@Chiapas Paralelo
The National Search Commission (CNB) entered the municipality of Pantelho on Thursday, February 10th, to search for the disappeared persons after the popular uprising for greater security in July 2021. The 21 disappeared inhabitants were detained and exhibited in the central park on July 26th, when more than 2,000 residents of the 86 indigenous communities (Tsotsiles and Tseltales) and the 18 neighborhoods of Pantelho took over the mayor’s office.
On July 7th, 2021, the group, which defines itself as “El Machete People’s Self-Defense Forces”, made up of some 500 members, appeared publicly to expel Los Herrera, a family that had control over the Municipal Presidency for two decades. They accused them of being in collusion with organized crime and of being responsible for the murder of some 200 residents.
The families of the 21 people that the commission is looking for accuse El Machete of having kidnapped and disappeared them. “They say that El Machete murdered the 21. We don’t have them, we didn’t see them. The Search Commission can come, look for them under the stones”, replied the leader of the group. “We also have relatives who disappeared years ago”, he said, asking the authorities not to search only for the 21, but for all the disappeared, reports Animal Politico.
When the Federal Government CNB arrived in Pantelho in search of 21 people, it found a list of dozens of people who were allegedly kidnapped by members of organized crime. Their names were printed on a canvas that was hung at the entrance to the municipality of Pantelho for the CNB. Personnel from the Undersecretariat for Human Rights, Population and Migration, and the National Commission for Dialogue with the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico (CDPIM) participated in the search actions from February 10th to 12th. As well as the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA), the National Guard (GN), the State Commission for the Search of Persons in Chiapas, and the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH).
On February 10th, there was an unprecedented meeting in the Municipal Presidency of Pantelho, where a Municipal Council elected by uses and customs now operates. The representatives of the Search Commission and the other government agencies met with El Machete, with an Army lieutenant and a National Guard major, to talk about the search operations for the disappeared, the results of which are not yet public.
“In order not to put the operations at risk, we ask Machete and the press not to enter the points that we are going to review, or we will withdraw”, warned Misael Rojas Mejia of the Undersecretary for Human Rights. The self-defense groups warned that the road that leads to La Pelona hill will be guarded by their members. “They are not there to attack the National Guard or the Army, but for security. We want their work to have results”, said the Machete commander.
The official from the Undersecretariat for Human Rights also recalled that, despite the fact that by protocol the relatives of the disappeared usually accompany the search activities, in this case “they will not participate so as not to increase the conflict.”
For more information in Spanish:
Comisión inicia búsqueda de desaparecidos en zona de autodefensas de Pantelhó, Chiapas (Animal Político, 15 de febrero de 2022)
Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda busca a 21 personas desaparecidas en Pantelhó(El Proceso, 13 de febrero de 2022)
Piden a Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda localice a decenas de desaparecidxs por el crimen organizado en Pantelhó, Chiapas (Chiapas Paralelo, 14 de febrero de 2022)
Comisión de Búsqueda recorre Pantelhó para hallar a 21 pobladores desaparecidos (La Jornada, 11 de febrero de 2022)
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