A new conflict occurred in Mitzitón around 4pm on Sunday, 28 February. According to the president of Mitzitón’s ejido commission, Juan Diaz Heredia (a Catholic), the confrontation began after community authorities “decommissioned” the wood of five trees that were cut down without permission from local Evangelicals. The situation in Mitzitón has been tense since at least July of last year, though the roots of the conflict go back more than 10 years. Regardless, it bears mentioning that conflict in this community, which pertains to the municipality of San Cristóbal, finds its basis more in political and agricultural rather than religious questions.
On 1 March, a number of Evangelicals who identify with the Army of God on one side and Catholic adherents to the Other Campaign on the other succeeded in exchanging the three indigenous individuals that each group had taken prisoner (for a total of 6) following the prior confrontation that left 7 injured, 2 with gunshot-wounds. State governmental officials and members of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights were present at the negotiations. More than 200 agents of the State Preventive Police (PEP) and the Ministerial Police from San Cristóbal arrived as well. An hour after the prisoner exchange, adherents to the Other Campaign raised the roadblock they had erected since Sunday afternoon in the Pan-American Highway between San Cristóbal and Comitán.
In a 3 March communiqué, members of the Other Campaign in Mitziton wrote: “Amidst the contradictory versions published by newspapers regarding what happened in our community on 27 and 28 February–such as in the newspaper Milenio and on the internet, where they say that we do justice a propia mano; that we are criminals; that the conflict bases itself in the trafficking of migrants and wood; that this conflict is a religious one; that we are barbaric Indians–we claim that we were simply defending our right to exist as a people, to make our own communal decisions regarding our land. It is clear that the Army of God’s provocations is meant to bring about more violence and hence divide us and take power away from our communal assembly and our people. The Army of God is supported by the government, which always pays the fines it incurs as well as costs of medical treatment; essentially, the government protects it. They want us to be weak, so that they can carry through their megaproject: a highway from San Cristóbal to Palenque.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Communiqué of members of the Other Campaign in Mitzitón: Aggression of members of the Army of God directed at Adherents to the Other Campaign in Mitzitón (3 March)
Catholics and Evangelicals release six detainees (El Universal, 2 March)
Catholics and Evangelicals exchange hostages and hence … the atmosphere in Mitzitón (La Jornada, 2 March)
Confrontation in Chiapas: 6 injured (La Jornada, 1 March)
Indigenous individuals detain Evangelicals in Chiapas (El Universal, 1 March)
Mitzitón (CHIAPAS): Armed aggression by Army of God (Indymedia)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: Denunciation of attempted kidnapping in Mitzitón (25 February 2010)
sipazen.wordpress.com 