Artemio Pérez arrives at the hospital.

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

In the midst of incessant gunfire attacks against the Tsotsil communities of Aldama, Chiapas, this morning Artemio Pérez Pérez, 25, was wounded in the chest in the community of Tabak, of which he is a native. The shots coming from T’elemax, in Santa Martha, Chenalhó, began at 9 o’clock in the morning and lasted until after noon on Wednesday.

According to the Permanent Commission of the 115 community members and displaced persons of Aldama, the injured man was first treated at the basic hospital in the municipality, and subsequently moved to the Cultures Hospital, located in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Last night his condition was reported as critical due to gastric bleeding and lung perforation.

The bullets started in the early hours of Wednesday, when the bullets rained from Tok’oy Saclum (Chenalhó) in the direction of Coco’ Aldama a little after midnight.

The Permanent Commission of the 115 community members and displaced persons reports every day on the paramilitary attacks they suffer without the authorities intervening to stop that violence, under the false argument that they’re dealing with crossfire.

Last Monday, shots from high-caliber weapons were fired from El Templo, Chalontik, Puente and Tijera Caridad in Santa Martha at Juxton community in Aldama.

“Every day is the same” and the displaced wonder: “how long will these armed groups from Chenalhó continue to attack us with impunity?”

As part of this unresolved territorial conflict between the municipalities of Aldama and Chenalhó, in the Highlands of Chiapas, the attacked indigenous also demand the release of their compañero Cristóbal Santiz Jiménez, “a social fighter and prisoner of the Chiapas state government; his only crime is denouncing the injustices that his town of Magdalena Aldama suffered from the Santa Martha paramilitary groups. “

For its part, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) demanded that the Secretary General of the Government “immediately address the serious human rights violations, and fulfill the duty to safeguard these rights of the inhabitants of communities in Aldama municipality. ”

The Frayba requested from the Ministry of Health that “the rights to health of young Artemio Pérez Pérez be respected,” who was injured this Wednesday while working. The agency highlights his vulnerability “due to the health context in which Chiapas is currently located” where, despite being in a yellow spotlight, “the risk of contracting Covid-19 is present.”

The NGO demanded that the State’s Attorney General: “initiate investigations into those who are responsible for the criminal acts and punish the material and intellectual authors.”

———————————————————–

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Thursday, October 1, 2020

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2020/10/01/politica/010n1pol

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee