Photo: Eduardo Gutiérrez
September 28th, 2025
Chiapas, Mexico.
Indigenous peoples, as well as national and international supporters, convened by the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people from different municipalities across Chiapas and demand an end to the genocide being carried out by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.
More than 20 parishes and two missions from the Diocese of San Cristóbal participated in the pilgrimage.
Early in the morning, the parish of San Agustín de Teopisca made a pilgrimage from the outskirts to the center of the community, demanding respect for the human rights of the Palestinian people. With flowers, flags, and white clothing, they raised banners reading: “Stop the violence against women, children, and the elderly in Palestine.”
From the municipal capital of Palenque, they also demanded: “Peace for our Palestinian brothers and sisters.” The pilgrimage was led by the parish of Santo Domingo de Guzmán and its grassroots ecclesial communities. “No more genocide, stop the killing of Palestinian children,” they also demanded from Ángel Albino Corzo.
From the parish of San Pedro Apóstol, in Chenaló, in the Altos region, they shared that their march was for peace, that it was a tribute to the resistance of the Palestinian people. “The children of Gaza were criminalized and killed as terrorists,” they added.
From Frontera Comalapa, the message of solidarity with Palestine was: “A ceasefire and a yes to peace and harmony.”
For their part, groups in solidarity with Palestine stated from San Cristóbal de Las Casas: “We salute and thank the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas for organizing this much-needed pilgrimage, as well as for their invitation to reflect together on Palestine. During these two years of incessant genocide, it has become clear that it will be the mobilized peoples, and not the governments at the service of economic power, who will stop the colonial barbarism we are witnessing today across the globe.”
Three pilgrimages took place in San Cristóbal: one to the church of Guadalupe, another to the church of San Ramón, and another to the cathedral, where the following statement was read:
September 28, 2025
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas
To the people of Chiapas, to the peoples of the world
To the media
The collectives that subscribe to this statement salute and thank the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas for organizing this necessary pilgrimage, as well as for their invitation to reflect together on Palestine. During these two years of incessant genocide, it has become clear that it will be the mobilized peoples, and not the governments at the service of economic power, who will stop the colonial barbarism we are witnessing today across the globe.
From Chiapas, we raise our voices for the Palestinian people who continue to resist occupation and genocide. Today we take to the streets in solidarity with the Mexican delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla which, together with more than 44 delegations from around the world, is heading to the Gaza Strip to break the blockade and open a humanitarian corridor to allow the entry of aid, mainly food and medicine.
Since October 7, 2023, the Zionist and terrorist entity of Israel has carried out a genocide broadcast live, which has already resulted in the deaths of approximately 65,000 people, including nearly 22,000 children, leaving more than 161,500 people wounded and nearly two million Palestinians at risk of dying from the famine imposed by Israel.
These actions are not isolated incidents. The peoples of Chiapas and Palestine share a history of struggle against the dispossession of our territories, systemic violence, and state terrorism. Just as in Palestine, in Chiapas we have thousands of displaced indigenous people who are forced to abandon their lands due to the insecurity caused by organized crime, whose weapons and training, like those of the police and army, are provided by the Zionist entity of Israel. This is part of the strategy of the United States and imperialist powers to keep our peoples in terror and thus sow fear to prevent us from organizing and fighting against inequality and injustice. What better example for us than that of Father Marcelo Pérez, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who, from his faith and commitment to the poor, raised his voice in defense of life and territory, and was murdered for it almost a year ago in this very city, a year of total impunity for the intellectual authors of his murder. Today, with our struggle, we also honor his memory.
We denounce the complicity of governments around the world, including the Mexican government, which has been unable to break relations with Israel and take a firm stance against this barbarity. Although Claudia Sheinbaum has symbolically recognized that what is happening in Gaza is genocide, this gesture has not translated into concrete sanctions or the breaking of agreements with the Zionist regime.
On the contrary, agreements continue to be signed and progress continues to be made in the purchase of weapons and the militarization of the country.
We condemn the complicity of the Chiapas government, which boasts of its ties to Israel on a plaque commemorating friendship with Israel, placed in the 5 de Mayo park in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in 2023.
We also denounce the presence of Zionist organizations such as “Heroes for Life” in schools and public spaces in San Cristóbal, attempting to whitewash the image of Israel, which systematically murders Palestinian children. We must put a stop to the military personnel who are part of this terrorist group, who have committed crimes against humanity in Palestine and represent a danger to our children and the population in general. Let them know that war criminals are not welcome in our territories.
Faced with the ongoing genocide and growing popular pressure, some governments have taken significant but insufficient steps. Only the governments of Colombia and Indonesia have proposed the need to form an international army to defend the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, in response to the constant attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla, the governments of Italy and Spain have sent ships for rescue operations, but not to defend the vessels from Israeli aggression.
It is delusional to think that the solution will come from the recognition of the Palestinian Authority, whose legitimacy in the West Bank is dubious given its history of collaboration with the genocidal occupiers, as the authority of a supposed nation-state about which no one consulted the Palestinians. This recognition, by the same European governments that have supported and financed genocide and occupation for decades, and that intend to continue supporting the colonial project of the global oligarchs championed today by Donald Trump to the end, against the will of the peoples they claim to represent, means little if it is not accompanied by economic, political, and military actions against the apartheid regime and the international arms industry that makes it possible.
The struggle of the Palestinian people is the struggle of all peoples who resist colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. We cannot continue to be spectators of this crime: it is time to express our active solidarity, organize ourselves, and fight together.
We demand that the Mexican government sever all ties with the Zionist regime, effectively protect the Mexican delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla from Israeli attacks, and promote an agenda before international bodies that supports the creation of a Palestinian state free from colonialism, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, whose sovereignty is based on the decisions of the Palestinian people. We cannot continue to be complicit in the extermination of an entire people.
Militantly,
Chiapas Solidarity with Palestine Committee
Amnesty International Group 67 Chiapas Mexico
No Estamxs Todxs Working Group
Revolutionary Youth Union of Mexico (UJRM)
Bicicatlán
United for Palestine Collective
Pom Tsunnum Collective
Chiapas Solidarity with Palestine Collective
Stop the genocide in Gaza!
Stop the occupation of Palestine!
Break, break ties with Israel!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will win!
Original text published at Radio Zapatista on September 28th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.
They March in Chiapas Against the Genocide of the Palestinian People.
Thousands of people gathered this Sunday in various municipalities of Chiapas to march for peace in Palestine and to demand an “end to genocide.”
“Our pilgrimage is a gesture of resistance and hope. Today we raise our voices for those who cannot do so, for the innocent who have been silenced by war, and for a world where peace is a reality and not just a desire,” said one of the participants in the pilgrimage organized by the parish of San Pedro, Chenalhó.
According to a statement released by the organizers, the walk concluded with prayers for world peace and a call to the authorities and the international community to end the violence and work for just and lasting solutions in the territories in conflict.
Another pilgrimage took place from the neighborhood of Cuxtitali, where Tsotsil priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez was murdered on October 20, to the temple of Guadalupe, where he was parish priest.
Dressed in white and carrying banners, more than 300 Catholics demanded that Israel end the war against Palestine, where thousands of children, women, and men have been killed.
The pilgrimages were called “urgently” on September 13 by the Diocese of San Cristóbal, headed by Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez.
The diocese reported that the marches took place in more than 20 parishes: Soyatitán, Palenque, Ocosingo, Teopisca, Chenalhó, Las Margaritas, Tumbalá, Socoltenango, La Independencia, Comitán, Las Rosas, San Andrés Larráinzar, and San Cristóbal, among others, with a total attendance of “thousands” of people.
Simultaneously, dozens of people called together by various groups and collectives demonstrated in the Cathedral Square of San Cristóbal for the same reason.
Children, men, and women chanted: “Israel, murderer of children,” “from the river to the sea, Palestine will win,” and “the children in Gaza are not a threat.”
The collectives issued a statement in which they affirmed that “during these two years of incessant genocide, it has become clear that it will be the mobilized peoples, and not the governments at the service of economic power, who will stop the colonial barbarism we are witnessing today across the globe. From Chiapas, we raise our voices for the Palestinian people who continue to resist occupation and genocide.”
After thanking the Diocese of San Cristóbal for organizing these “much-needed” pilgrimages, they denounced “the complicity of governments around the world, including Mexico, which has been unable to break relations with Israel and take a firm stand against barbarism.”
In the statement read by Mario López Pérez in the cathedral at the end of the Mass officiated by the vicar general of the diocese, Víctor Manuel Pérez Hernández, the collectives stated that “the peoples of Chiapas and Palestine share a history of struggle against the dispossession of our territories, systemic violence, and state terrorism.”
They added: “Just as in Palestine, in Chiapas we have thousands of displaced indigenous people who are forced to abandon their lands due to the insecurity caused by organized crime, whose weapons and training, like that of the police and the army, is provided by the Zionist entity of Israel, as part of the strategy of the United States and imperialist powers to keep our peoples in terror and thus sow fear to prevent us from organizing and fighting against inequality and injustice.”
They demanded that the Mexican government “break off all relations with the Zionist regime; effectively protect the Mexican delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla from Israeli attacks; and promote an agenda before international bodies that supports the creation of a Palestinian state free from colonialism, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, whose sovereignty is based on the decisions of the Palestinian people. We cannot continue to be complicit in the extermination of an entire people.”
Original text by Elio Henríquez in La Jornada on September 28th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.