Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Chiapas: Paramilitaries threaten to attack

translation | 24.08.2003 18:38 | Globalisation | Repression | Zapatista | World

Paramilitaries prepare attack on Caracol in Roberto Barrios

posted by "Direct Solidarity with Chiapas" - 24.08.2003 13:43
source. Imc Germany:  http://germany.indymedia.org/2003/08/60255.shtml
La Jornada, Sunday, 24 August 2004
Hermann Bellinghausen

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas., 23 August.
In the past hours, the alarming threats increased, which announce a violent eviction of the Caracols of Roberto Barrios by the PRI- ist paramilitaries from this and other communities of Palenque Barrios. According to information received by telphone by the local autonomous authorities this evening, the PRI-istas of the surrounding communities began to gather themselves in order to attack the Zapatistisa families.

The network of the community defenders for human rights (Red de Defensores Comunitarios por los Derechos Humanos) of the zone Salto de Agua-Palenque denounced today, that the hostilities of paramilitary groups against the Caracol "que habla para todos - that speaks for all" of Roberto Barrips, autonomous district El Trabajo, lasts for three days without interruption.

At midnight on the 21 August "the Paramilitaries of the Ejido Roberto Barrios, district Palenque, lead by Francisco Gómez Pérez, gathered to plan the eviction of the zapatistista population of the same community ", the network informed.

According to these informations, the paramilitaries receive the support of the district government and follow its commands, under leadership of the PRI-"Kaziken" Alfredo Cruz Guzmán. "To carry out the eviction they expect additionally the arrival of persons from other communities."


To attempt intimidation, the paramilitaries fired on the same Thursday, the 21 August, shots on the houses where the support bases of the EZLN spend the night, who work on the building of the facilities for the Caracols. Moreover, indigeneous workers, who construct the office of the "council of the goods government", received systematic threats on the part of the PRI-ist population of the community", continues the communiqué of the network.


"The paramilitary leader Francisco Gómez Pérez, has swears at and tried to force the population of the community to advocate actions against the Zapatistas."

The Council of the goods government of the region named "Semilla que va a producir" declared:" all this actions of provocation by the paramilitärs have the aim of destabilizing the autonomous organization of the communities.

As a result the network of the community defenders for human rights declared today its "deep worry", about the threat of the impending eviction of the zapatistista support bases of the Ejido Roberto Barrios, "as well as over the hostilities of the paramilitary groups, which apparently got strengthened by official support".


The community defenders confirmed: "These actions represent a handicap on exercising the liberty of the free self-determination of the people and to the right to a dignified life. We request that the responsible authorities intervene in this matter, examine these events and punish the responsibles before it comes to worse actions.


The human right organizations announced, that in the next hours a caravan of civil observers will leave for Roberto Barrios in order to examine the occurrences and to mark presence in the case that the PRI -istas try to commit the atrocities they intend to carry out today at night or tomorrow.

----
The "Direct Solidarity with Chiapas" group, Zurich, explains:


The tensions in the Zona Norte have increased, since the Zapatistas have inaugurated the new regional "Council of the goods government" fourteen days ago.
Especially a tourist project, which was planned to be realized in this region in the framework of the plan Puebla-Panamá, is at the centre of the arguments. This so-called "eco(logical) tourism"- project should have been originally realized in Roberto Barrios, but the opposition in this community prevented this. This project shall now be constructed in Puyapá just on the other side of the river Bascán.

In the last days, the Council of the good government denounced several assaults of the mexican federal army and the threatening activities of the paramilitaries.
Possibly it might come to a first power struggle between the paramilitaries and the new zapatistischen regional government in the Zona Norte of Chiapas, which has been very rich in conflicts for years. The paramilitaries were warned a month ago, that from that point on immediatedly they could no longer reckon on impunity in the uprising zone .

Fourteen days before the 5th WTO-Ministerkonferenz in Cancún the tensions increase in Chiapas not only in the indigenous communities. So the resignation demands against the government of Chiapas Salazar become more and more frequent based on the repression against social movements. In the course of the mobilization of teachers a driver was shot dead by unknown. Also in other federal states, political violence is a daily means.
We have reported about the assassination of Griselda Teresa Tirado in Puebla,a human rights lawyer (see communiqué of the 7.8.03).
On the 17 August Carlos Sánchez López, leader of the farmer organization Coalición Obrero Campesina y Estudiantil del Ismo (COCEI) was killed with a hammer and his corpse discovered in the streets of Juchitán.

translation
- e-mail: soli@chiapas.ch
- Homepage: http://www.chiapas.ch

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group — Mike
  2. Ya Basta — Jacks Draw
  3. down south — Riq quintano
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech