Last week, Pantelhó was shuttered as organized crime group returned to the municipal seat claiming its motives of “protecting” the population from Los Machetes, a local self-defense group that emerged two years ago.
Fearing an onslaught of violence, residents gather en masse to demand that government authorities intervene to protect them.
Almost three decades later, the municipalities are today once again in the throes of violence, but now with the aggravating factor of the presence of organized crime as new actors. For two decades now, criminal violence has entered the state and progressively taken over the municipalities. Its presence as a political actor in the territories has complicated the performance of electoral processes and public administration, but also undermines the autonomy of indigenous peoples, day by day penetrating deeper.
However, he left a seed of hope, commitment, action and struggle through peaceful means…On July 5, one year after his murder, members of different parishes of the Diocese of San Cristobal and Las Abejas de Acteal held public demonstrations to vindicate the struggle for life and justice through peaceful means.
As the situation in Pantelhó becomes increasingly unclear, the State has issued a warrant for the arrest of Father Marcelo Perez Perez, who has long accompanied the communities in their struggle against organized crime. With this development, solidarity and human rights organizations express their concern for his life and well being.
Last year armed self-defense groups in Pantelhó made their presence public in order to run organized crime out of their municipality. Though residents appointed new councillors, a recently appointed accountant stirred up suspicions with fiscal irregularities.
