Aldama shows bullets fired from Chenalhó

There is cause for concern about what’s going on in Chiapas right now, perhaps cause for alarm! To at least some of us who vividly recall the lead-up to the Acteal Massacre, the present reminds us all too painfully of the past. Below are 2 articles from La Jornada, translated from Spanish, which detail the attacks, remind us of similarities to Acteal and report on one dead and one injured in Santa Martha. Those affected are Sociedad Civil Las Abejas of Acteal, civilian Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas belonging to various political parties. Press coverage in Mexico is widespread and daily, as if in anticipation of an even bigger story to come. (Compañero Manuel Blog Admin)

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ARMED ATTACKS PERSIST IN CHIAPAS; THEY FEAR ANOTHER ACTEAL

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

This Tuesday the armed attacks continued against the indigenous people displaced by violence and against communities in the municipality of Aldama, in the Chiapas Highlands. The shots come from Santa Martha community and other localities within Chenalhó municipality.

At 12:35pm shots were reported from Ontik and Xchuch te’, Santa Martha in the direction of Yeton, Ch’ivit and Stzelejpotobtik communities (Aldama). Meanwhile at T’ul Vits in Santa Martha, three white cars came down and shot at the community of San Pedro Cotzilnam (Aldama) to then head for Saclum (Chenalhó). The shooting at these communities occurred throughout the day, until evening.

In the vehicles, they were transporting armed men dressed in black, reported residents and the Commission of the 115 displaced from Aldama. They toured Vivero, T’elemax, Colado, T’ul Vits, Vale’tik and Ontik.

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On Monday afternoon, the armed group entered Aldama territory at the territorial limits, entering through the community of Stzelejpotobtik. At the close of this edition the shooting continued at Tabac community from the Telesecundaria, Tojtik, Curva Tontik, and Volcán Santa Martha, exactly where there is a detachment of state la police that still doesn’t intervene. The state police arrived in Santa Martha Chenalhó, where they also reported shooting at Stzelejpotobtik and Cabecera Aldama.

As of this date the town of Aldama [1] has received around 350 attacks from these paramilitary groups, resulting in seven dead and 16 injured.

It’s appropriate to remember that on July 17, in one of the paramilitary attacks on Coco, one of the 11 communities under fire in Aldama, María Luciana Lunes Pérez, 13, was wounded by bullets in her shoulder and face, and had to receive surgical care in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

The families displaced from Aldama are defenseless, without food or medical care, and they have only received small food supplies from the state government, more with propagandistic ends than with real nutritional quality, denounced the Trust for the Health of the Indigenous Children of Mexico (Fideicomiso para la Salud de los Niños Indígenas de México, FISANIM) over which the actress and activist Ofelia Medina presides.

State and federal authorities only acknowledge receipt of threats from Chenalhó; in other words, from the aggressors, as if accepting the version that the shots are coming from Aldama, when the increasingly aggressive paramilitary group comes from Chenalhó and has the support of municipal authorities. The strategic attack patterns that preceded the 1997 Acteal Massacre are repeated.

[1] Aldama is the name of the municipality and also the name of the municipal seat (capital).

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Wednesday, August 19, 2020

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2020/08/19/politica/011n2pol

ARMED ATTACKS LEAVE ONE DEAD and ONE INJURED IN CHENALHO

By: Elio Henríquez

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas

An indigenous man from the the Santa Martha ejido, Chenalhó municipality, died and another was injured from a bullet after armed attacks between residents of that place and the neighboring Aldama municipality in the dispute over 60 hectares, official sources reported.

They reported that the deceased is called Javier Jiménez Sántiz, 50, while the injured man is Aurelio Jiménez Méndez, who received a bullet in the left clavicle and was moved to Hospital of the Cultures in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

Jiménez Sántiz was killed around 3 pm and his body was moved to the municipal seat, without an agent from the Public Ministry attesting and ordering the removal of the cadaver, since there were no security conditions for it to be moved to the community.

The sources pointed out that residents of Santa Martha are holding some 10 state police agents who installed a camp more than two weeks ago to prevent violent acts.

Authorities and inhabitants of both both municipalities mutually accuse each other of carrying out armed attacks since last weekend, which intensified yesterday morning.

Yesterday afternoon, Aldama officials divulged a video in which detonations are heard that they attribute to their neighbors in Santa Martha.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2020

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2020/08/19/politica/016n2pol

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee