URGENT CALL TO STOP THE GENOCIDE OF THE TRIQUI PEOPLE
1. At dawn yesterday, Monday 13 September, the paramilitary soldiers of the Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui (MULT), along with those of the Unidad de Bienestar Social para la Región Triqui (UBISORT), once again took control of the Municipal building of San Juan Copala.
2. Since that time the perpetrators have not stopped shooting their high caliber firearms at our compañeros who have refused to abandon their homes despite the violence. They do not want to leave because this is their home, their past and future. They cannot imagine living anywhere else, away from their saints and their ancestors. They prefer to die there with them than to abandon them.
3. As a result of these attacks, today (September 14th) our compañera María Rosa Francisco was seriously injured. She is the same compañera who was recently kidnapped by MULT paramilitary soldiers. No federal, state or municipal authorities are willing to go in and remove our compañera so she can receive medical care. Our compañeros cannot get her out because the shooting has not stopped.
4. Knowing that their actions will go unpunished because they receive backing from the State government, the paramilitaries are shouting from their positions that the inhabitants of San Juan Copala have 24 hours to abandon their homes or they will be killed. We do not believe this is an idle threat, as they did the same thing some months ago in San Miguel Copala, assassinating twelve compañeros right on the municipal playing field.
5. In light of this desperate situation we are calling on all individuals of goodwill, on human rights organizations, on social movements, on all those who believe that the Triqui people deserve a life with dignity, to do everything in their power to denounce this situation; to demand that the government safeguard the lives of the Copaltecos and stop the murderers. We urge you to act today, compañeros, tomorrow will be too late.
Three o-clock in the afternoon of September 13, 2010
The autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala
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