Inhabitants of Lacanja Chansayab, of the Lacandona ethnic group, were analyzing measures to continue developing tourism activities.
On February 8, the governor of Chiapas, Eduardo Ramírez Aguila, visited the municipality of Palenque, one of the gateways for tourism to the Lacandon Jungle. After this meeting, in which the importance of security conditions for the development of this activity was raised, inhabitants of the Lacanjá Chansayab community called an assembly held on Thursday, February 12, in which a person they believe to be the leader of an organized crime group assaulted the community members and warned them that they should not allow police operations to enter.
According to the testimony of the community members of Lacanjá Chansayab -a community that is one of the most important tourist centers of the Lacandona because it is located 14 kilometers from the archeological zone of Bonampak-, in the assembly they were discussing the actions that should be taken to favor the arrival of tourists during the upcoming vacation season.
“Then they said in the Assembly: Well, how can we promote tourism after all that has happened? The Governor asks that we, as Lacandones, to work calmly. But in this situation, the first thing is security, to be asking for security, is to be saying we don’t want organized crime.”
The community members of the Lacandon ethnic group recalled that in the last three years this place and others in the region have suffered the impact of organized crime groups, one of the facts that has been documented is that of airplanes leaving drugs in two clandestine airstrips on the community’s land and one in the archaeological zone of Bonampak.
Also the opposition to the arrival of elements of the Mexican Marines and Navy , as well as personnel from the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA), to the zone.
During last Wednesday’s assembly, attended by approximately 149 community members, the attendees denounced that when discussing security issues, “they said that they want the public forces to enter so that the organized crime that is operating here is no longer here, we no longer want it.”
Then a group of villagers communicated by radio with a person they know as “El Cabra”, also from the Lacandon ethnic group, and who they say is the leader of the traffickers, who arrived at the place where the assembly was being held, in pickup trucks, accompanied by armed people from the Guatemalan Petén.
“He (El Cabra) interrupted the assembly and grabbed those who were protesting. He grabbed them and told them, ‘here I command, the authorities do not govern, I am the one who is in charge. Therefore, what I say is what is going to be done, and on my orders, not the governor’s orders.
“They began to say that we all have to say that there is no organized crime here, that we are going to work on his orders, and whoever wants to work has to get in line with the organized crime that El Cabra manages,” they explained.
They explained that the community members tried to oppose the threats. “We can’t even rent our cabins (built to house tourists), we can’t even work because he wants to force us into submission. No, no, we don’t want that anymore. We have been subjugated for more than two years now and they want to charge us for extortion fees,” they said.
At that moment, the armed men accompanying “El Cabra” fired shots into the air, so most of the community members escaped from the place where the assembly was being held; nonetheless, they said that the armed group wounded and beat six Lacandon community members.
The people who denounced the aggression explained that the assembly was suspended. They asked to spread the word about what is happening in their community, “El Cabra is in control, because the Municipal Agent (of Lacanjá Chansayab), the Commissariat, those of the Vigilance Council, the rural police, are part of them. And that is why the people have no one to ask for help, they know that if they ask for help they will pick you up and take you to the tablear.”
According to the complaint, “El Cabra,” in addition to drug trafficking, controls public transportation to the community; members of his criminal group prevent any tourist activity from taking place without his participation, consent and supervision.
The residents asked the authorities to intervene. “We can’t take it anymore, we can’t go on like this, with crime controlling everything,” they said.
Original article by Ángeles Mariscal in Chiapas Paralelo on February 14th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.