In 2021 villagers formed self-defense groups because of the imposition of authorities they accused of having links to organized crime; in 2024 history repeats itself.
Today, as three years ago, the residents of Pantelho continue to live under siege by armed individuals linked to organized crime groups. In the municipal seat, the houses remain closed, a group of self-defense groups called El Machete, run through the streets to protect themselves from the shots of high caliber weapons that come from the nearby hills and leave holes in the walls of the municipal presidency and houses.
One kilometer before the entrance to the municipality there is a burned truck and a ditch in the pavement, which prevents vehicles from entering the area. Those who want to get there must walk.
Some residents of the municipal seat go inside, taking cover among the sides of the roads, every time they hear the whizzing of bullets. Their fear is not of the vigilante group El Machete – formed in 2021 in response to the imposition of a municipal president who won that year’s election by subjugating voters with weapons and assassinations, today a fugitive–, but to be hit by the projectiles launched by the group that calls itself “Indigenous Civil Army,” linked to “Los Herrera,” a family of mestizos that for years controlled the municipality, and that today has one of its members as part of the Municipal Council that was appointed by the Congress of Chiapas last October, despite the opposition of the majority of the inhabitants of the place.
At the entrance to the town, on the main road coming from San Cristóbal de Las Casas, there is a detachment of state police; at the second entrance, which connects to the municipality of San Juan Cancuc, there is a group of soldiers from the Mexican Army. Both security forces are passive.
One of the officers explains to the group of reporters that we arrived, that they have no instructions to intervene, they comment that “the situation is difficult” and, obviously because we all hear the continuous gunfire, that the shooting continues, but that “yesterday and the day before it was worse.”
The position of the security forces, say one of the uniformed, is “to be neutral,” which means not to intervene. Last November 4, when the group Los Machetes entered the municipal capital, they asked the Mexican army detachment for support to detain “Los Herrera,” but the response they were given, according to a member of the self-defense groups, was that they, the military and police “did not have orders to intervene.”
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Since December 3, there has been no electricity in the area, and therefore no internet signal and no possibility of communicating with the outside world.
A group of reporters decided to arrive at the municipal seat. To tell from the ground what was going on. It is the only possibility because the war that is being lived in Pantelhó has many nuances and many versions, almost all of them distorted and constructed from the messages that are spread especially in social networks. This is also a media war.
The “Indigenous Civil Army” and “Los Herrera” accuse the self-defense groups of Los Machetes of being a violent group protected even by the priest Marcelo Peréz, murdered by a group of hired killers on October 20. They accused him of being the intellectual author of the disappearance of 19 people from Pantelhó, which led to a governmental persecution that resulted in an arrest warrant against him, which they never dared to apply, but which the Chiapas authorities did not cancel either.
What the authorities who are leaving office this December 8, and members of those who are taking over, did do was to ask the priest Marcelo for his intervention to “persuade” the population to agree to hold the June 2 elections; he refused and told them that this was not his role as a spiritual guide.
The population of Pantelhó refused to hold elections for two reasons, the main one being that they already had a government council constituted in July 2021, after the expulsion of the municipal government, which they accused of having ties to organized crime.
This government council was established with the endorsement of all 88 communities that make up the municipality, so the local Congress in 2021 had no choice but to recognize its legality. The intention of the people of Pantelhó was to maintain a government elected by the population and not one that was linked to political parties and organized crime.
The second reason why they opposed the June 2 elections was because, as the electoral process approached, armed attacks against the population increased, especially against people and communities where the self-defense group has a presence.
However, there were populations affected, such as those of La Esperanza, who insisted that they did not support any group, but only wished to live without violence. Despite this, they were repeatedly targeted by the “Ejército Civil Indígena” and “Los Herrera”, and have been victims of intermittent forced displacement.
The population’s refusal to hold elections did not prevent the local Congress last October from imposing -without consulting the population- a government council in which Rubén Herrera, a member of the “Indigenous Civil Army” and the “Herrera family,” was elected.
A commission of residents went to the capital of Chiapas with the objective of speaking with members of the local Congress and the head of the Executive Branch, to make them aware of their position of rejection of the imposed Council and their demand that the authorities elected in a community assembly made up at that time of 65 of the 88 communities be recognized. They were neither received nor listened to.
Despite the fact that the official municipal council was imposed by the state government bodies, the population continued to reject it, pointing out the link it has with the family and the power group of those they claim as their victimizers. Then came new armed attacks by the “Indigenous Civil Army” and “Los Herrera” against the population.
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On December 3, the communities of San José Tercero, headquarters of the self-defense groups Los Machetes, were attacked, as well as the communities of La Esperanza, Roblar, Xixetik, Tzanembolóm, and others nearby.
According to reports from the population, long arms and bombs were used in the attacks. A police officer assigned to the municipality of Pantelhó acknowledged the veracity of the population’s reports. He commented that up to the encampment where they are, columns of smoke were observed, product of the explosions; “they are bombs that they make, they make them with gunpowder,” he explained.Inhabitants of the communities again had to move to flee the violence. Some took refuge in Polhó and in nearby towns in the neighboring municipality of Chenalhó.
Machetes members explained in an interview that this new aggression prompted them, on December 4, to retake the municipal capital, which was in the hands of “Los Herrera.
They arrived at dawn, and while the population locked themselves in their homes – others decided to flee – the vigilante group managed to expel members of that organization from the main streets. However, members of the “Indigenous Civil Army” continued firing towards main hall, this time from the northern part of the town. For four days the shooting has not stopped, and on the walls of the municipal presidency and on the walls of houses and businesses, the impacts of the projectiles have accumulated.
“We are here to see if there is another way for the three levels of government to listen to us (…) we have sent messages and also the communiqué, but they are not even taking us into consideration. That is why the people, the people here in Pantelhó rose up again as happened in 2021, but this time I think it will not be the same as it was in 2021, because we have taken over the town of Pantelhó to not let the people of José Herrera kill us,” said one of the members of the self-defense group.
Inhabitants of the San José Tercero community and surrounding areas reported that attacks on their community have also continued.
“Armed violence bleeds our communities.”
The Social Pastoral of the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas issued a communiqué where it points out the aggressions to which the population of Pantelho is subjected.
“Our communities continue to be converted into cruel battlefields and live under siege of criminals, armed groups and drug trafficking cartels, as is the case today in Frontera Comalapa and other municipalities, with the blatant acquiescence of the security forces present in the territory; the guardians of the life and time of these Mayan peoples are today being subjected to the pain, death and endless suffering of slave peoples.”
It directs a clear message to the Mexican government: “Ladies and gentlemen, authorities of the three levels of government, this war is also yours, come and do your work according to the law from the truth applying justice.”
For their part, a dozen civil society organizations sent a communiqué detailing the impact this situation is having on the population. “There are those who are being forcibly displaced and, on the other hand, those who cannot leave their homes for fear of being victims of a stray bullet. In addition, the civilian population has no access to their territory, to their fields or to basic services such as education, health or transportation.”
They refer that there are strong psychosocial impacts on a population that has been repeatedly exposed to these situations of violence; we particularly call attention to the damage this causes among children.
“We demand that the different authorities of the three levels of government intervene to protect the civilian population and build the necessary measures to stop these episodes of violence.”
This Friday, a delegation of the group of “Los Herrera” showed up at the event attended by President Claudia Sheinbaum in Chiapas. There she told them: “we discussed the issue today in the cabinet and we are going to attend to you. It always has its complications, but the worst thing is to turn away and not address them.”
Original article and photos by Angeles Mariscal published in Chiapas Paralelo on December 7th, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
We demand that the Federal and State Governments stop the armed aggressions against the communities of Pantelhó and Chenalhó.
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) has received direct information from victims of violence by armed groups linked to organized crime, who as a result have forcibly displaced women, girls, boys and men from the communities of San José Tercero, San Francisco, El Roblar and the municipal seat of Pantelhó, and also report that armed actions have spread to the communities of Tijera Chimix, Jabaltón and Esperanza in the municipality of Chenalhó, Chiapas: Tijera Chimix, Jabaltón and La Esperanza belonging to the municipality of Chenalhó, Chiapas. In both municipalities around 3,400 people have been forcibly displaced.
source: School of Chiapas