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10 Yaqui People Reported Missing

Header photo by Santiago Navarro F.

On Wednesday, July 14, the Yaqui village of Loma de Bácum—one of the eight towns that make up the Yaqui Nation in Sonora, Mexico—reported the disappearance of several community members. Uncertainty has persisted since then, as family members of the victims do not know what condition they could be in.

The public complaint released by the community mentions the names of seven people: Martín Hurtado Flores, Braulio Pérez Sol, Eladio Molina Zavala, Juan Justino Galaviz Cruz, Fabian Sombra Miranda, Leocadio Galaviz Cruz, and Fabian Valencia Romero, ranging in age from 27 to 66. However, Artemio Arballo Canizalez, Benjamín Portela Peralta, and Gustavo Acosta Hurtado were reported missing that same day, totalling 10 Indigenous people from the community who are currently missing.

Seven of them were last seen while getting ready to bring cattle to a nearby town for a celebration. The community found out about the disappearances on the day they occurred, so the local Traditional Guard (a Yaqui institution responsible for community defense) decided to proceed with caution before taking action. After seeing that the missing people hadn’t returned the following day, the Guard and several volunteers headed into the mountains in four pickup trucks to search for them. Unfortunately, they only found “scattered luggage belonging to three of them, a rope, and a burned cow,” as the families stated in the public report.

Another resident of the town, who for his safety preferred to identify himself only as Felipe, explained the circumstances surrounding the disappearances and the dangerous situation they are in. The people there distrust the state as much as they distrust the narco presence in the region—it’s often difficult to tell one from the other. “They raised cattle. They were part of a ranch called Agua Caliente. They were going to move some cattle for the traditional festival in a neighboring town called Bataconsica, which is five kilometers from our town, called Loma de Bácum,” said Felipe.

Family members of missing persons file a police report.

They were intercepted once they were moving the cattle. “Since we had already lived through the experience of a compa and her husband being taken, we thought it was the PEI (Policía Estatal Investigadora, the State Investigative Police), the government. And then a little while ago, we learned it was organized crime. But everyone knows that when we’re involved in a struggle, organized crime and the government, the state police, are all in collusion. They all have the same goal, to harass those in struggle so as to get what they want,” he added, referring to the resistance the community has mounted against a gas pipeline that the US-based company Sempra Energy seeks to build across their territory, through its Mexican subsidiary IEnova.

See also: Sempra Energy: The Real Winner in Mexico’s Energy Reform

By not allowing the pipeline to be built a mere 300 meters from their houses, Loma de Bácum has caused problems for the transnational company. Above all, the residents fear for their lives due to the risks the pipeline brings with it. Of the eight Yaqui towns in the region, Loma de Bácum was the only one not to accept the project, and for this they have been attacked several times by armed groups. Meanwhile, Sempra has the backing of the Mexican government.

Now, a long way from a truce in the process of defending their lives and land, the Yaqui village faces a new threat. Loma de Bácum’s spokeswoman, Guadalupe Flores Maldonado, pointed out recently that the state government has made room for more transnational companies to invade the Indigenous territory by granting some 12 mining concessions. The companies plan to extract gold, with no care for the collateral damage they will do to the area’s inhabitants and ecological equilibrium.

Two weeks have passed since the disappearances and Felipe maintains that, as of now, “they haven’t appeared, nor has anyone called about a ransom or anything. We’re at square one; we don’t know anything.”

Armed violence against Loma de Bácum is not without precedent. In October 2016, a group made up of police and members of neighboring communities who had accepted the pipeline staged an armed attack against the town in order to impose a new municipal authority that would approve the project. The attack left one dead, Cruz Buitimea Piña, from the side of the attackers. Days later the police arrested Fidencio Aldama, a member of Loma de Bácum’s Traditional Guard, accused of homicide with no evidence. After a trial filled with irregularities, he was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison.

The Yaqui community predicts that the mining companies, allied with other actors, will use violence to intimidate them. In the past two weeks, 15 residents of the town have gone missing. While five of them returned home (three women and two children), ten are yet to be found. These “disappearances” share a common element: they don’t appear to be common kidnappings, that is, no one has demanded a ransom nor initiated negotiations for their return. The number of victims is increasing and, as Guadalupe Flores suspects, “perhaps the intention is to frighten and chase off the residents to leave the path free for the multinational corporations.” For the moment, the townspeople have declared themselves ready to defend their territory through to the ultimate consequences. Family members of the disappeared continue to demand justice. They have filed a report with the prosecutor’s office, holding onto the hope of finding their relatives alive but aware that this becomes less likely with each passing day.

