Control. In the early hours of this Tuesday, residents took control of the municipal council’s offices. Above Photo: Isaín Mandujano
By: Isaín Mandujano
PANTELHÓ Chiapas (apro)
In plain view of the Mexican Army and National Guard (NG), thousands of indigenous peoples from diverse communities came down from the mountains and together with residents of the municipal seat took over the plaza and headquarters of the municipal council, from where they said they would not permit the return of the Herreras nor entry into the town of the acting mayor and her husband, the mayor elect.
This Tuesday, without weapons, without the characteristic uniform, masked, with machetes or sticks in their hands, indigenous Tsotsils and Tseltals, many of them members of the El Machete autodefensas (self-defense group), started to arrive in the early morning to burn the houses of those who they consider make up a part or have links to the Herrera family and the “narco county council,” as they call it.
Pantelhó is made up of 86 communities in the entire municipality and 18 neighborhoods in the municipal seat, where today residents of the communities demonstrated their exhaustion against the political group that for almost 20 years maintained political control of the municipal council, election after election.
Residents went to the homes of Austreberto Herrera and his sons, Dayli de los Santos and Rubén Estanislao, which were vandalized and burned. They proceeded in the same way against other houses of civilian men and municipal police who they say have links to the Herreras, whom they accuse of murders and forced disappearances.
Photo: Isaín Mandujano
Yesterday, residents captured around 14 people and are keeping them retained, people who they accuse of being “accomplices” of the Los Herrera clan and of the PRD municipal council. Faced with the crowd, members of the Mexican Army and the National Guard had to retreat again to avoid a clash with the civilian population.
This is the second day in which residents of the communities took over the municipal headquarters where they were not able to go to protest for many years, because the Herreras and their civilian armed group, intimidated them, threatened them so that they would not demand public works or demand accountability from their municipal authorities.
Photo: Isaín Mandujano
Today, the indigenous Tsotsil and Tseltal residents who rebelled against the Ladinos who controlled the town, said that they will not allow the current mayor, Delia Yaneth Velasco Flores, to return to her position and that nor will they allow the mayor elect, her husband Raquel Trujillo Morales, to take the oath of office as mayor.
They demanded that the resources of the municipal council that were diverted in the last three years be audited and that from now on the residents, who without threats, vote buying or vote coercion, will be the ones who elect their new authorities.
Photo: Isaín Mandujano
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Originally Published in Spanish by Proceso.com.mx
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee
Chiapas Support Committee 