Those displaced in Chilón demand justice!
By: Isaín Mandujano
TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Chiapas (apro)
Two years after the forced displacement of which they were victims, some 59 indigenous Tzeltal families from two communities in the municipio de Chilón, demanded that the state and federal governments intervene immediately to put an end to the precarious conditions in which they have lived after being dispossessed of their houses and their inherited wealth.
By means of a letter, leaders of those displaced from Carmen San José and San Antonio Patbaxil communities in the municipality of Chilón, denounced that they have been victims of the injustice and ineptitude of local, state and federal authorities, who have not been able to give adequate attention or provide concrete solutions in actions that contribute to the safe return of the displaced families.
The remembered that as of this Monday (June 8) they have been dispossessed from their homes and lands because of the armed group called “Pechtoneros,” a criminal group from the Pechtón Ic’osilja community in Chilón.
This is a group, they said, which to date has not been dismantled, despite the denunciations made and the initiation of investigative notebooks in the local district attorney general’s office, as of today no advances in this work have been presented to the victims.
And, local authorities have not executed the precautionary measures issued, although we know that they continue sending their reports as if everything is in order.
They denounced the lack of commitment of the different levels of local, state and federal government to resolve the problems of the forced displacement of the 34 families from the community of Carmen San José, as well as the 25 families from San Antonio Patbaxil, municipality of Chilón, Chiapas.
Demands
They warned about the vulnerability of displacement in which the communities of Juan Sabines and Tsubute’el in the municipality of Chilón and the community of Santa Cruz in the municipality of Sitala are found, due to the harassment and threats from armed groups.
They also denounced the lack of responsibility on the part of the Attorney General of Justice to give timely follow-up to the investigative case records and the execution of the orders of apprehension, as well as informing the victims about this follow-up and the non-implementation of the precautionary measures issued to the displaced families.
They stated their concern for the displaced families who are living in inhumane conditions due to the lack of a dignified place to live, the lack of economic resources to acquire food and necessary products, as well as those needed to care for their illnesses.
“Before the Covid-19 pandemic that today afflicts the country, the displaced are groups vulnerable to the lack of spaces to respect a healthy distance,” they said.
They demanded that the state and local government authorities intervene and facilitate the prompt return of the families displaced from the communities of Carmen San José and San Antonio Patbaxil.
They asked that they effectuate the execution of the arrest warrants against the aggressors and the effective implementation of the precautionary measures that the CNDH and the CEDH issued to those displaced since they are vulnerable due to the denunciations they have made.
As well as the restitution of the damages caused by this forced displacement and of which they have been victims for two years and practically forgotten by the local government, but above all they demanded justice, health, food and education for the displaced families.
Those displaced announced this Monday that the peoples and groups in situations of forced displacement should not be victims of the State’s justice system, which prevent advancing in the search for solutions and not achieving justice with strict adherence to collective rights.
They pointed out again that Chilón has been the scene of great Collective Rights violations, of which the Community Government has been both a witness and a victim.
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Originally Published in Spanish by Proceso
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee
Chiapas Support Committee 