Zapatistas: Paramilitary Siege Consolidated in San Patricio

The Good Government Junta New Seed That Is Going to Produce, in the Zapatista Caracol That Speaks for Everyone, in Roberto Barrios, warned yesterday about new “death threats, massacres, robberies, damages, destruction and land grabs” against the EZLN support bases in the San Patricio community, La Dignidad, autonomous rebel municipality, by the armed group that has the village under siege.

The attacks, which have become continuous, are “directed by the bad governments, and executed by its paramilitaries of Paz y Justicia and Uciaf.” The same groups operated in the Northern Zone between 1995 and 1997, “guilty of many deaths and the displacement of communities” in the Chol region and the Northern Jungle.

The “officialists” (supporters of the official government), that erupted last September 10, continue causing damage to the property of Zapatista families. “On September 15 they continued destroying the wire fences of the pastures for the cattle collective, which then endangers the horse pastures “the invaders" have occupied. The latter, says the Junta, construct houses and occupy spaces “with the intent to displace our compañeros”. These people “have no respect, are violent, aggressive, and consume drugs. They have been killers in prior years,” although “the bad government never brought them to justice.”

On September 17, the invaders said that Sandra Luz Cruz Espinosa, municipal president of Tila, would pay for the damages, “because she ordered them to stay on the property.” They threaten to appropriate all the Zapatista belongings for themselves and “to kill three of our compañeros.” That day, “José Vera Díaz, from the community of Moyos (Sabanilla), passed by on his horse, with two firearms,” joined the invaders and “directed them.” On the 23rd, another person with a firearm was added. “It is seen clearly that they continue arming themselves and preparing to fulfill their death threats and commit a massacre.”

The Junta identifies as the invaders’ leaders as Mario Vásquez Cruz, Alfredo Cruz Martínez and Samuel Díaz Díaz. “They are drawing in more people for 500 pesos, falsely telling them that they own the land.”

Besides, Paz y Justicia has other groups getting ready in Unión Hidalgo (Sabanilla), led by Hipólito Ramírez Martínez (Abelino), Rodolfo Guzmán Ramírez and the soldier Germán Gómez Guzmán, according to the Junta, “we don’t know the battalion where he works.” These people assert that: “on October 7 they are going to massacre the compañeros.”

The robberies and killing of animals continue. On the 25th, “they harvested 220 bundles of corn, which equal 13, 200 kilos.” They removed yuccas, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, yams, edible palms, chile, oranges and banana groves, while “the constant shooting and nocturnal movement of armed military continue.” On the 27th, at nine o’clock at night, “they advanced in columns to 30 meters until they reached the compañeros, and they stayed until 3 o’clock in the early morning.” During the day they entered the community “they explore and point out the compañeros’ houses.”

The children are suffering outbreaks of diarrhea, vomiting, infections, aches in their body, bones, ears and fevers. And “the most worrisome thing is, we have pregnant compañeras, near giving birth.”

The autonomous authority accuses the “local overseers” of being “the intellectual authors of this governmental maneuver:” Mayor Cruz Espinoza and her director of public works, Carlos Clever González Cabellos; Genaro Vázquez Pérez, mayor of Sabanilla, and the ineffable Mario Landeros Cárdenas, veteran divider and phantom leader of an official Xi’nich at the service of successive governments. The Junta describes him like this: “A liar, swindler, sellout, has no mother and is shameless, one that manages people that let themselves be deceived.”

In the face of the armed invasion in San Patricio, the federal, state and municipal governments “have had an inhuman attitude; instead of resolving, they protect and cover for the criminals, negotiating and making agreement with them.” The Junta warns: “They think that with moral and psychological wear and tear we will surrender. The Zapatistas do not surrender. We do not negotiate over the land that we recuperated with the blood of our compañeros that died in 1994. If more blood is needed, we will know how to give it.”

ENDS

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