11 DEAD AFTER PARAMILITARY ATTACK AND POLICE OPERATIVE AGAINST CIVILIANS AND COMMUNITY POLICE IN GUERRERO: WE DON’T WANT TO SEE MORE BLOOD RUN!
Demián Revart
Only one week has elapsed since 2018 and a new tragedy has been written in the massacres list of this republic of death (giving continuity to the blood spilled in the events of Ayotzinapa, Tlatlaya, Arantepakua, Nochixtlán, Ixmiquilpan and a endless more).
In the first early morning hours of this Sunday, January 7, inhabitants of the Communal Goods of Cacahuatepec -in the rural area of Acapulco, Guerrero- celebrated a dance in the context of the celebration of the Patron Saint of La Concepción on the court of that community.
At the edge of 3 hrs., a young man broke into the command office of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC-PC) to urinate in the building as a form of aggression and provoke the “comunitarios”, so he was detained into the command office for committing that administrative fault. A few moments later, the young man managed to escape through the back door, running towards the place where the celebration was taking place. A group of comunitarios gone out to detain him, but were cowardly received by a group of armed and hooded people who immediately opened fire indiscriminately against them, causing the immediate death of Ulises García Morales -original of the Agua Caliente community- and Eusebio Elasio Martínez -of the community of Huamuchitos-.
The comunitarios who achieved to repel the aggression, resorted to their shotguns to avoid being killed, so a confrontation of a few minutes occurred that ended up taking the lives of 8 people. For what the villagers narrate in their testimonies: “these armed people are linked to the commissioner Florentino Melchor León and the gravel businessmen”, adding to the fact that “they were there as if they were the personal protection or private guard of the aforementioned”.
This, was clearly a planned act with all the purpose to unleash violence with weapons, as well to achieve the liberation of two ex-military retained in the command office since the New Year’s Eve, because -as an infrarealist story- they entered armed in two cars to the Communal Goods with the intention of murdering the CRAC-PC commander, Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz.
After a few hours elapsed, approximately at 10 hrs., an operative of the State Police initiated a ‘state of siege’ in the streets of the town to stop ALL the members of the CRAC-PC project by government orders. One hour later, there was another shooting by the operative in front of the Parish of La Concepción and the command office, leaving as aftermath 3 more murdered comunitarios and the arrest of another 30. At the moment, they have been transferred to the Procecution of Justice of Acapulco, where -thanks to immediate photographs of people and solidarity activists- it can be proven State Police have planted them weapons and narcotics, a governmental maneuver already known in cases such as the arrests of the leaders of the self-defense groups (“autodefensas”) in Michoacán and the members of the CRAC-PC but from areas of Tixtla and Ayutla de los Libres in the Costa Chica.
Another point to detail is the attacks suffered by some journalists from Cuartoscuro, Agencia AP and other media during the second shooting. The cops pushed them, beat them and one of them the police snatched their cameras and taken off their SD archive memories[1].
During an “Encounter with Media” at noon today and chaired by the government’s spokesman on security, Roberto Álvarez Heredia, the facts have been distorted, focusing on the reflectors in the well-known strategies of guilt and revictimization to justify the happened massacre.
What is the role of the mass media?
In the hegemonic media, much importance has been given to the role of comrade Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz, spokesman for the Consejo de Ejidos y Comunidades Opositoras a la Presa La Parota (CECOP) and commander of the CRAC-PC fraction in the zone, under the idea that “he is responsible for everything” what these movements do and decide, when on the contrary, the ethical principles of both social struggles are horizontality, communitarianism and direct democracy -just as their local assemblies are carry out for decision-making.
The Guerrero government has used all the mediatic resources it has had and for having to criminalize the social resistance of ALL PEOPLE that make the CECOP, especially since the year 2013 when the communities made the unanimous decision to join the Community Police due the increasing levels in the threats of those interested in installing the hydroelectric dam -at the moment, legally suspended in favor of the villagers- through the sponsorship of thug groups.
Marco Antonio not only has received accusations to turn him into political prisoner among June 17, 2014 and March 31, 2015; several local businessmen and their families began to defame him on social networks, specifically on the Youtube channel “Desplazados Acapulco”, in which in the most stupid and right-wing way, he is “accused” of promoting the displacement of inhabitants, when the territorial defense that has done along with the CECOP have like main objective THE PRESERVATION OF THE HUMAN LIFE AND THE NATURE IN CACAHUATEPEC[2].
In this channel a strongly aggressive and violent nuance is used against not only the CECOP, but also against the lawyers and human rights defenders of “Tlachinollan”, the parents, mothers and normalist classmates of Ayotzinapa, as well as the organized teachers in the CNTE (National Coordinator of Education Workers) and the CETEG (State Coordinator of Education Workers of Guerrero).
***
Is not the first time that tears and blood are homologate in the soil of these communities. At noon on Friday, June 9, 2017, an armed commando riddled without compassion an entire family on Calle Ceiba. This armed assault provoked the death of three women, a man, a 17-year-old boy and a baby of just four months. The Ministry of Security of Guerrero also reported two minors aged 8 and 11, respectively, and a one-year-old baby were injured. [3].
