Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas, Mexico, November 13, 2025
Joint Statement
- 19 years of impunity for the massacre in Viejo Velasco, municipality of Ocosingo, Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas
Nineteen years after the Viejo Velasco massacre, the Mexican government continues to enjoy total impunity for the forced displacement of 36 people, most of them women and children; the extrajudicial execution of six of them (including a pregnant woman); the illegal deprivation of liberty and torture of a disabled woman, which led to her subsequent death; and two forced disappearances of elderly adults.
Far from justice, this is yet another case of serious violation of the most basic individual and collective human rights, fueled by the lack of institutional response.
The massacre occurred in the small Tseltal and Ch’ol indigenous community of Viejo Velasco, municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas, Lacandon Jungle, when, in a paramilitary operation, around 40 people from the communities of Nueva Palestina, Frontera Corozal, and Lacanjá Chansayab (all part of the so-called “Lacandon Community”) armed with machetes, sticks, shotguns, and rifles, some wearing military-style and public security uniforms, violently entered the community.
According to investigations carried out by CDLI-XI’NICH’, supported by the collective of civil society organizations that then made up the CIVIL OBSERVATION MISSION, the attackers were accompanied and protected by 300 members of the then Chiapas Sector Police, carrying high-powered weapons known as cuerno de chivo: Ar-15 and AK-47. The presence of five prosecutors from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, two experts, the Regional Commander of the Jungle Zone of the then State Investigation Agency with seven officers under his command, and a representative of the former Ministry of Social Development was also documented.
These violent acts led to the forced displacement of 36 people, most of them women and children; the extrajudicial execution of six of them (including a pregnant woman, María Núñez González); the illegal deprivation of liberty and torture of a young disabled woman, Petrona Núñez González, who died in 2010 as a result of the physical and emotional torture to which she was subjected; and four forced disappearances, of which, a year later, at the request of relatives and members of the Civil Mission, the remains of two people were found buried in a location near Viejo Velasco, identified as two of the missing elderly men, Miguel Moreno Montejo and Pedro Núñez Pérez, who were handed over to their relatives four years later.
Nineteen years after this massacre of our Tseltal and Ch’ol indigenous brothers and sisters, justice has not been served. The survivors and relatives of the victims still have no guarantees that they will be able to return nor compensation for the damage done.
Throughout this time, the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) has never conducted a thorough and effective investigation into these events, while the federal government and the CNDH have remained completely silent on the matter, meaning that those responsible for planning the attacks, the political operators, and the perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity.
The FGE never had an investigative plan and years ago ceased its search for Antonio Peñate López and Mariano Pérez Guzmán, elderly men who disappeared during these events. -after securing the release of our indigenous comrade Diego Arcos, an indigenous health promoter- has continued to criminalize five other indigenous comrades who, at the time, provided assistance to the victims of the massacre and who, to this day -19 years later- remain under arrest warrants, accused of murdering their own comrades.
It should be remembered that this bloody and unpunished massacre took place in the context of an intense struggle and resistance, demanding the right to territory and the protection and management of natural resources, by more than 45 indigenous communities settled in the heart of the Lacandon Jungle; The Assembly and residents of Viejo Velasco were a worthy example of this resistance, which was confronted with an aggressive policy of territorial eviction, social dispossession, and privatization of nature by the Mexican state, exercised over these villages located within and on the borders of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, one of the richest areas in our country in terms of biodiversity, water, forest cover, and scenic and tourist appeal, which has made it a coveted prize for companies involved in so-called green capitalism.
On this 19th anniversary of the unpunished massacre of Viejo Velasco, the undersigned organizations, in open support and solidarity with the families of the victims and with the Coordinator of Indigenous Social Organizations CDLI – Xi´inich, remember and commemorate our comrades who were murdered and disappeared in this massacre, reiterating that they live on in our memory and in the collective memory of the peoples who resist and struggle; it is they who push us every day to continue fighting for autonomy, for the defense of our territory, for our Mother Earth, and for Another Justice.
No to the dispossession of our territory and Mother Earth
NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US
Viejo Velasco is not forgotten!
The following organizations have signed in support and solidarity (in alphabetical order):
– Casa de Apoyo a la Mujer Ixim Antsetic A.C.
– Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center A.C. (Frayba)
– Indigenous Rights Center, A.C. (CEDIAC)
– National Committee for the Defense and Conservation of Los Chimalapas
– Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, A.C. (MPS)
– National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All” (Red TDT)
– Health and Community Development A.C. (SADEC)
Original text published by Frayba Centro de Derechos Humanos on November 12, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.