From the Comité pro-Reparaciones para las Hermanas González de Chiapas:
On June 4th, 1994, in the town of Altamirano, Chiapas, three indigenous Tzeltal sisters, one of whom was a minor, were detained by members of the Mexican military, and were tortured and raped by the soldiers. Before they were released their lives were threatened with death in order to prevent them from reporting the crime.
The Comité pro-Reparaciones para las Hermanas González de Chiapas, el Centro de Derechos de la Mujer de Chiapas, el Colectivo de Mujeres de San Cristóbal de las Casas, la Comisión Mexicana para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, and el Centro para la Justicia y el Derecho Internaciónal invite you to join a campaign to pressure the Mexican government to grant reparations to the Celia, Beatriz, and Ana González.
After fifteen years of injustice, the sisters and their mother, a witness to the attacks, completed key depositions on May 21, 2009. This progress will only be realized, however, through political pressure by organizations since the Mexican military actively resists acknowledging the crimes of its soldiers.
As an organization or individual who struggles against violence against women of color, militarization of indigenous territories, and state violence against indigenous communities, we, in consultation with the survivors themselves (consulted on May 18) urge you to participate in this campaign.
There are two ways to participate in the campaign:
1. If you belong to an organization, we urge you to send a fax in the name of your organization to the three government agencies most closely related to the case as well as the Inter-American Commission, who is in charge of seeing that Mexico follows its recommendations for justice and reparations.
We have prepared a letter in a Word document for each agency. Please download each letter, insert the name of your organization and sign at the bottom. You may also want to modify the letter in some way. The letters include the fax numbers for each agency. Follow these links for the letters: Letter one, letter two, letter three. If you are interested in sending a fax but do not have a way to do so please contact us at comite@hermanasgonzalez.org. We hope to be able to facilitate sending a fax on your behalf.
2. If you wish to participate as an individual, we encourage you to either send a fax as indicated above, or sign a petition we have prepared, including your organization in the "comments" section. The petition is growing every day. Please pass this information on to your friends.
We hope that you are able to join us in this cause.
In struggle against state violence against indigenous women,
Comité Pro-Reparación de las Hermanas González de Chiapas, the Chiapas Women’s Rights Center, Colectivo de Mujeres de San Cristóbal, Comisión Mexicana para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, Centro para la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional
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