By: Ángeles Mariscal

Residents of ejidos and communities fled into the mountains. Mexican Army personnel arrived hours later, arrested three people and seized weapons.

On Thursday, July 14, residents of the municipality of La Trinitaria, located about 80 kilometers from the border with Guatemala, reported that on the road that connects the municipality of Comitán, armed groups aboard several vehicles clashed with each other.

A day later, people from Frontera Comalapa, also located in this region, saw groups of armed people fighting in an area that includes several ejidos.

Some of the campesinos left on dirt roads to take refuge in the municipal seat, and other towns, to give notice to the authorities. By about noon on Friday, July 15, the clashes had led to road blockades in several sections, by armed people and vehicles.

“There is fear in the communities of San Jerónimo, Nicolás Bravo, Guadalupe Victoria, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa. There are helicopters flying over, there are drones, shots are heard everywhere,” were the reports of villagers to their relatives. The clashes continued until nightfall.

“Our family has already left, but they can’t get through because it’s stopped up in Chamic. Today they are going to stay in Tierra Blanca, to see if they can get through tomorrow. The situation is sad, look at it, because having land and leaving it for these degenerates. But hey, no way, you have to save your life. They are all already in Tierra Blanca, and many people are already leaving,” is the testimony of a woman.

This Saturday, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) reported through a statement that “during ground reconnaissance in the Sinaloa ejido, municipality of Frontera Comalapa, Chiapas, they were attacked by unknown persons, without military personnel being injured.”

In this municipality, the statement adds, three people were arrested: Miguel Ángel González Guajardo, 31 years old, originally from the State of Mexico; Aristóteles Benítez Ríos, 39 years old and Jorge Santiago Solustio, 42 years old, both originally from the State of Guerrero.

Sedena seized rifles, grenades, explosives, bulletproof vests, magazines and bags of marijuana from these people.

Sedena explained that hours later, a military convoy arrived in Primero de Enero community, in La Trinitaria municipality, and there it seized an armored vehicle that had “a turret adapted for a sharpshooter,” and 12 long arms (rifles) in its interior, as well as 2 machine guns, grenades, grenade launchers and different caliber cartridges.

Since July 2021, in this region of Chiapas known as “the border zone,” there is an increased presence of armed individuals who have sustained confrontations with other groups with these same characteristics; they have carried out roadblocks where they detain and, in some cases, kidnap local people.

Residents have denounced that there are at least one hundred missing persons in the region, kidnapped by one of these groups. This has motivated the forced displacement of families, who have had to take refuge in the municipal seats.

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Originally Published in Spanish by Chiapas Paralelo, Saturday, July 16, 2022, https://www.chiapasparalelo.com/noticias/chiapas/2022/07/narcotraficantes-se-enfrentan-durante-mas-de-24-horas-en-municipios-fronterizos-de-chiapas-con-guatemala/ and Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee