Five months into his term, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration intensifies counter-insurgent strategies against originary peoples who are EZLN bases of support.
Five years after the attack on the Zapatista autonomous project in the community of La Realidad, resulting in the yet unpunished extrajudicial killing of José Solís Lópezi (known as “Teacher Galeano”) the Mexican State has reaffirmed its commitment to war in a region where originary peoples are building a dignified life.
As of December 2018, the Mexican government has increased militarization in the territories of originary peoples who are bases of support for the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (BA-EZLN), most heavily in the Lacandón Jungle region,ii as part of a continuing counter-insurgent strategy to undermine autonomous projects in Chiapas, Mexico.
Drawing on documents produced by the Civil Observation Brigades (BriCO), the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) reports that since the end of 2018, the Mexican Army has doubled its incursions into the Caracoliii of La Realidad, seat of the Hacia la Esperanzaiv Good Government Council (official municipality of Las Margaritas). The BriCO observed 19 land patrols (by soldiers armed with machine guns) and five helicopter flyovers between January and April 2019. Particularly troubling is the steady increase in military movement and flyovers around the communities over the past month.v
These military incursions constitute acts of intimidation and harassment against the Zapatista originary peoples in resistance, an aggression against their right to autonomy and a risk to the life, integrity, and security of the entire population, [as the BriCO reported]: “We observed that the military vehicles often drove by the communities at high speeds, disregarding people, children, or animals in their path.”
In addition, Frayba has recorded two acts of espionage so far this year against the BriCo at the international observation camp located in La Realidad. These actions violate the personal integrity and security of those who monitor human rights violations in the region, work that is based on and carried out in congruence with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups, and Institutions to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
With the data collected by the BriCo, Frayba has verified the denunciation published by the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) in its communique on April 10 of this year: “Military, police, and paramilitary presence has increased in our mountains and valleys, as has the use of spies and informants. Military plane and helicopter flyovers and armored vehicles incursions have once again reappeared here.”vi
The militarization that continues under the new federal government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the state government of Rutilio Escandón Cadenas threatens the lives of the communities of originary peoples who defend their right to autonomy, self-determination, and territory in Chiapas.
It should be remembered that on May 2, 2014, when José Luis Solís López was killed through extrajudicial execution,vii members of the Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos-Histórica [CIOAC-H] also destroyed the autonomous school and health clinic and threatened to dismantle the Caracol known as Madre de los Caracoles del Mar de Nuestros Sueños.viii Rather than seeking justice and measures to resolve the conflict in a civil and peaceful manner, the National Department of Defense used these acts as a pretext to intensify militarization, something Frayba denounced as an act of intimidation.ix
We therefore call for national and international solidarity to strengthen the path toward peace and respect for human rights in the face of the risk of a new military offensive in Zapatista territories.
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México.
May 2, 2019.
Bulletin No. 7
Spanish Original: Estado mexicano incrementa militarización en territorios zapatistas
Footnotes
i At the juridical level, the perpetrators of these crimes were released from prison after one year, meaning that the murder continues to go unpunished five years later. Report: La Realidad, Context and War, May 2015.
ii Annex 1: Military Presence in La Realidad. April 2018 – April 2019. Frayba documentation and archive.
iii Zapatista political and cultural center, home to the Good Government Councils in each of five Zapatista zones.
iv “Towards Hope”
v Annex 1: Military Incursions in La Realidad. April 2018-April 2019. Frayba documentation and archive.
vi Message from the Zapatista Army for National Liberation on the 100th Anniversary of the Assassination of General Emiliano Zapata.
vii At the juridical level, the perpetrators of these crimes were released from prison after one year, meaning that the murder continues to go unpunished five years later. Report: La Realidad, Context and War, May 2015.
viii “Mother of the Caracoles of the Sea of our Dreams”
ix Report: Mexican Army harassment of the Zapatista Good Government Council in La Realidad, March 10, 2015.
