Mexico: Three Years Since the Assault to Comuneros opposed to CIIT
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a joint statement for the third anniversary of the assault by goons in service of the construction Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT) that resulted in the murder of Jesús Manuel García Martínez “Chu Pau” and left Eric Sánchez Guitierrez, regional leader of Current of the People – Red Sun, injured.
The State Government has met with the perpetrators, and the Prosecutor’s Office has been negligent in investigating.
Today, October 27, marks three years since the armed attack committed by a criminal group that serves the interests of the big landlords and the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT). The attack left one comunero dead and another seriously injured.
On that day, October 27, 2022, a fully identified armed group violently burst into the home of a family of a Zapotec comunero who opposed the CIIT, in Santa Cruz Tagolaba, municipality of Tehuantepec. They shot and killed comunero Jesús Manuel García Martínez “Chu Pau” and seriously injured comunero Eric Sánchez Gutiérrez, a moral figure in the community and regional leader of the Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Jesús and Eric led the defense of the territory of Santa Cruz Tagolaba against the predatory advance of the so-called “cartel of dispossession,” which extended its operations to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec with the arrival of the CIIT; something that former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) himself denounced in his morning conference on September 15, 2022.
Behind this aggression are the interests of big landlords and imperialism, colluding in the dispossession of land and territory against the Zapotec people:
1) With CIIT money, they tried to impose the mercenary Sergio Gutiérrez García (alias “Sergio Canalla” – or “Sergio the Scoundrel”) as communal goods commissioner of Santa Cruz Tagolaba in May 2022; an act that was rejected by the agrarian community through a nullity lawsuit 453/2022 promoted before the Unitary Agrarian Tribunal (TUA) department nr. 22 with headquarters in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, where the community demanded the invalidation of the communal assembly in which the mercenary “Sergio Canalla” proclaimed himself victorious amidst a series of irregularities and documented violence.
2) With the imposition that was being forged, the brothers Sergio and Anastasio Gutiérrez carried out the invasion of hundreds of hectares of communal lands, all close to the CIIT impact zone, with the intention of growing “private investment” and the so-called “industrial areas” among which the construction of the “social housing” project by CONAVI was announced on the lands dispossessed from the comunero Salvador Pinal Meléndez, who was detained and imprisoned for defending his lands. It soon became known that the Gutiérrez García brothers had secret deals with representatives of private companies, groups with interests in the CIIT, and characters like Rafael Marín Mollinedo (then Coordinator of the CIIT, and today the Director of the National Customs Agency of the federal government).
3) The complicity of the Mexican State in this crime is evident and is shown by the various meetings that the state government has held with Sergio Gutiérrez García (militant of FUCO-Morena), in addition to the procedural inactivity by the State Attorney General’s Office regarding the homicide of Jesús Manuel and the attempted homicide against Eric.
As we know, since the beginning of the agrarian trial, the TUA dictated precautionary measures before the National Agrarian Registry (R.A.N.) and other instances to “not recognize the registration of Sergio Gutiérrez” and in last February the absolute nullity of said election was issued, ordering the Agrarian Prosecutor to issue the legal call for the general assembly of comuneros where the Agrarian Representation and Surveillance Body can be appointed, which until now has not occurred. This allows Sergio Gutiérrez García, in addition to continuing to claim to be the “communal goods commissioner,” to continue committing new dispossessions against communities and individuals in Tehuantepec.
Today, three years after the homicide of Jesús Manuel García Martínez and the attack on the life of comrade Eric Sánchez Gutiérrez, the signing organizations once again raise the demand for justice for the victims of this attack, punishment for their perpetrators, and unrestricted respect for the indigenous autonomy of the community of Santa Cruz Tagolaba, which demands the immediate issuance of the call for the renewal of its Representative Body.
Jesús Manuel did not die, the State killed him!
Justice for Jesús Manuel and comrade Eric!
No to the imposition in the Communal Goods Commissioner of Santa Cruz Tagolaba!
Respect for the indigenous autonomy of the community of Santa Cruz Tagaolaba!
The Interoceanic Corridor dispossesses and kills poor peasants and indigenous people!
