Above Photo: El Machete Self-Defense Forces of Pantelhó

By: Elio Henríquez

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas

After PRD member Raquel Trujillo Morales supposedly took the oath of office as mayor of Pantelhó secretly in a Tuxtla Gutiérrez hotel, the El Machete Self-Defense forces of the People warned that: “he will not be able to enter the town” to govern.

“We’re not worried, because the authorities and the people of the 86 communities are supporting the municipal council” that took office last August 18 de and whose functions concluded on September 30, one of their representatives remarked.

A high-level source in the state government informed La Jornada that Trujillo Morales accepted last week that he will not be able to govern and promised to ask for leave after taking the oath of office. Nevertheless, “he doesn’t even answer now and we don’t know where he is,” after adding that the situation in Pantelhó is tense, that’s why security was recently reinforced in order to prevent violent acts.

The El Machete representative consulted on Saturday said that: “although Raquel wants to come to govern Pantelhó, who is going to want him if he has no people?” He asserted that Trujillo Morales is no longer going to enter, although the government wants him to govern Pantelhó, it won’t be that way because the only thing that’s going to happen “is that more blood is going to run in Pantelhó.”

He commented: “they say that Raquel Trujillo took the oath of office in a hotel; but we don’t worry because the 86 agents are in favor of the council. We will wait today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) to see how he is.”

For his part, the state government source pointed out that Trujillo Morales “has already been told, it has already been made clear to him and he knows it, that they are not going to even allow him to enter (Pantelhó). He is clear that he cannot take office and that they are not going to let him govern because the people reject him, that is more than clear.”

He added that the state authorities are “speaking with all parties and seeing with those who remained as councilors, whose term ended on September 30. We will see how we can work together so that violence is not generated.”

Rumor that he took the oath of office in a hotel

He said that the PRD member “supposedly took the oath of office Friday in a hotel, and that cannot be, although legally from the first minute of October 1 he is the authority, but de facto it’s not him; it definitely cannot be him, because he cannot be imposed.

We don’t know where he is; he had come to the government palace asking for security and we told him that the conditions did not exist for him to take office, and suddenly he stopped responding, left [the government palace] and now he has appeared in some videos” saying that he took the oath of office.

The source affirmed that Raquel Trujillo accepted requesting an indefinite leave of absence, “but someone advises him and makes him change his mind. He agreed to the request for leave last week; but now he is refusing.”

Meanwhile in Altamirano, Roberto Pinto Kanter, whose responsibility as mayor of Altamirano ended September 30, completed two days this Saturday in the ejido’s jail, located in the municipal seat, by hundreds of residents who demanded that his wife, Gabriela Roque Tipacamú, both from the Green Party, not assume the position of municipal president and that a municipal council be named in her place.

“The former mayor complains that he is in poor health. We are looking for a way to release him, and in that case, (Roque Tipacamú) will not be able to take office either, although she is already taking office as municipal president,” the same Chiapas government source stated.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Sunday, October 3, 2021

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2021/10/03/estados/025n2est

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee