Statement for an End to the War in Chiapas! Father Marcelo's seeds will bloom!
WE DEMAND AN END TO THE WAR IN CHIAPAS
Father Marcelo's seeds will bloom!
THE MEXICAN NATION-STATE
TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT
TO THE EMBASSIES OF MEXICO AROUND THE WORLD
TO HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDING ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE BELIEVING PEOPLE (OF CHIAPAS)
TO THE DIOCESE OF SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS
TO INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL, AND LOCAL CIVIL SOCIETY
TO LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
The CLACSO Working Group on Bodies, Territories, and Resistance (GT CUTER), comprised of university students, professors, researchers, activists, and artivists from Latin America and the Caribbean, wishes to express, through this statement, our profound sadness, condemnation, and outrage at the assassination of the Tsotsil Indigenous priest, Marcelo Pérez, a tireless defender of human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples, as well as the rights of Mother Earth and life itself. Until his assassination, Father Marcelo was the parish priest of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Chiapas, Mexico).
On October 20th, after celebrating Mass at the church in the Cuxtitali neighborhood, Father Marcelo was shot multiple times and killed. Father Marcelo exemplified the liberationist church promoted by Bishop Tatik Samuel Ruiz in the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas since the 1960s. This church has been a key player in understanding many indigenous liberation movements that have taken place since the first Indigenous Congress held in 1974. This Congress was promoted by Bishop Ruiz and the Diocese he then led. In fact, earlier this month, the Diocese of San Cristóbal celebrated the 50th anniversary of that Congress with indigenous and religious communities, a watershed moment in the history of the struggle of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas.
Originally from the Tsotsil municipality of San Andrés Larráinzar, Father Marcelo became a tireless advocate for peace in the face of escalating violence unleashed by organized crime in Chiapas. As part of his diocese, he participated in numerous pilgrimages and refused to remain silent in the face of the injustices he and his people experienced, despite the constant threats he faced. Since 2015, while serving as parish priest in the municipality of Simojovel (in the Chiapas Highlands), Father Marcelo was granted precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) due to these threats. In the nearby municipality of Pantelhó, violence intensified due to the infiltration of organized crime. In response, Father Marcelo used his social media to highlight the presence of weapons, harassment, and displacement, consistently denouncing how this situation disproportionately affected women, children, and the elderly.
In 2021, in response to organized crime violence, the self-defense group known as “El Machete” emerged in the municipality of Pantelhó. This group was blamed for the disappearance of 21 people on July 26, 2021. On June 21, 2022, the Chiapas State Attorney General's Office (FGE) issued an arrest warrant for Father Marcelo, linking him to the disappearances, even though there was no evidence of his involvement in the crimes. The fabrication of crimes is not new in Chiapas, as documented in several reports by the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center and other peace organizations and networks. Despite efforts by individuals connected to the Diocese and human rights organizations to close the case against him, the FGE neither executed the arrest warrant nor dismissed the proceedings.
The threats against Father Marcelo have not ceased in recent years, despite repeated warnings from national and international human rights organizations highlighting the danger to his life, and despite receiving international support from the Swedish Movement for Reconciliation (SweFOR).
Above all, Father Marcelo decided to walk alongside the people, with the unwavering faith that defending peace was more important than his own life.
Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness because the murder of Father Marcelo is proof of what he himself announced during the pilgrimage for peace that he led on September 13 in the capital of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where he stated: “Chiapas is a time bomb, there are many missing persons, many kidnapped, many murdered by the presence of organized crime.”
Local, state, and federal authorities are failing to guarantee the safety and lives of their population, including Father Marcelo, who has sadly become a symbol of the current war situation plaguing the Chiapas region, like so many other territories in Mexico.
We stand in solidarity with the people in general, the faithful in particular, pastoral agents, the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and the communities and movements he accompanied throughout his life; we also embrace his family. With all the force that social legitimacy affords us, we demand that the Mexican State and all levels of government conduct swift, impartial, and effective investigations that will bring about the truth and justice that Father Marcelo defended with his own life.
We join the demands made by indigenous and human rights organizations.
national and international human rights, who are calling for:
1)Stop the war in Chiapas.
2) That both the perpetrators and the masterminds of the crime be investigated.
Father Marcelo.
3) The disarmament and dismantling of criminal corporate groups.
4) That a radical change be made to national and state security policy.
5) Stop the persecution, criminalization and murder of human rights defenders
human rights and peace mediators.
Father Marcelo's seeds will bloom!
Planet Earth
21th October 2024
CLACSO Working Group Bodies, territories, resistances
This statement expresses the position of the Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
