Inhabitants of Pantelhó, Chiapas, attend mass on August 4 Emilio Espejel / AP
On July 5, Simón Pedro Pérez was killed by a well-aimed bullet. The activist, a 35-year-old indigenous Tzotzil, had accompanied the residents of Pantelhó to file a complaint with the Government Secretariat for the advance of criminal groups in the Los Altos de Chiapas region. From March until that day, the organizations working in the area had registered one disappeared person, two wounded with firearms and 11 murders. Pérez's murder, number 12, precipitated what followed: a group of armed civilians took the municipal seat to demand the resignation of the mayor, whom they accused of having links to organized crime. A month later, with the beginning of conversations between the communities and the State, hundreds of displaced persons began to return but remain "on alert" after the murder this week of a prosecutor.that human rights defenders see as "a clear message that the hitmen are going to continue killing people who intervene."
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Photogallery |
Hundreds of residents of Pantelhó take the Municipal Palace, in images
Photogallery |
Violence in the indigenous lands of Los Altos de Chiapas, in images
The timeline starts on July 5, but it could start earlier.
In recent years, organized crime groups have invaded the territories of Los Altos, in Chiapas, according to the organizations that work in the area.
The inhabitants of indigenous communities, who represent 80% of the population, began to be victims of looting, extortion, threats and deaths.
The complaint that Simón Pedro Pérez presented was not the first notice that the communities made.
In the days prior to the June 6 elections, they had pointed out the presence of armed criminal groups, according to a member of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), who prefers not to identify himself. "As a result, the attacks began to be stronger and many of the communities had to move because the violence increased," he says by phone. Already in 2019, the local media reported that the inhabitants of Pantelhó were asking the state government to "reestablish the rule of law" so that "peace and stability can return."
After the murder of Pérez, the latest victim of the indigenous communities' struggle, several armed men stormed the head of Pantelhó, a municipality of about 25,000 inhabitants where 66% live in extreme poverty, to take over the facilities and expel the local authorities.
The armed civilians attacked houses that supposedly belonged to the authorities, set cars on fire, threw trees and there was a confrontation with the National Guard and the police that left at least nine injured.
A new self-defense group was awarded the takeover of the municipality.
They called themselves El machete and said in a statement that their objective was to "expel the hit men, drug traffickers and organized crime" from the area.
Members of the self-defense group El machete.Carlos López / EFE
Gaspar Morquecho, an anthropologist and journalist who has worked for more than 40 years in the State, explains: “In the indigenous municipalities in the Highlands of Chiapas, there are local power groups that have links with the authorities and that are structured throughout the system. economic, political, social and cultural of how it is governed ”. According to Morquecho, a criminal network was operating in Pantelhó that began to form in 2013 in Pueblo Nuevo, in the northern part of the state, and that has a presence in at least six municipalities. "A very strong and violent gang used by political parties to have political control in the region," he clarifies.
When the self-defense groups took over the municipality, the City Council was led by Delia Janeth Velasco Flores, from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Her husband, Raquel Trujillo Morales, had been elected municipal president a month earlier. Neither the mayor nor the PRD have responded to this newspaper. In a statement, the party called for government intervention to "resolve these conflicts." From the National Palace, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from Morena, expressed that there was “no risk to governance” in Pantelhó. “Acting is already underway. It is not about the conflicts that come from long ago, they are new things. They are people who are opting for violence, "said the president.
By then, hundreds of people had already left their communities.
The organizations that work in the area estimate that there were 3,200 displaced persons who moved to the municipalities of Chenalhó, San Cristóbal de Las Casas and San Juan Cancuc.
Displaced people from Pantelhó.Emilio Espejel / AP
"This has been growing and is seen in other municipalities," warns Ángeles Mariscal, an independent journalist and founder of the
Chiapas Paralelo
portal
, which has covered the conflict. Currently, he explains, the self-defense groups have retreated, and the presence of the police and the military - which at least since 1994, after the Zapatista uprising, has been constant in the area - is becoming more evident. To enter Pantelhó, he says, there are three checkpoints: the first, of the National Guard; the second, from the population, and the third, again, from the National Guard.
Last Saturday, local media reported that the mayor, her husband and other Pantelhó officials had resigned. According to that information, however, Velasco Flores was still in office because the local Congress had not yet received the resignation. The 86 communities of the municipality, for their part, had already elected new authorities in assembly. And they had also decided that the El Machete self-defense group would remain in that area.
Mariscal explains that the population remains "on alert" because "the action of justice has not been forceful" in the face of threats, harassment and homicides. "There have been only two arrests," says the journalist. This Wednesday, the Indigenous Justice prosecutor Gregorio Pérez Gómez, who was investigating the violence in the municipality, was killed by six bullets. The Chiapas Prosecutor's Office has informed this newspaper that one of the lines of investigation "is linked to the events that occurred in the municipality of Pantelhó" in July.
Most of the displaced have already returned, but there is still fear. "There is a lot of fear for the death of the prosecutor because it is a clear message that the hitmen are going to continue killing people who intervene," says the priest Marcelo López, who has accompanied the communities in their claims and is threatened. "No one can raise their voices or denounce because the next day [organized crime] kills, threatens or kidnaps," he indicates and explains that the newly elected authorities are "at high risk." The diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas was the intermediary for the initiation of dialogue tables between the communities –represented by 20 leaders– and the state and federal government. “We are progressing quite well”, the parish priest values, and adds: “The people who unite can free themselves from violence. It is necessary that the authorities act in time ”.
A member of the El Machete self-defense group walks in front of members of the Mexican Army.Carlos López / EFE
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