The progress of the San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Palenque highway, with its guaranteed institutional indifference, reveals more than meets the eye and serves as an analogy for other current events in a state that has been heavily militarized for three decades, and, for almost as long, paramilitarized depending on the situation, as well as having suffered for over a decade under the partial co-governance of major drug cartels. Additionally, it is the main entry point for migrants from around the world, a perfect breeding ground for human traffickers.
To make matters worse, the territory of Chiapas has long been of interest to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and its Mossad. The first agents detected by journalists were in 1994, but their first documented activity occurred in late 2002, when a convoy of 38 off-road vehicles penetrated the jungle, met with ranchers, conducted combat exercises, offered to buy land from Maya villagers, spied on the Zapatista communities they passed through, and crossed into Guatemala to continue their mission. Guatemala has been a hostage of Israel since the dictatorship. The mission was headed by Ben Nun Avihu, former commander-in-chief of the Israeli Air Force between 1991 and 1993, when he was in charge of the Patriot tactical missiles aimed at the Persian Gulf: https://www.jornada.com.mx/2003/03/04/017n1pol.php?printver=0
Although the first Orthodox Jewish communities arrived in San Cristóbal several years ago, they have little interaction with the local population. Furthermore, Jovel is home to dozens of Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim, and New Age communities, in addition to the Catholic and Evangelical majority. The availability of kosher food has increased, if anything. In recent months and years, however, a less discreet influx of young Israeli soldiers has been detected: the Yotam missions. Pro-Zionist evangelical pastors act as their hosts in schools and indigenous communities in the Chiapas Highlands. This is, quite simply, an advance of Zionism, as well as a blatant operation by the State of Israel and its already exposed youth, educated (brainwashed, as their critics say) in Zionist supremacism, even above religion.
On social media, residents of the Tsotsil municipality of Zinacantán denounced on June 12th: “Israeli soldiers, who call themselves Heroes for Life, are currently in classrooms with our children. We ask all the people of Chiapas, especially parents and teachers, to stop these people who come with blood on their hands. Because of the trauma they carry, it is very dangerous to have war veterans among children! They are soldiers who have served the Zionist state or are on leave, because many return to the ranks to continue killing, torturing, and raping children, men, and women in Palestine and Lebanon. They enter schools under the pretext of teaching English or painting the walls. They are not only in Mexico, but in several countries. They come dressed in white with a logo of a globe with two white wings so they can be identified; their shirts say Heroes for Life.”
Weeks ago, a news report from the Chiapas State Security Secretariat caused a stir regarding a meeting between its head, Hila Burg, the Israeli consul, and Zvi Michaeli, the embassy attaché, to strengthen “strategic alliances based on respect, trust, and bilateral cooperation.” Yes, it says bilateral. In January, Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Elyashiv, the Israeli Police attaché in Latin America, visited Chiapas authorities “to exchange experiences in public security and strengthen intelligence efforts.” This was nothing new. In 2016, the then-head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s International Cooperation Agency (SIBAT), Mishel Ben Baruch, visited to negotiate “defense and security.”
In addition to the long-standing issue of arms acquisitions, the visitors have reportedly emphasized the precise location of areas of strategic interest, for which they provide the necessary equipment. In 2023, Israeli intelligence specialists installed “risk monitoring” equipment in several municipalities, ostensibly to combat organized crime. The Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Mexico at the time was Navad Feldam.
Also years earlier, residents of Loma Bonita, in Maravilla Tenejapa, observed Israeli soldiers conducting war games in the jungle-covered Santo Domingo River. An IDF soldier had drowned there in 2021 while participating in a “cultural” mission. And just last May, groups identified as “friends of Israel” in Tuxtla Gutiérrez celebrated the 70th anniversary of the independence (sic) of the State of Israel.
But the real issue is the dispossession, negotiated with the monetary concessions of the government and national and international capitalism. From this perspective, we must consider the construction of the misnamed “Maya Cultures Route Highway” between San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Palenque, which is dismembering the historical and ancestral region of the Chol and Tseltal peoples. This will require further discussion.
Original article by Hermann Bellinghausen, La Jornada, June 15th, 2026.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.