Paramilitaries Attack Zapatista Support Bases, Set Fire to Autonomous School

Communique from the AJMAQ Network of Resistance and Rebellion denouncing the recent paramilitary attack carried out against Zapatista Support Bases and the burning of an autonomous Zapatista secondary school.

To the People of the World

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the National and International Sixth

To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion

As the AJMAQ Network of Resistance and Rebellion, adherents of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, we denounce the cowardly armed attack suffered by our compañeros and compañeras Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. These Support Bases belong to the Autonomous community of Moisés and Gandhi, pertaining to the Good Government Council “Nuevo Amanecer en Resistencia y Rebeldia por la Vida y la Humanidad” Caracol 10 Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde. The attack was carried out by paramilitaries of the Regional Organization of Ocosingo Coffee Growers (ORCAO).

At 10am, ORCAO paramilitaries from the community of San Antonio las Flores, inside the February 7 Region, went to check water lines. After only a few minutes of checking the lines, they began shooting from different locations toward the community of Moisés y Gandhi.

As they were shooting intermittently, several high caliber bullets impacted three houses of the community, putting the community’s Zapatista Support Bases at risk.

The armed attack continued throughout the day. At 4:30 in the afternoon a group of paramilitaries approached the community’s Autonomous Zapatista Secondary School, “Siguiendo el Caminar de los 2 Mártires,” setting fire to three classrooms, burning them instantly. It is important to remember that the autonomous school suffered an armed attack on October 14 by ORCAO. Today they carried out their threat and intent to put an end to autonomous education.

This group of paramilitaries has carried out actions under the protection of the municipal authorities of Ocosingo, where the poorly named Green Party governs (an extension of the PRI who does the dirty work for MORENA), and whose principal leader is a functionary of the municipality. They act under the protection of the governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas in exchange for votes that the Green Party gave him to become governor of Chiapas. A favor paid back with a favor.

Among the actions carried out by the paramilitary group, which have been denounced publicly yet remain in total impunity, are: the looting, robbery, and burning of the Rainbow Store on August 22, 2020, located at the Cushuljá intersection, in the municipality of Ocosingo.

On November 8, 2020, the Good Government Council of Patria Nueva denounced “the kidnapping and torture of a compañero Zapatista Support Base of the community of San Isidro, annex of Moisés y Gandhi, by the ORCAO paramilitary organization.”

On September 11, 2021, the paramilitary group kidnapped two members of the Good Government Council, José Antonio Sánchez Juárez and Sebastian Núñez Pérez, holding them incommunicado until September 19.

Faced with the acts carried out by the ORCAO paramilitaries, the complicity of the municipal government of the Green Party, along with the state and federal government of MORENA,

We demand:

An immediate end to the aggressions against the autonomous community of Moisés y Gandhi.

An end to the counterinsurgency against the Zapatista communities initiated by the PRI, continued by the PAN, and implemented now by MORENA.

Respect for the autonomies being constructed by the EZLN in their rebel territory.

Below and to the left is the heart.

They are not alone!

AJMAQ Network of Resistance and Rebellion