They went directly to four Zapatista homes in the municipality of Aldama
Last Thursday, April 24th, shortly before 3:00 p.m., Andrés Manuel Sántiz Gómez, 21, arrived home in the community of San Pedro Cotslnam. He had married hours earlier and was arriving with his new wife to settle into the house where they would live.
José Baldemar Sántiz Sántiz, 45, was resting after returning from work at the Aldama market, where he had a clothes stand.
At that time, they were detained by members of the Mexican Army, who arrived accompanied by the National Guard, the state government’s elite police group known as “Los Pakales,” members of the Ministerial Intelligence Investigation Agency, and armed civilians, according to the Zapatistas’ accounts.
The 39 vehicles in which the uniformed officers arrived fanned out across the community, but they went directly to the home of Andrés Manuel Sántiz Gómez, whose father is a Zapatista leader. They also entered three other homes, including that of José Baldemar Sántiz Sántiz, destroying everything inside. Inside, the clothes he sells at the market were left lying on the dirt floor.
Both live on the first block entering the community. In front of their homes, and a few meters away, there are signs reading “Zapatista Local Autonomous Government G.A.L.Z. San Pedro Cotsilnam Community, Caracol II Oventic, Altos Zone, Chiapas, Mexico,” which identifies its inhabitants as Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
This was one of the communities in the municipality of Aldama that was targeted by armed groups between 2018 and 2022, leaving dozens dead and others injured. It also led to forced displacement and constant attacks.
During those years of living under attack, the state and federal governments refused to address the problem effectively until, in July 2022, Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), visited the affected communities and asked the Mexican government for “a commitment to arrest those responsible” for the attacks.
After the IACHR head’s visit, the direct attacks in Aldama stopped, although the threats did not. Since then, members of the Mexican Army have maintained sporadic patrols in the communities affected by armed groups. Due to these circumstances, residents of San Pedro Cotsilnam believe that the military and police have perfectly identified the families who are support bases for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and they have no doubt that they were after them on April 24th.
The Security Secretariat says they were detained on the highway and with weapons.
A day after this operation, the Chiapas Security Secretariat issued a press release stating: “During patrols for prevention, crime deterrence, and social proximity on the stretch of highway leading from the municipality of Aldama to Larráinzar, (in uniform) we detected two males aboard a red Volkswagen vehicle. Upon noticing the police presence, they acted evasively and attempted to flee.”
“A few meters ahead, José (N) and Andrés (N) were detained in possession of two firearms, one a .22 caliber rifle and another homemade one with a wooden stock; a container of gunpowder, 31 .22 caliber cartridges, one 5.56 caliber cartridge, seven transparent nylon bags containing crystalline powder with the characteristics of the drug known as crystal. They also found six clubs, four metal accessories, one notebook, one cell phone case, three tactical backpacks, two military green pants, three green caps, three black balaclavas, and two red bandanas,” the statement added.
The agency does not recognize the two indigenous people as Zapatistas and did not notify their families of their whereabouts, so their families considered them missing. The document only mentioned that they were handed over to the corresponding authorities to determine their legal status. This Sunday, relatives of the detainees have not yet been officially notified of the arrest. Zapatista residents of San Pedro Cotsilnam expressed their concern because they fear there is a new government attack against members of the EZLN.
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) stated that the arrest occurs “in the context of serious surveillance and harassment by these police and military corporations, which we recently documented in the framework of the Rebel y Revel Arte Encounter convened by the EZLN (…) where there were patrols and checkpoints at intermediate points, interrogating and intimidating those attending the meeting. It should be noted that in these places there are few or regular security patrols.” They see the action as a direct attack on the EZLN.
Original article by Ángeles Mariscal, Chiapas Paralelo, April 27th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.