Multinationals enter Chiapa's Rainforest - Indigenous Communities Violently Evicted
Indigenous communities in the Lacandon Forest in Chiapas are being violently evicted by federal police and army forces , in support of corporate plans for oil palm expansion and other activities, including tourism falsely called eco-tourism. Please write to the authorities in Mexico and in Chiapas state to support local communities’and organisations’ calls for an immediate end to the evictions and the return of evicted comunities to their land, restitution for the damage which has been caused, the prosecution of those responsible and for an end of oil palm monocultures in the area.
Call to action“”
Multinational corporations are covetting strategic natural resources in the Lacandon Forest in the Mexican state of Chiapas. At the same time, the state government is pursuing ambitious plans to surround the Lacondan Forest with oil palm plantations, while disguising the forest around the plantations as ‘eco’- tourism areas.
The corporations are preparing for those projects, by attacking and evicting indigenous communities. On 21st and 22nd of January this year, the indigenous Tselales communities of Laguna El Suspiro and Laguna San Pedro Guanil, both inside the Biosphere Reserve of Montes Azuls in the Lacandon Forest, were evicted.
Montes Azules is home to one third of Mexico’s biodiveristy. According information by the newspaper La Jornada (in Spanish), the eviction took place on 19th January this year, when the head of the Federal Agency for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) visited Chiapas. A few hours later, hundreds of policemen and soldiers evicted around twenty indigenous families (120 indiviuals) from their homes in the region. Government sources state that the operation was carried out in coordination with the federal police, members of the Mexican Army and of PROFEPA, ironically in the presence of ‘representatives of the state’s human rights’. No details have been given as to who those human rights representatives were.
Our understanding is that the Mexican government used fake ‘human rights representatives’ in order to commit human rights violations against indigenous peoples. During the two operations, the police forces were heavily armed and used several helicopters. Witout any official documentation or court order, and by means of violence and threats against elderly people, women and children, they forced the indigenous people to leave their houses without being allowed to take any of their personal belongings, and took them to the city of Palenque. There, twelve villagers from Laguna San Pedro Guanil were taken to the government ministry and were interrogated without a solicitor or interpreter. Before being released, the villagers were made to sign a document without understanding the content.
They later reported that intimidation was used to get them to respond to the question “Where are your fields where you grow drugs?”, a question which indicates how the government intended to justify the evictions retrospectively. The villagers report that various of their belongins as well as their houses, clothes and work tools have been destroyed, their fruit trees, maize and beans have been uprooted and their communal shop has been ransacked. Local witnesses report that after the evictions, the houses and belongings of the villagers were burnt. So far, no opportunity for resettlement has been offered.
Violent evictions and forced relocations had previously been carried out in approximately forty communities, by both the current and previous administrations. These are part of a policy to creating a ‘new order’ and clear the Lacandon Forest of people, particularly in the Montes Azules region. The Mexican state is thus promoting social dislocation and ongoing legal uncertainties as well as the appropriation of communal property in favour of private ownership. This results in the irreversible loss of the concept of land as a source of communal wealth. Both the federal government of Mexico and the state government of Chiapas justify their actions by labelling the entire indigenous Tseltal, Tsotzil, Ch’ol and Tojolabal population in the Lacandon area as ‘irregular people’, ‘invaders’ and ‘predators’. The evictions are expected to continue. Several of the villages which were evicted were Zapatista supporters.
Friends of the Earth has accused the governor of Chiapas of selling ‘the land and the territories of Chiapas to the highest bidder.” The evictions can be understood through a strategic global project of ‘territorial evictions and control’, which is disguised as a ‘conservationist spirit for the benefit of humanity’ (or, as a government spokesperson has said “...for the good of Chiapas’, for the good of Mexico’s and for the good of the world’s environment”). In reality, it serves the interests of multinational corporations and private investors in strategic natural resources in this and other indigenous and peasant territories in Mexico and Central America: Biodiversity, forest cover, clean drinking water, natural scenery and minerals, are all coveted as resources by biotech and agribusiness companies (Monsanto, Pioneer, Norvartis, Bimbo), pharmaceutical companies (Pharmacia, Bayer, Pfizer, Sanofi Adventis), car and oil firms (Ford, General Motors, Shell, the International Automobile Association (FIA), drinks manufacturers (Coca Cola, Nestle, Pepsi), hotel chains and false ‘eco-tourism’ firms (Mexican Association for Adventure and Eco-Tourism, AMTAVE), as well as mining companies (CEMEX, owned by PEMEX. Several of them have had a direct or indirect presence in the Lacandon Forest for years.
