National: Over 100 Deaths from COVID-19 in Mexican Prisons

@AsíLegal

At the end of June, several sources reported an alarming increase in infections and deaths from COVID-19 in prisons in Mexico, with 23 states of the country presenting cases.

The organization AsíLegal reported, through the COVID-19 Penitentiary Map, that up to that date they had already registered 718 people deprived of their liberty and 119 custodians confirmed cases, as well as 102 deaths in the prison population and 27 in prison staff. It warned of a “continuous increase” since the start of the pandemic, due to the lack of measures in the prison system to prevent outbreaks.

The same organization also recorded 16 violent incidents in prisons in the country with causes related to the health emergency: three in Chiapas, two in CDMX, Colima and Edomex, and with an incident in Guanajuato, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Puebla, Michoacan, Chihuahua and Veracruz.

AsíLegal also reported that 3,625 releases were granted, a figure that “increases slowly despite the mechanisms for early release of the prison population at risk or with the recently approved Amnesty Law.”

It reiterated that it is still urgent to reverse the conditions of overcrowding, and sanitation in the prison system. It also urged the authorities to redouble efforts in favor of this population and to seek measures that may allow a new, safe normality.

For its part and according to its count, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) confirmed that it has registered 656 confirmed coronavirus cases, 252 suspects and 103 deaths. Despite the slight difference with the AsíLegal data, the figure shows an acceleration in the lethality caused by the virus, as just two weeks earlier the number of deaths was 68.

For more information in Spanish:

Muertes en cárceles se triplicaron en mayo, en medio de emergencia por COVID (Animal Político, 1ero de julio de 2020)

Semáforo penitenciario en rojo: Contabilizan 131 muertes por Covid-19 en cárceles (SDP Noticias, 30 de junio de 2020)

Suman 625 casos de COVID-19 en cárceles de México (Enterate, 30 de junio de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Commission to Implement Amnesty Law Created (June 22, 2020)

National: “Due to Cuts and Bureaucracy, Amnesty Law Hasn’t Been Applied to or Benefitted any Prisoner” – Animal Politico(June 17, 2020)

Chiapas: CSOs Denounces Chiapas State Prosecutor’s Office Setting Conditions for Release of Prisoners Entitled to New Amnesty Law (April 28, 2020)

National: Amnesty Law Approved to Stop Spread of Coronavirus in Prisons (April 23, 2020)

National: Calls on Federal and State Authorities to Take Special Measures to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus in Prisons (March 25, 2020)

 

Chiapas: Orange Light Despite Serious Doubts about Official COVID Figures

Photo: Chiapas Paralelo San Cristobal de Las Casas Cemetery, “Covid-19 Colony”

The Secretary of Health of Chiapas, Jose Manuel Cruz Castellanos confirmed that Chiapas went from a red to orange epidemiological stage, registering a reduction in the positivity of the virus.

“It is a reality that we have decreased the percentage of positivity, because we have adhered to an operational definition that fully aligns with the Federation; but the orange means adjustment and preparation for the new normality”, according to Cruz Castellanos

In the orange stage, non-essential economic sectors may partially reopen and respecting an occupancy percentage, as of July 1st. These include bookstores, restaurants, hotels and tourist accommodation but also cinemas, theaters, places of worship, churches, hairdressers, beauty salons and barber shops, gyms, swimming pools, sports centers, as well as spas and massage centers.

For June 28th, the State Health Secretariat presented the following figures: 281 deaths, 3,996 confirmed cases and 2,630 recovered. However, for the same dates, the figures from the federal government for Chiapas were 525 deaths (including 36 people from the medical sector), 4,339 accumulated confirmed cases and 2,624 people recovered.

The Secretary of Health of the State of Chiapas explained the discrepancy of almost 50% of deaths, referring to the fact that institutions such as the IMSS and ISSSTE “report directly to Mexico City, and are not necessarily registered here (in Chiapas).”

However, on a platform generated by various media, including Chiapas Paralelo, they question all these figures … “The reality manifested by the population is different, hundreds of people denounce the contagion and death of their relatives, in their homes, without medical attention, without having been tested despite having the symptoms of the disease.” In the case of deaths according to sampling, tests to detect the virus were not carried out in 64.3 percent of the 273 people who died. One in four deaths did not even have access to a hospital, they reported.

They related multiple examples of families who were looking for a hospital where they could receive their patients but were sent from one place to another without medical attention and with the resulting death of the sick person before being treated.

In an article they also reported that between June 24th and 25th, in the Municipal Cemetery of San Cristobal de Las Casas, six people were buried in what local workers call “COVID Colony”, a place intended for people who die as a consequence of the new coronavirus.

In the official figures of the Ministry of Health, there is only a record of two of these cases. So it can be said that in that city alone, conservative data indicates that at least two out of three people who die from the virus do not appear in the official figures, even though there is a certificate that indicates COVID as the cause of death.

In San Cristobal de Las Casas, the media explained that before the pandemic there was an average of 35 burials per month. As of March the figure shot up. That month it rose to 45, in April there were 65, in May 170 and until June 26th, they already had 100 funerals. In other words, there were 379 people who died during this period. The number of deaths multiplied but very few of them registered in official sources about the pandemic.

For more information in Spanish:

Chiapas pasa de semaforo epidemiologico rojo naranja, El Universal, 27 de junio de 2020

Chiapas podría pasar a semáforo naranja, Cuarto Poder, 28 de junio 2020

COVID-19, los muertos que no contaron, Chiapasparalelo, 29 de junio de 2020

En Chiapas han muerto 524 personas por Covid-19; cifras diarias del Secretario de Salud son de su dependencia, Chiapasparalelo, 29 de junio de 2020

Muertes en personal médico suman 36 en Chiapas; 4 en las últimas 24 horas, Chiapasparalelo, 29 de junio de 2020

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Violent Demonstrations and Damage in San Andres Larrainzar during Alleged Sanitation (June 30, 2020)

Chiapas: Health System in Chiapas Collapsed Due to Coronavirus (June 23, 2020)

Chiapas: Misinformation about COVID-19 Leads to Attacks on Hospitals and Staff (June 13, 2020)

Chiapas: por rumores por sanitización ante coronavirus, queman alcaldía y casas en Venustiano Carranza

 

Chiapas: Violent Demonstrations and Damage in San Andres Larrainzar during Alleged Sanitation

© En Cambio Quintana Roo

On June 27th, residents of the municipality of San Andres Larrainzar caused damage to vehicles, including two patrol cars and an ambulance; two houses of municipal authorities, as well as the Health Center, according to the prosecutor Jorge Llaven Abarca. According to the investigation, at 20:00 hours on that day, elements of the Municipal Police “carried out routine patrols in the Guadalupe neighborhood of the municipality when inhabitants assumed that they had formed to sanitize the surroundings, holding and then releasing them.”

Some sources indicate that the residents’ annoyance was because there had been no consultation with the community authorities to carry out the alleged sanitation. However, it is not the first time that disinformation has provoked violent demonstrations in Chiapas, since several groups of people in different municipalities have opposed the carrying out of fumigations against dengue or disinfection because of COVID-19. “These groups believe that in these ways the government is intentionally spreading the disease”, the state Secretary of Health said.

On that note, the prosecutor also called on citizens, especially indigenous communities, “not to be fooled by false leaders who are calling on the population to commit criminal acts” and reported that the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), through the Indigenous Justice Prosecutor’s Office, opened an investigation for vandalism and guaranteed that the people who are calling this type of demonstrations would be investigated so that these events do not go unpunished and do not continue to be repeated.

For more information in Spanish:

Inicia FGE carpeta de investigación por actos vandálicos en Larráinzar: Llaven Abarca (Fiscalía General del Estado, 27 de junio 2020)

Investiga FGE actos vandálicos en Larráinzar (Fiscalía General del Estado, 27 de junio 2020)

Vandalizan hospital y queman casas en Chiapas tras oponerse a fumigación (ADN40, 28 de junio 2020)

Vandalizan San Andrés Larráinzar por falsos avisos sobre sanitización (El Sol de México, 28 de junio 2020)

CEDH y CNDH reprueba discurso violento del secretario de salud (NVI Noticias, 28 de junio 2020)

Vandalizan casas en San Andrés Larrainzar, Chiapas, en protesta por desinfección (27 de junio 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Health System in Chiapas Collapsed Due to Coronavirus (June 23, 2020)

Chiapas: Misinformation about COVID-19 Leads to Attacks on Hospitals and Staff (June 13, 2020)

Chiapas: por rumores por sanitización ante coronavirus, queman alcaldía y casas en Venustiano Carranza (29/05/2020)

Chiapas: Frayba Reports over 40 Torture Cases in One Year

@Frayba

On June 25th, in the framework of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) held an online talk under the hashtag #StopTortura.

