Communiqué from the Good Government Council “Heart of the Rainbow of Hope”

Words of Caracol IV Torbellino

By The Good Government Council
Enlace Zapatista

February 26, 2007

THE JUNTA OF GOOD GOVERNMENT “HEART OF THE RAINBOW OF HOPE”

Caracol IV “Whirlwind of Our Words”
February 11, 2007.

To the national and international public opinion
To the national and international media
To the nongovernmental human rights organizations
To the compañeros of the Sexta and the Other Campaign

FIRST – The Good Government Junta “Heart of the Rainbow of Hope” makes the following denunciations, according to direct information received from our compañeros and compañeras support bases of the autonomous municipalities: Olga Isabel and its regions, Vicente Guerrero, 1 de Enero, 17 de Noviembre, Ernesto Che Guevara and Miguel Hidalgo, who have all received death threats for working our recovered lands. These threats were issued by the organization OPPDIC, headed by Pedro Chulín, the delegate of the State government German de la Rosa Hernandez, and Silviano Velazco Gonzales, delegate of region two, Teopisca.

SECOND – The members of this organization, who are committing these human rights violations, seize our corn and beans, make armed death threats, and threaten to evict our compañeros support bases living in the new population centers from their communities.

THIRD – OPDDIC Members have tried several times to dismantle the seat of the autonomous municipality Olga Isabel, and threatened to destroy our offices. The council members even discovered small marijuana plantations, for which they were going to accuse us, while it is them who are the real authors behind the plantings.

FOURTH – In the community Agua Azul, a tourist zone, the OPDDIC bases of that community are firing shots, .22 and .38 caliber, in the air every day and they themselves also claim to possess high-powered weapons, such as the 7.62 so called ”cuerno de chivo” [AK-47]. These same people are requesting the presence of the federal army to install a military camp in the area. This Friday, February 9, 2007, two trucks from federal army arrived to examine the place, and in the same week a federal army helicopter flew over the area to reconnoiter the community where their presence is being requested.

FIFTH – On the territory of the autonomous municipality Vicente Guerrero the OPDDIC bases inhabitants of the ranch EL NANCE are calling for the intervention of the Department for Agrarian Reform (SRA) to legalize more than nineteen parcels of recovered land and turn them into an ejido. We autonomous authorities see that the SRA continues to use the same old methods as in the times of Absalon Castellanos in order to provoke confrontations, which are caused by the State government, between the indigenous and its institutions. The inhabitants of the ranch are cutting down trees in an with agreement with the OPDDIC, and the SAGARPA does nothing to stop them.

SIXTH – The OPDDIC and the ODICCS are joining forces to rob us of our land, which is being worked collectively by our support bases of the autonomous municipality 1 de Enero. These organizations are trying to provoke a confrontation between indigenous, because they have contacted the ranchers of the estates San Isidro la Valencia and Santa Rita in order to negotiate this, and the government delegate German de la Rosa is acting as their intermediary to provoke the death of indigenous.

SEVENTH – In the community Emiliano Zapata, OPDDIC bases are provoking another confrontation between indigenous, our compañeros support bases of the community 8 de Octubre, autonomous municipality 17 de Noviembre, in order to rob us of our recovered land. Our support bases are working peacefully and coexist in harmony with everyone, but unfortunately the OPDDIC people from Emiliano Zapata are threatening to kill them if they should reopen (dig up?) the line separating the territory of 8 de Octubre from that of Emiliano Zapata.

EIGHTH – In the community of Emiliano Zapata we have observed the arrival of two foreigners. Their names are Benjamin Sanchez Luna, who pretends to be working as a municipal police officer, and Humberto Sanchez Luna, who is sometimes dressed in civil clothes and at other times has been seen wearing a federal army uniform. When he enters the village of 8 de Octubre he claims to be visiting his relatives, but we know that he has no relatives of any sort there. Whenever he enters the village he is sporting a weapon wrapped in a sugar bag, and claims to have been invited to go hunting by his relatives in Emiliano Zapata. But his neighbors have informed us, that he is meeting with the inhabitants in the mountains to train them, and we also know, that the village is in possession of two R-15 rifles.

In the community of Jalisco, aside of Altamirano, a civilian is also entering the community every day to recruit the young people to join and work for the federal army, and the inhabitants of the village are very upset, because they think that apart from recruiting young people, he is also coming to see who is organizing the collective works in the community.

NINTH – OPDDIC members living in the village La Sociedad la Victoria, are organizing in order to rob us of our recovered lands, which is being worked collectively by our compañeros of 8 de Marzo, autonomous municipality 17 de Noviembre. They are planning to speak first with the Good Government Junta of Morelia, and if the do not receive a satisfactory reply, the next step will be a confrontation between indigenous. This agreement is recent and is also directed against other new communities in the same municipality: in 1 de Enero by an OPDDIC group from El Saltillo, and in the New Population Center Tierra y Libertad II, the OPDDIC people want to evict a group from the village Nuevo Jardin.

TENTH – In the autonomous municipality Miguel Hidalgo they are also suffering under intimidations and land seizures, headed by Señor Silviano Velasco Gonzales, the forestry president of region two of los Altos, and coordinator of the municipal department of Teopisca. This person is attempting to legalize the recovered land in the name of his younger sister, Señora Martha Velasco Gonzales, arguing that the land had already been legalized by the agrarian reform. Here we can see an imminent confrontation among indigenous. The group from the new population center of Tulancá is cutting down trees to sell the wood with the authorization of Silviano Velasco Gonzales, while the SEMARNAP remains silent and does nothing. We’d like to ask the new government of Chiapas whatever happened to that saying: acts, not words? Due to this problem they have already issued arrest orders, false accusations of sexual harassment, death threats and threats to evict compañeros. In order to finish us off they are proposing to give the land to the ejidatarios of Amatenango, to incorporate the disputed land, and later take it for themselves, either by confrontation or by legal proceedings.

ELEVENTH – In the village Nueva Esperanza and the new village Jet já, pertaining to the organization ORCAO, are cutting down trees in an irregular manner, which has certainly been authorized by the SEMARNAP. By means of this denunciation we want to ask the SEMARNAP and Señor Juan Sabines to stop authorizing more tree cuttings, since the forest is being destroyed very quickly.

TWELFTH – The problems suffered today in the autonomous municipalities Olga Isabel and 17 de Noviembre began in the first days of January, when the new impostor Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and state governor Señor Juan Sabines assumed their offices.

THIRTEENTH – Finally we call upon national and international civil society to watch attentively for anything that might happen to us, due to the new death plans set in motion today by the Mexican government of the PAN-member Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

Respectfully

The Good Government Junta
Heart of the Rainbow of Hope
Caracol IV ‘Whirlwind of Our Words’
Chiapas, Mexico.

(translation – Dana)

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