Originally published in Spanish by Enlace Civil, A.C.
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Translated by irlandesa

From: Enlace Civil, A.C. [email protected]
Date: Tuesday, August 27 2002 16:47:16 -0500

August 27, 2002.

To the National and International Press
To Public Opinion

Brothers and sisters:

Our New Olga Isabel Autonomous Municipality in Rebellion is denouncing the incidents of violence which are being carried out by paramilitaries from Reforma K'an Akil, in the official municipality of Chilón.

This paramilitary group assassinated a compañero of ours on August 25. We have not as yet been able to recover the compañero's body, because the paramilitaries have said that if we go there, they will fire on us again.

On the night of August 26, high powered gunfire was heard again.

When compañero Antonio was shot, his wife was there, and she saw him die. She escaped, in the midst of the gunfire. The compañero was shot 300 meters from his village of K'an Akil, which is close to the place called Reforma K'an Akil, where paramilitaries have been living since 1994.

We are greatly concerned, because the paramilitaries will not allow us to go in and recover the body of our compañero, and they have stated that want they want is to stop the development of our Autonomous Municipality, and, in order to accomplish this, they are going to end up killing us one by one.

They have said, in addition, that, if we do not abandon the Autonomous Municipality, they are going to kidnap us and force us to give them a large amount of money.

What they want is for us to abandon our struggle and our organization, but we know that these paramilitary people are being paid to do all of this, and they have started with assassinations.

We have already denounced this paramilitary group, Los Aguilares, because they have persecuted us, they have threatened us, and now they have gone as far as shootings. In that way they are trying to get us to respond, because they have said that is what they want us to do.

The paramilitary group Los Aguilares are feared by many people, and they are directed by Señor Sebastián Aguilar, who has been a member of the Mexican federal Army and who has relatives who are soldiers, and he receives weapons from them.

A few days prior to the assassination of our compañero Antonio Mejía, they kidnapped a compañero of ours, who was interrogated and forced to pay a quantity of money. They released him when he agreed to no longer belong to our Autonomous Municipality. When this compañero was being interrogated, they asked him about compañero Antonio Mejía. They said they were going to disappear him.

We are holding this paramilitary group responsible for the assassination of our compañero, but we are also holding the Federal and State Governments responsible, since we have on past occasions denounced harassment by these paramilitaries, and they are aware of the existence of this paramilitary group and of their actions.

Our Autonomous Municipality is organizing itself in order to find the means of recovering the compañero's body. We are not going to allow these violent incidents to continue taking place, nor will we allow them to remain unpunished.

We are calling on Civil Society engaged in Human Rights to help us in this fight for justice.

Sincerely,

Olga Isabel Autonomous Municipality