[Spanish original]
1. At dawn on Monday, September 13, paramilitaries from the from the Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle (MULT), together with the Union for the Social Well-Being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT), reoccupied the Municipal Palace of San Juan Copala.
2. From that moment and up until now, they have not stopped firing high-caliber weapons at our comrades who have refused to leave their homes despite the violence. They don’t want to leave because their lives are here, their pasts and their futures, they can’t imagine leaving here and being without their saints and their dead. They would rather die here with them than abandon them.
3. As a result of these attacks, on September 14, comrade María Rosa Francisco was gravely wounded, this same comrade was kidnapped just days ago by MULT paramilitaries. No government authority - federal, state or municipal - is willing to enter to remove this comrade so that she can receive medical attention. The other comrades can’t do anything as the paramilitaries continue firing.
4. Since they know they can act with impunity as a result of the support they receive from the state government, the paramilitaries are shouting to the inhabitants of San Juan Copala that they have 24 hours to abandon their homes or they will be killed. We don’t believe that this is a simple threat, as in past months they carried out a similar attack in San Migual Copala, where they killed 12 comrades on the municipal basketball court.
5. Given this desperate situation we are making an urgent call on all people of good faith, to human rights organizations, to social movements, to all those who believe that the Triquis have the right to live with dignity, that they do all they can to denounce this situation; to demand that the government guarantee the rights of the Copalans and detain the murderers. It is very urgent, comrades, tomorrow it may not be possible.
3 PM, September 13, 2010
The Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala
1. At dawn on Monday, September 13, paramilitaries from the from the Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle (MULT), together with the Union for the Social Well-Being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT), reoccupied the Municipal Palace of San Juan Copala.
2. From that moment and up until now, they have not stopped firing high-caliber weapons at our comrades who have refused to leave their homes despite the violence. They don’t want to leave because their lives are here, their pasts and their futures, they can’t imagine leaving here and being without their saints and their dead. They would rather die here with them than abandon them.
3. As a result of these attacks, on September 14, comrade María Rosa Francisco was gravely wounded, this same comrade was kidnapped just days ago by MULT paramilitaries. No government authority - federal, state or municipal - is willing to enter to remove this comrade so that she can receive medical attention. The other comrades can’t do anything as the paramilitaries continue firing.
4. Since they know they can act with impunity as a result of the support they receive from the state government, the paramilitaries are shouting to the inhabitants of San Juan Copala that they have 24 hours to abandon their homes or they will be killed. We don’t believe that this is a simple threat, as in past months they carried out a similar attack in San Migual Copala, where they killed 12 comrades on the municipal basketball court.
5. Given this desperate situation we are making an urgent call on all people of good faith, to human rights organizations, to social movements, to all those who believe that the Triquis have the right to live with dignity, that they do all they can to denounce this situation; to demand that the government guarantee the rights of the Copalans and detain the murderers. It is very urgent, comrades, tomorrow it may not be possible.
3 PM, September 13, 2010
The Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala
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