Intercontinental Cry
Campesinos are demanding recognition of their rights and calling for an end to logging and violence after a family was violently evicted from their land, two weeks ago, in the Argenine Province of Juyjuy.
According to a statement from the family, employees from the company KRAM SA, which is owned by a relative of the Argentine Ambassador to Bolivia, illegally evicted them to make way for a new transgenic soy plantation on their land.
During the eviction, Gloria Mamani, an 80 year-old Campesino (farmer), was beaten and dragged across the ground.
Gloria’s son, Juan Mamani, tried to stop the employees from carrying out the eviction by firing a warning shot into the air. However, police from the nearby town of Palma Sola were called in. “Instead of defending the lawful owners of the land,” the police arrested Juan; Gloria; Gloria’s husband; and Armando Ortega, Juan’s Uncle.
The four family members were all later released: Juan was held for a period of four days, until January 4; and the rest of the family was released the day after the eviction, on December 31.
“They killed our animals, they shot them[...], they disposed of the whole ranch of cattle, horses and goats, the pigs, they shot everything. They poison[ed] our water, we don’t have drinking water” says Gloria’s granddaughter. “We are trying to organize to see how we can stop them.”
The Mamani family, along with other Campesinos near Palma Sola in the Argentine province of Jujuy, also say the government’s land use plan, which approved the logging of 1,000 hectares in Juyjuy, is fraudulent because it was “enacted by decree of the provincial executive when it should have been made by the legislature by law.”
The government also failed to hold public hearings, and did not consult local stakeholders including Campesinos and Indigenous communities in the region.
Roselio de la Cruz González and José Manuel de la Torre Hernández , who are currently held in a state prison, were blindfolded, bound and beaten during their interrogation, their lawyer said.
Roselio de la Cruz was beaten and threatened with death, while officials held a plastic bag over the head of José Manuel de la Torre until he almost suffocated. He was then forced to inhale water until he passed out.
Both men were forced to sign papers which they were not allowed to read.
Amnesty International also expressed its concern for a third member of the same organization, José Manuel Hernández Martínez, who is being held 2,000km away, where he is unable to see his lawyer and family.
All three men are accused of illegally occupying land in 2005.
Roselio de la Cruz González and Manuel de la Torre Hernández were both detained by Chiapas state police on 24 October.
The arrests took place during a raid in the Venustiano Carranza municipality on the homes of several members of Organización Campesina Emiliano Zapata (“Emiliano Zapata” Peasant Organisation, OCEZ).
José Manuel Hernández Martínez, a fellow OCEZ member, was arrested on 30 September.
On 16 October he was moved to a federal prison 2,000 km away. This is too far for his family and lawyer to visit him, meaning he is effectively held incommunicado.
Amnesty International has urged the Mexican authorities to:
- guarantee that Roselio de la Cruz and José Manuel de la Torre will not be tortured further or otherwise ill-treated;
- conduct an impartial investigation into their torture, with those responsible brought to justice;
- ensure that the two men are either released immediately, or charged promptly with a recognizably criminal offence and tried fairly according to international standards, with any evidence obtained through torture ruled inadmissible;
- ensure that José Manuel Hernández Martínez has immediate access to his family and lawyer.