Chiapas: Ch’ol indigenous people occupy Tila City Hall after decades of having been ignored

Photo @Pozol Colectivo

On 16 December, as they had announced they would do in accordance with communal agreement in assemblies, indigenous Ch’ol people from the Tila ejido recovered the lands on which City Hall is located. Protestors indicated that it had been more than 5 decades during which they had appealed to different governmental institutions without success. “If there is no solution, there will be demolition,” warned the adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle during a march held on 16 December. The campesino members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) made a call for national and international solidarity in terms of the possible repressive responses that could be taken by the three levels of government, which in recent days had carried out military and police operations in the community.

Protestors indicated that in 2008 the ejidal authorities of Tila had won a motion promoted “against one of the several attempts at plundering that we have suffered since 1964, due to the different actions taken by City Hall, the state government, and the local congress.” The motion orders the restitution of 130 hectares of ancestral lands. However, using the argument that the sentence cannot possibly be implemented, City Hall has failed to observe the ruling.

The “Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez” Center for Human Rights, which has for years accompanied the Tila ejido of Ch’ol persons in their actions before the Supreme Court, expressed in an Urgent Action that “we hope that by exercising their constitutional and legal rights, this conflict in the Tila municipality of Chiapas be resolved through mediation, and that the state’s reaction not be through criminalization or repression of any kind.” The Center requests that civil society send this Urgent Action to the officials who appear in the document, with copies to accionesurgentes@centroprodh.org.mx.

For more information (in Spanish):

Queman alcaldía de Tila en reclamo de tierras (Proceso, 16 de diciembre de 2015)

Acción Urgente (CDH Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, 16 de diciembre de 2015)

PJGE investiga daños en alcaldía de Tila, Chiapas (El Universal, 16 de diciembre de 2015)

México: “Si no hay solución, habrá demolición”, consigna cumplida en Tila Chiapas. 16 de diciembre. (Pozol Colectivo, 16 de diciembre de 2015)

Comunicado_Ejido_Tila (Adeherentes a la Sexta Declaración Tila, 16 de diciembre de 2015)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce confrontation between PVEM and PRI, with 4 injured (21 July 2015)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce attempt at usurpation (21 January 2015)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila receive threats following march to commemorate 80th anniversary of the ejido (26 October 2014)

Chiapas: Ejidatarios from Tila denounce new attempt to loot land (22 January 2014)