Forced displacement in Chiapas due to drug violence is increasing in towns and communities in the municipalities of the Sierra and the Border, but also in the Highlands of Chiapas.
Three years into the dispute between two cartels that are fighting for control of territories in the Sierra and the Border, the situation has worsened in recent days in municipalities such as Chicomuselo.
However, residents of several ejidos in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa who were able to leave their communities describe the terror they have experienced “at the hands of groups that they call organized crime, but that we know are cartels that have been at war for several months now.”
“These cartels kidnap, murder, and threaten. In recent weeks the war has been very intense, this has caused us to move from our communities, which are several such as Paso Hondo, Santa Rita, Verapaz, Ejido 24 de Febrero, Tampico, Ejido Bella Vista del Norte, Barrio Nueva Delicias, Guadalupe Grijalva, La Sabinada, Ejido Tres Maravillas, Barrio Monteverde and all the neighborhoods of the municipality of Frontera Comalapa, Ejido Anonal, Ejido Nuevo Comalapa,” they said in a letter sent to this reporter.
They pointed out that from the municipality of Amatenango de la Frontera, the population has left their houses, cornfields and farm and backyard animals in the Ejido Nueva Morelia, Ranchería Michoacán, Ejido Pacayalito, Barrio Bienestar Social, Barrio Nueva Libertad, Barrio Flor de Mayo, Ejido Nuevo Recuerdo, Ejido Palestina, Ejido Nuevo Amatenango, Barrio Belén, Barrio Platanillo, Barrio el Pino, Barrio Nueva América, to mention a few ejidos and neighborhoods.
“The cartels take men, women, children, and that is why we are fleeing, whether it is off our lands, or even to safe places so that we can protect ourselves from so much violence, a word that falls short for those who disappear and die,” the letter says.
The displacement they are experiencing is a silent or faceless displacement, because going out and showing their identity can cause reprisals to their families who have stayed behind or they are threatened that if they do not return their houses will be burned and they will never be able to return, as has already happened in many cases.
Yesterday, neighbors from the ejidos of Paso Hondo and Bellavista del Norte in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa reported that “one of the organized crime groups entered their ejidos and forcibly took more than 60 people, all men. They threatened to return for more people.”
“We need the support of all sectors that make up civil society, to help us because we want to stay alive, working and be at peace. The cartels control us, prevent us from working, and also take away the little we have, in addition to using us for their own interests and not those of the community. We want you to help us by spreading our voice of help, organizing to pressure the authorities of the state of Chiapas, the federal government and the Mexican State,” they said in the letter.
In Chicomuselo, between five and six thousand people have left their homes. Half a dozen rural communities have already been emptied. In the municipal capital, more than 50 percent of the population left their homes.
The bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez, said that in recent days the exodus of entire families from communities and municipalities that comprise his religious constituency has increased. He indicated that parishes, priests, nuns and the Catholic organization Caritas were collecting supplies to provide support to the displaced and the number of them has not yet been determined because many are taking refuge with friends and relatives, others are asking the government for support and others are not doing so out of fear.
The Secretary of Civil Protection of the state of Chiapas said that although they are caring for 22 people from Chicomuselo, who went to take refuge in Siltepec, he knows of many who have fled to other places but as soon as they are located they will give them humanitarian aid.
He said that for two years, Chiapas has had a special work of attention to the displaced and that in the Highlands area, for now they are caring for displaced families from four communities of Pantelhó who went to take refuge in the neighboring municipality of Chenalhó.
Unlike the Sierra and the Frontera, where the conflict is more extensive and is between two cartels, in the Highlands the conflict is currently focused on Pantelhó, where two local armed groups, Los Machetes and Los Herreras, are fighting for control of that municipality.
Original article by Isaín Mandujano, Chiapas Paralelo, August 22, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.