Joint Communique from the CNI and the EZLN Denouncing the Repression Against the Purépecha community of Arantepacua, Michoacán

To the Purépecha Community of Arantepacua, Michoacán,
To the alternative media,
To the peoples of the world.

The peoples, nations, and tribes who make up the National Indigenous Congress express our outrage at the bad government’s cowardly attack against the Purépecha community of Arantepacua, Michoacán, on April 4 and 5 of the present year.

As a commission of community members sought dialogue with the bad government of the state of Michoacán, the governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo betrayed them: first, by obstructing their path with hundreds of riot police and dozens of trucks as they made their way to Morelia to try to come to agreements on the resolution of an old agrarian conflict; and again when, as the commission negotiated with government, large contingents of the Michoacán Police and the State Ministerial Police together with federal forces attacked the community, sowing terror, entering houses to detain community members, and opening fire indiscriminately, killing three Arantepacua community members:

  • José Carlos Jiménez Crisóstomo (age 25)
  • Luis Gustavo Hernández Cuenete (age 15)
  • Francisco Jiménez Ajejandre (approximately age 70)

In addition, an unspecified number of community members were injured, two of whom are in critical condition, as well as 38 arrested by the Michoacán government on April 4 and 18 more on April 5 on fabricated charges that seek to criminalize their demand for their rights.

Brothers and sisters of Arantepacua, your pain over the murder of your compañeros is ours. We struggle because we are certain that punishment for the guilty will come from the dignity, resistance, and rebellion of our peoples. Sowing truth and justice amidst the destruction brought upon us by the powerful is what our peoples know how to do.

The bad governments think that by spreading terror in the indigenous territories of Michoacán and across a large part of the nation they will be able to silence the peoples and their voice, but this will not happen, because the words shouted collectively today by the originary peoples are born precisely of our rage, our frustration and the decision to not allow ourselves be killed, dispossessed, divided, or bought off.

We pronounce jointly with the communal assembly of Arantepacua our demands for:

  1. An immediate halt to the escalated repression against Arantepacua and the Purépecha communities of the region.
  2. The immediate release of the compañeros detained by the bad government.
  3. Justice for the victims of this cowardly aggression and indemnification for all damages caused.
  4. Punishment of governor Silvano Aureoles and all those responsible, materially and intellectually, for the crimes committed.
  5. The withdrawal of the police and military forces from Aratepacua, given that as long as they are present the harassment of the community members will not cease.

Attentively
April 6, 2017

Justice for Arantepacua
Justice for the Purépecha People
For the Full Reconstitution of our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress
Zapatista Army for National Liberation