Two Zapatistas Disappeared in Chiapas

Communique from the AJMAQ Network of Resistances and Rebellions denouncing the disappearance of two Zapatistas in Ocosingo, Chiapas, and the ongoing counter-insurgent war against Zapatista communities.

To the People of the World

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the National and International Sixth

To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion

Sisters, brothers, compañeras and compañeroas, we denounce the hypocritical, deceitful, and corrupt discourse of the federal government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Chiapas state government of Rutilio Escandón Cadenas. They claim to respect the autonomies of Indigenous peoples when in reality they have implemented a series of counterinsurgency actions against the pathways of autonomy taken by the communities of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and their Support Bases.

Today we want to share that with the permission of the three levels of bad government—municipal, state and federal—two Zapatistas have been kidnapped. The two are members of the Good Government Council “Nuevo Amanecer en Resistencia y Rebeldia por la Vida y la Humanidad” in Caracol 10 “Floreciendo la Semilla Rebelde.”

The two members of the Good Government Council, José Antonio Sánchez Juárez and Sebastián Nuñez Pérez, left at 8am on September 11 from the headquarters of the council in a truck with plate number CW-0001-C. They were in route to another place to carry out a task for the council. When the council didn’t receive any information from the two, they began searching for them, finding their truck in the community of 7 de Febrero, in the municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas. It is important to mention that 7 de Febrero is the base of the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO). According to information, the two members of the Good Government Council were detained in what is legitimate EZLN territory, where the Rainbow Cooperative Store is, an expression of the autonomous Zapatista economy. Until now, Tuesday September 14, the Good Government Council has not been able to see the detained, verify their state of health nor their location, for which reason they are disappeared.

For several months now, ORCAO has perpetrated a series of criminal actions against the Support Bases of the EZLN of the autonomous community of Moisés-Gandhi. The most despicable acts took place in August 2020, when they looted, robbed, and burned down the Rainbow Cooperative Autonomous Store, and on November 8, 2020, when they kidnapped the compa Félix López Hernández. On April 12 of this year they also kidnapped two human rights defenders of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Cases Human Rights Center. Again, in September of this year, they continue with their criminal actions. This scale of violence orchestrated from the high levels of the federal government takes place within the context of the EZLN initiative “Travesia por la Vida Capitulo Europa,” an organizing initiative that seeks to expand, in a creative and peaceful manner, the seed of resistance and rebellion for humanity and Mother Earth. That is to say, for life.

We demand the live presentation of the EZLN Support Bases, José Antonio Sánchez Juárez and Sebastián Nuñez Pérez.

End the harassment against the autonomy and life being constructed by the EZLN!

Compañeros, Support Bases: You are not alone! If they touch one, they touch us all!

We call on the compañeros of the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion, adherents of the National and International Sixth, to demand the appearance of the compañeros, members of the Good Government Council.

Red de Resistencias y Rebeldías AJMAQ