Mexico City | Desinformémonos. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) documented the almost 16,000 cases of forced displacement in the communities of Chiapas, territorial dispossession against the peoples, violence against land and human rights defenders, the impacts of militarization in the territories and the violence of organized crime in its report “Chiapas, in the spiral of armed and criminal violence.”
The report, explained Frayba, is composed of eight chapters that describe “the situation of violence and the levels which we have reached in the midst of an absurd denialism of the previous administration towards the discourse of empty concepts, recognizing the chaotic government of Chiapas headed by Rutilio Escandón, and the paraphernalia of power under a media spectacle of the current government.”
The document addresses the cases of forced displacement, which as of June 2024 numbered 15,780, of which at least 8,190 were caused by organized crime; the disappearance of persons, which from January to June 2024 alone totaled 632 cases; attacks on human rights defenders and militarization in the state, which “has not only affected democratic development, but has also resulted in brutal repression of migrants and indigenous communities.”
According to the report, between 2023 and June 2024 there were 20 events of forced internal displacement, which were registered mainly in the municipalities of Frontera Comalapa, Pantelhó, Chenalhó, Ocosingo, Oxchuc, Las Margaritas, Huixtán, La Trinitaria, Socoltenango, La Concordia, Bella Vista and Tila.
“From Frayba we maintain that we are in the deepening of a human rights crisis in the state of Chiapas and the country; in this period we continue to tell stories of terror and pain, in the midst of an endless war against the people. We have been denouncing the increase of multiple violence and placing this lamentable situation on the responsibility of the Mexican State authorities who do not address the conflicts at their root,” highlighted the human rights center.
Read and download the full report here:
https://frayba.org.mx/sites/default/files/2025-03/250310_informe_frayba_descarga.pdf
Original text published by Desinformémonos on March 27th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center: a strategic reflection
In recent days in San Cristobal de las Casas, Frayba presented their report Chiapas, in the spiral of armed and criminal violence; between governmental chaos, organized crime and the paths of struggle and resistance. Its title finds meaning in the dedication that must be taken closely into account:
“For the peoples, communities and rebellious hearts. For those who forge peace, even at the cost of their own lives. For those who, in the midst of darkness, glimpse beyond the horizon. For those who distrust the peace of governments, for their voice is a dead-end echo. For those who do not see peace as a mere silence of weapons. For those who, with each heartbeat, feel the urgency to build it and shape it every dawn. For those who, in the middle of the night, and its inextinguishable light, decide to set fire to the dawn.”
The various chapters cover a situation that suggests that it is not only present in Chiapas. With the support of reports from the United Nations and various human rights organizations, it is developed with rigor, figures, and foundations beyond rhetoric. It begins with forced displacement, and its increase and devastating effects on peoples and communities. It identifies the various causes of displacement in Mexico, from different types of violence – most marked by organized crime (OD) – paramilitary groups and State agents; development projects, including mining and illegal logging; hydrocarbon extraction, dam construction, tourism, community territorial conflicts; climate change, and natural disasters.
It refers to the continuity of counterinsurgency violence directed at the Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN) and points to the actions, omission and permissiveness of the armed forces (FA) and local and federal public security institutions. It also points out that the complicity with officials of the three levels of government occurs in a context of zero enforcement of the law in this area and the exponential and unlimited expansion of illegal armed groups, hired assassins and paramilitaries, who fight for control of strategic territories for the trafficking of migrants, weapons, drugs and in general illegal economies of all kinds.
They are often part of the local governmental structure, obtain resources from social programs such as Sembrando Vida, whose implementation generates conflicts and tensions. They constitute virtual zones of silence. In a second chapter, it addresses the disappearance of people, which in 2023 was already the subject of a report by the same center called Touching the Void. The increase in Chiapas and the whole country of the strategy of terror, they note, with which it is intended to silence any possibility of social movement and self-management of the territory. Hence the movement of searching mothers who become defenders due to the need to search for their loved ones, carrying out the work that the State not only omits, but also victimizes these groups. It includes the denunciation of attacks against people of sexual diversity, journalists and priests, including the crime againt Father Marcelo Perez.
An important chapter is related to the militaristic policy of the Mexican State, which is part of a complex context of remilitarization, reflecting a strategy of territorial control. in the use of the military for public security tasks, among many others, which has led to an erosion of civil and political rights. Specifically, the support of the constrainsurgency is developed, directed at the EZLN through the Chiapas 94 Campaign Plan and the Chiapas 2000 Campaign Plan.
It includes the analysis of the formation of the National Guard already integrated into the National Defense Secretariat as part of the strategy of militarism as well as the recommendations of the Inter-American system to strengthen the civilian space. The pact of impunity is characterized by the deliberate absence of governmental structures, which configures the generalized violence that has been justified by the official denialism. On the other side, in the analysis and denunciation of the continued contempt for the native peoples under the guise of progressivism, the capture of historical leaderships, what they call capitalist domestication, the individualized approach of social programs and the rigorous criticism of the Sembrando Vida program are central.
The very comprehensive and solid report outlines its analysis of the context of dispossession and violence inherent to the capitalist system in which it maintains that there are no indications to consider that the war against the peoples will be stopped from there. It proposes that the future of resistance and construction of spaces of peace from below, openly taking up the Zapatista approach of the struggle for life, where they conclude that, in the underground rivers, the paths of freedom are always found.
Original text by Magdalena Gómez published in La Jornada on March 25th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.