Oaxaca/Chiapas/National: Forced Internal Displacement – An Alarming and Ignored Reality 

@La Silla Rota

The Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) will present on December 8th, the report Episodes of Massive Forced Internal Displacement in Mexico 2020. Although there are no official figures, the Commission has reported that forced internal displacement has affected at least 346,945 people in Mexico. This year alone, more than 36 thousand people have been forced to leave their homes, the highest figure since the CMDPDH made its estimates and almost quadruple the more than nine thousand registered last year. In October 2021, 410 people in Chiapas, Chihuahua and Oaxaca had to leave their homes due to violence in their localities.

In the case of Oaxaca, around 390 people from the Mixtec communities of Ndoyonoyuji, Guerrero Grande and Mier y Teran, in the municipality of San Esteban Atatlahuca, had to leave their homes after three days of attacks by an armed group. In this context, several cases of disappearance, five murders and the burning of several buildings were registered.

In the case of Chiapas, during December families from the autonomous community of support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) Moises Gandhi in Ocosingo, Chiapas, were displaced after suffering an armed attack. As part of the attack, the community’s autonomous secondary school was set on fire..

The Ajmaq Resistance and Rebellion Network, adherents of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle, in an urgent statement pointed to ORCAO paramilitaries of the San Antonio Las Flores community as responsible for the attack.

In this context, it is key to remember that the General Law on Forced Displacement has been stalled in the Senate since September 19th, 2020 without setting a date for its debate and approval.

Finally, from civil society, people who have been forced to leave their communities in the states of Quintana Roo, Chiapas, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Michoacan formed a National Coordination of Displaced Peoples with the purpose of claiming their rights in the face of the passivity of the state and federal governments.

For more information in Spanish:

En un mes, 410 personas fueron desplazadas por la violencia en Chiapas, Chihuahua y Oaxaca (Chiapas Paralelo, 5 diciembre de 2021)

Senado mantiene paralizada la ley de desplazamiento forzado; víctimas se cuadriplican en un año (Animal Político, 6 diciembre de 2021)

«Toda la familia ha sido amenazada» desplazados huyen de la violencia en Norte y Sur (La Silla Rota, 6 diciembre de 2021)

Crimen desplaza a 36,272 personas en 9 meses del 2021 (El Economista, 21 de noviembre de 2021)

Víctimas de desplazamiento forzado crean bloque de lucha (La Jornada, 12 de noviembre de 2021)

For more information from SIPAZ: 

National: “Forced Displacement in Mexico; Result of Impunity and Unsolved Problem” – Centro Prodh Press Conference (November 17, 2021)

Chiapas: More Displacement in Pantelho Due to Increase in Violence – Frayba (September 29, 2021)

Oaxaca: Ataques armados en Atatlahuca deja 7 muertos y al menos 40 familias desplazadas (October 26, 2021)