Oxchuc, Chiapas Seeks Elections Through Uses and Customs

0 Shares

Gabriel Mendez Lopez, a member of the Permanent Commission for Indigenous Peace and Justice (CPPJI) along with two other community members denounced that the municipal president Maria Gloria Gomez Sanchez is using public resources for the financing of a paramilitary group known as MIRA (Revolutionary Indigenous Anti-Zapatista Movement).  This organization is dedicated to harassing and shooting at the population of Oxchuc.  The paramilitary situation is at the root of a public assembly dedicated to initiating a process to re-establish elections through uses and customs.

Members of CPPJI explained that in October 2015, diverse communities of the municipality began to protest against the local boss Sanchez Gomez and her husband, Norberto Santiz Lopez, who have alternated in political authority since 2002.

In October of 2016, in response to the protests against both politicians–that have been postulated the same by the PRI as well as the PVEM–the state government sent more than 2 thousand police and military to repress the mobilizations.

Some weeks later, the authorities of Chiapas solicited dialogue in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, but in the process of arriving to the place of assembly, fifteen inhabitants of Oxchuc were detained by policemen disguised as waiters.

Since then, Gloria Sanchez has made orders from San Cristobal and has utilized the budget of the municipality to arm and train the paramilitary group MIRA, as reported by the Human Rights Center Fray Bartolome de las Casas

The community is currently amidst a legal process in the Local Electoral Tribunal of Chiapas, to re-establish the system of elections through uses and customs.  However, the tribunal has asked for more time to resolve the case, arguing they cannot make a decision because they are ignorant of the system of uses and customs and the culture of the Indigenous peoples.

Translated from the original here: https://noticiasdeabajoml.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/oxchuc-pide-usos-y-costumbres-alcaldesa-responde-financiando-grupo-paramilitar/

0 Shares

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.