A person displaced by organized crime on the Chiapas-Guatemala border recounts how, when fleeing their community, the first feelings that arise are for life and fear. “After one of those clashes—which were so cruel—and hearing our children cry, the first thing we as parents think about is life. I didn’t think about my belongings, I didn’t think about anything; of course, it hurt a lot because we were adrift, we didn’t even know where we were going to sleep. We only took what was necessary. What you feel most at that moment is fear, a lot of fear, because we didn’t know if they would stop us at the exit. It was obvious from the vans that we were leaving. That was the first thing: fear,” he says.
Another person explains: “I heard people crying, terrified for their children—who were young—and had to get them out. They made their way out through a river that was flooded at the time. That’s how they crossed. They were helped by other families. They risked drowning in the high waters. There was a mix of everything: a lot of courage, sadness, and fear—those were the strongest feelings among the families.” These testimonies are not isolated incidents.
The situation in southeastern Mexico is alarming. So much so that on October 7, 2025, the collective Madres en Resistencia de Chiapas denounced the lack of real action by the Chiapas government and, in particular, by the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE). “Enough with the pretense, enough with institutional cynicism,” they stated in the document denouncing the situation. The voices that speak of fear and the struggle for life are part of *Chiapaz, the Pending Peace*, a report by the Border Region Working Group (GTRF).
It covers the period from November 7, 2024, to December 31, 2025. Its purpose is to document and analyze the evolution of violence and human rights violations in the Sierra Frontera Region (RSF) of Chiapas, in the context of the change in government. This document builds on the previous report, which covered the years 2021 through 2023. This region is located in the southern part of the state and comprises the municipalities of Amatenango de la Frontera, Ángel Albino Corzo, Bella Vista, Chicomuselo, El Porvenir, Frontera Comalapa, La Concordia, La Grandeza, La Trinitaria, Mazapa de Madero, Monte Cristo de Guerrero, Motozintla, and Siltepec.
Mountains, jungles, and rural roads border Guatemala directly, a country that serves as a vast warehouse for goods in transit, controlled by organized crime: undocumented migrants, human trafficking, drugs, weapons, piracy, stolen vehicles, and livestock. It is a geographic, economic, and migratory corridor of enormous significance.
There, indigenous and rural communities coexist with formal and informal commerce; constant human mobility; the presence of migration routes; and conflicts arising from disputes over territorial control among criminal groups. The report was prepared by the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All,” Todos y Todes, the group Movilidades Libres y Elegidas, Voces Mesoamericanas, and Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz, with the support of the International Service for Peace (Sipaz) and the Swedish organization SweFOR.
As the authors of the document explain, criminal networks in that region of Chiapas “operate in a territory marked by institutional complicity, disputes over strategic routes, and the presence of illegal economies that are intertwined with everyday activities. They do not function as autonomous structures, but rather as flexible networks that combine armed groups, local intermediaries, political actors, and cross-border economic circuits.”
“Their ability to exert territorial control manifests itself in extortion, forced displacement, forced recruitment, and the imposition of parallel norms that affect community life.” Frayba documented that, between January 2021 and October 2025, 24,290 people were victims of forced displacement in the municipalities of Pantelhó, Frontera Comalapa, Chicomuselo, Oxchuc, Las Margaritas, Huixtán, Chenalhó, Ocosingo, La Trinitaria, Socoltenango, La Concordia, Bella Vista, and Tila. In the case of the Sierra Frontera, the main reason for the displacements was the determination of the region’s residents to avoid confrontations, threats, or forced recruitment by armed groups in this corridor, which is key to their illicit activities. The report details how, in 2025, cases of missing persons increased significantly.
Tapachula was the municipality with the highest number of cases, followed by Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Frontera Comalapa. Between late 2024 and the first few months of 2025, bodies were also found in clandestine graves. The document acknowledges that, during 2025, families returned to their communities to reclaim their homes and lands. However, they had to face control and surveillance by organized crime and its local allies. Additionally, debt repayment, land or property seizures, and constant threats have led to further impoverishment of the most vulnerable families.
The report includes numerous statements from those affected, describing how they cope with the threats hanging over them and their families. One of them, which sums up the feelings of various victims, states: “We must promote unity as much as possible. And we must not distinguish between creeds or anything else, because that’s always what happens in communities—the Catholic over there and the Adventist over here. We must see each other for who we are: brothers and sisters. I believe that unity is paramount, but also that people need to know the laws, know their rights. Because there are rights for everyone.” Amid the fear, the struggle for life goes on, goes on, goes on.
Original text by Luis Hernández Navarro published in La Jornada on May 26th, 2026.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.