ORCAO Armed Paramilitaries Attack And Burn the Zapatista Autonomous Middle School in Moisés and Gandhi

Artwork by Taller Ahuehuete.

November 21, 2021
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. November 21, 2021.

To the Peoples of the World
To the Indigenous Governing Council
To the National Indigenous Congress
To the National and International Sexta
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellions

As the Ajmaq Network of Resistance and Rebellion, adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, we denounce the cowardly armed attack suffered by our compañeros and compañeras Bases of Support of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN), of the Moises and Gandhi Autonomous Community, belonging to the Good Government Council “New Dawn in Resistance and Rebellion for Life and Humanity,” Caracol 10 Flourishing the Rebel Seed, by paramilitaries of the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO).

ORCAO paramilitaries from the community of San Antonio Las Flores, which is also part of the Siete de Febrero region, at 10:00 a.m. went to check the water pipes. They had only checked them for a few moments, when they began to shoot from different points towards the community of Moisés and Gandhi.

They were shooting intermittently, several high caliber shots hit three houses in the community, putting the BAEZLN of the community at risk.

The armed attack continued and at 4:30 in the afternoon, a group of paramilitaries approached the Zapatista Autonomous Secondary School Siguiendo el Caminar de los  2 Mártires” (“Following the Path of the 2 Martyrs”) of the community and set fire to three classrooms, burning them instantly. It is worth remembering that on October 14 the Autonomous School suffered an armed attack by ORCAO, and today they carried out their threat and their attempt to put an end to autonomous education.

This group of paramilitaries has carried out actions under the protection of authorities of the municipality of Ocosingo where the misnamed Green Party (an offshoot of the PRI that plays dirty with Morena) governs, where its main leader is an official of the municipality. They act under the protection of Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas in exchange for votes that the Green Party gave him to become governor of Chiapas. Favor is repaid with favor.

The actions they have carried out have been publicly denounced, however they have remained in total impunity — the looting, robbery and burning of the Arco Iris store on August 22, 2020, located in the Cuxuljá crossroads, municipality of Ocosingo.

On November 8, 2020 the Good Government Council of Patria Nueva denounced “the kidnapping and torture of a comrade Zapatista Support Base from the community of San Isidro, annex of Moises and Gandhi, by the paramilitary organization called ORCAO.”

On September 11, 2021 the paramilitary group kidnapped two members of the Good Government Council, José Antonio Sánchez Juárez and Sebastián Núñez Pérez, holding them hostage and disappeared until September 19.

In the face of acts carried out by the paramilitaries of the ORCAO, the complicity of the municipal government of the Green, the State and Federal Morena party,

We demand:

Immediate cessation of aggressions against the autonomous community of Moses and Gandhi,

Enough of the counterinsurgency against the Zapatista communities initiated with the PRI, continued with the PAN and now implemented under  Morena.

Respect for the Autonomies that the EZLN is building in its rebel territory.

The Heart is Below and to the Left 
You are not alone!!!!!

Red de Resistencia y Rebeldía Ajmaq

This denunciation was published by the Ajmaq Network of Resistand and Rebellion on November 21, 2021. https://redajmaq.org/es/ataque-armado-y-quema-de-la-secundaria-autonoma-zapatista-de-moises-y-gandhi-por-para-de-la-orcao English translation by Taller Ahuehuete and Schools for Chiapas.

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