Just in recent days there have been two attacks against the Zapatistas (EZLN) according to Indymedia Chiapas and the Zapatista website.

On 10 August, 2007, in the Balulumash community two people were shot and injured during an attack by the paramilitary group Organización para la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas y Campesinos (OPDDIC).

As the name suggests - Organization For the Defense of the Indigenous Rights and Land - OPDDIC is an organisation that should protect indigenous people’s human rights. But it is this very group that is instigating the human rights abuses, often with government consent and backing.

Mr. Navarrese Leonardo Jiménez and his son Navarrese Juan Jiménez were attacked and shot at by 25 people from the Batranca and Balulumash communities. Witnesses to the shooting said at least six of the attackers are known members of OPDDIC.

Further attacks on 2 August, 2007, saw the home of Maria Lopez Peñate in La Paz, situated in the northern Zapatista territories, burned to the ground. Maria, a single parent, was away working at the time. When she saw smoke coming from her home she was only able to save her chickens. Everything else was lost to the fire.

La Paz is currently under pressure to evacuate the community, electricity is regularly cut and the women fear sexual assault from paramilitaries. They claim this repression is because the government opposes their autonomous women’s group.

According to  http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx, this is just the continuation of land and forest plundering, threats, violence and murder to create fear, to force out and displace them, in order that the corporations, big and small, national and international can gain control.