October 30th, 2007 – CODEDI writes: With the imposition of Sergio García Cruz over the town of Santiago Xanica, our community has lived in a state of total ungovernability, withstanding injustices, lies, and manipulation. Only days before assuming the Presidency, Sergio himself made promises to gain more votes in his favor, buying off the consciences and dignity of indigenous people; these promises have not been kept. His project is clearly based on the destruction and looting of our municipality’s natural and economic resources. He carries out his plans by deceiving and manipulating the citizens, utilizing different state and federal projects to faithfully serve the candidates, senators and the President of Mexico himself, openly seeking votes for the PRI, even though he used to call himself the “defender of the poor.” Furthermore, he misuses the town’s vehicles, lets all the machinery run down, and sells off trucks that are the patrimony of the people.
Behind all this, there are hidden interests of economic groups and regional power bosses that are handing over the COPALITA River to Huatulco businessmen, thus robbing the people of Santiago Xanica of one of our most vital resources—WATER. The same greed and ambition is seen in the purchase of LA SIRENA ranch with municipal funds; their rationale disguises the fact that 160 hectares will be designated for the San Antonio Ozolotepec Agency, and the large part belonging to the townspeople will be left in the hands of the state government under the agency CONOAFOR with the pretext that it will be a protected area. This is just a farce designed to take control of the spring that supplies the town of Xanica; behind all this are other dirty business and political interests that aim to take all the natural resources for themselves.
In view of this brutality and these outrageous acts generated by the inability of the supposed president to govern, on October 11, 2007, the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI) held its second, peaceful, public, informational event in the municipal esplanade, openly speaking of the injustices of the Sergio García Cruz administration.
One day later, the ministerial police force was shored up by Sergio García and the state preventive police returned to the town, creating a climate of fear. Once again threats were made to drive us out of our own town or, if we refused to go, to imprison or kill CODEDI members at any moment, at any place. This is the way that Sergio García and the state government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz plan to destroy our organization, no matter what the cost, in order to carry out their economic plans. They are the main forces that have provoked and deepened the divisions in our community to satisfy their own greed, through actions ordered by the state government itself.
In view of all this, we hold Sergio García Cruz and the state government responsible for any harm that may be done to the comrades in our organization.
STOP THE REPRESSION IN XANICA
FREE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS OF XANICA AND OF THE STATE
Juventino García Cruz, Abraham Ramírez Vázquez and Noel García Cruz
COMITÉ POR LA DEFENSA DE LOS DERECHOS INDIGENAS (CODEDI)
