After nearly 25 years of impunity, the family of disappeared Zapatista Antonio González Mendez and Frayba bring a historical case against the Mexican state for the context of counterinsurgency that still reigns terror today. As Magdalena Gomez points out, it is not just about the case of one person, but about the essential precedent of recognizing the truth of the State’s role in these crimes.
Chiapas 94 Campaign Plan. This plan had as its strategic-operational objective “to destroy the EZLN’s will to fight, isolating it from the civilian population and achieving the support of the latter, for the benefit of the Army’s operations”. The tactical objectives of Plan Chiapas 94 included “to destroy and/or disorganize the political and military structure of the EZLN”. For this purpose, together with intelligence, psychological, population control and logistical operations, it instructed to organize, train, advise and support “self-defense forces or other paramilitary organizations” (sic). And it added: “In case there are no self-defense forces, it is necessary to create them”. It was ordered to “secretly organize certain sectors of the civil population – among others, cattle ranchers, small landowners and individuals characterized with a high sense of patriotism – who will be employed on orders in support of our operations”.
Schools for Chiapas was present at the press conference convened by Frayba today in response to the latest aggression in the Zapatista autonomous community of Moisés y Ghandi. Here is their statement.
With outrage, we denounce 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 along with the theft of the belongings of the peasants who were in the camp. ALARMINGLY, 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 THEIR LOCATION BEING KNOWN, AND COMPAÑERA ADELA SEVERO TEODORO WAS BEATEN BY MEMBERS OF THESE ARMED FORCES. In this context, we denounce, as on other occasions, the intentional use of military and police forces by the state to rape women and generate terror.
Last February 7th, 198 people in the municipality of Las Margaritas, Chiapas, had their homes destroyed for not joining the “social organization” of the mayor of Las Margaritas, Chiapas. Curiously, the attack was also apparently prompted by their refusal to leave the CIOAC-H an organization with a history of paramilitary activity since February 2014.
