On 10 September, the Secretary of Agrarian Reform (SRA) reported that 10 families that have for 26 years resided in the town of San Jacinto Lacanjá, adjacent to the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, municipality of Ocosingo, gave up 99 hectares of communal lands that they had “occupied in irregular fashion.” The SRA stated that these lands were handed over to residents of the so-called “Lacandon Community Zone,” following the signing of an agreement by both groups. The SRA declared that it had presented the 10 families with an “institutional offer of economic aid in exchange for the voluntary abandonment of the lands.”
In 1984, 41 Tzeltal families from San Jacinto Lacanjá established themselves in 1116 hectares of land belonging to the Lacandon Community Zone. 31 families left the area in 2004, when federal and state authorities initiated the process of “regularization” of the land of the Lacandon jungle. According to journalistic sources, on 10 September, the 10 families that still remained agreed to give up the land they occupied in exchange for a payment of 2 million pasos. During the 26 years that they have occupied the land, they had been requesting the regularization of the property, but the Agrarian Tribunal concluded that this territory belongs to the members of the Lacandon Community, who possess little more than 500000 hectares that were given to them by the federal government in a 1976 agreement.
According to the organization Maderas del Pueblo de Sureste, the aim of federal and state authorities is to evict all populated zones that find themselves inside or adjacent to the Montes Azules reserve, where remain six settlements (Salvador Allende, San Gregorio, Ranchería Corozal, Nuevo Villaflores, Nuevo Limar, and Ojo de Agua). The spokesperson for the group affirmed that “when the government cannot negotiate with money due to pressures, it evicts [the people] using public force.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Eviction and invasion of natural reserves (Cuarto Poder, 10 September)
99 hectares handed over to the Agrarian Tribunal following judicial loss of possession (Expreso de Chiapas, 10 September)
SRA ends 16-year conflict in Chiapas (El Universal, 14 September)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: La Realidad JBG claims more evictions to come in Zapatista territories (5 May 2010)
Chiapas: Montes Azules Social Forum (17 March 2010)
Chiapas: Montes Azules evictions jeopardize peace in Chiapas (9 February 2010)
Chiapas: New evictions in Montes Azules (3 February 2010)
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