translated from Spanish: They attack Acteal, Chiapas, where they guard displaced people

The community of Acteal, located in the municipality of Chenalhó, in Los Altos de Chiapas, is on alert after two new violent attacks that left a balance three buildings with severe structural damage and material losses to a community clinic.
The Acteal’s Las Abejas organization disclosed that the first raid on their community occurred on September 18 in the morning and reported that they are on alert because they have information pointing to possible further attacks.
These events were presented a few days after the arrival in Acteal of 36 displaced persons from the community of Los Chorros, considered in the area as one of the cradle of paramilitary groups that were formed since the insurgency of the Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN) in 1994.
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The second raid took place the following day, in which two buildings were attacked, including the communal kitchen and a house where displaced people from the community of Los Chorros were located. In that assault, the community clinic was also launced.
“We are on alert, all representatives and survivors. We have heard rumors that they want to come in here again to take the clinic,” Animal Político Eduardo Gutiérrez Pérez, private secretary of the Board of Directors of Las Abejas de Acteal, told Animal Político.
The conflict that motivated the attack on Acteal originated two years ago because another group of that community claims a part of the property considered by Las Abejas as “Sacred Territory” because there the 1997 massacre occurred, and also there are buried the 45 Victims.
Eduardo Gutiérrez Pérez reported that the 36 displaced people in Los Chorros are now living in two houses that are still standing.
“The men and women who were displaced from Los Chorros are here. When it was aggression. They thought a lot of things,” Eduardo Gutierrez explained from the Acteal community.
It also disclosed that the Board of Directors, Bee coordinators and survivors agreed not to repair the affected houses so that this 22nd, when one more month of the Acteal Massacre is commemorated, the damage will be in sight of visitors and media Communication.
Read more: 11,437 people were displaced in 2018 by organized crime and territorial conflicts
The organization of Las Abejas de Acteal emphasized in its statement that one of the affected houses belongs to Juana Pérez Arias, a 75-year-old woman originally from the neighboring community of Chimix.
She arrived in Acteal as displaced in 1997 and is a survivor of the Acteal Massacre in which 45 people lost their lives on December 22 of that year. One of those victims was her husband, Manuel Santiz Culebra, whose case is in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).
“Our sister Joan was lying on her bed, because she is sick and still asked to leave her house, because they were going to take out all her things, so she went out and went to cry in our communal kitchen, remembering the events of violence and displacement forced 1997.”
In the events raised on the 18th, two conflicts were joined that dating back to years: los Chorros, where Las Abejas do not agree to participate in any activity related to any level of government, and Acteal, which is a conflict by territory, specifically by the where the community clinic was built.
The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center issued a statement demanding that the Mexican state ensure the safety of Las Abejas de Acteal.
“These aggressions that risk the life, integrity and safety of those who are part of Acteal’s Las Abejas are linked to other acts of attempts to strip off the land where the headquarters of the organization is located. Space donated to the Bees of Acteal on February 10, 1998, by Mr. Francisco Vázquez Hernández,” the statement says.
So far the Government of Chiapas has not made known its position on this case. Animal Político searched for a version in that state’s Secretariat of Government but has not received a response.
During the commemoration of the next day 22, Las Abejas de Acteal will hold their usual day of prayer, as they have done since December 1997. There will also be the 36 displaced people from Los Chorros, who have no definite date back to their community, where they believe their homes will be taken.
As has been the case since the Acteal Massacre – when they had also displaced the community and housed attacks – the commemoration will take place in the face of the possibility of further aggression.
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Original source in Spanish

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