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Datum: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:22:33 +0100
Von: Global Women\'s Strike <womenstrike8m ät server101.com>
Support struggle vs against corruption & violence in Michoacán, Mexico
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We demand justice! We demand the arrest and dismissal from office
OF DOMINGO SANTIAGO PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF CHILCHOTA,
MICHOACáN, MéXICO!
By Amparo Gutiérrez, Nación Purépecha and Global Women's Strike
8 March 2007, International Women's Day
Just a few days ago another stage of the conflict that we are living
through in the Indigenous community of Tacuro ended.
On 12 September (when the Global Women's Strike was in Venezuela for
the fifth anniversary of the Women's Development Bank), Dominic
Santiago - president of the Council of Chilcota, which includes the
Indigenous community of Tacuro - in an inebriated state and
appearing to be under the effect of some other drug, went and fired
shots repeatedly at the population.
The authorities called the municipal police who, on hearing that it
was the president and the chief of security who were involved,
refused to arrest them. For this reason, the people risked their own
lives and confronted the president and his drunken companions and
detained them. Whilst being detained, the president received some
blows - people were extremely indignant and very angry, frightened
and confused.
They didn't release them until the arrival the following day of a
government committee, a member of congress and people from the
Attorney General's office.
Previously the president had carried out beatings and, while drunk,
had tried to force two girls into his vehicle. In addition, he has
systematically refused to attend to the needs of the community.
In light of these events, we spoke to the governor who promised that
justice would be done and that this type of official would not be
tolerated in his government.
However, the struggle has been a long one, because the president
belongs to the PRD (the party led by López Obrador). As is the case
with parties' leaderships, what happens to the people is of little
interest to them when compared to the interests of the party.
Therefore, people were threatened that we should drop the charges
because it was damaging the party and that instead we should
tolerate these injustices - with the argument that, after all,
people had already given the president a beating.
So we had to renew our negotiations with the governor to carry out
legal proceedings against the president. The governor declared that
he would act and that he was going to bring charges against the
president. In front of us, he gave orders for this.
However, nothing happened. On the contrary, the president ordered
the beatings of other compañeros. One had marks all over his face
because they attacked him with sticks and told him that they only let
him live so that he could tell the people of Tacuro to stop bothering
the president or they would come and kill them. We were also told
that the president had links with paramilitary groups.
In the absence of a convincing answer, we decided to occupy the
presidency on 23 November. Since the taking of the presidency there
have been many problems: several attempts to remove us and numerous
negotiations with the government. Because the community refused to
withdraw the charges against the president, 14 members of the
community were charged - some of the most prominent members of the
movement headed the list. In order to continue our campaign for
justice, we had to carry out several protests in the state capital
and make several visits to Congress.
Then they issued an ultimatum: if the president was to be arrested,
then so would our 14 compañeros. Even then people refused saying
that the dignity of a people would not be crushed with the threat of
prison. (They had already told us that I too was on the list for
intellectual responsibility, and they almost fainted when I told
them that I was in Venezuela on those dates. All they could do now
was to accuse me for being a supporter of Chávez.)
In spite of all this, we managed to once again meet with the
governor and tell him that his orders were not being complied with.
He was sufficiently bothered by this, apologised, and ordered his
officials to carry out his instructions. So charges were brought
against the president. Charges were also brought against two of our
members, for the crime of inciting violence. Only one of them was
arrested but, fortunately, we managed to free him. At the moment we
don't have anybody in prison.
Although the president still hasn't been suspended, the fact that
charges have been brought against him has been a big advance.After
an exhausting three months of occupying the presidency, we felt it
was necessary to go back to the community and demand that Congress
dismisses the president from office.
What the community has achieved is historic.Everybody says that it
has set a precedent, and that any president of the council will
think twice about committing injustices against the people.The
community has stated that it will not recognize his as president of
the Council, and has agreed with the State Government that all of
the community's affairs will be conducted directly with the relevant
agencies without the intervention of the president.As a result of
these events, we have become an autonomous community; which means
that we have many demands because we have to solve many problems,
from garbage collection to community security, all services and
procedures. But above all, we are going to continue to press
Congress for the removal of the president.
THERE IS OBVIOUSLY A LOT AT STAKE FOR US AND WE NEED INTERNATIONAL
INTEREST AND SUPPORT. ONLY THEN WILL THE OFFICIALS UNDERSTAND THE
JUSTNESS OF OUR CAMPAIGN.PLEASE HELP TO SPREAD THIS INFORMATION AND
SEND LETTERS SUPPORTING OUR DEMANDS. WE DEMAND JUSTICE, A WARRANT
FOR THE ARREST OF DOMINGO SANTIAGO, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF
CHILCHOTA, AND HIS REMOVAL FROM OFFICE.
The following phrase is in the Supreme Tribunal and we believe it
would be good phrase to invoke because it was decreed by the
Generalísimo José María Morelos y Pavón - hero of our Independence -
and it is very fitting to our situation."That every person who seeks
justice for a grievance may have a court that listens, protects and
defends them against force and unjust acts."
OUR DEMANDS ARE BEING DEALT WITH IN THE NEXT MONTH OR SO. PLEASE
SENT LETTERS URGENTLY TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT, TO THE PENAL
JUDGE WHO IS BRINGING THE MATTER TO CONGRESS, AND COPIES TO THE
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO ARE ALREADY AWARE THAT CHARGES HAVE BEEN
BROUGHT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT AND WHO MUST AGREE TO HIS SUSPENSION.
