Chiapas: Autonomous Community Issues Ultimatum to Government over Paramilitary Blockade

Editor’s Note: Ejido Tila announced on Saturday that they were successful in removing the paramilitary blockade of their lands. We post this to inform readers of the repression Ejido Tila continues to be subjected to by the Chiapas state government.

Ejido Tila, Chiapas, June 8, 2017

URGENT NOTICE

To the general public and those responsible:

We send this URGENT call to give one last opportunity for the small group of taxi drivers granted concessions[i] by the government of Chiapas who, coordinated by paramilitary leaders, have completely blockaded the highway that leads from Tila to Yajalón, Limar, and Chulum Juárez in three places, to leave voluntarily. They are not authorized to control our territory, which is fully ejidal territory; they have already blocked this highway for 72 hours, affecting the families of the ejidatarios, residents and avecindados,[ii]  and our pueblo[iii] has tired of their blackmail, lies, and provocations.

We give NOTICE that in these moments our ejidal guard together with other compañeros have mobilized to block all entrances to the pueblo so as not to let them in. This is the LAST OPPORTUNITY and the means we are taking so that they withdraw and leave immediately. We remind them that this Territory is under the authority of the General Assembly of Ejido Tila, of its Autonomy and Self-Government, and this has already been told to them on several occasions, but they don’t pay attention because they want to control transportation inside of our town and continue abusing us with high rates because they have a monopoly on the taxi concessions. The pueblo is not going to permit this.

WE DEMAND that the State Government immediately withdraw its people from our territory, because it is their transport concessions that are blocking the way and creating the provocation because they want to control our territory. They are coordinated by: Francisco Arturo Sánchez, a teacher from the state government’s education system in the community 18 de Marzo located in Ejido Tiontiepá zone 151, son of the paramilitary leader Arturo Sánchez; Adelaida and Rodrigo Martinez Parcero, hospital personnel from the Chiapan Ministry of Health; Moisés Cornelio Trujillo, secretary from city hall; and Sandra Luz Cruz, representative. We tell the bad government that it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to stop the provocations by their governmental personnel and avoid a tragedy.

The General Assembly will be called to meet because the people are demanding that, as autonomous and self-governing, we take measures against this little group that wants to rule over the pueblo, and in passing this problem into the hands of our maximum authority they are not going to allow a small group of provocateurs[iv] to control the roads and the territory that belong to us and for which we have fought and will continue fighting. If the determination is that they have to be removed, tragic events could occur, which is what the bad government is looking for in order to send its state and federal police. We clarify that we do not carry weapons but the personnel who are blockading us, directed by the paramilitary chiefs, are indeed carrying firearms. If they do end up hurting one of our comrades they will provoke a misfortune because our people are thousands and they are not going to allow someone to be killed by one of the few who form this little group. And the bad government of Chiapas and its groups of provocateurs and paramilitaries will be responsible.

We ask the support of compañeros and compañeras and honest people to immediately demand the bad government of Chiapas to withdraw its people and stop all the threats from the criminal groups that want to end our construction of ejidal Autonomy and Self-government in our Chol[v] pueblo of Tila.

SINCERELY
LAND AND FREEDOM

ORGANS OF EJIDAL REPRESENTATION
NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US
FOR THE INTEGRAL RECONSTITUTION OF OUR PUEBLOS
LONG LIVE THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS AND THE INDIGENOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL FOR MEXICO

[i]Translator: This refers to essentially a license to legally operate a taxi service. They are very expensive but sometimes granted by the government for free as a way to buy people off and/or gain collaborators. The details in this situation are unknown to the translator.

[ii]Tr: Ejidatarios are users of semi-communal agricultural lands called ejidos. Avecindados are elderly people who have resided within the populated core of an ejidal community for a year or more and have been recognized as such by the ejidal assembly. Neither linguistic nor legal equivalents of these two words/concepts exist, to my knowledge, in English. If you speak Spanish and would like more information about the ins and outs of Mexican legal concepts and categories, check out http://definicionlegal.blogspot.mx/.

[iii]Tr: Pueblo has been kept in Spanish in several cases because it is widely understood by English speakers and it contains a unique combination of the ideas of “small rural community” and “people” that are undistinguished from each other and to which there is no English equivalent.

[iv]Tr: This is not written or translated in the specific political sense of agents provocateurs, but rather as in those who simply provoke or seek to provoke a fight.

[v]Tr: Chol is an indigenous ethnicity.