1.- We publicly denounce what Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, leader of the government of Mexico's rich, is doing. We also denounce what Juan Sabines Guerrero, governor of the landowners and paramilitaries of Chiapas, is doing.

2.- On the 18th of August, 2007, between 11am and noon on a Saturday, 6 helicopters arrived to displace the towns of San Manuel and Buen Samaritano. The towns are accused of destroying the mountains of the ecological reserve Montes Azules.

3.- In the town of San Manuel, [police] forces arrived violently and gave the inhabitants no time to respond. The women and children were threatened with firearms and the men were forced to board the helicopters, along with everyone present in the own.

4.- While everyone was being forced to board the helicopters, the state and federal police, 90 of whom are believed to be members of police corporations, organized themselves into 2 groups. One of these groups was responsible for demolishing the houses of San Manuel and robing the few belongings that could be found within the homes. The other group continued ensuring that all residents of San Manuel boarded the helicopters.

5.- Similar actions were also carried out in the town of Buen Samaritano. Seven people were taken from Buen Samaritano. Their names are unknown.

6.- The list of people forced to leave the town of San Manuel:

The whereabouts of these men, women and children are unknown. We do not know what misttreatment they have endured or their physical conditions.

7.- We have been able to communicate with the legal defense team of the human rights Centre Fray Bartolome de las Casas. The centre is doing the difficult work of attempting to locate the detained persons. We would like to recognise the treatment that this legal team is likely to suffer, particularly the aggressions on the part of the state and federal government that will be directed against them. We know that, despite this hardship, The Human Rights Centre Fray Bartolome de las Casas will complete the work, as they have done many times before, because we do not know the whereabouts of our detained brothers and sisters.

8.- We know that the state and federal government is planning similar actions in the towns of Salvador Allende and Nuevo Corozal because the towns are located upon the land that the residents must work in order to life. [Contested land.]

9.- We demand the immediate liberty of all the detained. They are entirely innocent [of the accusations] because they work and care for the land in order to live as human beings. On the other hand, the government, the rich and the state governor, who represents only the landowners and the paramilitary, want to convert the land into merchandise and sell it to national and transnational business. This is why those who work and care for the land, the farmers and the indigenous, are blocked from doing so.

Because of this situation we will continue saying: The land belongs to those who work it, not to those who wish to sell it as merchandise.

We, the ones who work the land, regard the land as our mother. We live from the land and we receiving our nourishment from the land. This is why our brothers and sisters who have been displaced and disappeared have done nothing wrong. For this reason we demand their immediate and uncondicional liberty.