PLEASE SEND COPIES OF YOUR LETTERS/EMAILS TO US AT:
Juchari5 ät hotmail.com womenstrike8m ät server101.net
LETTERS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO:
M. en Derecho Fernando Arreola Vega
Presidente del Tribunal de Michoacán
Calzada de la Huerta # 40
Tel/fax: 44332233304
Colonia Nueva Valladolid
C:P 58190 Morelia,
Michoacán, México
He doesn't have e-mail but you can write to his private secretary.
sigfrido_gomez ät tribunalmmm.gob.mx
Penal Judge Lic. Jorge Martínez Ruíz
Cereso Distrital
Entronque kilómetro 10 Camino al pochote s/n C. P. 59600 Zamora,
Michoacán, México
Tel: 3515173674
AND E-MAILS TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MICHOACáN
NAMES POSITION EMAIL
AYALA MARTINEZ FRANCISCO JAVIER, ING. DIPUTADO
dipfranciscoayala ät congresomich.gob.mx
CANO OCHOA FERNANDO, TT. DIPUTADO huetamocano ät congresomich.gob.mx
CHAVEZ CHAVEZ RAMON DIPUTADO monjany ät congresomich.gob.mx
IXTLAHUAC ORIHUELA JUAN ANTONIO DIPUTADO LOPEZ HERNANDEZ RAFAEL
DIPUTADO
LUQUIN VALDÉS MARIA DEL ROCIO, LIC. DIPUTADA
roluquin_64 ät congresomich.gob.mx
MARES CAMARENA JOSÉ JAIME, LIC. DIPUTADO jmares ät congresomich.gob.mx
MARIN GONZALEZ JOSÉ JUAN, LIC. DIPUTADO jjmarin ät congresomich.gob.mx
MONTOYA MANZO MAURICIO, LIC. DIPUTADO mmontoyam ät congresomich.gob.mx
OROZCO ZEPEDA GUSTAVO, C.P. DIPUTADO gorozco ät congresomich.gob.mx
ORTIZ GARCIA SALVADOR DIPUTADO
RODRIGUEZ SESMAS JULIAN, PROFR. DIPUTADO
rdzsesmas ät congresomich.gob.mx
SAMAGUEY CARDENAS MARTIN DIPUTADO distritozamora ät congresomich.gob.mx
TORRES MORENO EUGENIO, LIC. DIPUTADO
VALENCIA REYES GUILLERMO DIPUTADO memovalencia ät congresomich.gob.mx
CAMPOS DIAZ MARY CRUZ, ING. DIPUTADA maricruzcd ät congresomich.gob.mx
ANGEL OLVERA JOSÉ HUGO DIPUTADO hugoangel ät congresomich.gob.mx
ARIAS GARDUÑO GUSTAVO DIPUTADO gustavoarias ät congresomich.gob.mx
ARTEAGA GARIBAY LUCILA, LIC. DIPUTADA
lucilarteaga ät congresomich.gob.mx
BAUTISTA GOMEZ MINERVA, LIC. DIPUTADA minerva ät congresomich.gob.mx
CORONA SUAZO GUADALUPE JUAN CARLOS DIPUTADO
gpejcorona ät congresomich.gob.mx
DUARTE RAMIREZ MANUEL, LIC. DIPUTADO
manuelduarte ät congresomich.gob.mx
ESQUIVEL ZALPA JOSÉ LUIS DIPUTADO FERNANDEZ GONZALEZ CITLALLI,
LIC. DIPUTADA cfernandez ät congresomich.gob.mx
GAONA SANCHEZ BALTAZAR DIPUTADO baltazargaona ät congresomich.gob.mx
GARCIA REYES VERONICA, LIC. DIPUTADA
dipverogarcia ät congresomich.gob.mx
GARIBAY TENA DAVID, LIC. DIPUTADO dgaribay ät congresomich.gob.mx
GODOY SANCHEZ MARTIN, L.E. DIPUTADO GUIZAR VALENCIA GENARO DIPUTADO
gguizar ät congresomich.gob.mx
LOPEZ PAREDEZ URIEL, LIC. DIPUTADO MARTINEZ SALDAÑA JESUS DIPUTADO
jesusmarsal ät congresomich.gob.mx
VELAZQUEZ ESQUIVEL EMILIANO, BIOL. DIPUTADO
emiliano ät congresomich.gob.mx
GARCIA ROMERO VICTOR DIPUTADO victorgarcia ät congresomich.gob.mx
PLAZA URBINA ANTONIO, LIC. DIPUTADO japlaza ät congresomich.gob.mx
QUEZADA NARANJO BENIGNO DIPUTADO bqn ät congresomich.gob.mx
CAZARES HIGUERA JOSÉ MIGUEL DIPUTADO jmcazares ät congresomich.gob.mx
MARTINEZ ALCAZAR ALFONSO JESUS, ING. DIPUTADO
alfma751 ät congresomich.gob.mx
MEDINA GALINDO ANA LUCIA, LIC. DIPUTADA
anadiputada ät congresomich.gob.mx
MÉNDEZ LOPEZ ALEJANDRO, LIC. DIPUTADO amendezt ät congresomich.gob.mx
SANDOVAL FLORES REGINALDO DIPUTADO reginaldopt ät congresomich.gob.mx
NADESHDA Mailbox e.V._ / 0211-9053863 (X.75) / 0211-9345453 (V.34)
http://www.nadeshda.org / Informationen aus Politik Umwelt Kultur
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