Communique from the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ), denouncing the disappearance of two of their members at the hands of the police, and announcing a highway blockade to protest insecurity in their communities

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the National and International Sixth

To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion

To the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity

To the Human Rights Organizations

January 27, 2022

Brothers and sisters. In the afternoon of January 25 at approximately 5:40pm, our compañeros Pablo Hilario Morales of the community of Tula, and Samuel Hernández Sánchez of the community of Zapapexco—both part of the CIPOG-EZ and CNI-CIG—were detained by municipal police of Atlixtac. We continue not knowing of their whereabouts.

As an organization, we are seeking information regarding their location. The authorities say they do not know anything, including in Atlixtac, where they even denied information to the National Human Rights Commission. We fear for the lives of our brothers, but the authorities seem to not care about life. It is more than evident that the government of Guerrero is afraid of confronting the criminal groups who move at will, kidnapping, assassinating, torturing, and shooting the population throughout the state. Acapulco, Chilapa, different parts of the Sierra, the Tlapa mountain region, Chilpancingo, are all scenes of extortion and assassination. The inaction of the authorities shows clearly that they are colluding with criminal and narco-paramilitary groups. We have denounced this to exhaustion, but the municipal, state, and federal authorities turn a deaf ear and look at us with contempt, as if we are only seeking charity, social programs, or crumbs to shut us up.

It is not only municipal authorities and municipal presidents. The National Guard, SEDENA, state and local police who are supposedly in charge of security, they also cover their eyes ignoring those who carry out crimes against the communities. At the same time, they continue claiming that they are engaged in actions to provide security. They do not understand that the criminals, the narco-paramilitary groups, must be sought out from within their own structures, inside the municipal police, prosecutor’s office, and municipal governments. With one hand they collect their salary from the taxes of the people, and with the other they collect pay from organized crime groups for their complicity and silence.

What good is a dialogue offered by the AMLO Administration, Evelyn Salgado Pineda, and the other levels of government, if when it comes to confronting organized crime, they don’t do it? We affirm that they are only acting as if they are truly listening to the people. We say to them, if they cannot provide security, they should resign. If they do not dare to confront organized crime groups, then they should get out of here. For the authorities, the lives of our people are just numbers, votes, political commodities. They only administer death, and resort to lies to avoid exposing their ineptitude.

The power vacuum that exists in Guerrero is visible. It is not possible that the government is afraid of confronting organized crime and narco-paramilitary groups. Just yesterday around 5:00pm, in the Valley of Ocotito, in the municipality of Chilpancingo, men armed with military grade weaponry and armored cars fired rounds for more than an hour against community police. No authority was there was confront these criminal groups. Not the army, ministerial police, nor the National Guard have acted to carry out arrests or stop the violence that plagues the state. This demonstrates that the criminal groups have the capacity to attack and move around as they please. It proves that they control the police who share with them inside information so that they can circulate and terrorize the population, assassinating those who decide to defend life.

For this, we demand the alive appearance of our brothers Pablo Hilario Morales and Samuel Hernández Sánchez.

  • We demand that the municipal police of Atlixtac, of Chilapa, and of José Joaquín de Herrera, be purged. It is well known that they are in collusion with the criminal narco-paramilitary group, “Los Ardillos.”
  • We demand the investigation and purge of municipal presidents. They are the ones who coordinate and dispute the resources of the people. They are also the ones who are allowing that the criminal groups operate with complete freedom.
  • We demand that SEDENA and the National Guard began to actually do their job of stopping organized crime, “Los Ardillos,” and those who allow these groups to kill and terrorize the population.

We hold responsible the municipal president and municipal police of Atlixtac for the disappearance of our brothers. We also hold responsible the three levels of government because they know what is happening in Guerrero. Denunciations have been made to all government agencies. There has not been a clear response on how to end the violence in our communities, and in the state of Guerrero as a whole. As the CIPOG-EZ, we will maintain a blockade on the highway which runs from Tlapa to Chilapa, and we will carry out more actions until the return of our brothers Pablo Hilario and Samuel Hernández, until the governments assume their responsibility to the people. We call on the different organizations, networks, collectives, and human rights organizations, to share, denounce, and be attentive to the situation.

Sincerely,

Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata