The official denialism favors impunity of the aggressors: Frayba

By: Antonio Heras, Correspondent
Mexicali, Baja California

On Sunday morning, members of the Mexicali Resissste Movement protested the armed attacks against communities of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) in Chiapas. EZLN sympathizers also demonstrated yesterday in Puebla and in Veracruz on Saturday.

Stop the war against the Zapatista peoples, said a group of activists in the agricultural area of Mexicali, capital of Baja California.

The demonstration, called by the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations, responds to the aggressions suffered in recent days in the autonomous municipality of Lucio Cabañas (Ocosingo), which include the burning of plots of land. The group accused the Regional Organization of Ocosingo Coffee Growers (ORCAO), which has been described as a paramilitary group, of these acts.

Puebla activists demanded that the Chiapas authorities, as well as those of the federal government, stop the war against the Zapatista peoples. They also expressed their solidarity with the populations affected by the paramilitary attacks.

On Saturday, a group of EZLN supporters demonstrated in Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada Square in Xalapa, Veracruz, to demand an end to paramilitary attacks in Chiapas territory.

Last Friday, during his morning press conference, held in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador explained that attacks against Zapatista communities in Chiapas are not widespread.

Later, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) asserted that the denial of this violence deepens the impunity promoted by municipal, state and federal actors that contribute to dispossession, exploitation and social marginalization, in addition to exacerbating the human rights crisis.

It denounced the systematic attacks against the political project of autonomy of the EZLN, led by corporatist armed groups, which have perpetrated, since 2019, more than 110 armed attacks against the Zapatista communities that belong to the region of Moisés Gandhi.

In a document, it said the attacks have included burning of schools and coffee warehouses, armed assaults, torture, kidnappings and serious injuries.

The Frayba indicated that it has asked state and federal authorities to guarantee the life and integrity of the communities, but they have been ignored. At the same time, it added, the armed group responsible, the ORCAO, acts with total impunity.

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada, Monday, June 26, 2023, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2023/06/26/estados/030n1est and Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee