Violent attack displaced indigenous people from Tzotzil communities in Chiapas

Over 1,000 indigenous people from Tzotzil communities like Chivic, Yetón, San Pedro Cotzilnam, Tabak, Cocó, Tselejpotobti, and Xuxchen in Chiapas fled to the mountains amid a series of attacks launched by armed groups. The Tzotzil community believes those behind the attack are members of a community in Santa Martha, Chenalhó . Both communities have had a dispute over land for years.

The attacks intensified last week and continued until this week. After the shootings continued, the Tzotzil communities fled their homes.

According to mayor Adolfo Victorio López Gómez, those displaced include women, children, elderly people, and men. The local government is housing them at homes and sports centers.

López Gómez emphasized Aldama residents didn’t respond to the armed attacks launched by Santa Martha residents. He added that the “state police deployed in Santa Martha was attacked, kidnapped, and forced to shoot out communities, while local police officers fled the scene.”

On the other hand, Santa Martha residents deny the allegations.

The elderly stayed behind

After the attack, 80-year-old María Méndez Ruiz was able to flee her community, along with other families; however, her 81-year-old husband couldn’t leave because he is blind and can’t walk through the mountains.

The woman is desperate, afraid, and fears for her husband’s life because he has nothing to eat. She explains many other elderly people stayed behind because they couldn’t flee to the mountains .

At least 15 families are living in a small home. They lack food and clothes, some are sick.

Members of the Tzotzil community explain they are suffering and can no longer handle the situation.

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A woman called on President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to help the Tzotzil community, especially the children because they have nothing to eat.

Displaces indigenous communities

In November 2018 EL UNIVERSAL reported that at least 2,000 indigenous people were displaced by violence in Chiapas.

At least one person was killed and more than 2,000 people from the Tzotzil ethnic group were displaced from Chabajebal in the state of Chiapas following an attack by an unknown armed group that attempted to rescue three of their members who had been detained for the alleged murder of two people from said community, including the common land commissioner.

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In a press release, the coordinator of the Social Pastoral in Chiapas, Marcelo Pérez Pérez, explained: “Last weekend we arrived in the village with the priest Helder López Velázquez because we were told that there had been an armed attack on Wednesday and a body was found headless, with one arm eaten away by wild animals.”

Given the absence of the Specialized Prosecutor Office of Chiapas , the Church took care of the body removal with the consent of the competent authorities, who also located two senior adults, one of them was 110 years old, who had been ill and malnourished for several days.

The conflict escalated

According to members of the Tzotzil community, located 46.5 miles away from San Cristóbal de las Casas, the conflict started on October 2018, when a person identified as Vicente “N” made remarks on the dismantling of a social organization during a town meeting, which deeply upset the village to the extent to which they decided to make him spend one day in prison. The common land commissioner, Miguel Pérez Hernández, notified Vicente of his sentence, which he willingly accepted, though he asked for time to do several activities at the local Health Center, where he worked as a nurse.

Shortly after surrendering and spending only two hours in prison, a group of approximately 30 people armed with rocks and clubs, led by a teacher that was identified as Raymundo “N,” rescued the detainee.

On October 24, commissioner Miguel Pérez Hernández and the rural agent Manuel Ruiz Jiménez, accompanied by Andrés Méndez Hernández and Carmelino de Jesús Ruiz Álvarez, were ambushed as they returned from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where they had gone to deliver a document requesting the removal of the school where Raymundo worked before the local Ministry of Education.

Both Miguel Pérez and Carmelino de Jesús were killed during the ambush while Manuel Ruiz and Andrés Méndez were injured.

After they identified the perpetrators of the attack, the villagers managed to capture and imprison three suspects. Later that day, however, a group of armed men wearing masks blocked the main road to prevent the suspects from being removed from the Tzotzil community. A few hours later, they came into the village to rescue their peers.

The priest López Velázquez informed that there are now around 1,500 indigenous people under church protection “and 400 more in the Tierra Caliente community. Others have spread to the Chenalhó, Chalchihuitán, Simojovel, and San Cristóbal communities.”

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