San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, August
 4, 2014

Press Bulletin No. 22

Displacement of Zapatista Bases before the risk of attack

Thirty two people from the Egipto (Egypt) autonomous community, belonging to the Caracol of La Garrucha, were forcibly displaced.

Residents of the Ejido Pojcol invade recuperated lands of the Bases of Support of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (BAEZLN, their initials in Spanish)

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) documented the forced displacement of 32 people from Egipto Community, of the Rebel Autonomous Municipality Zapatista (MAREZ) of San Manuel, belonging to the Good Government Junta “Path of the Future,” Caracol III, La Garrucha, Tseltal Jungle Zone, in Chiapas, (official municipality of Ocosingo).

The acts occurred on August 1, at 11:30 PM, when a group of armed people, coming from the Ejido Pojcol, municipality of Chilón, entered the land (used) for regional collective work of San Manuel Autonomous Municipality, recuperated by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN, its initials in Spanish). In this territory, bordering on the   Autonomous Communities of El Rosario and Egipto, the armed individuals killed a steer and fired gunshots.

When the group from Ejido Pojcol carried out acts of occupation and armed harassment, members of the Egipto Autonomous Community perceived that, various individuals with flashlights in hand, were heading towards their village. For this reason and to avoid a possible attack, on August 2, at 12:30 AM, 32 people (women, little girls and boys, and the elderly) were forcibly displaced, walking during all the early hours of the morning, to reach another Zapatista town where they are currently sheltered.

These new acts of harassment, territorial dispossession and aggressions are presented within the framework of the First Exchange of the Zapatista Peoples and the Original Peoples of Mexico “Compañero David Ruiz García,” meeting with the National Indigenous Congress, which began this Monday, August 4 in the Autonomous Community of La Realidad.

Before imminent risk and the gravity of the acts that happen in the MAREZ of San Manuel, belonging to the Junta “Path of the Future,” of Caracol III of La Garrucha, we ask National and International Civil Society to remain alert so that acts of violence against the Zapatista bases don’t continue escalating.
Background:

On Friday, July 25, at 6:00 AM, 19 armed people entered the land for regional collective work of San Manuel Autonomous Municipality for the first time. They constructed roofs; they destroyed, burned and used signs that the EZLN had installed in protest after the murder of Teacher Galeano as firewood. At the same time, the aggressors fired 3 gunshots into the air, with .22-caliber weapons during the morning g and afternoon and afternoon. They left the community at 1:30 AM, on July 26. During the time that they were there, they threatened the Zapatista bases from El Rosario and Egipto autonomous communities with dispossessing them of their lands.

On Wednesday, July 30, the aggressor group again entered to clean one part of the land, they fumigated 3 hectares of pasture, injured a zebu steer with a knife and inscribed the legend “Pojcol Territory” on the land.

Because of these acts, this Human Rights Center made punctual interventions, directing documents to the Chiapas state government so that the necessary measures are adopted to avoid consequences difficult or impossible to repair.

The Frayba has documented other aggressions against the BAEZLN, among the recent ones: the murder of Señor José Luis Solís López “Teacher Galeano” and the destruction of the autonomous Zapatista clinic and school, last May 2 in the Autonomous Community of La Realidad, official municipality of Las Margaritas. Members of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), National Action Party (PAN) and members of the Independent Central of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos-Historic (CIOAC-H) perpetrated those acts just prior to the announced meeting of the National Indigenous Congress and the Homage that the EZLN was going to hold in memory of Don Luis Villoro.

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1. Another denunciation (in Spanish) of the La Garrucha Junta, because of aggressions from members of the Ejido Pojcol: El mal gobierno intensifica la campaña de contrainsurgencia, 7 de julio 2011. Disponible en: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2011/07/09/el-mal-gobierno-intensific…

Originally Published in Spanish by Frayba at: http://www.frayba.org.mx/archivo/boletines/140803_boletin_22_desplazamiento_baez.pdf