Chiapas: Mayor’s Office and Patrol Car Burned in Altamirano

@GabyCoutino

Following the ceremony of the Cry of Independence on Wednesday, September 15th, a group of people set fire to the Altamirano mayor’s office and burned a patrol car of the municipal police, “the only patrol that we had left”, according to Mayor Pinto Kanter.

Mayor Roberto Pinto Kanter, whose wife Gabriela Roque Tipacamu will take over on October 1st, blamed Altamirano Ejido for the events, but the president of the ejido commissariat, Rene Santiz Espinosa, disassociated himself.

One ejidatario, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Pinto Kanter “knows that they are not going to let his wife work. Many people from Altamirano have already risen up and they are not going to let Roque Tipacamu govern, because between her and her husband”, both from the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, “they already have four terms of office.”

Earlier on the day of the events, the ejido authorities announced in a statement that in Altamirano there is “ungovernability, because for nine years Roberto Pinto Kanter has governed, who has shown apathy towards the peasants and ejidatarios.”

They added that “the problems have worsened day by day, because the municipal president himself is the one who leads two groups of motorcycle taxi drivers made up of an average of 75 people, who have caused vandalism such as kidnappings, assaults and drug dealing activities.”

The ejidal authorities requested the intervention of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to resolve the ungovernability of the municipality. In addition, they demanded that an audit be carried out onthe council chaired by Pinto Kanter, who ends his functions on the last day of September.

For more information in Spanish:

Incendian alcaldía y patrulla en Altamirano, Chiapas (La Jornada, 16 de septiembre de 2021)

Incendian alcaldía y patrulla en Altamirano, Chiapas, tras ceremonia del Grito(El Universal, 16 de septiembre de 2021)

Queman Ayuntamiento en Altamirano, Chiapas (Reforma, 16 de septiembre de 2021)

Prenden fuego a alcaldía de Altamirano, Chiapas, tras Grito de Independencia(Milenio, 16 de septiembre de 2021)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Mexico 2021 Elections (June 9, 2021)

Chiapas: Elections 2021 – Three Reports of Political Violence in One Week (May 23, 2021)

Chiapas: Zapatista Support Bases Coffee Warehouses Burned in Cuxulja (August 24, 2020)