Chiapas, at “war” due to the abandonment and complicity of authorities

By: Elio Henríquez, Correspondent,
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas

“We are in a war scenario as a consequence of the abandonment and complicity of the governments, because of which armed attacks have proliferated,” warned the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) regarding the attack against the more than 200 displaced people from Santa Martha, municipality of Chenalhó, who are refugees in the community of Polhó, perpetrated on Friday with a result of seven dead.

Pedro Faro Navarro, the person responsible at the space of international incidence of Frayba, said that: “in the armed attacks between crime groups, the civilian population is in the crossfire, torturing scenarios of great psycho-social impacts, as well as  direct executions, disappearances and forced displacements.”

In statements to La Jornada, he explained that “there are territories in which armed groups have proliferated, many of them successors of paramilitarism, caused by the active impunity of the Mexican State, which detonates violence, a terrified population, murders and displacements.”

In the attack with high-caliber weapons committed on Friday at 3 p.m. in Polhó, seven people died, including a three-year-old child, which has caused a situation of tension and fear in the area, in which the community of Acteal is located, where on December 22, 1997, 45 Tsotsiles belonging to the Las Abejas Civil Society Organization were massacred.

On that occasion, PRI paramilitaries who had caused the displacement of hundreds of residents of different communities attacked the members of Las Abejas who were fasting and praying to demand that the violence be stopped. They massacred 45 indigenous people, despite the fact that various organizations, including Frayba, warned of the danger of a massacre.

José Vázquez Gutiérrez, a human rights defender who accompanies the displaced people of Santa Martha, said: “26 years later, the same thing continues as when the Acteal massacre happened because I was there; The situation has not changed.”

He added that for months, representatives of the more than 200 displaced people from Santa Martha demanded greater security from federal and state authorities after the attack committed on Friday.

“The police and the National Guard are camped at the exit of the municipal seat of Chenalhó, but people want them to patrol to avoid aggression.”

Vazquez Gutierrez affirmed: “There is no security for them. We have asked the state government to provide us with security, because even we as human rights defenders are persecuted and threatened with death.”

A former member of the pacifist organization Las Abejas, Vázquez Gutiérrez said he has filed complaints with the Indigenous Prosecutor’s Office about the threats he has received for accompanying citizens who have had to leave their homes due to violence.

In an interview, he said that “all the residents of Polhó are very afraid; There are no more people at the entrance to the community.”

He insisted that the demand is that “there be immediate security for the displaced. Security forces patrols to protect the displaced who are in fear.”

José Vázquez also demanded that: “it be investigated, justice be done and the law be applied to those who burned their houses and displaced the Santa Martha inhabitants who are now suffering as refugees because they were dispossessed of all their belongings.”

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada, Monday, June 5, 2023, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2023/06/05/estados/028n1est/ and Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee