shouted that the Zapatistas are not worth anything to them and that they have weapons of .38 caliber (gun), 16 caliber (rifle) and cartridges for them and they kept saying they had an AK47 and high velocity rifles used by the military and well loaded with two magazines. When these two party supporters came to their houses they fired five shots into the air with a .38 caliber gun, saying they were not afraid at all because they were prepared with weapons.

10. On March 27, 2012, while our support base companeros were in prayer in the church at 12 noon, the compa Juan Pérez Nuñez was the victim of a robbery in his house, they broke the timbers in the lower part of his house and dug down into the ground and managed to steal a package of dry coffee beans weighing 50 kilos.

11. On March 31, 2012, the party supporters and the aggressors held an assembly.

The first point they dealt with was that they made an agreement  about the compas who had pulled up some pine and they were totally forbidden to cut more wood and if they returned to cut more wood they would seize our companeros and take them to the official municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, along with the chainsaw operator; and the ejidal commissioner, the agent and his assistants made a deed of agreement which the 70 ejidatarios signed, telling the chainsaw operator that he must not come back to cut more trees for the compas and forcing him to sign the agreement.

The second point: they made an agreement to request the Final program, all 70 ejidatarios  agreed and said to the commission that if anyone objects they will be expelled from the community, and also said that the support base companeros were not paying the property taxes each year, that when carrying out land measuring the rights of the compas will be transferred to their children, the ejidatarios will treat them as animals who will have no rights to make cornfields, they will have no right to take trees for firewood .

The third point: taking the agreement that the compas are not paying for their electric light, and that they would start to take down the drainpipes from each house of our companeros.

EVENTS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 2013

On 25 January 2013 at 7 o’clock in the morning, an aggressor from San Marcos community by the name of Pedro Canté Mendoza went to the piece of land of ??our companero Zapatista support base Diego Aguilar Velasco and stole 100 coffee bushes which were already planted.

On January 26, 2013, a group of aggressors Vicente Ruiz López, Alejandro Ruiz Núñez, Rubén Martínez Vázquez, Tomás Hernández Aguilar, Jose Cruz Hernandez, Manuel Vázquez Gómez, Santiago Cruz Diaz, Abraham Canté López, Carlos Ruiz Gómez and Ernesto López Núñez invaded a portion of land of our support base companero José Hernández Ruiz, and cut down 100 banana plants.

On January 27, 2013, at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, two aggressors called Socrates Ruiz Núñez and Ismael Ruiz Núñez, both sons of the leader of the attackers Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez, went to the land of Pedro Canté López to pull up 100 coffee bushes, 16 of those bushes they took away.

This was not the first time these aggressors had committed these acts, they have often come to steal sugar cane from the field of our companero.

On January 29, 2013, a companero support base Javier Ruiz Cruz informs us that he has a 32 x 25 meter field at the edge of a lake, but the attackers fenced off the lake, invading part of the field of our companero Javier Ruiz Cruz, it is not known why that place is fenced, but there are rumors that it is for building a military camp.

On February 6th 2013, they came in the night to steal some chickens from our companero support base Miguel Gómez Guzman, it has not been identified who did it, but it is known to have been one of the aggressors.

On February 8, 2013, at 12 noon he found a horse tied in his coffee plantation belonging to one of the attackers called Santiago Cruz Diaz, supporter of the PRI party. This is not the first time the aggressor has tied his horse in the coffee plantation of our companero, because he has done so on several occasions.

On February 11, 2013, our companero Manuel Hernández López was informed by some of the aggressors, that the ejidal commissioner Ernesto López Núñez, Manuel Vázquez Gómez from the vigilance council and auxiliary agent Juan Perez Mecia, belonging to the PRI party, have sent a list of the names of the support bases to the federal electricity commission in Yajalón for not paying the tax for the electric light. These aggressors have requested support from other nearby communities to threaten the support bases companeros with cutting their electricity service.

On 12 February 2013, they stole 2 pieces of embroidery from the home of our support base compa?era Gloria Martínez Vázquez, while she was picking coffee in her coffee plantation, the value of each piece of embroidery is $500, and for the two the amount is $1,000.

On March 3, 2013, the aggressors and party officials met at 8 pm with the main leader Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez and said there was no alternative but to kill those who walk near their homes and first to murder the children of our companeros and that this is your job, what are you going to do about it as the main leader LORENZO RUIZ GOMEZ, who is from Chilón municipal police and afterwards they asked their other companeros to murder our companero Juan Velasco Aguilar and the other Zapatista support base companeros and they said they are ready to kill our companeros and they have enough weapons.

On 9 March 2013 our companero Juan Velasco Aguilar and other companeros were working, and about 50 meters away were 3 children of the aggressors called Vicente Ruiz Méndez (PRI) Luis Vásquez López (PV) Samuel Vásquez López (PV), of about 20 years of age, these three children of the aggressor struck their machetes 15 times with a stone as a threat to our companeros.

On 13 March 2013 they pulled up seven newly planted coffee plants of our companero Agustin Pérez Núñez and the aggressor was identified as Oscar Cante López from the Party (green).

On 17 April 2013 the municipal president of Chilón sent a tractor to San Marcos Avilés to flatten a plot of land 32 by 25 meters owned by support base companero Javier Ruiz Cruz and so the tractor started work protected by 120 people from the different parties from the same community of San Marcos Avilés. Our support base companero could do nothing to defend his property.

The next day, April 18^th, the tractor continued to work on the site surrounded by the same number of people from the political parties as the day before and with 7 lorries to carry the gravel. However up to now we do not know for what purpose they are flattening and filling in the land of our companero.

To corroborate these facts mentioned we have the testimony of national and international observers who are installed in a camp of observation in the Ejido San Marcos Avilés.

For these acts of provocation, aggression and seizing of the land and property of our companeros we blame directly the following men: Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez (PV), José Cruz Hernández (PRI), Rubén Martínez Vásquez (PV), Santiago Cruz Díaz (PRI), Vicente Ruiz López (PRI), Manuel Díaz Ruiz (PV), Ernesto López Núñez (PRI) new member of the commission, Manuel Vásquez Gómez (PRI), Alejandro Núñez Ruíz (PRI), Victor Núñez Martínez (PV), Victor Díaz Sánchez (PV), José Hernández Méndez (PRI), Tomás Hernández Aguilar (PV) Ernesto Méndez Gutiérrez (PV), Raú Cante López (PV), Abraham Cante López (PRI), Gustavo Cante López (PV), Juan Pérez Cruz (PRI), Rogelio Ruiz Gómez (PV), Carlos Ruiz Gómez (PV), Pedro Canté Mendoza (PV), Carmelino Hernández Hernández (PRI), Rodolfo Ruiz Pérez (PRI) Antonio Cante Mendoza (PV), Nicolás Cante Cruz (PV), Pedro Cante Cruz (PV) Vicente Ruiz Méndez (PRI Francisco Daniel), Manolo Cruz Díaz (PRI), Antonio Gómez Pérez (¿?), Ezequiel Cruz Vásquez (PV), Cruz Gómez (PV), Sebastián Díaz Vásquez (PV), Manuel Cante Gómez 11(the younger) (PV), Domingo Guzmán Gómez (PV), Celestino Guzmán Cnaté (PV), Rogelio Núñez Martínez (PV), Pedro HErnández Méndez (PRI), Juan Núñez Martínez (PV), Rus Bel Hernández Núñez Martínez (PV), Alejandro Hernández Sánchez (PV), EMA Ruiz Gómez (PV), José Hernández Méndez (PV).

We as the good government junta of the highlands area of Chiapas have during previous years been denouncing all the shameful acts of these people from the political parties who always want to provoke more problems between indigenous of the same community, organized by Sabines and now by Manuel Velasco Coello. But unfortunately the three levels of official government have done nothing to stop the injustice and the violation of human rights that is being committed against our support base companeros of the ejido San Marcos Avilés. The response to our complaints has been swearing, teasing and more threats to our companeros.

We as the Good Government Junta will not cease to publicly denounce the provocations, harassment and assaults suffered by our brothers and sisters in any community and municipality in our area. Although the bad State, municipal and federal governments will continue supporting, advising and backing the aggressors so they can continue provoking, threatening and depriving our Zapatista support bases of their rights. Because even at this time there are no signs of an end to this aggressive and arrogant attitude of the bad governors and the people affiliated to the different political parties.

Because they think that in this way they will put an end to our struggle with provocations, threats, attacks and persecutions of the Zapatista communities who are struggling for the construction of our autonomy as original peoples, but we want you all to know that no one is going to stop our struggle, because we the Zapatistas are going to keep going forward, whatever it costs us, no matter what happens, because it is our right and obligation to struggle for justice, for freedom and for true democracy.

For now this is all we have to say, we will be watching what may happen in the community where they will not allow our companeros to live in peace.

Respectfully

MANUEL PERES JIMENEZ

SECILIA LOPEZ HERNANDEZ

DAVID GOMEZ GOMEZ

SUSANA GONZALES RUIZ

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