Civil organizations warned on Monday that Chiapas has become a “civil war zone” due to the escalation of violence against land defenders and indigenous peoples, such as Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez, who was murdered on Sunday.
“A little more than two weeks into Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency, Chiapas is in a scenario of civil war,” they warned in a collective statement, read by actress Julieta Egurrola at a press conference in Mexico City.
The complainants recalled that in 2021 the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) warned that Chiapas was “on the brink of civil war,” and stated that today it has become “a zone” of that war.
They also reported that for weeks residents of the 6 de Octubre community of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas have received threats “with high-powered weapons, rapes of women, burning of houses and the theft of their belongings, crops and animals to evict them from the lands.”
Carlos González, member of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), explained that the community members have been threatened by residents of another community called Palestina, “accompanied by members of organized crime apparently from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.”
“This situation is extremely serious, but with what happened yesterday (Sunday 20th), the violent and atrocious murder of the priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez when he was going to the Guadalupe church in San Cristóbal de las Casas, after having officiated mass, the scenario becomes even darker,” warned González.
“We are in the middle of a war that is growing day by day (…) Chiapas is at war, Mexico is at war,” he said.
González warned that “the institutions of the Mexican state, whatever their color (political party), are penetrated by criminal cartels” and that “they are being used as an instrument for the occupation of territories.”
“This is how the occupation of the border with Guatemala is allowed without any decisive action by the Mexican State to stop the bloody war that is taking place in this part of the country with hundreds of missing people, especially young people, murdered, abandoned or semi-abandoned populations such as the Comalapa border,” he said.
González warned that “this war is articulated” in “the large megaprojects that have been promoted for more than 20 years by the interests of the United States Government and by large multinational corporations,” such as the Mayan Train, in southeastern Mexico.
“And let it be clear and loud: this happened with (former President Felipe) Calderón (2006-2012), but it continues to happen today,” he mentioned.
Therefore, the activists called on the Government “to stop the war and stop collaborating with the cartels,” and in the statement signed by various groups and actors, such as Diego Luna, they asked to put an end to militarization.
Finally, Isabel Valencia, a delegate from the Otomi community in Mexico City, accused President Sheinbaum of “simulation,” in her statement that, with her, “we all arrived,” and stated that the ruler does not “represent them as indigenous peoples.” EFE
Original article at Aristegui Noticias, October 21st, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.