January 26, 2012
TO THE MEDIA
TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF MEXICO
TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS
TO THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN
Sisters, brothers – up until yesterday a great joy filled our hearts as we were sure that this time we would be able to return to our village – San Juan Copala – from which we were displaced by criminals in the service of the wicked Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. We were content as we believed that with the exit of the PRI from the state government that things had changed and that the criminals would no longer be protected. But our pain was great when we realized that nothing changed, that governments of any stripe will always protect those who supply them with votes, they guarantee them political and economic control and allow the indigenous population to remain displaced from its land and territory; dealing with the worst criminals doesn’t matter.
Yesterday we arrived at the meeting of Triqui “authorities,” arranged by the governor, with the aim of signing a supposed agreement of peace and understanding for our region, of which we were unaware until that moment and which the event served as a pretext for the state government to use as a reason to continue postponing the date which it had promised – in writing – of January 20, for the return to our village. Despite the fact that on several occasions we made clear to representatives of the state government that our displaced village does not recognize the supposed “municipal authority” of San Juan Copala, Julio Martínez Ramírez, who was put into that position by his son, Julio Cesar Martínez, the murderer of Jyri Jaakkola and many other people, this individual occupied the most privileged seat at the meeting, at the side of Governor Gabino Cué.
Also occupying a seat at the meeting was former state representative and well-known strongman in the Triqui region, Rufino Merino Zaragoza, who has committed with his own hands or personally ordered more than 80 murders. This criminal is the cause of much of the blood that has been spilled in our region. During the course of the meeting it became perfectly clear that the supposed “social organizations” MULT and UBISORT are one and the same, given the following: Rufino Merino presented himself as the representative of MULT’s communities but through the entire meeting he defended the proposals made by the former journalist Ixtli Martínez, who is the legal representative of the paramilitaries occupying San Juan Copala. Ixtli Martínez is the representative of the group of criminals who displaced us from our community, who imposed Julio Martínez as the municipal “authority,” who call themselves UBISORT but who in reality have been absorbed by MULT.
It is clear that all the murders committed against our brothers and sisters, including on April 27, 2010, were carried out by these two groups of criminals. The municipal “authority,” Professor Julio Martínez Ramírez, is the father of Julio Cesar Martínez Morales, the right hand of Antonio Cruz García, alias “Toño Pájaro,” both of whom have several arrest warrants out against them and today we understand that they have not been arrested because they receive protection from the government palace and the impunity they have allows them to dispose of human life at whim.
Knowing he was protected and that he enjoyed complete impunity, Julio Martínez put forward useless, stupid conditions for the return of the displaced to their homes – one of those was that the entry of two displaced families per month would be allowed beginning on March 20, or rather that the complete return of all 110 families would require four years. All of these were met with complacency by the governor, who continues to maintain that we are responsible for what might happen to us should we try to enter our village. Compañeros, compañeras: We can wait no longer.
We will return to our community and we hold the governor, Gabino Cué Monteagudo, the serial murderer Rufino Merino Zaragoza, Julio Martínez Ramírez, Antonio Cruz García, Julio Cesar Martínez Morales, and the advisor and inciter of this group of murderers, Ixtli Martínez, responsible for what may happen. Finally, we say to the governor that what happens will remain in his conscience, because he could have stopped it simply by ordering that the law of the state he supposedly governs be respected.
RESPECTFULLY
THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNAL COUNCIL OF SAN JUAN COPALA
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Translated by Scott Campbell.
