Indigenous People Demand Justice at the Nine Year Anniversary of the Massacre at El Charco

On June 6 and 7, 2007, two PBI Mexico team members accompanied members of the Organization of the Indigenous Me'Phaa People (OPIM) at the anniversary of the massacre of 11 people in El Charco, in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero. PBI has provided international accompaniment to OPIM since 2005. On the morning of June 7, 1998, in the community of El Charco, 10 Mixtec people and one student of the National Autonomous University of Mexico died allegedly at the hands of Mexican soldiers in the bilingual elementary school “Caritino Maldonado Pérez". Every year the community commemorates the anniversary of the massacre with a march. This year, PBI accompanied the OPIM, who had supported the Independent Organization of Mixtec People (OIPM) in organizing the event. PBI team members accompanied the caravan that left Ayutla on June 6^th and arrived at the community of El Charco. Upon nightfall the family members of those who died held a vigil. The school’s two classrooms are just as they left them 9 years ago and still have bullet holes and blood stains on the walls, ceiling and floor. In one of the classrooms there is a cross with the names of the victims hanging above an offering with flowers and candles. Throughout the evening the family members prayed and sang songs about their lost love ones. The next day, three widows and two mothers of the victims led a march on the road leading from the community to the school. About 500 people participated in the event, most of them Mixtec and Me'Phaa people from this municipality. They carried a sign demanding that the soldiers that committed this massacre be punished. In addition to justice, the indigenous people of the region seek reparation of damages and indemnization for the victims' families. After a memorial mass, several speakers representing the indigenous peoples and social movements in Guerrero spoke at a rally. Felipe Castro Morales, brother of one of the widows, spoke in the name of the victims' families: “On June 7, 1998 the soldiers arrived here and in cold blood killed our fellow Mixtec people. Our people were not armed, but instead were talking with other indigenous people about how they were going to improve the conditions in the community. Those that attended this meeting slept in the school; the next morning the soldiers arrived and killed them" [1] In this region, the massacre at El Charco is one of many continued aggressions, and the president of the Organization of the Mixtec People, Raúl Lucas Lucía, summed up the feeling: “All of the indigenous people desire justice. We have been massacred, exploited, harassed, and repressed by our corrupt government." [2]

[2]El Sur, June 8, 2007