Frayba Demands Systematic Attacks by PRI on IndigenousMembers Stop

** Incarcerate Tzeltal businessman accused of provoking a December quarrel in Banavil

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, January 19, 2012

A Tzeltal businessman, support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the official municipality of Tenejapa, was incarcerated in prison number 5, accused of being responsible for the acts of violence that occurred in December in Banavil community, when half a hundred members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, its initials in Spanish) attacked with firearms four families sympathetic to the EZLN and threw them out of their houses and the village.

The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) today sent out an urgent action, in which it asserts that: “the aggressions that occurred on December 4 resulted in the death of Pedro Méndez López (PRI member); the disappearance of Alonso López Luna; the displacement of four families ‘accused’ of being Zapatista sympathizers; the detention of Lorenzo López Girón, gravely injured and accused of causing bodily injury; the arbitrary detention of Francisco Santiz López, EZLN support base, was found at a place different than where the acts occurred, and injuries to six more people.”

According to testimony obtained by the Frayba, in the morning of the day mentioned above (December 4) three women “with sticks and stones” arrived at Alonso’s home and beat him and his family. “Next, around 50 men from the PRI took Alonso out and continued beating him. They all came with sticks and firearms. Lorenzo, looking for a way to defend his father, now disappeared, received a bullet in his chest and another in his groin.”

Taken to a hospital in this city, Lorenzo was detained by state police. Witnesses affirm that during the armed aggression, PRI members “took away Alonso, who was bleeding.” His whereabouts are unknown. On December 23, in the Mercedes ejido, which borders on Banavil, an arm was found that family members assure belongs to Alonso, since they identified a scar on one finger. State police, the municipal judge and the Public Ministry went to the place of the finding on December 26 and 28, and did not find the body. The family of the disappeared alleges that they did not carry out “an adequate search.”

Francisco, the Zapatista accused of initiating the aggressions, “was arbitrarily detained in the Tenejapa, the municipal headquarters (county seat), while he was working at his business of selling fruit and vegetables.” Witnesses to the acts “affirm that he was not there on the day of the aggressions.” Nevertheless, an indictment was opened before the first judge of the penal branch, who will issue his resolution in the coming hours.

“The false accusations and violence generated by the group of PRI caciques from the Banavil, Mercedes and Santa Rosa ejidos, in Tenejapa, have occasioned the forced displacement,” the organism [Frayba] reports.

Frayba emphasizes “the continuous and systematic attacks against Zapatista bases and EZLN sympathizers,” and demands from the state government a search for López Luna, clarification and sanction for the death of Méndez López, the release of Santiz López, adequate medical attention for López Girón, precautionary and cautionary measures for the return of those displaced, a real investigation of the facts, as well as disarming and punishing the group of caciques.

The harassment against the EZLN’s sympathizers dates from 2009 in this place because they are opposed to the arbitrary acts by the PRI caciques (political bosses): land grabs, illegal cutting, collecting unfounded taxes and contributions, break-ins, physical attacks and denial of the right to education, among others. The victims have denounced it before government agencies, which “ignore it.” At this time, Frayba points out, “no effective investigation exists nor punishment of those responsible, and the authorities don’t intervene to resolve the situation nor to guarantee the legal and social security in Banavil.”