URGENT ACTION: Forced displacement of 28 Zapatistas in the
Moisés y Gandhi region
By signing this Urgent Action you will automatically send an email to government authorities to demand that they stop the violence in the Zapatista communities. See the list of people and entities to whom your petition will be sent, at the end of this post.
- A new outbreak of violence in the region with the complicity of the State.
- It is urgent to prevent and guarantee the right to territory, self-determination and autonomy.
On January 19, 2024, 28 people were forcibly displaced from the Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN), inhabitants of the Local Autonomous Government, La Resistencia community in the region of Moisés and Gandhi. Among the displaced persons are ten children. The displacement was committed by a group of more than 40 members of the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO) who carried firearms, machetes and sticks.
During the attack, the Autonomous Elementary School was destroyed, 15 houses made of tin and wood were destroyed, books belonging to the education promoters were burned, and a store was robbed. The community was stripped of various material goods: backyard animals, work tools, a coffee pulper and tortilla presses. They destroyed nearby crops and threw away stored foodstuffs such as corn, beans, coffee and sugar.
According to the information received, on January 17, 2024 the community was threatened. The aggressor group arrived at the Zapatista village of La Resistencia, carrying sticks and machetes. At this time they stated that the BAEZLN had two days to abandon their homes. In the same region, on January 19, 2024, 54 people from the ORCAO de Sacrificio La Esperanza arrived to burn a pasture belonging to the BAEZLN in the town of Emiliano Zapata, leaving the grazing animals without food.
We are concerned about the permissiveness and collusion of the Mexican State. Through information received by this office, we document that on January 14, 2024, the municipal councilman of Ocosingo inaugurated a municipal office of ORCAO in the space taken from the BAEZLN in November 2021, where the Zapatista collective store “Arcoíris” was located at the Cuxuljá highway junction.
We remember that ORCAO’s aggressions against the EZLN have been a constant in the area of Moises and Gandhi, which has caused a continuity of serious human rights violations in the region such as forced displacement, torture, forced disappearance and attempted homicides.
On May 5, 2022, the La Resistencia community was forcibly displaced in a similar attack, as reported by this organization. On May 23, 2023, Jorge López Sántiz BAEZLN neighbor of Moisés and Gandhi was the victim of an armed aggression that put his life at serious risk.
We demand that the Federal Government and the State of Chiapas:
To guarantee respect for the territory of the BAEZLN, for their self-determination and autonomy, as well as for a life free of violence.
An immediate and diligent investigation should be carried out to determine a path that prioritizes ending this climate of violence and adopting actions aimed at repairing the damage and initiating a process of justice.
We request that the following authorities take urgent action:
Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Constitutional President of México
amlo@presidencia.gob.mx
Lic. Luisa María Alcalde
Secretary of the Interior
atencionciudadana@segob.gob.mx
Lic. Alejandro Gertz Manero
Attorney General of the Republic
ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Lic. Rutilio Escandón Cadenas
Constitutional Governor of the State of Chiapas
secparticular@chiapas.gob.mx
Lic. Victoria Cecilia Flores Pérez
General Secretary of Government in Chiapas
secretariaparticular.sgg@gmail.com
Lic. Olaf Gomez Hernandez
Attorney General of the State of Chiapas
staff_secretarial@fge.chiapas.gob.mx
Lic. Juan José Zepeda Bermúdez
President of the State Commission of Human Rights
presidencia@cedh-chiapas.org
Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes” (Red TDT)