Chiapas, the Epicenter of the War in Mexico

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Chiapas is experiencing a war in which organized crime gangs, protected and allied with economic and political groups at different levels of government, terrorize the peoples of the region. In this southeastern Mexican state, different types of violence can be identified, four of which stand out. In the first place, the violence of elites and power groups against the peoples. These include racist and colonial violence by caciques, farmers, landowners, businessmen and politicians; power structures of groups and families embodied in men who think that “the life of an indigenous person is worth less than a chicken”; families that inherit political power: grandparents, children and grandchildren governing from any party.

A second type of violence is that of companies and corporations that strip peoples of their resources; soft drink companies that plunder water with government authorization; mining companies that exploit land and people; agro-industries that usurp territories and squeeze peasants dry; tourist industries that occupy territories that once belonged to the people and condemn the inhabitants to precarious jobs.

The third type of violence identified are those ordered, encouraged and sanctioned by the State against organized peoples, especially against the Zapatista peoples. There is repressive violence such as political imprisonment, or actions of intimidation by official forces. There is also the violence committed by paramilitary groups, groups that were financed, trained, condoned or protected by the State to wage war against the Zapatista peoples and the peoples that support them. We also find the belligerent actions of corporatized groups, that is to say, groups that had a legitimate origin of popular organization, but were later co-opted by political or economic organizations to carry out counterinsurgency and war work against Zapatismo, its allies and peoples in resistance.

A fourth type of violence we see are those of criminal corporations that, allied with political and economic groups, seek to eliminate resistance in order to impose their businesses: human trafficking, drug trafficking, trafficking in women, arms sales, extortion and many other highly profitable illegal businesses. These groups have armed structures such as thousands of hired killers, handmade tanks, drones and high-powered weapons. Like economic corporations, criminal corporations compete amongst themselves for control of the trade. They do so through political, economic and, above all, warfare. Their political allies guarantee them impunity.

These four forms of violence are articulated in the same war, the one that has among its objectives to colonize territories, promote the market, eliminate resistance to impose the law of business and the law of organized crime. A colonial, capitalist, paramilitary and criminal war against Zapatismo, against the peoples who resist and against the peoples in general. A counterinsurgent war and a war of the system against the peoples.

Mexico has experienced an intensification of war and violence since 2006 with the government of Felipe Calderon. However, since 2021 that southeastern state has been experiencing a particular situation: the changes in the real and formal powers led criminal corporations to dispute the control of the border, the new business routes that come with megaprojects, and human trafficking. In addition to the above, there is the presence of corporate organizations seeking resources from social projects, as well as political disputes between power groups.

The war that spreads throughout the country today finds its epicenter in Chiapas, which does not mean that the rest of the country is at peace. It is time to look at the recent past and see all that the war has destroyed in Mexico. In the tally of the damage, one element stands out: almost all the popular organizations and peoples who resisted neoliberal dispossession from the grassroots have been brutally attacked by organized crime, while the State guarantees impunity.

The war against the Zapatista peoples has not stopped since 1994. Directly with the Army, indirectly with paramilitary and corporate groups, and today also with criminal organizations, the war in Chiapas today reaches new dimensions and demands that we be alert. The denunciations recently made by the Zapatistas call us to act in the face of the emergency, as does the assassination of Father Marcelo Perez.

Chiapas is today the epicenter of a war that has spread throughout the country. With Chiapas we have the obligation to raise our voices and speak out about this war that hurts us as a society every day. To demand today a halt to the attacks against the Zapatista communities is also to demand a halt to the war in Chiapas and in all of Mexico. May peace continue to be the objective.

Original text by Raúl Romero published in La Jornada on October 21st, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.

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