Three members of the organization announced that from January 2019 to March 2020 they received complaints of 41 cases of torture, of which they documented that 26 of them occurred within the framework of the adversarial system of criminal justice, that is, that the majority of the perpetrators are elements of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE).

At the request of Frayba, the FGE reported that in 2018 31 investigation cases for the crime of torture were opened, of which 26 were pending, only one of these was linked to the trial and that there is no conviction of perpetrators in any of the cases, the organization stressed.

In Frayba’s bulletin “Torture is a Systematic and Widespread Practice in Mexico”, published the same day, it states that “this lack of effectiveness in the current judicial system maintains the patterns of non-access to justice for torture victims who are stigmatized and criminalized. The burden of proof continues with the questioning where the alleged culprits and the victims are not guaranteed protection and respect for human rights.” It adds that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal processes of torture victims have been stopped, and thus the risks to the life, security and integrity of the victims have increased.

“Torture in Mexico is a mechanism that nullifies and terrifies the population, especially the excluded and marginalized. Added to the torture contexts are the internal forced displacements suffered by the communities of Original Peoples in Chiapas”, Frayba denounced in the June 25th bulletin and demanded that the Mexican state comply with the recommendations of the UN Committee against Torture.

More information in Spanish:

La Tortura es una práctica sistemática y generalizada en México. (Boletín Frayba, 25 de junio)

Documentan más de 40 casos de tortura (Diario de Chiapas, 26 de junio)

More information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/National: “Denying the Existence of Torture in Mexico Encourages Impunity”, CSO (April 20, 2020)

Chiapas: Fiscalía de Alto impacto señalada como responsable de tortura contra estudiantes (February 26, 2020)

Chiapas: Frayba Denounces Obstruction in Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (February 26, 2020)

 

Oaxaca/National: 7.5 Earthquake in State Ravaged by Pandemic

© Forbes Mexico

On June 23rd, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake was registered in the town of Crucecitas, Oaxaca. As a result, several private and public buildings were damaged in more than 83 municipalities. However, the most regrettable thing is that, mainly due to roof and building collapses, seven people lost their lives. For this reason, the state governor, Alejandro Murat, decided to request an emergency declaration for all affected areas.

Other incidents caused by the tremor were also reported, such as a fire at the Salina Cruz refinery, which was immediately extinguished or some minor effects in hospitals such as the IMSS Hospital in Huatulco and in 15 other health centers. For its part, the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) activated the DN-III-E plan in its phase of assisting the population in Oaxaca with 2,356 members.

Saul Arellano Almanza, researcher at UNAM, explained that “the impact of an accident like this is greater for the Oaxaca region when there are precarious social and economic conditions.” This is due to the little evidence of reconstruction that there were after past earthquakes. In addition, the state of Oaxaca reports a strong impact in this pandemic situation since, along with Chiapas and Guerrero, it is 40% below the national average in the availability of doctors and health infrastructure.

As for the possible aftershocks, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador invited the population to be alert for the situations that can arise.

For more information in Spanish:

Oaxaca, estado vulnerable en jaque por el sismo y la pandemia (Forbes, 24 de junio 2020)

Sedena activa Plan DN-III-E en Oaxaca y la Ciudad de México tras sismo (El Universal, 23 de junio 2020)

Terremoto en México: un sismo de magnitud 7,5 y epicentro en Oaxaca deja al menos 6 muertos y se siente con fuerza en Ciudad de México (BBC, 24 de junio 2020)

Así quedó Oaxaca tras el sismo de 7.5 (Excelsior, 23 de junio 2020)

Suman siete muertos en Oaxaca tras el sismo magnitud 7.5 (ADN40, 24 de junio 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: Detienen obras de remodelación para el Tren Transítmico en San Juan Guichicovi hasta llegar a acuerdos

Chiapas “Nos indigna que los desplazamientos forzados sean métodos de ‘castigo’ a las minorías”, Abejas de Acteal

Oaxaca: Violent Attacks in San Mateo del Mar Leave 15 Dead (June 23, 2020)

Oaxaca: After Four Years, Still No Justice for Nochixtlan Massacre (June 22, 2020)

Oaxaca: Death Threat at Door of Oaxaca Consortium Office (June 17, 2020)

Chiapas: Over 26 Thousand Signatures to Demand Revocation of Coca-Cola Concession in San Cristobal de Las Casas

@OtrosMundos

On June 23rd, several organizations, neighborhoods and groups reported that they currently had more than 26,343 signatures for the request addressed to the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) in order to revoke the Coca-Cola FEMSA, Compañía Inmuebles del Golfo water extraction concession, in the municipality of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.

In their communiqué also addressed to the President of the Mexican Republic, to the Governor of the State of Chiapas, to the Deputies of the Congress of the State of Chiapas and to the Councilors of the Municipality of San Cristobal de Las Casas, they stated that “for at least 20 years the mobilization of different sectors of society, neighborhoods surrounding the company, social and environmental organizations as well as neighbors in general in the city, have claimed not only some cases of contamination but the excessive extraction of water from the city by this business. Millions of liters at the cost of lack of access to water by residents, schools and even health centers.”

They again highlighted the serious problems of obesity, overweight and diabetes in the population that, in many cases, are caused by the consumption of Coca-Cola products, diseases that make the population more vulnerable to the current pandemic of COVID-19.

In the statement they questioned the decisions of CONAGUA, after various demands by the population towards the suspension of the concessions of this company, “… in total contradiction with the federal policies of protecting the environment, of prioritizing the needs of the people first, that the people are first, among other speeches made by the President of the Republic, the demands of society fall into a vacuum.”

They ended the communiqué with the following questions addressed to the deputies of the State of Chiapas, as well as the aldermen of San Cristobal de Las Casas: “What do you have to say? Why are you silent in regarding this demand for years of thousands of citizens?”

More information in Spanish:

La población ya dijo: “Fuera la Coca Cola de San Cristóbal de Las Casas”(Comunicado, Otros Mundos, 23 de junio)

Con 26 mil firmas, continua la presión para revocar concesión a FEMSA-Coca Cola de San Cristóbal de las Casas (ChiapasParalelo, 24 de junio)

More information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: CONAGUA Says “No Basis” to Revoke Concession to Coca Cola in San Cristobal de Las Casas (May 11, 2020)

Chiapas: San Cristobal City Council Asks CONAGUA to Revoke Water Concession to Coca-Cola FEMSA (May 6, 2020)

Chiapas: Comunicado por la defensa del agua en San Cristóbal de las Casas, (April 22, 2020)

Chiapas: Plataforma por el Derecho Humano al Agua respalda la Iniciativa Ciudadana de Ley General de Agua ante concesiones privadas que limitan el acceso al vital líquido, (April 10, 2019

Chiapas: Protest to Cancel Femsa-Coca Cola Concession in San Cristobal de las Casas (April 14, 2017)

Chiapas: Health System in Chiapas Collapsed Due to Coronavirus

After 120 days of the pandemic in Chiapas, journalists from Chiapas Paralelo and Alerta Chiapas agreed in a discussion “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Citizens of Chiapas” that the health sector in the state is saturated in the effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People such as the SNTSA leader, the union representative from Gomez Maza Hospital and the delegate of the Red Cross in Chiapas have raised their voices to say that the system has collapsed. Citizens contradict the official figures because there are sick people in their environment, people who have sought care at COVID clinics and have not received it; the general figures generate mistrust, Facebook seems like an obituary [page]”, said Samuel Revueltas, a journalist with Alerta Chiapas.

“The figures are laughable and the truth is that people don’t believe them. There is strong under-registration, the numbers of deaths and those infected have nothing to do with reality,  funeral homes alone report 5 [compared] to 1 deaths in the civil registry. The system has collapsed, everything has gone out of control and it is a scenario that was expected, but it seems that there is a desire not to tell the truth”, according to the journalist from the magazine, Isain Mandujano.

Angeles Mariscal, a journalist from Chiapas Paralelo, called on the citizens to initiate a strategy that permits knowing the real numbers of positive patients and deceased in order to be certain of how the situation is and how to deal with the pandemic. She said that for that they are going to launch surveys to have a more specific diagnosis.

On another note, the leader of Section 50 of the National Union of Workers of the Ministry of Health (SNTSSA) of Chiapas warned about the increase in attacks on health sector workers in some communities of the state, that 622 workers have been registered as infected, and 24 of its members have already died from COVID-19.

“Now the health workers have to face the risks of attacks and aggressions on the part of the relatives of the patients who are becoming ill from this pandemic” and he is concerned that the Secretary of Health, Jose Manuel Cruz Castellanos, who has “ignored” and dismissed health workers who are causing difficulties or contradicting, or legally intimidating those who protest in each of the work centers where they are employed.