Government of Oaxaca Prepares Repression Against Indigenous Zapotecos

Indigenous Zapateco communities belonging to San Pablo Cuatro Venados, Oaxaca, denounce ongoing threats and harassment seeking to dispossess them of their territories in pursuit of mining interests

Indigenous Zapatecos pertaining to the municipality of San Pablo Cuatro Venados denounce that the State Government of Oaxaca is preparing repression, and the dispossession of their territory, with the use of the National Guard.

They alert that an agreement was made between agencies of the government and the municipal and agrarian authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero, the neighboring municipality of Cuatro Venados. “The objective is to take control of these lands, to exploit the three mining concessions, and to take control of the water and forest,” they assert.

On June 20, community members of El Rebollero, Los Arquitos, and Río Minas, pertaining to the municipality of San Pablo Cuatro Venados, went to Oaxaca City with their banners, and maps where they have located the mining concessions.

“We deny the position of the authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero, in collusion with the authorities of San Pablo Cuatro Venados, who have more than once branded us as invaders of these lands. Our documents demonstrate the opposite,” they denounced in a press conference, where some showed their credentials and their land deeds.

According to these communities, this has been the motive for which they have been attacked on different occasions. On May 19, 2019, when the authorities of Cuilápam, Pedro Pérez Rojas, Erick Carrasco Vázquez, Maura Silva Fernández, and the ex-representative, Flavio Sosa Villavicencio, warned that if the state government does not apply the law against the supposed invaders, a bloodbath would ensue. “This was a threat. We were brutally attacked on May 31, and June 1 and 2. They destroyed our houses, they burned our crops, and they robbed what they could,” the campesinos maintained.

They added that after these attacks, “the corresponding complaints were filed before the prosecutor’s office and six investigation files were opened” against the aggressors. The aggressors being the authorities of the neighboring municipality of Cuilápam. Despite this, up until the moment, they have not been informed of any results of the investigation.

On the contrary, Magdiel Hernández Caballero, representative of the Human Rights Defense of the People of Oaxaca, signaled that “precautionary measures were issued for the protection of the community of Cuilápam de Guerrero” with the denunciation of attacks by supposed invaders.

After these supposed attacks, “which the community of Cuilápam has suffered,” community members in resistance explained that on July 5, a red helicopter flew over their territories and landed nearby. One day after, the communities of Cuatro Venados were attacked.

“Around 15 vehicles entered the vegetation of the community and the people in the vehicles began to shoot at us. Events which we also denounced by means of a communique.”

The community members of these localities warn that they foresee a new attack coming, with the declarations from the government of Oaxaca. They have not come to an agreement, “if there is a problem of land boundaries or if we are invaders.”

The official declarations of the representative of the Secretary of Government in Oaxaca, José Carlos Fuentes Ordaz, is that he will follow up, in coordination with the National Guard and the Secretary of Security, “on the problematic expressed by the municipal and agrarian authorities of Cuilápam.”

The Indigenous people pertaining to San Pablo Cuatro Venados added that a series of their rights were violated, with the approval of the mining concessions and with these others actions: “like the right to information, participation, security, free will, justice, self-determination, and territory. As we are Indigenous people, they are violating agreements and conventions that the Mexican state has signed, like Convention 169 of the ILO, and the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the “Escazú Agreement.”

At the end of the press conference, they pointed to the Oaxaca state, to the Federal Government, and to the authorities of the municipalities of Cuilápam de Guerrero and Cuatro Venados, as those responsible for what might happen to their communities.

Photos by Santiago Navarro F

Translated by itsgoingdown

Zapatista delegation to meet with women, trans, inter and non-binary people at The ZAD in France

Cover photo: EZLN Commission in Barcelona, supported by more than 60 collectives from Catalonia who organized the Assembly in support of the "Gira Por La Vida" (Tour for Life). By Alicia Calderón

Translated by Shantal Montserrat Lopez Victoria / Voices in Movement

The “Squadron 421”, the maritime brigade of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), composed of four women, two men and a non-binary person, left Isla Mujeres, Mexico on May 3 in an old sailboat named “La Montaña”. At 6:10 p.m. (European time) on June 22, they landed in Vigo, one of the main ports of Galicia.

