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COORDINADORA REGIONAL DE AUTORIDADES COMUNITARIAS

DE LA MONTAÑA Y COSTA CHICA DE GUERRERO.

COMITÉ EJECUTIVO DE LA POLICIA COMUNITARIA

BOLETIN DE PRENSA

San Luis Acatlán, Gro. Territorio Comunitario. 28 de agosto de 2012.

A las organizaciones fraternas

A  los medios de comunicación

Al  pueblo en general.

Hoy 28 de agosto de 2012 aproximadamente las  7:30 de la mañana fue detenido por la Policía Ministerial, nuestro compañero MAXIMO TRANQUILINO SANTIAGO, Coordinador Regional  de la Casa de Justicia Comunitaria de San Luis Acatlán, Gro., mientras se dirigía de su domicilio a esta Casa de Justicia.

Hoy nos enteramos que la Agencia del Ministerio Publico y el Juzgado de Primera Instancia con sede en esta ciudad, le dieron curso a una averiguación previa y a la causa penal 76/2012-II, en contra de los compañeros Coordinadores Regionales Máximo Tranquilino, Pablo Guzmán, Asunción Ponce Ramos, Claudio Carrasco, los comandantes regionales Melquiades Simón Santiago, Aureliano Martínez Tomas, Andrés Panuceno Germán y Felicito Clemente Quintero, acusados de haber privado de la libertad al C. Silvino Encarnación Gabino, vecino de la comunidad de Yoloxochitl, quien se encuentra detenido en proceso de reeducación del sistema comunitario acusado de haber asesinado a un vecino de la comunidad de Yoloxochitl. Derivado de esta denuncia, el Juez de Primera Instancia libero las órdenes de aprehensión en contra de nuestros compañeros y hoy, la policía ministerial llevo a cabo la detención de nuestro compañero Máximo Tranquilino Santiago.

De manera inmediata nuestros pueblos y comunidades se han movilizado y por acuerdo de la asamblea que se ha instalado en nuestra Casa de Justicia, se ordeno la detención de los Agentes del Ministerio Publico y del C. Juez Mixto de Primera Instancia todos con sede en esta ciudad, ya que han incumplido los acuerdos de no agresión y de coordinación en materia de impartición de justicia y de seguridad con nuestro sistema comunitario, además de transgredir la Ley Numero 701 de Reconocimiento, de derechos y cultura de los pueblos y comunidades originarias del Estado de Guerrero, promulgada desde el mes de abril de 2011, en la cual se reconoce la legalidad y legitimidad de nuestras instituciones comunitarias, y en el que se establece la obligatoriedad para las dependencias del Estado de hacer valer y respetar las actuaciones de la CRAC y Policía Comunitaria.

Aproximadamente a las 14:30 horas de este día, nuestra Policía Comunitaria detuvo a las siguientes personas: FILOMENO VAZQUEZ ESPINOZA, JOSE LUIS BERNABE FERNANDEZ, OMAR SANDOVAL LEON Y NAPOLEON HERNANDEZ GARIBO, Juez Mixto de Primera Instancia, Secretario de Acuerdos penales del Juzgado Mixto de Primera Instancia, Agente Titular del Ministerio Publico y Agente Auxiliar del Ministerio Publico, respectivamente. Se les ha tomado su declaración en relación a la detención de nuestro compañero y todos manifestaron desconocer las leyes nacionales e internacionales que protegen los derechos de los pueblos originarios, la ley numero 701, así como los acuerdos de coordinación que desde hace años hemos mantenido con las distintas dependencias. Cabe señalar que el C. Filomeno Vázquez, se negó a dar cualquier dato o declaración incluso se opuso a que se pudieran tomar fotografías para documentar sus declaraciones. También se informa que al C. Omar Sandoval Leon, al momento de su detención se le recogió una pistola pietro beretta, calibre 9 mm. Con un cargador y 4 cartuchos útiles, con la que pretendió resistirse a la detención. Todos los detenidos se han puesto a disposición de nuestra máxima autoridad que es la asamblea regional, se encuentran bien de salud y se les informo del motivo de su detención y del procedimiento que habrá que seguir para lograr su liberación.

