By Ariadna Quiroz | Project Leader
The conflict between the Tzotzil municipalities of Aldama and Chenalhó in Chiapas, Mexico dates back 40 years, for the dispute of 60 hectares of land, this conflict has currently caused that the inhabitants of the municipality of Aldama, are at risk by the constant armed attacks of paramilitary civilian groups from the community of Santa Martha, Chenalhó. These attacks began in 2016, intensifying during 2019 and 2020, thanks to the impunity under the administrations of Governor Manuel Velasco Coello and the current administration of Rutilio Escandón Cadenas, who have been discriminatory against native people closing their eyes to the impacts of the humanitarian crisis in the area of the Altos de Chiapas, thanks to the increase in violence in the region without their intervention.
As a result of the inhabitants' fear of paramilitary attacks, massive forced displacements to the mountains have occurred since 2018. We have therefore requested that necessary, urgent and effective measures be implemented to protect life and integrity of the population in the affected Tsotsil communities, Comprehensive attention to the humanitarian emergency of the population that has been forcibly displaced, especially the injured and relatives of those killed, in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the Law for the Prevention and Handling of Internal Displacement in the State of Chiapas.
Despite the signing of the Peace Agreements between the communities of Aldama and Chenalhó on June 4, 2019. Unfortunately, there was a new escalation of violence in the territory, which was repeatedly denounced by us, also pointing out the omissions of the Mexican State, which caused threats by the Mexican State, as well as by the Santa Martha paramilitary armed group, Chenalhó to the community human rights defender Cristóbal Santiz Jiménez and his family, for which we made a request for precautionary measures at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has not yet received a response.
Those threats culminated in the arbitrary deprivation of Cristobal´s liberty on March 14 of this year, since he has been in the State Center for Social Reinsertion for Sentenced Persons No. 14, El Amate.
The defender and his family have continued to receive threats and extortion during his judicial proceedings, as evidenced by the events that occurred during his detention, where he was held uncommunicated, and also during the hearing for the link to the proceedings, in which, despite the existence of deficient and unrelated evidence of his probable participation in the crime he was accused and the judge decided to linkage him to the crime and the following day another arrest warrant was executed, requested by the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Indigenous Justice, without giving him a timely defence.
Therefore, we reiterate our request for the integral attention to the displaced people since 2018. Stop the armed attacks against Aldama, respecting the signed peace agreements. Investigate, sanction, disarm and dismantle the paramilitary armed groups in Santa Martha, Chenalhó, and to assume responsibility for the officials who have been involved by action or omission in the widespread violence in the region and evidently the release of the first political prisoner of this administration, Cristóbal Santiz ]Jimenez.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
