The displaced decide to return to our community

Caravan of the Color of Blood

TO THE PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD
TO THE DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN
TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Compañeras, compañeros:

Those who are speaking to you, issuing a call for solidarity, are the children, elders, women and men who on January 1, 2007 declared the autonomy of our community, San Juan Copala, which without doubt was the reason behind the fury unleashed by the powerful who badly govern this, our country.

For that act we were attacked in the cruelest way until they succeeded in displacing us and seizing our homes.

More than 22 compañeros were murdered by paramilitary groups financed and advised by the disastrous government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz with the conceit of the federal government.

Because of that, last September 19, the remaining compañeros fled our town, which remained in the hands of those criminal groups.

And the inhabitants of San Juan Copala had to take refuge in some of the other communities of the Autonomous Municipality, in the encampments in Oaxaca and the Federal District and in some of the states in this country in order to save our lives.

Compañeras, compañeros:

It is not easy to live in the conditions in which we, the displaced of Copala, are living in, and because of that we have decided to return to our community, no matter the cost, as we see that as the days pass the governments weave their web of lies and defamation through the media and through their corrupt officials, as happened in recent days when the delegate of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI) and the state secretary of education had the gall to go be photographed with the paramilitaries who now occupy our town and to send the message that it is we who are lying, because Copala is a PARADISE.

For several days we waited for an explanation from the state government regarding the provocative and disrespectful stance of its cabinet secretary, as were we there that would not have happened.

This has made us decide to return to our land and may whatever happen remain in the conscience (that is if they have any) of those government officials.

Because of this we call on all those persons who during these months of pain have walked alongside us; that apart from the solidarity that they may have with us by accompanying us and providing us with supplies, that they stay alert so that in case of any aggression by these paramilitary groups, immediate condemnations are made.

On this march, which we have called THE COLOR OF BLOOD, we will send our greetings to several other struggles in the country, of sisters and brothers who like us walk from below and to the left, as San Juan Copala well knows that it is from the word amongst equals from which the relief for so much pain can come. To those who generously wish to accompany us to take back our land, we add the below path of the route we will take until we arrive at our town.

Itinerary and activities of the March-Caravan The Color of Blood, from the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala