Their grandparents participated in the 1974 Indigenous Congress, and their parents in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) uprising. In both movements, they demanded health care, education, and roads. In 2025, Indigenous Tseltal people from a dozen communities located in the Pearl River Basin, in the heart of the Lacandon Jungle, organized themselves again, but their demands remain unheard.
Residents of Amador Hernández, Guanal, Plan de Guadalupe, Ibarra, Candelaria, and Pichucalco, among others, gathered in the latter community. Men, women, and children traveled along jungle paths through mud and rain. Some had to walk up to ten hours.
There are two ways to reach the communities of the Pearl River Basin: one is by walking through the jungle, and the other by small plane, which can cost up to 5 thousand pesos per person, an unaffordable price for those who make a living from growing corn and raising a few cattle. Nearly 15,000 Tsetal people in this region live in isolation.
On Wednesday, September 17th, after months of discussion, they decided to meet in the Pichucalco community to denounce the neglect they have endured since they founded the region more than 80 years ago.
Their grandparents came to the jungle fleeing the farms where they lived as slaves; others came from various states in the country, where they were landless peasants with no future. They founded villages, and over time, some managed to obtain property titles to the jungle land, which was then considered national land; other communities remain defenseless and at risk of being expelled.
The conditions in which they lived in the jungle in the 1960s were extremely precarious, so in 1974, convened by Bishop Samuel Ruiz García, they participated in the Indigenous Congress to demand land, trade, education, and healthcare. At the time, the government listened but did not address their demands.
Then they reorganized, and in 1994, as part of the EZLN, this region participated in the armed uprising to demand, as they had 20 years before, healthcare, education, roads for trade, jobs, justice, democracy, and peace.
50 and 30 years have passed since the first and second time they denounced their living conditions; this September, they gathered again in the town of Pichucalco to denounce the continued lack of care.
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In Pichucalco, there is a room made of planks of wood and a sheet metal roof. Inside, there is a scale, a wooden table, and some half-empty shelves containing some medications, some of which are already expired. A midwife and a health promoter, both Indigenous, care for the community. There are no doctors, and vaccines for newborns and children have not arrived for more than three years. A child arrives with a severe wound on his hand. They only cleaned the wound and placed a cloth over it to prevent infection. Nothing more can be done. The health promoter and the midwife recount that a newborn died last April, and they were unable to do anything but save the mother.
In the region, until seven years ago, residents could contact the Ministry of Health by radio, and in emergencies, the government would send an air ambulance to transport the most seriously ill patients. During the last six-year term, this service was suspended, as were the transfer of vaccines and medical personnel. In short, the more than one thousand residents of Pichucalco lack health services; a situation similar to that seen in the rest of the region’s communities.
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In the Perla River Basin, there are around 5,000 school-age children. The communities decided to build classrooms and desks. They moved to the state capital and arranged for school enrollment. Formally, they exist, but what they lack are teachers.
Initially, educational authorities hired young people from the same community and created a program called the Intercultural Community Education Plan (PECI). Through this program, they paid 800 pesos a month to each literate youth to teach literacy to children in their community; however, they stopped paying them.
Then, arguing that no teachers wanted to come to these villages, they began hiring temporary teachers, whom they pay sporadically, and who arrive sporadically. This school year, no teachers have come to the area. The children were literally left waiting for the start of the current school year.
There are also young people in the region who would like to study middle school, high school, and university. “Some parents have left their children in San Cristóbal, in Chalco. Why? Why aren’t there schools?” explains Mrs. Lilia Gómez, from the Pichucalco Ejido. They are already young migrants.
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Having access roads could facilitate the arrival of doctors and teachers, but that’s not available in the region surrounded by the Perla River. Through their efforts, the Tseltal people built a hammock bridge called Cristalino. But every rainy season, it collapses. The region is then cut off, as it is today.
During the last election, candidates for municipal president arrived in the area. There, the Tseltal people made them sign a voting commitment in exchange for “a 17-kilometer road (plus 360 meters from the Pichucalco to the Candelaria ejido) stretch.”
This road would allow communication with several other villages and facilitate the arrival of doctors and teachers.
Angélica Méndez, the current municipal president, signed the commitment. As an Indigenous Tseltal woman from the region, “we believed in her commitment, we believed that because she is a woman and because she is from the area, she would understand our needs,” said one of the residents.
They went to vote for her in the 2024 elections. Currently, the mayor no longer answers calls, “and when we go to Ocosingo to see her, they tell us she’s not there.”
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What the inhabitants of the Pearl River Basin experience is repeated in many of the Cañadas and subregions of the Jungle. From the air, this place looks like a paradise filled with rivers, lagoons, and trees up to 50 meters tall. The villages can be seen far apart.
Back on the ground, the wooden houses are immaculate, the few kitchen utensils hang around the hearth, and the floors, even the dirt ones, are clean. In each community, there is a church with saints and virgins dressed in indigenous fashion.
The women stand out for their shiny braids and their skirts and blouses adorned with colorful ribbons. When they walk for hours through the jungle, their clothes don’t get dirty; only their feet wade through the thick mud. But upon reaching their destination, the first thing they do is look for a stream to clean themselves.
The Tseltal population is known for two things: their good nature, kindness, hospitality, and order. and for its organizational capacity. This place is the birthplace of movements that have shaken the state and the country. The population is patient, but this September, they realized that they have had to wait for many years.
Original article by Ángeles Mariscal, Chiapas Paralelo, September 18, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.