In the back seat of a luxury van, an African lion looks out the right window at the streets of San Juan Chamula. The driver of the vehicle listens to El Comando Suicida del Mayo, and shows the list of narcocorridos waiting to be played. The scene, which seems to be taken from a TV drama, is real. It is part of the emerging culture in this Tsotsil municipality, along with indigenous homemade pornography and the songs of Los Cárteles de San Juan…
By: R. Aída Hernández Castillo* Last June 14, heavily armed indigenous youth took over the popular market of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, and maintained control of the northern zone of the city for more than three hours, stealing, burning vehicles and terrorizing the population, without the various security forces doing anything to stop them. The press and the social networks explain these actions as the confrontation between several criminal groups over control of the market, mentioning the Motonetos, the Vans and the San Juan Chamula cartel as some of the groups confronted in these fights over territorial control. …
