@ El Sol de México
On June 14th, several armed and hooded individuals took control of a part of San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas for several hours without the authorities intervening. According to videos, photos and eyewitnesses, they shot, burned vehicles and blocked streets for almost five hours.
Meanwhile, several civilians hid in hotels, shops and schools, trying to call the authorities but for hours neither the Army, the police nor the National Guard came to arrest the armed people or help the trapped people, including children in the schools. “A group of people, girls, adults and men, are sheltering us at the Villa Vanesa hotel, whom I thank enormously for letting us pass. We have been here since approximately 1:40 p.m., and at no time have we seen the National Guard pass, the militia and the municipal police have been conspicuous by their absence”, wrote an inhabitant on Facebook. At five in the afternoon police and soldiers began to arrive, but the armed groups had already withdrawn.
Previously, they went to the market in the northern zone, where they also shot and left written messages on the walls of the market demanding the resignation of the market administrator: “CORRUPT, OUT administrator CHABEZ PIXOL”. Several sources explain that this conflict is a dispute over control of the market between two rival groups, others link it to the Army’s announcement on June 13th that it would send some 500 soldiers to the Highlands area.
On the morning of June 15th, the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, announced that a man lost his life after receiving a stray bullet during the shooting. “It is unfortunate that these shock groups exist, very close to organized crime and we are going to continue acting, applying the law so that there is no impunity”, he added.
For his part, the municipal president of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mariano Diaz Ochoa, acknowledged that the city’s police forces are overwhelmed by these armed civilian groups, which is why he asked the state and federal authorities for help: “They outnumber us in number and weapons”, he admitted.
For more information in Spanish:
La ciudad tomada, horas de terror en San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Chiapas paralelo, 14 de junio de 2022)
Un grupo de hombres armados siembra el pánico en San Cristóbal de las Casas(El País, 14 de junio de 2022)
AMLO confirma a una persona muerta tras ataque en mercado de San Cristóbal de las Casas (El Sol de México, 15 de junio de 2022)
“Son grupos de vándalos”: alcalde de San Cristóbal de las Casas denunció disputa criminal en la entidad (Infobae, 15 de junio de 2022)
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