The delegation from La Montaña were greeted by representatives of the so-called “Xira pola Vida” (Tour for Life), made up of several groups from Spain and other delegations from Italy, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Euskalerria, Catalonia, Andalusia, France, Belgium and Mexico.

A welcoming ceremony was held, which included a collective greeting to the rhythm of traditional Galician music. At this event, Marijose, the non-binary member of this brigade, renamed Europe. “On behalf of the women, children, men, elders and, of course, other Zapatistas, I declare that the name of this land, which its natives now call “Europe”, will henceforth be called: SLUMIL K’AJXEMK’OP”, said Marijose, which means, “Tierra Insumisa”, or “Insubordinate Lands” or “Land that does not surrender or falter. ”

The delegation tried to disembark on the Galician coast last Sunday, but did not succeed, due to some logistical and bureaucratic constraints, among them, tests to corroborate that none of the crew was infected with Covid-19.

The tour kicked off in Europe, where it is scheduled to visit at least 30 countries. It will then proceed to the rest of the five continents. This delegation will be joined by other brigades from the EZLN and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) that will fly there in the coming days.

Several European cities have already prepared for their arrival. In France, “the European gender commission” is organizing a meeting exclusively for women, trans, inter, and non-binary people, from the 10th to the 11th of July 2021, in the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Nantes-France).

This event is open to everyone, even though the organizers are following a strict attendance policy. Therefore, it is necessary to fill out a registration form in order to attend this event. Also, if you want to participate with a proposal, you must fill out a different form.

The organizers announced, “we are living beings, grandmothers, mothers, daughters, women, trans, non-binary people who fight from our different realities. We are feminists, migrants, non-migrants, precarious, from lower-income sectors and today we call for an intergenerational, intercultural, interethnic, intergalactic dialogue among a diversity of genders based on the knowledge of multiple struggles and their different geographies, from the countryside, the city, the factory, the neighborhood, as well as all the possible spaces of political activism.”

This European gender commission affirms “we want to support the Zapatista Tour from a feminist, decolonial and intersectional perspective and are open to other expressions of struggle for women, trans and non-binary people who speak out against all kinds of discrimination.”

The commission express they have been inspired by shared concerns, “moved by the affection, pain, joy and rage that go through our struggles in our territories and our diverse bodies; we are committed to uplifting and revitalizing ancestral practices and also knowledge the current struggles and resistances that sustain life in all its expressions.”

In this meeting between the Zapatista brigades and the CNI, we encourage people to value words and the diverse expressions, “to listen and learn from what everyone has to teach each other from our experiences”, states the proposal for this event, of which a website muchasluchasparavivir.noblogs.org has been created.

Topics and contents to be addressed in this event aim to “create alternative approaches to those we know, using all types of language that decentralize the spoken and written word to enhance the (re)creative expressions of our bodies, of art, of playing, of enjoyment, of sports, of other imaginaries worlds that bring us closer to other horizons and futures for all,” the gender commission shared.

Indigenous Communities Denounce Armed Attacks in Oaxaca

In Spanish: Un día después de descender un helicóptero en El Rebollero, Oaxaca, personas armadas atacan a los comuneros

One day after a helicopter circled above their territories, Indigenous Zapotec communities in the municipality of Cuatro Venados, Oaxaca, denounce armed attacks carried out in the interests of mining exploration

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Free and Independent Media

As community members from El Rebollero and Rio Minas, pertaining to the municipality of Cuatro Venados, located just an hour from Oaxaca City, we are being attacked again this July 6, with military grade weapons. Around fifteen vehicles from the neighboring community of Cuilápam de Guerrero, dropped off people who are hidden in the vegetation of our communities. From there, they have fired rounds toward people in our communities who are laboring their crops and caring for their animals.

Yesterday, July 5, a red helicopter flew over the area that today, July 6, they are attacking. The aircraft afterwards descended in the area known as Loma Boluda. This helicopter, which we do not rule out belonging to the state government (AGUSTA-109 POWER, with license plate XA-HUX), is combing the area in order to know how many people live there so they can attack us afterwards. This is not a coincidence. From unofficial sources we have found out that politicians and authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero and our municipality, San Pablo Cuatro Venados, have been meeting and are planning an attack against our community. The objective is to take control of the area to advance on three mining concessions that have been issued in our territory without our consent.

This series of attacks adds to others that we have already suffered and denounced before the corresponding authorities, exhausting all legal solutions. We hold responsible the federal government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as the state government of Alejandro Murat, and the municipal authorities of Cuilápam de Guerrero and San Pablo Cuatro Venados, for the scale of this conflict. We hold them responsible for whatever may happen.

We make it clear, as community members of this region, we adhere to international agreements, like Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, related to Indigenous rights and culture. We adhere to our free self-determination. We will defend our territory against these invaders. We will defend our water, our forests, and our dignity.

As of 1pm, July 6, people from outside our community are hidden in the vegetation and continue shooting.

We make a call out for solidarity, and encourage people to be attentive to the situation. We will soon inaugurate our house of healing, which is part of the reconstruction of our community.

The mining concessions are:

Title 217598, issued in 2002, located in Cuatro Venados.

Title 227548, issued in 2006, located in Cuatro Venados.

Title 242664, issued in 2013, covering the municipalities of Cuatro Venados and San Miguel Peras.

Sincerely,

Communities of El Rebollero, Los Arquitos, and Rio Minas

Translated by itsgoingdown

Solidarity Efforts Mount for Yaqui Political Prisoner

Fidencio Aldama Pérez was born in the community of Loma de Guamuchil, one of the eight villages that comprise Yaqui territory in Sonora, Mexico. He married Carmen, a woman from the neighboring village of Loma de Bácum, where their two children were born. Through his family ties, Fidencio made the community his own. He got involved and took on the community responsibilities that being a member of the village entails. And then, at only 27 years old, his freedom was taken from him, accused of a homicide he didn’t commit.

Like most of the residents of Loma de Bácum, Fidencio was always on alert, for several reasons. People had been seen conducting mineral exploration in Yaqui territory without consent, in addition to the presence of an aqueduct carrying water away from the Yaqui River to Hermosillo, Sonora’s capital and largest city. Finally, a gas pipeline was being built that would cross the village only 300 meters away from houses.

Sempra Energy, a US-based multinational company, is in charge of pipeline construction through its Mexican subsidiary IEnova, which in turn is operating under the name Aguaprieta. The pipeline is divided into two segments which extend 516 miles (831 kilometers) in total. Segment I is called Gasoducto Sásabe-Guaymas (GSG, Sásabe-Guaymas Gas Pipeline) and Segment II—the section that crosses Indigenous Yaqui territory—is called Gasoducto Guaymas-El Oro (GGO,  Guaymas-El Oro Gas Pipeline). Seven of the eight Yaqui villages accepted the pipeline’s presence on their land; Loma de Bácum was the only one that did not, because of the danger it presents.

You might be interested in ⇒ Sempra Energy: The Real Winner in Mexico’s Energy Reform

The company and local authorities resorted to a number of strategies to bring the pipeline to fruition, such as offering money to the traditional authorities of Loma de Bácum. “When this didn’t work, they orchestrated an attack on our guard (a communal authority) to try to impose a different village authority that would approve the pipeline. This armed group, many of them from other villages of our same tribe who sold out to the company, attacked us. It was Friday, October 21st, 2016. The kids were getting out of school and we defended ourselves,” Guadalupe Flores Maldonado, a community member of Loma de Bácum, said to Avispa Midia.

This attempt to impose another Traditional Guard, which is what the traditional authorities are called, left one person dead: Cruz Buitimea Piña, killed by a .22 caliber bullet. Fidencio was accused of the murder.

However, something doesn’t fit. Fidencio never denied being armed: he carried a .45 caliber pistol because he was part of the Traditional Guard and in accordance with Yaqui internal law, which is tied to self-determination and autonomy, Guard members can carry certain types of weapons to provide security and care for their territory.

The gun that Fidencio was carrying had been confiscated together with a drone and other equipment carried by a group of outsiders who were found conducting mining exploration without the community’s consent. “On one of the community patrols of our territory, they detained the Yoris (white or unknown men) who were excavating for a mine, brought them to the community and confiscated that weapon, which was kept for community security,” said María del Carmen Vásquez, Fidencio’s wife.

“The Traditional Guard uses .30-.30, .45, and .38 caliber weapons, because they’re the weapons we’ve used since the earliest struggles for defense of our territory. A number of them are confiscated. The person who died was shot with a .22 caliber,”

SAID MARTIN VALENCIA CRUZ, WHO SERVED AS SECRETARY OF THE TRADITIONAL GUARD IN LOMA DE BÁCUM.

