The JBG (Committee of Good Government) of the Caracol I La Realidad denounced “vigorously” the “CIOAC paramilitaries organised by the 3 levels of Bad Government” on May 5th, three days after the murder of the Zapatista teacher known as Galeano. “On March 16th, when we were undertaking a campaign of the ‘other’ autonomous healthcare, paramilitaries in La Realidad detained our JBG truck that was transporting medicine”.
“As a pretext, they said they wouldn’t allow our comrades to use gravel for the construction of a bedroom for the promoters of the autonomous clinic. Instead of stopping the gravel truck, however, they took the vehicle that provides health services to thousands of Zapatistas – and it is still in their hands to this day. It was simply a pretext because there is actually an agreement in the community saying that the gravel is communal property”.
The Committee clarified that “the paramilitaries of La Realidad are paid, organised, directed, and trained by the three levels of Bad Government with the aim of dividing us and provoking us. As a Committee, we wanted to resolve our differences, but they never wanted to understand”. They then went on to denounce the complicity and “agreement with other paramilitary leaders” in the region.
As a result of the attitudes of the paramilitaries, the Zapatistas “went to the FRAYBA centre for Human Rights, calling for [the paramilitaries] to meet at the centre” to resolve their problems. However, they “did not attend until a third request was made”. The Zapatistas were “approaching an agreement on May 2nd, but [the paramilitaries] were already organising something else outside the meetings. Other Zapatista comrades were arriving to do other tasks when the paramilitaries ambushed them at the entrance of the community to attack them with rocks and clubs. Our comrades then got out of their vehicles to defend themselves, and other comrades came out to support them but they were attacked with firearms. That is when our comrade José Luis Solís [aka Galeano], the area’s Escuelita teacher, was killed”.
“Other comrades were also shot, beaten with clubs, or injured with machetes”, they pointed out. “They were in two groups – one at the entrance of the community and another in the centre, armed with rifles and handguns. They destroyed the autonomous school and cut the water pipe”. They clarified that “we were not armed” and that, “if that had been the case, the result would have been entirely different”. They then affirmed that “five people have now been detained, but they are not the murderers”.
Finally, they announced that “The JBG has decided to step aside and place the investigation in the hands of the General Command of the EZLN so that the attack is investigated in depth and that justice can be done”.
Translated by Oso Sabio for an article to be published soon in Boca en Boca’s Edition 21
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