Ha sido acuerdo de la asamblea reunida el día de hoy, de convocar para el día de mañana miércoles 29 de agosto del año en curso, a todas las autoridades municipales y agrarias, de las comunidades, a reunirse en esta Casa de Justicia Comunitaria. Estamos convocando a que ante la asamblea regional se presenten los representantes del Gobierno del Estado: Secretario de Gobierno, Procuradora General de Justicia, Magistrado Presidente del Tribunal Superior de Justicia, Presidente de la Comisión de Gobierno del Congreso del Estado, para destrabar el presente conflicto, así como para establecer claramente la relación que habremos de seguir en lo posterior. En este mismo sentido, hacemos amplia la invitación a los medios de comunicación y a las organizaciones sociales y políticas para que nos acompañen en esta asamblea regional que seguramente sentara bases para que los pueblos sigan avanzando en la construcción de este modelo organizativo de los pueblos.

Todo lo anterior lo vemos como parte de una campaña en marcha, del gobierno del estado y del gobierno federal, para hostigar y debilitar la organización de nuestros pueblos, dividir y lastimar a nuestras comunidades. Lo anterior se suma a la detención en días pasados de nuestro compañero Agustín Barrera Cosme, a las amenazas de muerte en contra de Cirino Placido Valerio, al desconocimiento como asesor de nuestro compañero Valentín Hernández; al agudizamiento del conflicto agrario entre Tilapa y Tierra Colorada que ha generado la muerte del Comisario Municipal de Tilapa el C. Crisóstomo Bruno Peñaloza; a la presencia creciente de grupos de la delincuencia organizada amafiados con el poder público, que están sembrando el terror y la inseguridad en toda la población. Todo esto lo vemos como partes de una estrategia del gobierno y las empresas mineras para debilitar a nuestros pueblos y así lograr consolidar su establecimiento en territorio comunitario para el saqueo y el despojo de nuestros recursos minerales y naturales.

Ante esto, el gobierno estatal ha respondido con incumplimiento a acuerdos alcanzados con nuestra institución comunitaria. Ha negado la dotación de 202 armas para nuestra policía comunitaria, arguyendo un sinfín de requisitos, cuando la delincuencia organizada todos los días está ampliando su poder. Nos niega armas para la defensa de nuestras comunidades y le otorga vehículos y equipamiento al ejército federal, aun cuando la SEDENA cuenta con presupuesto suficiente además de los recursos que le son asignados del ilegal Plan Mérida.

Responsabilizamos a los gobiernos estatal y federal de cualquier otra agresión que se genere con motivo de esta lucha, ya que tenemos la información de que se están estableciendo retenes de la policía ministerial y estatal dentro del territorio comunitario. Manifestamos nuestra disposición a dialogar para generar acuerdos ante la asamblea general de nuestros pueblos.

Llamamos  a nuestros pueblos y comunidades a que se movilicen y a que demos prueba del valor y la razón que nos ha mantenido fuertes y unificados desde la constitución de nuestra Policía Comunitaria en 1995. Llamamos la atención a las organizaciones fraternas a nivel estatal, nacional e internacional a que se pronuncien en contra de esta campaña  de agresiones y a que se mantengan de pie con nuestra lucha.

“El Respeto a Nuestros Derechos, Sera Justicia”

¡Solo el Pueblo Apoya y Defiende al Pueblo!

Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias

Comité Ejecutivo de la Policía Comunitaria

TRASMISIÓN EN VIVO en Radio Pozol o: http://giss.tv:8001/radiopozol.mp3.m3u

Policía Comunitaria de la Costa Chica y Montaña de Guerrero(Descarga aquí)  

Comunidades Santuario para migrantes en el Sur de Estados Unidos(Descarga aquí)  

Consejo Autónomo Regional de la Zona Costa de Chiapas(Descarga aquí)  

Asamblea de los Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec Oaxaca(Descarga aquí)  

(Continuar leyendo…)

Encuentro “CON LA MEMORIA, LOS PUEBLOS CONSTRUIMOS JUSTICIA Y VERDAD”

16 Y 17 DE MARZO de 2011 en el CIDECI/UniTierra
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas

Miércoles 16 de marzo:

Tema 1: Impunidad y nuevas formas de construir justicia

1. Policía Comunitaria de Guerrero

2. Organización Civil Las Abejas de Acteal

Testimonio (tzeltal):(Descarga aquí)  

Traducción el español:(Descarga aquí)  

Otro testimonio (español):(Descarga aquí)  

Tema 2: Defensa de la Madre Tierra:

1. Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT) – San Salvador Atenco (Ignacio del Valle):(Descarga aquí)  

2. Ejidatari@s de San Sebastián Bachajón – Zona Norte de Chiapas

Juan(Descarga aquí)  

Jerónima (tzeltal)(Descarga aquí)  

Traducción al español(Descarga aquí)  

Una compañera (tzeltal)(Descarga aquí)  

Traducción al español(Descarga aquí)  

Tema 3. Experiencia concreta en trabajos de Memoria Histórica

1. Hij@s por la identidad y la justicia, contra el olvido y el silencio – México DF (María Debechi y Tania Paloma):(Descarga aquí)  

2. Compañero de Masojá Shucjá – Zona Norte de Chiapas (Manuel Martínez Pérez):(Descarga aquí)  

Tema 4. Defensores y defensoras y libertad de expresión

1. Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres – Chihuahua (Karen Rivera):(Descarga aquí)  

2. Coordinadora de Mujeres en Resistencia:(Descarga aquí)  

Compañeros del Consejo Autónomo de la Costa de Chiapas explican la situación de hostigamiento, persecusión y represión que se vive en la Zona Costa.(Descarga aquí)  

Conclusions from the round tables, video report, chronicles, articles, and more below: (Continuar leyendo…)

• Immigration: Protest in San Francisco against raids (5 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Community Police of Guerrero (8:30 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Report on Lomas del Poleo, Ciudad Juárez with interviews to the residents (20 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Chiapas: visit by Felipe Calderón; San Cristóbal-Palenque highway; Threats of land eviction

Full program:(Descarga aquí)  

by Alejandro Reyes

On a large patio of a community in the sierra of Guerrero, surrounded by mountains and forests, stand hundreds of peasants with their weapons held high. Among them there are many youth and quite a few elders. Their weapons are very simple, their equipment, precarious. It is the Community Police, one of the most important projects of indigenous autonomy in Mexico, which, on October 14 and 15, 2008, celebrated their 13th anniversary in this town of Tilapa, municipality of Malinaltepec accompanied by commissioners and representatives of the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities (CRAC) and several dozen visitors: activists, researchers, members of alternative media, and organizations in solidarity.

Thirteen years after its foundation, the Community Police, which together with the justice system represented by the CRAC is one of the most important experiences in indigenous autonomy in Mexico, has every reason to celebrate. The insecurity and violence that in the 80s and 90s devastated the region is today under control. But more importantly, there is now a widespread awareness that the communities can solve their own problems without waiting for answers to come from the outside.

The sierra of Guerrero has a long history of rebellion. It is the land of the guerrilla movements of Genaro Vázquez and Lucio Cabañas and of a long tradition of indigenous and peasant organization. It is also the land of one of the most brutal repression campaigns in modern Mexico. The counterinsurgent violence of the 70s created a deep social instability which led to an uncontrollable situation of insecurity: assaults, robbery, rape, murder. In the face of this violence, the despair of the inhabitants met only with indifference on the part of the authorities, or outright complicity with the delinquents.

As a response to this situation, on October 15, 1995, the communities decided to create the Community Police, composed of voluntary members who serve their people without any remuneration. Today, there are over 800 policemen from 73 communities, and insecurity has diminished over 90 percent. Father Mario Hernández Campos, who participated in this experience since its beginnings, described the process:

“Given the violence and insecurity we lived, our communities responded assuming a role we had never assumed: that of being subjects. Becoming aware that the solution doesn’t come from the outside. But in order to get there we had to do a lot of work, we had to hold many assemblies y many communities. How many of you participated in brigades, going from town to town. How many participated in those meetings that went on till 3, 4 in the morning… How many women making tortillas, cooking beans, how many men carrying firewood, how many neighbors supporting us. Thus we started to learn that we are subjects and that we are responsible for the solutions we look for.”

This awareness also explains the fact that the Community Police was not conceived in isolation, but as part of a much broader project which aims at resolving the communities’ most pressing problems: communication, education, justice. These efforts resulted in some important victories. The demands of the communities led to the construction, albeit defective, of the Tlapa-Marquelia road four years ago (the signs that boast the kindness of the government that “does provide” are intact; the road is destroyed). Very significantly, on October 12 last year was inaugurated the Intercultural University of the Peoples of the South (Unisur), an autonomous university which aims at preparing intellectuals with deep ties to the communities, and which today has four campuses: Santa Cruz del Rincón, Cuajinicuilapa, Xochistlahuaca, and Xalitla. And during the event this October 15, the community radio that has been transmitting for two months from the community of Espino Blanco, was formally baptized “The voice of the people.”

During the first years of its existence, the Community Police detained the delinquents and handed them over to the authorities. But Cirino Plácido, one of the founders, explains that the corruption of government institutions meant that a few days later the delinquents would be free. “Insecurity is a great business for the State,” he says. “The policeman wants money, the lawyer wants money, the judge wants money.” This reality led to the decision to create, in 1998, the Regional Coordination of Community Authorities, which is in charge of administering justice. It is this body which receives complaints, analyzes denunciations, emits arrest orders, and presents the detainees to the community assemblies, where, according to traditional custom, it is the people who decide on the punishment.

This punishment is neither fines nor jail, but what they call reeducation. This consists of community service such as paving roads, building infrastructure or anything else that the community might need. An important aspect of this reeducation process are the talks given by the elder council, which gathers regularly upon the commissioner’s request. These talks help the detainee to become aware of his or her errors. As in the case of the sentencing, the liberation takes place in an assembly, where the community commits itself not to treat him or her as a criminal, but as a member of the community in the process of reeducation. In other words, justice is understood as something that directly involves every member of the community.

The government’s response to this experience in community autonomy has been confrontation and criminalization. Over 40 authorities and community policemen have warrants for their arrest for the presumed crimes of illegal detention, usurping functions, and abusing authority. Curiously, what most bothers the government is not the existence of an armed organization outside of official institutions, but the administration of justice according to traditional customs. This opposition reveals the conflict between the “legality” of a system that the communities do not perceive as legitimate, not only because of its corruption, but because it does not reflect their reality, and the legitimacy of an autonomous experience that does not fit in the laws imposed by that system.

According to anthropologist Gillermo Bonfil Batalla, there is not only one Mexico but two: what he calls the “imaginary Mexico” (based on Western civilization) and the “deep Mexico” (based on indigenous civilization). Cirino Plácido says something similar: “They say there’s only one Mexico but that’s not true. There’s the Mexico that’s out there, but you only need to come here to realize there’s another Mexico, the forgotten Mexico.”

