By Desinformemonos | February 12, 2024

Mexico City | Desinformémonos. Residents of the autonomous region of Moisés & Gandhi, Chiapas, reported a new armed attack against the Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN) by the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO) this past Sunday night.

The assault with high-caliber weapons began around 8 p.m. on February 11, when members of ORCAO from the town of 7 de Febrero attacked Zapatista territory. There were no wounded reported as of 11 p.m but the shootings continued.

This is a new aggression by ORCAO against the BAEZLN of Moisés & Gandhi, which on January 19 recorded the forced displacement of 28 Zapatistas, including ten girls and boys, from the La Resistencia community due to the violence of the paramilitary group in the region.

“The aggressions of the ORCAO towards the EZLN have been a constant in the Moisés & Gandhi area, which has caused a continuity of serious violations of human rights in the region such as forced displacement, torture, forced disappearance and attempted homicides,” emphasized the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” (TDT Network, Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes”) in the statement on the displacements in January of this year.

The forced displacement on January 19 was the result of two days before, around 40 members of ORCAO arrived with firearms, machetes and sticks to La Resistencia, where they destroyed the Autonomous Primary School and 15 houses made of tin and wood, and burned the books of the education promoters, robbed a store, destroyed nearby crops and threw away stored food such as maize, beans, coffee and sugar.

The organizations that make up the TDT Network denounced “the permissiveness and compicity of the Mexican State” in the face of violence against the autonomous territories and stressed the urgency for the federal and Chiapas governments to carry out an “immediate and diligent” investigation that leads to ending “this climate of violence.”

With information from La Jornada.

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Published by Desinformemonos on February 12, 2024 available here. Translated by the Chiapas Support Committee.

Photo by Desinformemonos. Banner reads: No more paramilitaries in Zapatista communities.