The Zapatista Good Government Junta (JBG) “Corazón del arcoiris de la esperanza,” based in the Chiapas jungle village of Morelia, issued a statement denouncing aggression by followers of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC) in the community of K’an akil, autonomous municipality Olga Isabel. Various shots were fired “without reason or motive” in the Aug. 29 attack against Zapatista campesinos—one of whom was wounded in the abdomen.
The JBG said the attackers came from the neighboring communities of Najchejeb and Sombra Baxil, who are seeking to take over K’an akil’s lands, recovered from ranchers in the 1994 Zapatista revolt. The statement said the assailants arrived in a truck when the Zapatista campesinos were preparing to return to their homes after a day of work on lands “completely outside of where the aggressors live.” The attackers, some dressed in military camo or black uniforms, were armed with rifles and pistols. They also ambushed some of the campesinos on a trail when they fled to Olga Isabel after the initial attack. Mariano Pérez Guzmán, 43, was wounded in that ambush.
The statement accused local “federal, state and municipal” authorities of being in league with OPDDIC. It named the organization’s leaders as Sebastián Luna López (comisariado of Muk’ul lum Bachajón community), Jerónimo Jiménez Aguilar, Urbano Sánchez, Carmen Sánchez Jiménez, Mariano Sánchez Jiménez and Domingo López Gómez. (Hermann Bellinghausen for La Jornada, Sept. 2)
See our last post on Mexico, Chiapas and the Zapatista struggle.