Among the murals by Diego Rivera that cover the walls of the National Palace in Mexico City there’s one that all visitors stop to look at. In it we find the image of an indigenous woman (with Frida Kahlo’s face) carrying a dark-skinned, blue-eyed baby on her back. “The first Mexican,” explains the tourist guide. In other words, the product of the encounter between Western civilization and indigenous cultures. An undoubtedly terrible encounter, but which supposedly engendered the great Bronze Race, the mestizo nation for centuries denied, which the Revolution managed to liberate from the shackles of history by recognizing our glorious pre-Hispanic past as a constitutive element of who we are today: a united, homogeneous, mestizo Mexico. But, in to this vision, where do indigenous peoples fit?

In a small, roadside restaurant on the way back from the Guerrero sierra towards Mexico City, in the heart of the Mixteca sierra of Puebla, the radio plays a dramatized version of a short story: an anthropology student from the US travels to Chiapas to study the Tzotzil Indians. Their customs and their life conditions horrify her, and the listener cannot help sympathize with her views: superstition, poverty, poor hygiene, primitivism. But when she decides to name her thesis “The savage condition of Mexican Indians,” Mexican nationalism rears its head in indignation: who does this racist gringa think she is? A rather difficult indignation to reconcile, given the previous conclusion that yes, Indians are primitive. Fortunately, a humble mestizo doctor, who travels from town to town, comes to the rescue. When he politely questions the appropriateness of the title, the student says, “But Indians live outside of civilization!” And the doctor responds, “Yes, that’s true. But that’s not their fault. It’s our fault, all of us.” Moral of the story: indigenous peoples of today are the unfortunate remnants of a destroyed past, and it is the duty of mestizo Mexico to civilize them in order to integrate them to the nation.

Bonfil Batalla proposes that things are not quite that way. He claims that what we have is the clash between two different (Western and indigenous) civilizations, and that Mexico’s history is the history of this conflict: the attempts on the part of the winning civilization to negate and destroy the vanquished one, and the latter’s mechanisms of resistance which have allowed it to survive for over five centuries. The ideology behind the mestizo nation represented by that “first Mexican” in Diego Rivera’s mural is just one more genocidal attempt against indigenous peoples, from which they defend themselves with the centuries-old arsenal of their civilization.

This clash of civilizations and the imposition of one over the other is evident in the experience of the Community Police of Guerrero. In its 13 years of existence, it has managed to accomplish what the state has failed to do anywhere in the country: to control insecurity in a region that was particularly violent. One of the work sessions in Tilapa focused on the national situation of security and justice. In it the participants evaluated where Mexico is today: an unprecedented explosion of insecurity and violence, militarization of the country, a law enforcement and justice system with a severe credibility crisis, a politics of fear manipulated by the media, and the criminalization of social movements. The state has not only failed miserably in the war against insecurity, but its relations with the drug trade and organized crime have become increasingly evident. That being so, it is at least paradoxical that the state, instead of coordinating efforts with this successful organization and promoting its growth in other parts of the country, insists in criminalizing it.

Like the Zapatista communities in rebellion, the experience of the Community Police is clear proof that this other Mexico, the deep, forgotten and ignored Mexico, is a live source of alternatives capable of facing the problems that most affect society. And if the Mexico in power, following its centuries-old tradition of denying that other reality, continues refusing to recognize its vitality and relevance, the Community Police will continue to serve as an inspiration for all of those from below, in Mexico and the world, and proof that it is indeed possible to create alternatives outside the system, learning from these peoples who have been resisting for over five hundred years.

13th Anniversary of the Community Police, Tilapa, Guerrero. (More info)

• Report by Radio Zapatista (8:30 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Inaugural words by Father Mario (21 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Interview with Regional Coordinator Emilio Cano Castañeda (17 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Interview with the compas from the community radio La voz de los pueblos (4 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Summary of Session 3: Education (9:30 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Summary of Session 4: National situation on security and justice, and ways to strengthen CRAC (Regional Coordination of Community Authorities) (12:30 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Summary of Session 5: Production and local markets (9:30 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Declaration of the 13th Anniversary of the Community Police (4 min)(Descarga aquí)  
• Other audios (Regeneración Radio)

Article by Radio Zapatista.