Update: Nuevo San Gregorio Urgent Action:

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
June 10, 2022
Urgent Action No. 06
Third Update

  • Human rights observation work in Nuevo San Gregorio has been obstructed.
  • Group of aggressors is tolerated by the Mexican State and the inhabitants of the Zapatista community are at risk of forced displacement.
  • Death threats against human rights defenders.

Yesterday, June 9, 2022, the Civil Observation Brigades (BriCO) installed in the Zapatista village Nuevo San Gregorio, Autonomous Rebel Zapatista Rebel Municipality Lucio Cabañas in Chiapas, Mexico (official municipality of Huixtán) and the Good Government Council “Nuevo Amanecer en Resistencia por la Vida y la Humanidad”, Caracol 10 “Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde” (New Dawn in Resistance for Life and Humanity); have documented new attacks that put at risk the life, security and personal integrity of 6 families Bases of Support of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN).

At 7:23 a.m., 19 members of the aggressor group entered and began to cut down trees to reinforce the wire fence that they illegally installed two and a half years ago in the town. At 1:27 p.m. they gathered in front of the center of the village, where the BAEZLN’s work and meeting point is located, aggressively insulting the population and especially the BriCOs. They made death threats against them and members of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), before leaving at 14:38 hours.

These new threats constitute a risk to the physical and psychological integrity of the people and a clear obstacle to international observation based on the Mexican Constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the right and duty of individuals, groups and institutions to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, which has been signed and ratified by the Mexican State.

Frayba has informed the three levels of government on multiple occasions of the constant aggressions against the BAEZLN of Nuevo San Gregorio, who remain in resistance and defense of the territory recovered since 1994. Faced with these circumstances, there is an imminent risk to the rights to life, security and personal integrity because the aggressor group has threatened to forcibly displace and close the houses where the BAEZLN live, which would cause damages that are impossible to repair and to the human rights observers who are in the area.

The BAEZLN are defending their land and territory in a context of constant violence, threats and assassinations by armed groups on their lands and natural resources. In the Autonomous town of Nuevo San Gregorio, it has been difficult to plant crops due to territorial dispossession, causing a lack of basic foodstuffs for the people. These events continue to occur under the observation of the federal and state governments, led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Rutilio Escandón Cadenas.

The Mexican State is indifferent and negligent in implementing effective action to deactivate the violence against the BAEZLN, who are defenders, caretakers and guardians of their territory, the administration of these facts, can generate a situation of greater scope in serious violations of human rights. Frayba demands and urges the immediate intervention of the Mexican government in an effective manner to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and the general population of the Zapatista people of Nuevo San Gregorio, framed in the Law for Dialogue, Conciliation and Dignified Peace in Chiapas, the San Andres Accords, Convention 169 of the ILO, the Declarations of the Organization of American States and on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations and our Mexican Constitution, to respect the Land and Territory where the Zapatista Army of National Liberation builds autonomy and self-determination.

We also ask the national and international Civil Society condemn these attacks by signing this urgent action and show their solidarity actions by sending expressions of condemnation of the negligence of the Mexican State and the increase of violence in the community of Nuevo San Gregorio, to:

Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico
Email: amlo@presidencia.gob.mx y gobmx@funcionpublica.gob.mx
Twitter: @lopezobrador_

Lic. Alejandro de Jesús Encinas Rodríguez. Undersecretary of Human Rights, Population and Migration.
Email: ajencinas@segob.gob.mx y projasm@segob.gob.mx
Twitter: @A_Encinas_R

?? President of the National Commission on Human Rights
Email: correo@cndh.org.mx Twitter: @CNDH.

Lic. Rutilio Escandón Cadenas. Constitutional Governor of the State of Chiapas. 
Email: secparticular@chiapas.gob.mx
Twitter: @RutilioEscandon


Last Update: May 20, 2022 Update
Urgent Action No. 06

  • The attacks against the autonomy of the Zapatista community of Nuevo San Gregorio by an aggressor group condoned by the three levels of government are intensifying.
  • Threats against Zapatista autonomy deepen, they surround the lands of the Autonomous High School.
  • The Mexican State is responsible and complicit in the actions that threaten Zapatista autonomy.

Yesterday the Civil Observation Brigades (BriCO) based in the town of Nuevo San Gregorio of the Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipality Lucio Cabañas in Chiapas, Mexico (official municipality of Huixtán) and the Good Government Council “Nuevo Amanecer en Resistencia por la Vida y la Humanidad”, Caracol 10 “Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde” (Flourishing the Rebel Seed); have documented new attacks that put at risk the life, security and personal integrity of 6 families Bases of Support of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN).

At 8:29 a.m., the aggressor group again removed the barbed wire next to the Autonomous High School, which has been closed for approximately two and a half years due to constant aggressions. The BAEZLN are in resistance and defense of their recuperated territory. Under these circumstances, there is a great risk to life, security and integrity because the aggressor group has threatened to forcibly displace and close the houses where they live, which would cause harm to the BAEZLN, and to human rights observers in solidarity.

The BAEZLN are defending their land and territory in a context of constant violence, threats and assassinations by armed groups on their lands and natural resources. In the town of Nuevo San Gregorio, it has been difficult to plant crops due to territorial dispossession, causing a lack of basic foodstuffs for the people. These facts continue to happen under the supervision of the governments of: Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the federal level and Rutilio Escandón Cadenas at the State level; the Mexican State is indifferent and negligent in implementing effective action to deactivate the violence against the BAEZLN, who are defenders and caretakers of their territory. The aforementioned can generate a situation of greater scope in serious violations of human rights.

Therefore, from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, we strongly  urge the effective intervention of the Mexican government  in compliance with the collective rights of the Zapatista People of Nuevo San Gregorio, in accordance with the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Dignified Peace, the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Dignified Peace in Chiapas, the San Andres Accords, ILO Convention 169, the OAS and UN Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our Magna Carta, to respect the autonomy and self-determination of the Territory recovered by the EZLN.

We also ask the national and international Civil Society for their solidarity actions by sending expressions of condemnation of the negligence of the Mexican State and the increase of violence in the community of Nuevo San Gregorio, to:

Last alert: May 11, 2022

  • Acts of violence against the Zapatista community of Nuevo San Gregorio continue.
  • Mexican State responsible for aggressions against communities exercising autonomy.

According to information gathered by the Civil Observation Brigades (BriCO) installed in the Nuevo San Gregorio community of the Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Rebel Municipality Lucio Cabañas in Chiapas, Mexico (official municipality of Huixtán) and the Good Government Council “Nuevo Amanecer en Resistencia por la Vida y la Humanidad”, Caracol 10 “Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde” (Flourishing the Rebel Seed); there has been an increase in violence against the community, which puts the life, security and personal integrity of 6 families at risk, as well as the support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).

On May 8, 2022, the aggressor group once again dispossessed part of the territory of the Nuevo San Gregorio community, and also introduced cattle that destroyed the water pipe that supplies the EZLN Support Bases. On May 9, 2022, the intimidations continued, the aggressor group with machetes and slingshots maintained constant vigilance, while the EZLN Support Bases fixed the water pipe. That same day the group of aggressors began to measure the territory, dividing the remaining work sites of the EZLN Support Bases. On that day, the presence of a Tsuru-type vehicle with the sticker of the organization Coordinadora de Organizaciones por el Medio Ambiente para un Chiapas Mejor (COMACH) (Coordinator of Organizations for the Environment for a Better Chiapas) was documented.

Everyday the group of aggressors continues its presence in the territory, provoking the Bases of Support with verbal threats, the autonomous secondary school and the collective cattle pastures were taken, which caused the death of 4 cows, the destruction of the fish breeding pond and the cutting down of timber and fruit trees, resulting in economic losses for the EZLN Bases of Support.

This has hindered the planting of crops and therefore a nutritious, sufficient and quality diet, as well as insufficient access to drinking water and education for children.

This context of aggressions against Zapatista territory is the result of the events of May 2 and 5, 2022, in the community of Moises and Gandhi where 83 Support Bases of the EZLN were forced to move from the towns of Emiliano Zapata and La Resistencia, after the attack perpetrated by an armed group with presence in the territory.

This is in addition to the indifference of the Mexican State to implement effective action to deactivate the violence, in the face of the interventions that this Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center has carried out due to the risk to life, food security, safety and personal integrity of the Support Bases, defenders and caretakers of their territory.

We ask national and international solidarity to express their condemnation of the Mexican State’s negligence and the increase of violence in the Nuevo San Gregorio community by signing the Urgent Action at the bottom of this page:

https://frayba.org.mx/220511_au06

Urgent Action posted by FrayBa Center for Human Rights on May 11th and May 20th, 2022. https://frayba.org.mx/220511_au06 English translation by Schools for Chiapas.

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