One hundred indigenous Tzotzil and Tzeltal families who have been forced to move for seven years demonstrated on Wednesday to demand that the Mexican government and also that of the state of Chiapas, in the southeast of the country, comply with the recommendations issued by the State Commission on Human Rights (CEDH).
Among the demands of the protesters are a safe return to their communities, housing support, restitution of lands and reparation of damages, as well as punishment for corrupt officials and compliance with arrest warrants.
“We are demanding that the Mexican state and the governor of the state of Chiapas, Rutilio Escandón, comply with the petitions that are in the recommendation made by the CEDH in 2017,” Miguel López Girón, of the Tzeltal ethnic group, displaced from the Banavil community, about 20 kilometers from San Cristóbal de Las Casas, told EFE.
“We have been following this recommendation for seven years, the governor has not complied with these recommendations, he is already leaving – on October 1 – but before he leaves we want what is in this paper to be fulfilled,” said the man of the Tzeltal ethnic group.
Positioned in the Plaza de La Resistencia in San Cristobal de Las Casas, the protesters pointed out that they have been practically “a decade in a condition of forced displacement” and to date the government has not recognized them as victims, nor has it fully complied with the urgent requests they have issued as a vulnerable group.
The indigenous men and women carried banners and signs with the slogans “We demand justice and reparation for damages,” “They expelled us from our lands on April 10, 2018.”
While in others they pointed out: “They violated our right to property and possession of our land,” “We are not fish, we are not birds, we are men who live off the land,” “We are families displaced from our land.”
Among the protesters was Agustín Muñoz Gómez and the 26 families of the Tzotzil ethnic group who were exiled from the El Potrero ranch, in the free municipality of Nicolás Ruíz, who told EFE that their exile was committed by people with rights in an agrarian community, who committed abuse of power and defrauded them with the purchase of land.
He explained that the case was taken by the State Executive Commission for Attention to Victims, which committed irregularities such as making three families of 26 displaced people sign checks for the amount of 300,000 pesos (about 15,300 dollars) each for the purchase of land, he made them endorse them and never delivered them,” said Muñoz Gómez.
The man asked that the arrest warrants be executed, that a search be carried out for his father Alonso López Luna; that they relocate them or that they give us compensation for the damage “so that we can rebuild our lives, be able to work on planting what we knew how to do.”
Local and international organizations have indicated that there is no exact number of people in a situation of forced displacement but they estimate that in recent years between 16,000 and 21,000 people have been internally displaced in Chiapas.
Forced displacement is when people are forced to leave their homes or flee due to violence, conflict, persecution and human rights violations, as is the case with agrarian conflicts in Chiapas.
Source: es-us.noticias.yahoo
