Chiapas: CSO Statement on “Overflowing” Violence in San Cristobal

@Frayba

On April 21^st, 25 civil society organizations (CSOs) and networks expressed their “deep concern” at the “overflowing violence” in San Cristobal de Las Casas linked to the growing presence of armed groups, a situation in which “it is evident that factual powers use them through acts of terror, to control the population and strategic territory for the legal and illegal economies of organized crime.”

They recalled what happened on April 17^th, when after the assassination of Jeronimo Ruiz, one of the leaders of the organization known as the Association of Tenants of Traditional Markets of Chiapas (ALMETRACH), “for more than eight hours, people with high-powered caliber weapons shot off bursts of bullets at various points in the city, burning at least three houses and murdering two other people, in addition to spreading various threats and rumors on social networks. The climate of violence caused terror among the population, which led to the fact that on the afternoon of that day and the following day, schools of all levels suspended classes, various businesses closed after the events, and a high percentage of inhabitants took refuge in their homes.”

They regretted that after what happened, the Municipal President of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mariano Diaz Ochoa, transmitted “a discriminatory message against indigenous people and youth from the peripheries whom he blamed for the violence, thereby promoting the stigmatization and criminalization of these people and communities, and legitimizing the violence against them.”

They also warned about the fact that there are “various signs of collusion, minimization, or inaction [on the part of the authorities], which increase the risk and defenselessness for the victims and society in general.” They called on the Mexican State to “generate alternatives from society with a vision of building lasting peace”; as well as to “guarantee full conditions for peace and the effective enjoyment of all human rights through measures that transform the structural causes of violence in Chiapas.”

Finally, they called on the general population “to build, from our different realities, life alternatives that represent a barrier to violence in our different territories. From the signatories, we believe that it is still possible to walk and weave an alternative world, in Chiapas there are referential processes, especially within the native peoples who for more than 500 years have struggled to maintain and strengthen good living from social and spiritual harmony, and relationship with the territory. We recognize the plurality of our State, which, far from fueling intolerance, represents great potential to devise, from different thoughts, alternatives for peace where girls, boys and adolescents can dream of a future life.”

For more information in Spanish:

Frente a la violencia desbordada en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, expresamos nuestra preocupación y exigimos que se garantice el derecho a la Paz (OSC, 21 de abril de 2023)

Organizaciones repudian a grupos de choque en San Cristóbal (La Jornada, 21 de abril de 2023)

ONG alertan por el ingreso de grupos armados a San Cristóbal de las Casas (El Sur, 22 de abril de 2023)

Violencia en Chiapas, por guerra entre “chapos”, CJNG, Zetas y Maras Salvatruchas (La Silla Rota, 18 de abril de 2023)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: San Cristobal Diocese Social Ministry Warns of Increased Generalized Violence in State