Condemnation of the latest attack perpetrated by the paramilitary organization ORCAO

We condemn the latest attack perpetrated by the paramilitary organization ORCAO against the Zapatista Autonomous Community of Moisés and Gandhi, Lucio Cabañas Autonomous Municipality, Caracol 10. We demand an end to the prolonged war waged by the government involved.

To the Mexican State and Government
To local, national and international civil society
To human rights organizations
To the local, national and international press
To the movements, worthy and rebellious struggles

Planet Earth, May 25, 2023

We, the undersigned, speak out from different parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, Europe, and beyond, in response to the terrible information we have received regarding the armed attack perpetrated by the paramilitary group of the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO) against the Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on the night of May 22 of this year (2023). For those who are unaware, we share what networks of women human rights defenders based in Chiapas have shared with us. It was as follows:

…an armed attack lasting hours, from which hundreds of shots were fired
bullets. Our comrade BAEZLN was seriously wounded
[Support Base] of the EZLN Gilberto López Sántiz.
[The attack was perpetrated by] the criminal organization ORCAO.
Armed group that has not ceased to violate, intimidate, harass,
kidnap, torture, steal, destroy and attempt to dispossess of the lands
recovered to the peoples of the EZLN.

As the AJMAQ Network of Resistances and Rebellions, together with others
Organizations, collectives and individuals have carried out Caravans and
observation visits since October 2020 to document,
to communicate, disseminate and denounce the criminal actions of said group
Paramilitary. Collecting the testimonies of men in detail,
The elderly, women, young people, and children have been victims of these attacks since 2019.
They started with fences and land divisions in the work areas of the land.
recovered, as well as damage and destruction of collective crops.

At the beginning of 2020, crop thefts were added to the list of attacks.
destruction of fences and posts, presence of armed people and with
Portable radios in the community and standing guard, threats
verbal and written harassment, intimidation, and physical assaults against colleagues
BAEZLN, burning and fumigation of crops, robbery of stores
autonomous communities, burning of beehives, damage to the school
Autonomous Secondary School and gunshots.

Since August 2020, the burning and destruction of the
Dining hall of the Zapatista women and the Regional Store El Arcoiris
by ORCAO at the Cuxuljá crossroads. The same place that is today
under the control of this paramilitary group. Followed by attacks and shootings
firearms of various calibers within the communities
self-employed, putting men, women, boys, girls, grandmothers at risk
and grandparents who have to seek refuge from bullets, or throw themselves into the mud
in the middle of the night, as attacks have occurred during nights and days.
wholes (AJMAQ Network of Resistances and Rebellions, taken from
https://radiozapatista.org/?p=45174 ).

The counterinsurgency war, waged in response to the demands of the Zapatista movement, has marked the history of Chiapas and Mexico for the last 30 years. The war didn't begin there; it had roots in the distant past, as the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle points out. However, in 1994, it became a counterinsurgency war with the Chiapas Plan and a strategy to combat what think tanks of the United States called the Zapatista Social Netwar. Since then, extensive documentation (journalistic, academic, and from human rights organizations) has documented how what we now call a "protracted war of attrition" has operated, emerging amidst betrayed peace accords and a 2001 constitutional reform that only recognizes limited autonomy within the community sphere.

The methods used to combat and exterminate Zapatismo have been constant, multiple, and diverse. A prominent feature of this history is the economic co-optation of peasant and indigenous organizations in Chiapas. This has occurred regardless of the political party or government in power. These strategies have been sustained through the clientelistic administration of government social programs, vote buying, and the co-opting of formerly independent and autonomous leaders. This has led to—
After 30 years of these actions—and others not mentioned here—peasant and Indigenous organizations have earned the label of “paramilitaries.” Such is the case of ORCAO, a systematic aggressor against Zapatista support bases. What happened on May 22, 2023, is, unfortunately, the result of a larger, ongoing, and persistent strategy. Its consequences are now part of a collective memory of grievances in Zapatista communities and reveal a facet of the ongoing war(s) in Chiapas. There are specific individuals responsible for this war within the Mexican state and its various levels of government.

In light of the above, we collectively and forcefully declare the following:

1.- We, the undersigned, are following the events closely from different geographical locations, disseminating the situation through our free media and our hybrid spaces of academia-other, activism and movements.

2. We reiterate that from our respective regions we are closely following the serious health situation of our Zapatista supporter, Gilberto López Sántiz. We send our best wishes for his speedy recovery.

3.- We reiterate through this medium our solidarity with the EZLN and our total repudiation of what has happened and we demand the immediate intervention of the Mexican State and all levels of government to put an end to and cease the thousand forms of violence that are exercised against the Zapatista communities and the communities in resistance that walk the path of de facto autonomy and that we saw deployed in the Caravan The South Resists organized recently by the National Indigenous Congress.

We demand an end to the war in Chiapas!
Stop the impunity and complicity of all levels of government involved!

The Zapatistas are not alone!
The members of the National Indigenous Congress and the Caravan "The South Resists" are not alone!

To see personal and collective endorsements, go to:

May 29th 2023
CLACSO Working Group
Bodies, territories, resistances

This text expresses the position of the aforementioned 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.