The incursion of armed groups not legitimized by the villagers and comuneros that give life this territoralization, in sooth took place from March 7, 2017, so the bells of the organization have touched once again to undertake joint actions and to stop the violence that is “commanded from the State government on behalf of a ‘citizen organization’ of armed businessmen.”
As autonomous communication media, in Ruptura Colectiva (RC) we registered the following incidents in March that led to speed up people’s alertness in the face of armed groups: 1) they beat Don “Cheto” from the community of El Rincón to shatter his nose; 2) they shot a resident of Camposanto, wounded him and gave him a “levantón”; 3) in Oaxaquillas they lifted a person, he was beaten and stripped of his money; and 4) they injured a person just for carrying iguanas, arguing that it is a crime, but they do not realize that many people live humbly from that work[4].
***
What is the reason for this permanent climate of violence and internal divisionism? Simple: the logics of EXTRACTIVISTIC CAPITALISM, which in turn generates division in the communities and ‘traditional’ authorities, the formation of armed groups -one, legitimate for the defense of natural resources and people, and others, for the violent intimidation to the detriment of territorial defenders and any opposition action to extractivist projects- and also, the internal decomposition through the increasing of drug sales, extortion and degradation of young people by introducing them to the world of “easy money” (as the main example, we have the young man who started the brawl during the early morning hours).
We did not invent this, the proofs are documented:
On last night Thursday, December 13, in the community of Agua Caliente, a former member of the UPOEG (paramilitary group with high presence in Guerrero) named Ezequiel Reyes Morales was arrested. When his backpack was checked, people found a short weapon and a lot of marijuana amounts, so in the interrogation, the aforementioned claimed to engage in the sale and distribution of drugs.[5].
Only a few days later, on December 17, 11 more persons were presented before a community assembly accused of car theft, robbery, intrafamily violence, sale and consumption of drugs.
By unanimous decision, those in charge of developing the regulations of the CRAC-PC’s security and justice system to minor offenses, have begun with all these persons a process of reeducation to heal the damages at community level for their actions.
The last incident (already described at the beginning of this text) was on the eve of the New Year, when a group of armed men entered the Communal Goods in two cars with the intention of murdering Marco Antonio. On a timely basis, the CRAC-PC memebers managed to detain the armed commando on the afternoon of December 31, thus avoiding a greater magnitude mishap[6].
***
As I have written -and thousands of times- La Parota hydroelectric project represents an enormous booty of profits for the national businessmen class at the cost of the –illegal- dispossession of water, land, air (of the life!) at the Communal Goods of Cacahuatepec, having as its main privilege its location: the tourist empire of Acapulco.
With the predatory advance of the multinationals of mining -Guerrero, Puebla, Zacatecas, Chiapas-, wind -Oaxaca-, hydroelectric dams -Morelos, Veracruz- and of transgenic crops -Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo-, as well with the approval of the called Law of Biodiversity, the journey it is easier to plunder the resources of the most vulnerable and forgotten populations, or what I prefer to call “the Acapulco that nobody sees (or rather, that nobody wants to see)” .
[1] “Denuncian periodistas que fueron agredidos por policías estatales. Por: Erick Barrera”, Agencia de Noticias Guerrero, 7 de enero de 2017. (https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1820665827945884&id=127901443889006&hc_location=ufi)
[2] “Desplazados Acapulco”, creado en julio de 2015. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDR6p64ix9JYBWenHe6wkgQ/about)
[3] “Grupo paramilitar asesina a 6 personas y deja 3 menores heridos en Cacahuatepec, Guerrero”, Ruptura Colectiva (RC), 9 de junio de 2017. (http://rupturacolectiva.com/grupo-paramilitar-asesina-a-6-personas-y-deja-3-menores-heridos-en-cacahuatepec-guerrero/)
[4] “Preparan resistencia en Cacahuatepec, Guerrero, ante la presencia de grupos paramilitares y despojo del territorio”, Ruptura Colectiva (RC), 24 de abril de 2017. (http://rupturacolectiva.com/preparan-resistencia-en-cacahuatepec-guerrero-ante-la-presencia-de-grupos-paramilitares-y-despojo-del-territorio/)
[5] Comunitarios de la CRAC-PC detienen a narcomenudista de la UPOEG con un arma y droga en Cacahuatepec, Acapulco, Ruptura Colectiva (RC), 19 de diciembre de 2017. (http://rupturacolectiva.com/comunitarios-de-la-crac-pc-detienen-a-narcomenudista-de-la-upoeg-con-un-arma-y-droga-en-cacahuatepec-acapulco/)
[6] “Durante el Año Nuevo, comando armado intenta asesinar a activista opositor a proyecto hidroeléctrico en Acapulco; integrantes de la CRAC-PC detuvieron a los agresores“, Ruptura Colectiva (RC), 1 de enero de 2018. (http://rupturacolectiva.com/durante-el-ano-nuevo-comando-armado-intenta-asesinar-a-activista-opositor-a-proyecto-hidroelectrico-en-acapulco-integrantes-de-la-crac-pc-detuvieron-a-los-agresores/)
789 total views, 2 views today