Mexico City, Mexico – Members of the indigenous community and civil society organizations held a rally in Mexico City on October 24 to denounce what they describe as an active war taking place in the southeastern state of Chiapas.
In front of the National Palace, which houses the Executive Branch of the government, protesters called on the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum to do something about the increasing violence between warring drug cartels and the Mexican military in the region. Much of which has affected indigenous communities in Chiapas, as well as members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a leftist guerrilla movement that controls large parts of the state but whose influence has recently attacked by drug cartels and the right. paramilitary wing groups.
“It is the same state, the same narco-state that is doing nothing to stop what is happening in Chiapas and throughout the country. We are witnessing how people are being killed and the government does nothing – neither the one that ran away, nor the one that is currently in power. They continue to kill those of us who fight; they criminalize us, imprison us and make us disappear,” said Isabel Valencia, a member of the indigenous Otomí community and a spokesperson for the rally. Aztec reports.
The march and subsequent rally last week were called in response to an attack against a Zapatista community by armed groups and the October 20 killing of Marcelo Pérez, a priest, human rights defender and member of the indigenous Tzotzil Maya community in Chiapas. .
Violence in Zapatista-held territory
The Zapatistas have held territory in Chiapas since their 1994 armed uprising against the government. Since then, there have been periodic clashes between paramilitary groups linked to the Mexican state to regain control of the territory.
In recent years, violence has escalated again. In February 2021, the Zapatistas said Chiapas was on the “brink of a civil war” as drug cartels (mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels) fought for control of the territory, which borders Guatemala and is valuable. both for people smuggling and for narcotics.
In the past nine months, more than 1,000 people in Chiapas have been forcibly displaced, some even fleeing to Guatemala, according to The Guardian.
Government-linked paramilitary groups and nearby farming communities have also threatened the existence of the Zapatistas in parts of Chiapas. According to the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), a rights group closely associated with the Zapatistas, 46 civilians entered the Zapatista community on “6 de Octubre” (October 6) carrying firearms and demanding that the Zapatistas to leave the territory.
At last week’s rally in Mexico City, said Enrique Davalos, an activist Aztec reports accused the government of forcing nearby communities to turn against the Zapatistas after living next to them for years.
The occupation of the ‘6 de Octubre’ community, where a group of neighbors with whom they had a relationship, well, if you want to say not brotherhood, but an acceptable relationship for a long time, are used by the government,” said. Davalos. ” Get those Zapatistas out and we’ll give you the territory,” he said the government is demanding, “except for support from criminals who come with high-powered weapons.”
Another leader of the protests in Mexico City was the recent killing of Father Marcelo Pérez in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a municipality in Chiapas.
The priest was beloved for his work in his community and was vocal about the violence inflicted on Chiapas in recent years—rhetoric leading to death threats and Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) instructing the government to provide him with a security detail in 2015, according to Frayba.
In September, Pérez led a march to the state capital to demand peace. A month later, he would be shot in the head while leaving mass in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Commercial development in Chiapas
In addition to its value as a smuggling route from Central America, in recent years, Chiapas has become increasingly important for commercial development and mega-projects funded by the Mexican government.
One of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s infrastructure projects is the Tren Maya (Mayan Train), which traverses the Yucatan Peninsula and connects popular tourist destinations like Cancun with the more inland Mayan communities of Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas. The government had also attracted foreign investment to develop the region, with the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico announcing this year investments from companies such as Visa, Uber, Meta, Kenworth, FedEx, Mercado Libre, Metlife, Organon, Rockwell Automation, AECOM and American The tower.
“Megaprojects are arriving in Zapatista territories, such as the Maya Train and the Interoceanic Corridor, among many others, trying to pass through Zapatista land. This is a way for them to protect the interests of capitalism, because we see that those soldiers, those policemen, that the narco-state is destroying the territories; they don’t protect people, they protect their interests,” said Valencia, a member of the indigenous Otomí community.
The Zapatistas have opposed the Maya train from the beginning. According to the Zapatistas, the railway threatens their communities, their environment and their way of life.
“Five hundred and twenty-eight years and bad governments impose a war against insurgency and the militarization of our indigenous peoples and communities, as a guarantee for the ‘development’ of megaprojects like the Maya Train,” wrote the Zapatistas in October 2020. the year the construction of the railway began .
For the protesters, the resistance of Zapatista and indigenous groups to regional mega-development projects has put a target on their backs.
“This is what they call contracting,” said Davalos, who accused the Mexican military of using criminal groups to suppress dissent in Chiapas. “It is surprising the military power that [Army]The Navy and National Guard have. I don’t know if they think we are so stupid as to believe that an army of such power cannot dismantle and destroy these drug trafficking groups, no matter how powerful they are. But they don’t want to do that; rather, they use them.”
