To the National Indigenous Congress -CNI
To the Assemblies of Zapatista Autonomous Government Collectives (ACGAZ) (EZLN)
To the Support Networks of the CIG, Indigenous Governing Council and its spokesperson, María de Jesús Patricio Martínez.
To the National and International Sixth, Networks of Resistance and Rebellion.
To the independent and alternative media.
To the people of Mexico.
Sisters and brothers, greetings from these lands in southern Mexico. We are fighting every day to work and not depend on the social programs of the bad government, but right now we are suffering the dispossession of our workplaces and economic sustenance for our families.
We are 35 Tseltal Maya people, members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and some Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), who work and have shops in a market called Dr. Belisario Domínguez, located in the La Candelaria neighborhood of the municipal capital of Ocosingo, Chiapas.
In 2008, a coalition of tenants was formed called the COALITION OF TENANTS OF THE TRADITIONAL MARKET DR. BELISARIO DOMÍNGUEZ DE OCOSINGO, CHIAPAS, CIVIL ASSOCIATION, was formed with the aim of filing an ordinary civil lawsuit for prescriptive rights, in which we succeeded in obtaining a ruling in our favor as tenants. With this ruling, we drew up our general deed in September 2008, thus becoming co-owners of our premises. However, over time, we began to suffer dispossession of our spaces and threats from the coalition’s board of directors, as they engaged and continue to engage in corruption, doing business with the spaces they have taken from us, selling them to other people.
For this reason, we wish to REPORT the following facts.
September 14, 2025—Our colleague SARA TOLEDO SÁNCHEZ, a Tseltal Maya widow with six children, one of whom has cancer, was evicted from her shop, which is her workplace, her source of income, and the place where she cares for her sick daughter. That day, they took away the products she sells, throwing everything into the hallways, and then welded shut the deadbolts on her shutters so that she could no longer open her store. She has been out of work for more than 82 days, and so far, state authorities have not resolved anything.
November 13, 2025. Vicente Toledo Albores, Carmela Santiz Méndez, Juana Hernández Clara, Alma Lesvia Hernández Clara, Quirino Gordillo Hernández, Micaela Gordillo Hernández, Ana Deli Gordillo Hernández, Juan Mendoza Hernández, and minors were kidnapped inside our premises by the coalition, which closed the market doors and left us locked in for several hours. The prosecutor’s office and the government delegation are aware of this incident.
November 23, 2025. They built two perimeter fences, each 2 meters high and 6 meters long, blocking access to the shutters of four premises belonging to MACARIA ENTZIN GÓMEZ, ENRIQUE LÓPEZ SANTIZ, and TOMAS LÓPEZ ENTZIN, who are our colleagues. They have been unable to work for 20 days because they cannot open their shutters, resulting in financial losses.
November 24, 2025. – SILVIA REYES SÁNCHEZ and a group of gang members arrived at the premises of our colleague Enrique López Santiz to cause damage, breaking three security cameras on his premises. The first was at 8:57 p.m., the second and third at 10:04 p.m. This was done in order to eliminate evidence that she is responsible for the crimes and damage.
Other incidents involving the coalition include the violent eviction of our colleagues Alberto López Sánchez and Juana Méndez López from their premises on April 10, 2012. This happened because they did not agree with the acts of corruption committed by the board of directors, who refused to provide clear accounts of the financial resources administered by the coalition’s board of directors, as well as the deeds that must be delivered to each co-owner.
On June 14, 2013, the board of directors once again began proceedings against our colleagues Quirino Gordillo Hernández, Juan Mendoza Hernández, and Vicente Toledo Albores, stripping them of their premises. The reason for this was that they had requested information about the expenses incurred in the market, as well as the delivery of the deeds to their premises. The coalition asked them for the amount of $150,000.00 (one hundred fifty thousand pesos 00.100 M/N), for a total amount of $10,950,000.00 (ten million, nine hundred fifty thousand pesos 00.100 M/N) for 73 premises belonging to members of the CNI and BAEZ, money that at the time would not be verified by the SAT.
In a formalization of the minutes of a 2013 meeting, one of the sections mentions that the costs of legal proceedings would be covered by the income from the bathrooms and that the current and future directors undertook to carry out all types of procedures for the legalization of documentation in the process of structuring and at no cost to the firm. This point was addressed by the directors at the meeting on September 18, 2023, clarifying that NO DIRECTOR CHARGES FOR SIGNING. They also mentioned that there would be NO MORE intimidation or threats to colleagues who claim their legal rights as market tenants at the meetings.
It should be clarified that a group of individuals within the coalition, whom we have identified by name, do not respect the agreements that they themselves have made and formalized. The reason for their actions is that they have made substantial financial gains through extortion involving the seizure of commercial spaces, which they do in collusion with public officials. For a long time, we have been victims of discrimination, humiliation, threats, violence, and dispossession of our places of business. They have fabricated crimes against us in order to get rid of us and continue with their misdeeds. There are also threats that now, in December, starting on the 19th, they will dispossess us all of our places of business, which we have worked so hard to obtain in order to provide for our families with decent work. They are doing all this because we never wanted to play their corrupt games.
For this reason, we wish to publicly denounce Silvia Reyes Sánchez, Artemio Cruz Pérez, Lindoro Sánchez Culebro, Carlos Alberto Trujillo Kanter, Pedro Santiz Mena, Marcelo Santiz López, Miguel Angel Cuello Guillen, and others for the damage and dispossession of our premises. All of this was caused by our request for the board of directors to sign the deed for the premises. However, they are demanding 300,000 pesos for each premises, which is theft.
We call on all institutions and authorities of the Chiapas state government to respect our right to decent work and our shops as a source of economic sustenance for our families, and to put a stop to the dispossession and damage to our places of business.
Given the lack of response from the authorities, we hold the government RESPONSIBLE for the damage caused, the violation of our labor and human rights, and all the consequences that may arise from its failure to act.
Brothers and sisters from different regions, we ask for your solidarity and that you remain attentive to what may happen to us.
Our anger will not be silenced.
Our resistance will not be extinguished.
Zapata lives, the struggle continues!
Long live the #CNI, long live the #CIG, long live the #EZLN!
For Memory, For Life, For THE COMMON GOOD.
NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US!
Sincerely,
TENANT MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS AND ZAPATISTA EZLN SUPPORT BASES
Original text published by Frayba on December 16th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.