Helping Indigenous Communities Protect their Lands

Land Grabbing in Chiapas:

On February 12, eight Tzeltal families affiliated with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) were violently evicted from the Jotolá communal land in the municipality of Chilón. The operation was carried out by communal landholders armed with sticks and tools, in coordination with security forces. Members of the National Guard, the municipal police, as well as personnel from the Unitary Agrarian Court and the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) participated in the eviction, forcibly expelling 30 people, including 17 children, a pregnant woman, and elderly adults.

In addition to the forced displacement, two people were arrested and subsequently charged with the crime of aggravated dispossession. According to documentation from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), which is monitoring the case, the affected families face not only eviction and displacement but also a process of criminalization against them.

Conditions at the shelter are precarious; the displaced people are living in overcrowded conditions. The rooms provided by relatives as bedrooms are small—3x4 meters—and up to seven people share them; most sleep on the floor, have few clothes, and lack blankets. The displaced people are sharing these spaces with the people who already lived in those homes.

Agriculture is a major part of these families’ livelihoods; that is why more than half of them need land to grow corn, coffee, and various other crops. Two families rely heavily on subsistence farming, which they supplement by raising and selling animals—the primary economic activity for the women.

Today’s call is to continue denouncing land dispossession and to bring attention to this grave problem, which has terrible consequences for those who suffer from it. The state must attend to these families and guarantee their basic rights, as well as ensure their safety and create the conditions for their return home.

Your contribution helps us shed light on these situations unfolding in Chiapas and enables us to stand with the families as they defend their rights.

Links:

• Raices en resistencia
• Desplazamiento Jotola