JBG denounces violent eviction of Zapatista community

JBG denounces violent eviction of Zapatista community,Aug 03
Sat, 5 Aug 2006

August 3rd, 2006

Caracol That Speaks For All
Roberto Barrios, Chiapas, Mexico

Junta of Good Government Nueva Semilla Que Va a Producir (New Seed Which
Shall Bring Forth)

To the national and international civil society
To the national and international press
To the human rights organizations


The Junta of Good Government denounces energetically the incidents which
occurred today, August the 3rd, in the village Chol de Tumbala, Rebel
Zapatista Autonomous Municipality El Trabajo.

At 10:30 A.M. the federal judge of Playas Catazaja went from house to house,
threatening the compa~er@s EZLN support bases to remove their things and
leave their houses in ten minutes, since the agrarian documents had been
delivered, that accredited the property of the land. He assured to be in
possession of a federal eviction order.

At 11:30 in the morning arrived 3 cars of the Public Security, 3 cars of the
municipal police and three large vehicles with elements of the Public
Security, municipal police and persons in civilian dress. In total the
eviction was carried out by more than 260 persons. They burned down and
demolished 30 houses with machine saws and with the help of two tractors.
After that they continued the burning and destruction of the entire village,
burning and destroying clothes, dishes and kitchen utensils.

During the eviction the compa~eros EZLN support bases Juan Jimenez Vazquez,
Bartolo Arcos Mendoza and Mateo Sanchez Montejo were arrested. These three
compa~eros were wearing their ski-masks, taking the licence plate numbers of
the cars, when they were apprehended and insulted by agents of the public
security who took off their ski-masks. They loaded them in a particular
light van, where they struck them with truncheons, laid them on the floor
and threatened them with violation during the ride to the general office of
the public security in Palenque. Before arriving in Palenque they forced
them to put their ski-masks back on. In the general offices of the public
security they were forced to sign a document stating, that they had left
their community voluntarily. They were released today at 5:00 P.M.

In the community the aggressors took all the properties of compa~er@s.
During these incidents the public security agents and the municipal police
asked about the presence of cameras and demanded that they be handed over.

The village Chol de Tumbala that was evicted today is situated on liberated
land. EZLN support bases from different communities settled in the predio
named Carlos Salinas, with a surface of 532 hectares. The compa~er@s support
bases occupied this land on September 9th, 1999. The previous proprietors
are:

Eduardo Moyte Goyado
Rafael Cross Sanchez
Filiberto

Since the day of taking possession, the compa~er@as EZLN support bases have
signed the documents with the name of Chol de Tumbala, which is in use today
for geographical localization. The public paperwork is administered  by the
representative of the village, Gregorio A~lvarez Cruz, who is today
imprisoned in the prison of Playas de Catazaja. Among others he is accused
of robbery and kidnapping, while in truth his job is to administer the land
documents.

The Junta of Good Government denounce these facts which our EZLN support
bases have to suffer, because their human rights are violated to the
extreme. During the burning and destruction of the houses, the properties of
the villagers were taken to the trucks of the public security. The fruit
trees were also knocked down, like the orange, coconut, lemon, avocado and
banana trees, and the houses next to the animals in the courtyard were
burned.

The rest they took with them, robbing the husked maize. These properties are
the daily food of our support bases and were destroyed and robbed by
criminal hands, leaving our children, women, men, and old ones without
shelter and the food needed for the daily life that we have to bear. In the
practice of our autonomy we are brutally struck and captured for defending
our houses.

We hold the former proprietors Eduardo Moyte Goyado, Rafael Cruz Sanchez and
Filiberto, the State Public Security, the municipal police, and the federal
judge of Playas de Catazaja, Ernesto Hernandez Ruiz responsible for these
acts. We also hold the municipal president of Palenque, Alfredo Salgado
Strap, the governor of the State of Chiapas Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia and
the Mexican president, Vicente Fox Quesada, responsible.

JUNTA DE BUEN GOBIERNO
NUEVA SEMILLA QUE VA A PRODUCIR