Mexico City | Desinformémonos. Residents of the autonomous region of Moisés y 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 (ORCOA) on Sunday night.
The shooting with high-caliber weapons began around 8 p.m. on February 11th, when members of ORCAO from the town of 7 de Febrero attacked Zapatista territory. Until 11 p.m., no injuries were reported, but the shooting continued.
This is a new attack by ORCAO against the BAEZLN of Moisés y Gandhi, which on January 19th 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 ORCAO attacks against the EZLN have been a constant in the Moisés y 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”, the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” (TDT Network) emphasized in the statement on the displacements in January of this year.
The forced displacement on January 19th was the result of around 40 members of ORCAO arriving with firearms, machetes and sticks to La Resistencia two days before, where they destroyed the Autonomous Primary School and 15 houses made of tin and wood, and burned books of the education promoters, robbed a store, destroyed nearby crops and scattered stored food such as corn, beans, coffee and sugar.
The organizations that make up the Network denounced “the permissiveness and complicity of the Mexican State” given the 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.
source: schoolsforchiapas.org