AND
I write at 10 years of the kidnapping and political control of the town of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca, by former councilor Manuel Zepeda Cortés and his daughter, Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, now a purinominal deputy. It all started with a sociopolitical conflict on December 14, 2014, due to a request sent by the Superior Audit and Supervision of the government of the state of Oaxaca to the acting president of that period, Alfredo Bolaños Pacheco, regarding the justification of 23 million pesos to position of Zepeda Cortés corresponding to his period, from 2010 to 2012.
On November 15 of that year, Manuel Zepeda organized citizens who carried firearms, pipes and sticks, all from the party, they took the municipal palace. They beat and stripped Alfredo Bolaños Pacheco of his keys and forced him to sign his resignation and decided to disown him as municipal president. This resulted in the confrontation between the group of Manuel Zepeda and Bolaños Pacheco in a general assembly on December 14, 2014, to name the constitutional mayor who is renewed every year. As a result, there were arbitrary arrests and imprisonment for more than 20 colleagues, and another 25 who are still subject to trial, for the crime of murder of one of the sons of Manuel Zepeda and another citizen named Gustavo Estrada. All responsibility was placed on these people, who were his political enemies. With falsehoods and fabrication of facts, the prosecutor’s office through the state government kept them in preventive detention for almost 10 years without following up on their processes, denying them their rights to defense, although after mobilizations of family members and solidarity organizations their freedom was achieved. upon proving that they were innocent; However, his colleagues remain displaced because their processes have not yet been closed.
Now they return with their beating group to harm the municipal president Felipe Palacios Chazarez, looking for reasons to disown him, in a meeting on May 19, 2024. Between slander and falsehoods, they accused him of diversion of resources and declared the early suspension of his mandate, all orchestrated by Manuel Zepeda Cortés and Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, through an assembly minute with forgery of the signatures of the citizens who attended. And they set up an entire plan to achieve their objective, this was taken to the State Institute of Citizen Participation of the government of Oaxaca, for approval, obtaining its rejection, since they did not have the corresponding veracity. Having not achieved their objective, they closed the palace again, and after 15 days they reopened it and on July 14 they appointed a new council with a few people who endorsed it, while the municipal authority moved to alternate offices to carry out its activities. , with the support of the majority of neighborhood representatives and municipal agents, as well as the people in general.
To date, Chief Manuel Zepeda Cortés and Elisa Zepeda Lagunas, a multi-member representative, continue to harass the legally functioning authorities. With threats and slander.
* Member of the Community Assembly Ricardo Flores Magón
