Contrary to government claims about the restoration of peace in Chiapas, the Chiapas Human Rights Observatory (OBSE) recorded 124 attacks against human rights defenders—mostly women—during 2025, the first year of Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar’s administration.
In the report Defending Rights Between Superficial Peace and Real Violence, the OBSE highlights a 25% increase in attacks against human rights defenders compared to 2024. Women were the most affected, as attacks against them rose from 58% to 70% between 2024 and 2025.
In 2025, 81% of the attacks were targeted, that is, 101 out of 124 incidents. Meanwhile, 65% occurred in the physical sphere, with 80 cases, and 37% in the digital sphere, with 46. OBSE data show that the attacks are not isolated incidents but follow a defined pattern.
Intimidation is the primary form of violence (37%), indicating a direct attempt to instill fear. Added to this are defamation and surveillance (28 and 27 cases), which together account for more than half of the attacks (55%), revealing a systematic pattern of control, attrition, and delegitimization.
“These data confirm that, far from security conditions improving, the defense of human rights in Chiapas continues to be a high-risk activity,” the report states.
The document notes that, from the very beginning of the current administration, a “Zero Impunity” security strategy was announced, which immediately led to reports of abuse of authority, theft, intimidation, and even arbitrary detentions by the Pakal Immediate Reaction Force (FRIP), an elite unit created with the stated goal of bringing peace to the state.
The Pakal Immediate Response Force was created as part of the Zero Impunity strategy, a period during which the highest number
of attacks against human rights defenders in Chiapas have been committed.
This security strategy led to arrests and official crime statistics that do not reflect the reality on the ground. Arrests made during FRIP operations have not resulted in investigations or the dismantling of criminal groups, facts that were documented by Avispa Mídia in the report “Abuses in Operations by the Pakal Elite Unit,” published in February 2025.
The OBSE identifies this strategy as a “reorganization” that has facilitated the development or expansion of megaprojects such as the Maya Train, the Trans-Isthmus Corridor, and the San Cristóbal de las Casas-Palenque highway, as well as control over people on the move.
What’s happening in 2026?
Recently, in less than a week, the offices of the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center (Frayma), based in Tapachula, were broken into. The first break-in occurred on March 20; the second on the 22nd; and the third on the 26th of the same month.
The organization was forced to announce the temporary closure of its offices and reported the incidents to the State Attorney General’s Office due to the selective removal of equipment and sensitive documentation. According to OBSE, this violence may be aimed at obtaining information related to the organization’s work defending the rights of migrants.
“The three illegal raids on the offices of the Fray Matías Human Rights Center constitute a serious attack, not only on the organization, but also on all its members and the people in situations of migration whom they support,” states the organization SweFOR.
The CDH Frayma facilities were raided three times in a single month.
Since 2018, Frayma has been part of the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists; however, in 2019, SweFOR documented multiple attacks against the center, and the security situation subsequently deteriorated. As a result, in 2025, Frayma expanded its security measures and, following the third raid, announced the temporary closure of its facilities.
Similarly, in 2025, in Tapachula, migrant rights defender Luis García Villagrán was persecuted, detained, harassed, threatened, and subjected to physical and digital surveillance. The defender has also been a beneficiary of the Mechanism since 2019 and currently has a request for precautionary measures pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
These attacks have occurred in the context of local governments’ implementation of the agreements between Mexico and the United States on migration policies. The measures have affected the southern border and thousands of people in transit stranded in Tapachula, who have been victims of serious violations of their rights.
The Protection Mechanism Is Inadequate
As recently as February of this year, Poulette Celene Hernández, a human rights defender with the Digno Ochoa Human Rights Center in the Istmo-Costa region, reported attacks against her and her family, including death threats.
“We had reported an issue regarding the lack of access to basic services in the neighborhood where I live and in the municipal seat. We also pointed out that recreational spaces were being used as dumping grounds and sources of pollution, and it was because of this public exposure and complaint that I was attacked in my home,” Poulette recounted during the presentation of the OBSE report on March 27.
Poulette reported that, days later, they attempted to deprive her of her liberty and, on another occasion, she was beaten with sticks and stones. There is video evidence of these attacks, and the incidents were reported to the Istmo-Costa Prosecutor’s Office.
“One thing they made very clear to me was that I had to die right then and there, that I had to disappear, and that my family would be next. Despite the attempted murder, the prosecutor’s office classified it as a minor injury. We filed a complaint so the case could be brought before the presiding judge, but he responded that there was insufficient evidence and that the Public Prosecutor’s Office had not presented sufficient arguments,” laments Poulette, who is also a lawyer.
Faced with the authorities’ inaction, Poulette received support from civil society at the national and international levels. Currently, she still faces defamation and harassment on social media. “I also have protective measures from the Protection Mechanism, but they have been insufficient. The judicial authorities downplay the situation and the risks we face. It is quite difficult to live with this anxiety,” she insists.
Also present at the presentation of the OBSE report was Pascuala López López, a Tzotzil defender of land and territory in the Chiapas Highlands, who recounted a series of violent incidents dating back to 2019. “That was the year criminals entered the Cuxtitali ejido in El Pinar, in the municipality of San Cristóbal,” she recalls.
She began her activism in 2021, the same year her son was murdered. During that period, clashes, homicides, disappearances, and forced displacements by criminal groups intensified in the Sierra, the Highlands, and the Chiapas border region.
Pascuala was warned not to file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office: “We’ve got them in our pocket,” they told her, and threatened to set her house on fire—a threat they carried out in 2023. “They left me with nothing; they burned six bundles of my handmade artesanry and my work,” recounts Pascuala, who filed another complaint with the authorities.
Afterward, the harassment continued, and she was accused of being a member of the criminal gang “Los Motonetos.” “But I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle,” she clarifies. On February 4, she was detained by police and brought before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but no evidence was found to incriminate her. “They fabricated the crime; they claimed it was an attempted robbery and kidnapping,” says Pascuala.
Like all the defenders mentioned, Pascuala is under protection measures provided by the Mechanism.
Criminalization as a Means of Obstruction
According to the OBSE, there is a deep divide between the official narrative in Chiapas and the reality documented on the ground, as official crime statistics have been used to bolster the effectiveness of the strategy promoted by the government of Eduardo Ramírez and implemented by the State Attorney General’s Office and the Secretariat of Public Security.
“2025 ended as a year in which the state attempted to regain control through the use of force, but where real peace remains a distant goal,” the human rights defenders agreed.
Protest in Chiapas to demand an end to criminal insecurity and state abuses.
For the individuals and organizations mentioned here, the protective measures implemented proved ineffective in preventing future incidents. In the case of the Fray Matías Center, they called on the responsible authorities to conduct a prompt, diligent, and thorough investigation that takes into account human rights advocacy work, and that identifies, prosecutes, and punishes those directly and indirectly responsible for these acts, ensuring that they are not repeated.
Collectively, they demand that the institutions responsible for protection ensure the immediate implementation of comprehensive safety measures that prioritize at all times the security and integrity of the people who make up the center, as well as the people in situations of displacement whom they accompany.
The OBSE is composed of civil society organizations and collectives from various municipalities in Chiapas, such as Tapachula, La Trinitaria, Las Margaritas, Comitán, Ocosingo, Tonalá, and San Cristóbal de las Casas, to name a few.
Original text and photos by Jeny Pascacio published by Avispa Midia on April 5th, 2026.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.