We want to publish an inofficial translation of an important message by the Mexican comrades that was sent to us about the dispossession of the inhabitants of Xoxocotlán. You can find a German translation here. For further information there are also English German translations existing about this topic:
Mexico: Recapture of homes by those evicted a year ago in Xoxocotlan
Aktuelles aus Mexiko (27. September)
Communiqué on Dispossession in Xoxocotlán
We share with our readers an important communiqué published by the families of Col. Lomas de Monte Alban, members of the Coordinating Committee in Defence of Popular Housing (Coordinadora en Defensa de la Vivienda Popular).
To the people of Oaxaca
To the workers of the city and the countryside
To the neighbourhoods of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán
We, the families who are the legitimate owners of the land on Vicente Guerrero Street, Colonia Lomas de Monte Alban, and who have been victims of the "cartel of dispossession" made up of municipal authorities, ex-commissioners, public notaries and shock groups, wish to state the following:
1. For several years, with effort, work and sacrifice, we have been acquiring these lands, complying with the formalities established by law.
2. However, after a while, we began to receive threatening calls from people who demanded that we pay again for our plots; these guys hid behind supposed "notary" documents and certificates issued by the then commissariat of communal property of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán. The modus operandi of the "cartel of dispossession".
3. On October the 7th, 2021, our families were evicted by these mercenaries, who even set up an armed camp on our land without the municipal authorities intervening; despite requesting their help, we were ignored.
4. Since then, we have denounced the acts of dispossession and attacks with firearms to the Attorney General's Office of the State of Oaxaca, where an investigation is underway against the aggressors, who are fully identified. Our families have precautionary measures and protection measures that the State itself has failed to comply with.
5. After a series of legal proceedings and procedures, our families have reorganised and returned to their land on the 24th of September of this year, doing so in a public and peaceful manner, although immediately the threats and aggressions returned.
6. During the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th of September, heavily armed individuals with assault rifles and other firearms for the exclusive use of the army on board vans and motorbikes without number plates attacked our properties, firing shots, setting up illegal roadblocks and terrorising the population of surrounding neighbourhoods, who also demanded help from the authorities without receiving any response. The organised families managed to resist for four days, until the aggressors finally consummated a new eviction in which dozens of armed, masked aggressors participated, evidently organised in a way very similar to a group of hired assassins at the service of organised crime.
7. Once again, during all these days, the municipal, state and federal authorities have ignored the calls for help from our families and the population of the surrounding neighbourhoods. The result of the aggression has been nine injured comrades, among them two minors of ten and four years of age respectively, four comrades hospitalised (one man and three women), and one comrade detained by the municipal police accused of carrying a firearm and assaulting the inhabitants, and later transferred to the facilities of the Attorney General's Office (the victim was criminalised and presented as the perpetrator),
8. None of the real aggressors have been arrested. No member of the "cartel of dispossession" has been touched so far, even though they have been fully identified.
Faced with this situation, on the 28th of September we mobilised together with the Coordinadora en Defensa de la Vivienda Popular (Coordinating Committee for the Defence of the People's Houses), the Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo (People's Current Red Sun) and the Frente de Organizaciones Oaxaqueñas (Front of Oaxacan Organisations); the demand was the release of David Escobar and that the state stop protecting the thugs, that it respect and enforce the precautionary measures and protective measures for the victims, and give guarantees for the return of our houses.
Our families, once again evicted, are not surrendered, nor defeated. We will reorganise ourselves and with the support of the popular movement we will take back what belongs to us.
Below, we present some images of comrades injured during the violent eviction, a letter presented to the Xoxocotlán city council by various neighbourhoods, images of the march and the rally at the FGR, as well as the bulletin issued by Sol Rojo on the release of our comrade.