At the same time, the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabinas, has imposed an ambitious programme of economic reform which icludes the expansion of oil palm plantations and aimes to turn Chiapas into one of the main centres of production for agrofuels, with all the impacts that go along with it. Thanks to to the Group B.A.S.T.A from Münster for writing the letter!
You can read here an english version of the letter.
BackgroundTo the President of Mexico, Mr Felipe Calderón
To the state authorities in Chiapas, Juan Sabines Guerrero, Noé Castañón, Agr. Abelardo Escobar Prieto, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, Ernesto Enkerlin, Patricio Patrón Laviada, Jesús Caridad Aguilar, Lourdes López Moreno, Lt. Juan Carlos Moreno Guillen and to all others reponsible for and complicit in the recent events in Montes Azules
To the people of Mexico
You have said that the indigenous peoples who live around the lagoon San Pedro de Guanil are Zapatista supporters belonging to the autonomous municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón y de El Suspiro and that this is the reason why they have been relocated. You have said that the operation on 22nd January this year was necessary in order to protect the ecosystem from the hands of the population. You have said that the operations have been peaceful and that this land holds promises for eco-tourism projects and excellent results from economic reform, under which you inlcude the expansion of oil palms at the expense of the forest, arguing that you are doing so ‘for the food of the world and the enviornment’.
However, you have not said that it was ordered to burn down their houses, to destroy their most basic belongings, all of this during a few hours, that the women, men, children and elderly were expelled from ther houses and forced from their land, that their tools were destroyed and with them their means for working and sustaining themselves and their traditions, that their rights continue to be denied and a most cruel manner.
You have not said that hundreds of members of the federal armed forces and several helicopters were used and that journalists could not quote the witnesses. Nor have you said that a group of villagers was forcibly taken to Palenque under terrible circumstances, and that the villagers of El Suspiro were forced to abandon their community and take refuge in the mountains, nor that four women continue to be disappeared, and that their families desperate to discover their whereabouts in a region which is geographically isolated and cut off from communication.
You have not said that your policy of ‘conservation thorugh privatisation’, of ‘green philanthropy and the commercialisation of nature has been initiated by multilateral financial organisation and by international cooperation, with your complicity. Nor have you said that the expansion of commercial plantations of oil palms in the Lacandon Forest poses a major risk to biodiversity n the region, as well as to the soil and the sources of freshwater, due to the use of fertilisers and other agro-chemicals. What value do you place to human beings who are subject to ‘relocation’? Who is responsible for the projects which are truly destroying the forest and privatising its rich natural resources?
Mr Felipe Calderón: Are those the ‘responsible and appropriate’ measures which help to reach the government goal to convert Mesico ‘into one of the major zones of investment worldwide’? Is this the price for ‘propitious and friendly’ conditions which you are promising for transnational investments, according to declarations in the media?
To the authorities responsible for ordering, executing and endorsing those crimes in Chiapas State, I am urging you to urgently cease all the measures which the government of Mexico has been using relating to so-called ecotourism projects in indigenous territories and their brutal consequences for the population. I call on your to end the ongoing harassment and to which the communities who have been thretened and evicted from their land have been exposed. I call for the immediate return of the land which was taken from the villagers of San Pedro Guanil and El Suspiro on 22nd January, and from other communities in Montes Azules who have previously been evicted. I demand restitution for all those affected by the irresponsible harm caused to everybody who has been evicted as part of a cynical ‘development strategy’ for the Lacandon Forest, imposed by the Mexican government.
I demand an end to monocultures of oil palms, which are not forests, and which worsen climate change, poison soil and water and displace the original communities from their land and territorio.
Yours faithfully,
Al presidente de México, señor Felipe Calderón.