For more information in Spanish:

CONVERSATORIO “El impacto del COVID-19 en la ciudadanía de Chiapas”, Youtube 21 de junio de 2020

Sistema de Salud colapsado y credibilidad por los suelos: Periodistas, Alerta Chiapas, 22 de junio de 2020

Sindicato denuncia aumento de agresiones a personal médico; confirman 24 muertes por Covid-19, Chiapasparalelo, 22 de junio de 2020

ASEGURAN periodistas en panel que Sistema de Salud en Chiapas ha colapsado,El Sol de Chiapas, 22 de junio de 2020

Sector Salud en Chiapas, al borde del colapso por el coronavirus, AFN noticias, 22 de junio de 2020

For more information in SIPAZ:

National: First Report on Monitoring of Indigenous and Comparable Communities Published in Response to SARS-COV-2 Emergency (June 22, 2020)

Chiapas: Misinformation about COVID-19 Leads to Attacks on Hospitals and Staff (June 13, 2020)

Chiapas: por rumores por sanitización ante coronavirus, queman alcaldía y casas en Venustiano Carranza(29/05/2020)

Chiapas: Personal de salud denuncia falta de pagos, de insumos y de equipo de protección en la fase más crítica de la pandemia por Covid-19 en el estado, (23/05/2020)

Chiapas: Outbreak of COVID-19 in San Cristobal Las Casas Prison (May 23, 2020)

Chiapas: Three Members of FNLS and ORCAO Released after Detentions in Ocosingo

@Internet

On June 14th, it was announced that Carlos Lopez Gomez, Angeliza Santiz Lopez and Enrique Herrera Jimenez, members of the National Front for the Struggle for Socialism (FNLS), were released after being held for several days in Ocosingo, according to their statements, by the paramilitary group “Los Petules”.

They were handed over in San Cristobal de Las Casas thanks to the intervention of the Vicar for Peace and Justice, Jose Luis Vasares Selvas, from the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas and the pastor of Oxchuc. Simultaneously, the FNLS group also handed over a person from the Ocosingo Regional Organization of Coffee Growers (ORCAO) who had been detained in the Río Florido ejido. This occurred in front of a commission of officials composed of Marco Shilon, of the Commission for Dialogue with Indigenous Peoples (CDPI), Marina Patricia Jimenez Ramirez of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH); Martin Longoria Hernandez from the Coordinator of the CNDH exterior office in San Cristobal and Yolanda Castro representing the FNLS.

Finally, it was reported that negotiations will continue in the coming days between the State Government, representatives of the National and State Commission on Human Rights and the group of indigenous people, since the retentions were due to an agrarian problem.

For more information in Spanish:

Liberan a integrantes del FNLS, Diario de Chiapas, 15 de junio de 2020

Liberan a militantes del FNLS y Orcao que habían retenido en Ocosingo, Contra Poder, 15 de junio de 2020

Después de 6 días, liberan a defensora indígena de Ocosingo, Chiapasparalelo, 14 de junio de 2020

Fueron presentados con vida los indígenas #Tzeltales Carlos López Gómez, Angelina Sántiz López y Enrique Armando Herrera Jiménez, integrantes del #FNLS en el Estado de Chiapas, víctimas de #DesapariciónForzada por el grupo paramilitar los “#Petules”, Comité Cerezo, 14 de junio de 2020

Bloquean e incendian, diario de Chiapas, 12 de junio de 2020

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Denuncian desalojo forzado de 45 personas pertenecientes al FNLS en Socoltenango (11/11/2019)

Chiapas: FNLS Reports Delay in Forensic Investigation into Case of Minor Murdered in Ocosingo (July 5, 2017)

 

Chiapas: State Will Have 25 National Guard Military Barracks in 2022

@ChiapasParalelo

Two years from now, Chiapas will have eight new National Guard military barracks, of which two have planned construction dates for this year. This is stated in the report on the Public Security Situation in the State in April, prepared by the federal government. The same document adds that by 2022, 24 National Guard military barracks are planned in four security zones in the state.

During the months of 2020, it is intended to build a barracks in Tonala and one more in Las Margaritas; for 2021 others are contemplated in Suchiate, Huehuetan, Comalapa, Chilon, Bochil and Palenque.

The planned construction implies that several places will have two military barracks in the area, as in the case of Tonala, Las Margaritas and Palenque, due to their different functions, described as organized crime, the flow of migration, a symbolic site of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) or to give a secure image in tourist centers, the newspaper Cuarto Poder reported.

