PRONOUNCEMENT BY THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS AND THE EZLN IN RESPONSE TO THE VIOLENT EVICTION OF THE «Tierra y Libertad» CAMP IN THE MIXE COMMUNITY OF MOGOÑE VIEJO, GUICHICOVI, OAXACA, BY THE FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS.
April 28, 2023
To the peoples of Mexico and the world,
To the human rights organizations and collectives,
To the National and International Sexta,
To the national and international media.
We denounce with rage that today, April 28, at around 10:38 a.m., a large group of members of the National Guard, the Mexican Navy and the Oaxaca state police violently attacked those participating in the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD, causing its destruction and stealing the belongings of the peasants who were there. IN A WORRYING WAY, THE MIXE EJIDATARIOS* MARÍA MAGDALENA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, FERNANDO HERNÁNDEZ GÓMEZ, ADELA SEVERO TEODORO, ESPERANZA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, ELIZABETH MARTÍNEZ ISABEL AND ELIODORO MARTÍNEZ ISABEL WERE DETAINED WITHOUT BEING KNOWN WHERE THEY REMAIN, AND COMRADE ADELA SEVERO TEODORO WAS BEATEN BY MEMBERS OF THESE MILITARY FORCES. In this sense we denounce, as has happened on other occasions, the intentional use of military and police forces by the state to abuse women and generate terror.
Just today the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD, organized by the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus, completed 61 days of blocking the railroad tracks of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the Mogoñe Viejo-Vixidu section, in protest against the imposition of the mega-project Inter-Oceanic Corridor Istmo de Tehuantepec and in order to paralyze the works for the modernization of the railroad.
Likewise, yesterday the NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN «EL SUR RESISTE», in struggle against the Interoceanic Corridor, the Maya Train („Tren Maya“) and all the death projects of this repressive government, servile to the interests of big capital, was received at the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD with the purpose of weaving together the resistance of the peoples of the south, of Mexico and of the world. Not omitting to point out that since its beginning on April 25 in Pijijiapan, Chiapas, the CARAVAN has been permanently obstructed and harassed by government spying and an endless number of military streetblockades.
With the action orchestrated by the military and police corporations against the CAMP TIERRA Y LIBERTAD it is clear to us, once again, that the current governments are at the service of the large transnational corporations and that militarization, patriarchal violence and repression are the path they have chosen to confront the struggle and resistance of our peoples to the Interoceanic Corridor and the Tren Maya, to capitalist dispossession and war.
WE DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF OUR COMRADS MARÍA MAGDALENA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, FERNANDO HERNÁNDEZ GÓMEZ, ADELA SEVERO TEODORO, ESPERANZA MARTÍNEZ ISABEL, ELIZABETH MARTÍNEZ ISABEL AND ELIODORO MARTÍNEZ ISABEL; THE PUNISHMENT OF THOSE GUILTY OF PHYSICAL AND GENDERED VIOLENCE, ROBBERIES AND REPRESSION AGAINST THE TIERRA Y LIBERTAD CAMP; AS WELL AS THE DISCLOSURE OF THEIR REMAIN AND THE GUARANTEE OF FREE TRANSIT AND UNIMPEDED ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN «EL SUR RESISTE».
Sincerely
Mexico, April 28, 2023.
For the Integral Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never Again A Mexico Without Us
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS
INDIGENOUS COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT
EZLN-Zapatista Sixth Commission.
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Footnotes inserted by the translator
*Mixe: Indigenous People in Oaxaca, Mexico
*Ejidatorios: Members of an ejido. Ejidos: System of land distribution and ownership that was institutionalized after the Mexican Revolution and consists of giving a piece of land to a group of people for collective use. Often, this is the land of indigenous communities, which they collectivly own, manage and cultivate.