A las autoridades del Estado de Chiapas Juan Sabines Guerrero, Noé Castañón, Agr. Abelardo Escobar Prieto, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, Ernesto Enkerlin, Patricio Patrón Laviada, Jesús Caridad Aguilar, Lourdes López Moreno, Lic. Juan Carlos Moreno Guillen y a todas y todos los responsables y cómplices de los recientes hechos ocurridos en Montes Azules.
A la población de México.
Dicen que a las y los indígenas que habitaban la laguna de San Pedro de Guanil, bases zapatistas del Municipio autónomo Ricardo Flores Magón y de El Suspiro les están por reubicar.
Que la intervención del pasado 22 de enero era necesaria para salvar el ecosistema de las manos de sus pobladores.
Dicen que los operativos han sido pacíficos.
Que a estas tierras les esperan promisorios proyectos ecoturísticos y excelentes resultados por la reconversión productiva, como usted denomina a la expansión de la palma aceitera sobre la selva, argumentando que lo hacen “por el bien del mundo en materia ecológica”.
Pero no dicen que la orden fue incendiar sus casas, despojándoles de sus bienes más elementales, acabando con todo en cuestión de pocas horas. Que estas mujeres, hombres, niñ@s y ancian@s han sido expulsados de sus viviendas, arrancados de su suelo, despojad@s de sus herramientas, de sus fuentes de trabajo y subsistencia, de sus costumbres, desconociéndose incesantemente la legitimidad de sus derechos, de la manera más cruel.
Que asistieron al sitio acompañados centenares de federales armados, unos cuántos helicópteros, y periodistas que no darían cuenta sensata de lo que serían testigos.
Que una parte de esta población fue trasladada a Palenque obligada por el horror de las circunstancias.
Que las y los habitantes de El Suspiro se vieron forzados a abandonar su comunidad y refugiarse en el monte y que cuatro mujeres se encuentran hasta el momento desaparecidas. Que sus familias están desesperadas reclamando por su paradero en una región aislada geográficamente y sin acceso a medios de comunicación.
Que su política de “privatización conservacionista”, de “verde filantropía” y de mercantilización de la Naturaleza, está impulsada por organismos multilaterales, financieros y de cooperación internacional con su complicidad.
Que la expansión en la Selva lacandona, de plantaciones comerciales de una planta exótica como la palma africana pone en riesgo la altísima biodiversidad de la región, además de que por su forma de cultivo, envenena los suelos y los caudales de agua dulce con fertilizantes y agroquímicos
¿Qué lugar presumen estar asignándoles a seres humanos sujetos a ser “reubicados“?
¿En manos de quiénes están los proyectos que verdaderamente están devastando la selva y privatizando sus valiosos recursos naturales?
Señor Felipe Calderón: Son estas las medidas „responsables y oportunas“ que acelerarán el cumplimiento del objetivo de su gobierno de convertir a México „en uno de los mejores destinos de inversión en el mundo“? Son estos los costos de las condiciones “propicias y amigables“ que le promete a sus transnacionales inversionistas, según descaradamente declara a la prensa?
A las autoridades responsables que impulsan, ejecutan y respaldan estos crímenes de Estado, exhortamos a que se recapacite urgentemente sobre las medidas que el gobierno de México está poniendo en marcha en relación a los proyectos supuestamente ecoturísticos en tierras indígenas y las brutales consecuencias que éstos representan para sus pobladores.
Repudiamos el permanente hostigamiento al que se han expuesto y continúan exponiendo las comunidades amenazadas y desalojadas de sus tierras.
¡Exigimos la aparición inmediata y con vida de las mujeres desaparecidas en El Suspiro!
Reclamamos la inmediata devolución de las tierras arrebatadas a las y los pobladores San Pedro Guanil y El Suspiro el pasado 22 de enero, y de las restantes comunidades de Montes Azules que han sido expulsadas anteriormente, mediante el desalojo o la reubicación forzosa.
Exigimos la indemnización de cada afectada y cada afectado por los irreparables daños causados en todos los desalojos que han tenido lugar como parte de la cínica “estrategia de desarrollo“ de la Selva Lacandona impulsada por el gobierno mexicano.
Exigimos alto a los monocultivos de plantaciones de palma africana, que no son bosques, y que agudizan los gases efecto invernadero, envenenan el suelo y el agua y desplazan a comunidades originarias de sus tierras y territorios.
Recent successes