The support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) lost a school, their homes and the offices of the autonomous government of Caracol VIII Jacinto Canek, located in the community of San José Buenavista Tercero, in the municipality of Pantelhó; after the Indigenous Civil Army, the armed wing of the group they call “Los Herrera”, burned their properties and provoked the forced displacement of the inhabitants of the village.
“The paramilitary group of the Ejercito Civil Indígena de Fracción Tzanembolom, from the municipality of Chenalhó, once again entered the community of San José Tercero, in the municipality of Pantelhó, Chiapas. The Herreras’ hired killers continue to threaten the people,” they explained in their complaint.
“Their homes were burned and destroyed (of the sympathizers and support base of the EZLN) as well as the Zapatista Autonomous Rebel Primary School, the office of the autonomous council, that is to say, everything was destroyed; therefore we urge the state and federal government to take decisive action to resolve the conflict, this situation could lead to unimaginable situations in massacres of children, women, and the elderly and this will remain on the conscience of the authorities if they do not intervene in a timely manner.”
Inhabitants of Pantelhó denounced that the government council appointed by the government of Chiapas has links with the “Los Herrera” group. They demanded that the municipal council elected by the communities be recognized. Photo: Ángeles Mariscal
For the government of Chiapas, what is happening in Pantelhó, a municipality located in Los Altos de Chiapas, is a “political-electoral conflict”; however, since 2021, a battle has been waged in this place to expel from the municipality a family, “Los Herrera,” and a group that through criminal violence has controlled the life of the population and has taken over the municipal public administration.
In order to expel “Los Herrera” and their armed wing called the Civil Army of the Indigenous, since 2021, the inhabitants of Pantelhó achieved the articulation of various sectors of the population living in the municipality, and founded the self-defense group El Machete in the community of San José Tercero.
In that year, residents from 86 communities joined together, expelled those they considered their aggressors from the municipal seat, named a Government Council made up of representatives of the communities; they disowned the municipal president Raquel Trujillo, a militant of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and got the government of Chiapas to recognize the legitimacy of the Council and to remove Raquel Trujillo, who was accused of homicide.
A few months later, the group of “Los Herrera” reorganized and allied with armed groups from the neighboring municipality of Chenalhó, creating an armed group called the Civil Army of the Indigenous; since then, in Pantelhó, the self-defense groups El Machete and the Civil Army of the Indigenous have clashed.
In the June 2024 elections, the population of Pantelhó refused to vote in this context of violence, and demanded the recognition of their authorities named in an assembly of the 86 communities; but the government responded by naming a new municipal council in which one of its members is Rubén Herrera, a member of “Los Herrera.” And with that, violence began increasing in the municipality.
Last December 4, the self-defense groups of El Machete retook the municipal seat, confronting the Indigenous Civil Army for several days, until members of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) entered the area.
Then the confrontations between the two groups moved to the headquarters of Los Machetes, in the community of San José Tercero. There, EZLN support bases had to be forcibly displaced; they left behind an autonomous school, their homes and government offices, which days later were burned.
Residents who are not part of the EZLN support bases have also been displaced.
Cardboard coffins arranged
As a symbol of the people who have died as victims of groups linked to organized crime, this week the residents of Pantelhó placed cardboard coffins in front of the municipal presidency.
They placed them in the place where a car was burned, and where you can still see on the walls the gunshots from large caliber weapons and the remains of burned walls, product of the confrontations that took place between the self-defense groups El Machete and the Indigenous Civil Army. Women, men and adolescents from the communities of the municipality gathered there.
“For more than two decades, it has ravaged this region for political and economic control. As a consequence, it has murdered hundreds of human beings, including children and women, without the authorities intervening. Therefore, we decided to symbolically present our murdered relatives so that the international community will turn to see our people, as our relatives have been murdered and disappeared in the hands of organized crime,” they said in Spanish and Tseltal.
“We respectfully ask the Mexican government, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, Dr. Eduardo Ramirez Aguilar, the Attorney General’s Office and the State Attorney General’s Office, to act quickly to capture the criminals, who continue to intimidate the population, with high caliber firearms shots in the vicinity of the town. If the government remains incredulous, we have evidence to present”.
They denounced that the Government Council appointed by the government of Chiapas, has links with the group of “Los Herrera.” They demanded that the municipal council elected by the communities be recognized.
“It is appalling that the political power has left in the municipal council a group of people in collusion with organized crime. A very clear example, one of the relatives of the leader of the self-styled Indigenous Civil Army is part of the municipal council, Mr. Rubén Herrera Abarca, is accused by the residents of Pantelhó of being one of the financers of organized crime of the Tzanebolóm fraction and the local congress rewards him with a council seat and the most serious thing, knowing that he has an arrest warrant for collusion in illicit activities, is appointed to be a municipal authority.”
They blamed the Mexican and Chiapas governments for the crisis that could escalate in the coming days. The confrontations in the municipality have continued, despite the fact that elements of the SEDENA remain in the area.
Original text and photos by Ángeles Mariscal published in Chiapas Paralelo on December 23rd, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.