“So they’re accusing Fidencio Aldama unjustly,” added Cruz. “They’re not taking into account the expert testimony presented by the community. The judges didn’t even look at this evidence. Even the investigation file is botched and it shows this case is flawed. What we are certain of is that the people who came to attack us were indeed carrying .22 caliber weapons, because we were able to identify them from the shell casings and in the trucks they left behind. In addition to other weapons, money, and even drugs.”

With the certainty that he had nothing to hide, Fidencio showed up for a series of interviews that state authorities were carrying out in Loma de Bácum concerning the conflict. The interviews were being conducted in a vehicle called a Hercules. “As soon as he got into the Hercules, he gave his name and they took him away with no warning or explanation. When they got to the prosecutor’s office they showed him the arrest warrant and made him sign some papers. He asked what the papers were for and they told him just to sign and that everything was fine. Since then, he’s been imprisoned in the Social Re-adaptation Center in Ciudad Obregón,” said María del Carmen Vásquez to Avispa Midia.

Fidencio has been in prison for more than four years, serving a sentence of 15 years and 6 months. The pipeline hasn’t been completed, but Sempra Energy is still charging millions as if it were transporting shale gas coming from the United States, because its contract states that if the pipeline cannot operate due to “force majeure,” the government is still obligated to pay.

With the entrance of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, several commissions have tried to negotiate with Loma de Bácum to continue construction of the pipeline, promising that Fidencio will be freed with an amnesty. The community refuses to let this pipeline cross its territory and the amnesty has not benefited Aldama.

Solidarity

“I ask for your collaboration. From all who are listening to me, to gain back my freedom. I am a good man. I am a person who continues struggling forwards, serving God, to get out of this. I hope to find this freedom soon.” Fidencio shared these words in a video from prison that was circulated by a group of collectives and individuals working on a campaign to expose this case of injustice and ensure Fidencio is not forgotten.

Fidencio’s support group is made up of people from Mexico and the United States, who recently created fidencioaldama.org to spread knowledge of his case and let his voice be heard.

The group has also released a call to send Fidencio letters and create art that could help raise awareness about his situation, focused on the week of June 20th to 26th. “We encourage all who are reading this to write or make something during this week, either on your own or by holding an event,” they say on the event page.

They have also asked people to help give exposure to the case and campaign by following and sharing their Twitter account, @FidencioLibre.

Colombia: Massacres Continue against Demonstrators

Translated by David Milan

Human rights organizations in Colombia declared on Tuesday, May 4th that “the Colombian state has declared war against the peaceful protests” that have been taking place all over the country, epicentered in Cali, since April 28th. The human rights organization Temblores recorded at least 31 dead protesters, 216 victims of physical violence from the police, 814 arbitrary arrests, 21 people wounded in the eyes, and 10 cases of sexual violence.

You may be interested in the Spanish version of this note Colombia: continúan masacrando manifestantes que están en paro

“They’re shooting to kill at the people who are protesting. They’re shooting to kill at the people crying over their dead. They’re shooting to kill at the people helping the wounded. They’re shooting to kill at the human rights people. They’re shooting to kill at the people of Cali,” said a human rights defender during a press conference held the morning of Tuesday May 4th to denounce the brutal repression of demonstrators in Cali the night before.

“We must publicly denounce the operation that occurred in Cali yesterday, in which police used firearms and shot indiscriminately against hundreds of protesters as well as health and human rights teams. We must reject the military response to social protest,” stated one of the representatives of the human rights organizations.

According to them, at the time of the press conference the numbers of people wounded, arrested, and dead from the previous night’s police attack were still unknown. “We couldn’t do our job; we had to protect ourselves in neighbors’ houses. There’s no guarantee for human rights work in these moments.”

The human rights defenders said there were more than 30 police officers firing directly at people. “We demand that the state take responsibility for the massacre being perpetrated in Cali.”

The organizations reported that there were attacks on journalists who tried to record the military operation. “The house they were using for shelter was also hit.”

Ambulances have also been a target. “They’re shooting at the ambulances. They’re not letting them come in to pick up the wounded. They’re taking the wounded out of the hospitals and we don’t know where they’re bringing them.”

Furthermore, state the organizations, civilian groups are self-organizing to turn guns against the protesters. “We’ve seen groups of people in pickup trucks going out to attack the demonstrators, all with the complicity of state forces.”

“Instead of solving structural problems, [the government’s] reaction is repression, death, and criminalization,” say the organizations.