@Chiapas Paralelo
On September 14th, several human rights networks published a statement in which, in the face of the violence that has been exacerbated in Frontera Comalapa and other municipalities on the border and in the mountains of Chiapas, demanded that the government at its three levels create a “urgent comprehensive route and strategy towards the real and sustained pacification of these territories, which guarantees the security and well-being of the population in the short, medium and long term.”
They denounced that more than three months after the armed confrontation between organized crime groups in the community of Nueva Independencia, also known as Lajerío, and neighboring communities in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa, “there is still no comprehensive care plan by the Mexican State to date.”
They regretted that “the threats, extortions, kidnappings, the disappearance of community leaders and authorities, the co-option and forced integration of various social organizations, peasants, transporters and merchants, have become constant and daily.”
They recalled that the confrontation in the community of Lajerío caused around 3,500 people to be forcibly displaced from their communities and that after the confrontations, the criminal groups “cleaned up evidence and lifted shell casings, weapons and bodies of injured and lifeless people. Until after these events, around 1,500 elements of the National Guard, Mexican Army and State Police arrived in the territory. To date, no person has been arrested; Their presence has not implied that organized crime groups stop their illicit activities, since extortion and threats continue.”
They warned about the fact that “this conflict has expanded to communities and ejidos in other municipalities, such as Chicomuselo and La Trinitaria, in which organized crime comes to offer projects and protection, to continue growing its territorial control.” They also stated that “it is notorious that far from conflicts being resolved and foundations for peace being established, the conditions for the growth and expansion of these criminal groups continue to be allowed.” All of this means that “the population (…) currently lives kidnapped by criminal groups: the circulation of people and vehicles is controlled through checkpoints and blockades that are placed on the roads; adolescent men, from the age of 13, are recruited for falconing activities (surveillance and information collection); “young women from the locality and from Central American countries are victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation.” This to the extent that “there is an attempt to completely subjugate and silence the population, which is constantly threatened, amid the complicity of municipal authorities, in whom there is no confidence to ask for support and report.”
Furthermore, the networks said that “since the arrival of the Armed Forces to the scene, there is no certainty about their role in the context (…). There is systematic violence that continues to escalate under the impunity with which organized crime in the region operates, with the acquiescence of the municipal, state and federal governments. The abandonment and repeated omissions of the State at all levels to guarantee the integrity and security of the population of the region and the minimization of the situation by the Federal administration, place the civilian population, journalists and human rights defenders, in a situation of greater risk and vulnerability. ”
For this reason, they asked, among other demands, “that the federal and state governments promote processes to rebuild the social fabric, in a logic of peace, reconciliation and dialogue, to protect the communities that are resisting the violence of organized crime in their communities, territories, both in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa, and in the other municipalities that suffer this same reality in the state of Chiapas.”
For more information in Spanish:
Denuncian omisión e impunidad del Estado ante narcoviolencia en la frontera y Sierra de Chiapas (Proceso, 15 de septiembre de 2023)
Riesgos a la población de la Región Frontera de Chiapas ante la omisión estatal (OSC, 14 de septiembre de 2023)
Organismos civiles urgen ruta de pacificación en frontera de Chiapas (La Jornada, 14 de septiembre de 2023)
Denuncian organizaciones impunidad y omisión del Estado mexicano ante la narcioviolencia en la Frontera y Sierra de Chiapas (Chiapas Paralelo, 14 de septiembre de 2023)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Chiapas: Continúa disputa territorial en Frontera Comalapa, grupos armados incendian camiones. (August 2, 2023)
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