Against a backdrop of wars across the globe, increased militarization of Mexico and Chiapas, insecurity and a growing number of attacks on indigenous communities in resistance and activists, the National Indigenous calls for global action on October 12th against militarization and patriarchal war.
In the Altos of Chiapas, a crisis continues to unfold – an ongoing saga of a dispute between the municipalities of Aldama and Chenalhó. The deepening of paramilitary influence and power in the region, and particularly, in Santa Marta, Chenalhó, has ravaged the communities of Aldama continuously for over 3 years, aggressions which have left thousands displaced, and several dead or wounded. In the past week, these forces have now turned on families on their home turf of Chenalhó, burning homes and killing several. As the families flee the violence, the conditions of vulnerability remind many of the conditions that …
Chenalhó, Chiapas, the Struggle for Land by Way of Weapons READ MORE »
When discussing the increased violence in Chiapas, it’s helpful to remember that there is a neoliberal effort underway to bring indigenous peoples in southeast Mexico into the capitalist marketplace. The vehicle for bringing this about is a massive infrastructure development plan, originally named the Plan Puebla-Panama and then re-named the Mesoamerica Project.
Chiapas has witnessed a huge growth in the presence of organized crime in recent years, with competing cartels battling for control of routes to traffic drugs and migrants. Collusion between the Armed Forces, organized crime and paramilitary groups is by no means a new phenomenon in Chiapas. This situation is further complicated by the presence of the National Guard, whose control was recently passed to the Secretariat of Defense. The scenario takes on an even more sinister character in the light of recent citizen complaints to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claiming that the Sinaloa Cartel if being protected by the same bodies that are supposed to be fighting organized crime.
Under the current government of the so-called “Fourth Transformation” (4T), the south of Mexico has witnessed the ongoing pillage and plunder of its natural resources, a humanitarian crisis of migrants and refugees, an explosion of violence, organized crime and paramilitary activity, in tandem with the forced displacement and criminalization of individuals and collectives in resistance. In response to this catastrophic panorama, the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Oaxacan Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT), together with other collectives in Mexico and abroad, announces the “International Caravan and Encounter The South Resists”, to be held from April 25th to May 7th .
