@La Jornada
On October 17th, residents of the municipality of Tila demonstrated in front of the Government Palace in Tuxtla Gutierrez in order to request the intervention of the authorities and security forces in the face of the insecurity that has worsened in their municipality.
The president of the Tila ejidal commission, Eduardo Gutierrez Martinez, also requested the “urgent” intervention of the authorities due to the same situation, stating that at least five residents have been murdered by alleged members of organized crime groups in previous days. In a statement, he outlined that “since October 13th, criminal groups with the façade of autonomous groups have disputed the territory and executed four young people in the town of Tila, plunging the ejidatarios and residents into terror and fear, for which we continue to ask you to comply with your constitutional obligations and guarantee the life and safety of the population and to include the state police and the National Guard, so that the law is applied to those responsible and they stop protecting criminal groups.”
He denounced that “these criminal groups closed all access and the road that connects the municipality of Tila and Yajalon, they cut off the electricity, they move around the town of Tila and its surroundings in vehicles with high-caliber weapons, so we fear that in these days there are more executions and serious human rights violations.”
He also denounced the omission and negligence of the state and federal governments. “As a legal ejido authority, we have informed in repeated letters delivered to officials of the Presidency of the Republic, Secretary of the Interior and General Secretariat of the Government, of the serious situation of abuses and violations of human rights committed by these criminal groups that operate, according to Official sources from the government of Chiapas have confirmed to us, with the protection and financing of the Tila City Council and the Delegation of the General Secretary of the Government of the State of Chiapas”, he said.
He stated that “we have tired of requesting their intervention and a service with the presence of the federal and state governments to guarantee the life, safety and integrity of the ejidatarios and residents of the Tila Ejido, but they have been omissive and negligent.” On October 19th, a joint operation was carried out that involved elements of the Secretariat of National Defense, the National Guard, the State Police and the Municipal Police, together with authorities from the Government Delegation of the region and the Ministry Public, who managed to lift the blockades and restore electricity and water services in the area.
For more information in Spanish:
Autoridades de Chiapas llegan a Tila, municipio secuestrado por un grupo criminal (Milenio, 19 de octubre de 2023)
Autoridades ponen fin a bloqueos en Tila tras disputas internas (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 18 de octubre de 2023)
Piden presencia de Policía Estatal y GN ante violencia en Tila, Chiapas (La Jornada, 18 de octubre de 2023)
Crimen organizado se apodera del municipio de Tila: pobladores piden intervención urgente (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 17 de octubre de 2023)
Ejido de Tila denuncia intimidación en su territorio ejidal por grupos criminales (Ejido Tila, 17 de octubre de 2023)
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