CIPOG-EZ Denounces State, Paramilitary and Narco-Paramilitary Violence against Indigenous Communities in Resistance

Indigenous communities of the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ) denounce recent paramilitary attacks against the Zapatistas in Chiapas, and the ongoing violent attacks on Indigenous communities throughout the territory of so-called Mexico.

As Indigenous men, women, children and elders of the state of Guerrero—NaSavi, Me´pháá, Nahua, Ñamnkué, Mestizos and Afro Mexican—organized in the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ), together with our brothers and sisters of the Campesino Organization of the Southern Sierra (O.C.S.S.), we do not forget our assassinated compañeros. We do not forget how we have been repressed again and again. We do not forget how the bad PRI, PAN, PRD, and now MORENA governments have mocked us again and again.

They think the most important thing is to fool us with their so-called “dialogue tables” where some government functionaries sit down to tell us lies, saying they are going to resolve this and they are going to resolve that. Time goes by and they don’t resolve anything. They think, like that, they can mock and laugh at us. They think that we are stupid and ignorant. On the other hand, they make plans to kill us as soon as they can. They are accomplices with paramilitary bosses—narco-paramilitary that is—landowners, assassins and anyone else who is willing to control our territories and who doesn’t care about life, in any of its meanings.

That is what they do to us in Guerrero, just as they are doing to our brothers of the CNI-CIG throughout the entire country; just as they are doing in Chiapas to our brothers of the autonomous Zapatista communities. They are shooting at everyone of all ages. They burned a Zapatista coffee storage warehouse seeking to destroy their economy. They invade and fence off Zapatista territories. They cause hunger, and they are defaming them with lies. Our Zapatista brothers and sisters have shown much patience in not falling into the provocations. These provocations are not new. For years, for decades, the same thing has been done to the Zapatista communities and it will not stop. By maintaining those crimes in impunity, the only thing the government is doing is giving power to the paramilitaries.

They have done the same to us of the CIPOG-EZ. It is exactly the same strategy and the same forms, only in Guerrero. Besides the paramilitaries who are killing us, there are also narcos who are killing us. That is why we call them narco-paramilitaries. But it is the same exact formula of the bad governments to destroy our organization, just as they do to our Zapatista brothers, and to the Indigenous peoples throughout Mexico. We know this because we have heard experiences directly from the people in the National Indigenous Congress and this has not stopped, but has only become worse.

Mr. Lopez Obrador wants to see us dead because we are in the way of his plans for the country. But in that country, there is no room for us. He says that he obeys the people, but that is not the truth. He only learned how to keep some people happy, while fucking over the others. Because he’s already been in office two years—it isn’t that he just entered office—he knows the situation of our Zapatista brothers and sisters. He’s know the situation for a long time, yet he doesn’t do anything. He ignores them. Before he took photos with them, using them as he has used all Indigenous people, to act as if he is a good person. And it’s not that he doesn’t know who the criminals are. Their names have always been said clearly.

In Guerrero, the narco-paramilitary bosses that assassinated eighteen of our grassroots compañeros, organizers, delegates and councilors of the CIPOG-EZ and CNI-CIG, they continue free, attacking and laughing at us. The government knows well who they are and they don’t do anything to bring justice to the families and punish those responsible. As such, two things are happening. Either the government is accomplice, organized at all three levels of government, or the government is accomplice in another way, letting narco-paramilitaries kill us so as to not deal with our demands.

Whatever the case, they are both equally cruel, inhumane and contrary to their so-called legality and so-called human rights.

The only thing that the government is achieving with so much mockery and repression, is that we are shedding our fear of dying. They are killing us and nobody does anything. Not the governments, not international organizations, nobody. They kill us like animals and nothing happens.

We die due to malnutrition and nothing happens. We die in the hands of criminals and nothing happens. And if we ask that AMLO tell us clearly how the investigation is going into the assassinations of our eighteen brothers and sisters? The truth is that he doesn’t care. He now eats dinner in grand palaces. It is easy for him to tell Encinas or Adelfo, “trick them to make them think you are helping them.” They quickly get tired and don’t bother anymore.

Our Zapatista brothers and sisters of the EZLN are not alone. We have decided to break the paramilitary siege that for more than a year they have imposed on our communities. The local, state and federal governments have ignored our pain and our death. We demand an end to the war against the Zapatista communities and the National Indigenous Congress. End the narco-paramilitary war against the CIPOG-EZ.

They think that we are beggars and they can entertain us with crumbs, but we want justice now! We have been patient, going and sitting in front of them, to see their faces as they mock us. We’ve had enough.  There’s nothing left than to go out and die. If their authorized narco-paramilitary groups are going to assassinate us, let the world know. We will break the narco-paramilitary siege. This coming Wednesday, November 18^th, 2020, at exactly noon, we will be taking the Chilpancingo-Tlapa highway, in the community of Papaxtla, in the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez.

Sincerely,

Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ)

Regions: Costa Chica, Costa Montaña, Montaña Alta y Montaña Baja de Guerrero

Campesina Organization of the Southern Sierra (O.C.S.S.)

End the paramilitary war against the Zapatista communities of the EZLN!

End the narco-paramilitary war against the Indigenous communities of the CNI-CIG!

Justice for all the prisoners, assassinated and disappeared of the National Indigenous Congress!