Currently, there are National Guard military barracks in Tapachula, Villa Comaltitlan, Acapetahua, Mapastepec, Pijijiapan, Tonala and Arriaga on the Chiapas coast. In the 39th Military Zone, others are located in Marqués de Comillas, Las Margaritas, Comalapa and Ocosingo, and there are also barracks in Palenque and Pichucalco, while in the 31st Military Zone there are barracks in Villaflores, Cintalapa and Chiapa de Corzo.

For more information in Spanish:

Para 2022, Guardia Nacional tendrá 24 cuarteles en Chiapas, (ChiapasParalelo, 9 de junio de 2020)

Construirán 8 cuarteles de la GN en Chiapas, (CuartoPoder, 11 de junio de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ. 

Chiapas: National Guard and Police Oppression of Migrants Protesting over COVID-19 Fears (March 30, 2020)

 

Chiapas/International: Caravan of 4,000 Reaches Southern Border – Stopped by National Guard (January 21, 2020)

National: Four Members of National Guard Die in Guerrero and Chiapas (October 7, 2019)

International/National: UNO Calls for Evaluation of National Guard as Migratory Control in Mexico (September 2, 2019)

National: National Guard Secondary Laws Passed; Concerns over Human Rights Continue (May 28, 2019)

For more information in Spanish:

Para 2022, Guardia Nacional tendrá 24 cuarteles en Chiapas, (ChiapasParalelo, 9 de junio de 2020)

Construirán 8 cuarteles de la GN en Chiapas, (CuartoPoder, 11 de junio de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ. 

Chiapas: National Guard and Police Oppression of Migrants Protesting over COVID-19 Fears (March 30, 2020)

Chiapas/International: Caravan of 4,000 Reaches Southern Border – Stopped by National Guard (January 21, 2020)

National: Four Members of National Guard Die in Guerrero and Chiapas (October 7, 2019)

International/National: UNO Calls for Evaluation of National Guard as Migratory Control in Mexico (September 2, 2019)

National: National Guard Secondary Laws Passed; Concerns over Human Rights Continue (May 28, 2019)

 

Chiapas: Misinformation about COVID-19 Leads to Attacks on Hospitals and Staff

@Chiapasparalelo

In recent weeks, the media have informed us of various attacks on medical personnel and hospitals in different parts of the country, and Chiapas is no exception. This week attacks and acts of violence have been reported in various municipalities of the state, after false information about COVID-19 was spread on social networks.

On June 10th, residents of the Guadalupe Tepeyac community in the municipality of Las Margaritas, tied and held the director of the hospital of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS in its Spanish acronym), Miguel Angel Palacios Castro, for several hours after accusing the doctors there of being responsible for the death of a relative who died from COVID-19. The director was tied up for several hours in Plaza de Guadalupe Tepeyac before being released unharmed.

On the same day, it was reported that a group of people from the Las Rosas municipality vandalized the local community hospital, the municipal presidency, and a private house; these people also burned an ambulance, broke windows and doors, and assaulted workers. The attacks were sparked by the annual fumigations that are carried out against dengue, Zika and Chinkungunya, which some residents believed was to kill or infect them with the coronavirus.

The day after the events, the attorney general, Jorge Llaven Abarca, reported that the State Attorney of the State of Chiapas (FGE in its Spanish acronym) had opened an investigation into the events that occurred in the municipality of Las Rosas.

Attacks on medical staff  have also been reported in several other municipalities in the state due to rumors that the government uses fumigations to infect the population or that the disease simply does not exist.

For more information in Spanish:

Habitantes de Chiapas destrozan hospital, queman ambulancia y agreden a personal médico. (Animalpolitico, 11 de junio de 2020)

Causan destrozos en alcaldía y hospital de Las Rosas, Chiapas(La Jornada, 11 de junio de 2020)

Retienen a director de hospital del IMSS en Las Margaritas, Chiapas. (La jornada 10 de junio de 2020)

Amarran a director de Hospital en Las Margaritas; acusan de que personal causó la muerte de un paciente de Covid-19(Chiapasparalelo, 11 de junio de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ. 

Oaxaca: COVID-19 Cases Rising in Prisons; Civil Organizations Denounce Lack of Access to Health Services (June 9, 2020)

Chiapas: Women Prisoners in CERSS No. 5 Denounce Violence in COVID-19 Pandemic (June 8, 2020)

Chiapas: Cereza Collective Requests Release of Women Prisoners in San Cristobal de Las Casas (June 4, 2020)

Chiapas: Fear that Infected Prisoners in San Cristobal de Las Casas “Will only Come Out Dead” (May 26, 2020)