Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. – In the municipality of Frontera Comalapa, “they are experiencing a critical situation of violence, which places the population in a climate of fear and terror, and which includes situations of intimidation, harassment and ongoing threats that place the life and integrity of the population in general, and particularly of human rights defenders in the region, at serious risk,” warned civil human rights organizations.
In an urgent action sent to the government, the Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes” (Red TDT) points out that for the last 15 days, direct witnesses report that one of the criminal groups is going house to house, neighborhood by neighborhood to warn that everyone has been recruited to attend the meetings.
“In these meetings, the groups are organized for blockades and other actions. If they do not attend, there are threats, extortion, property seizures, forced displacement, physical punishment and murder.”
They state that on Wednesday, September 4, the confrontations intensified on the outskirts of Frontera Comalapa, with continuous gunfire and shouts being heard in the urban center. Since then “the population has been sheltered in their homes, without the possibility of leaving, confined by organized crime, since all entrances and exits are blocked, there is no access to basic foodstuffs, and scarcity of the little they manage to get. There is no access to basic services, such as health and public education.”
The next day, the situation escalated. “Members of organized crime groups went house to house forcibly recruiting all the young men of the municipal capital, including minors. The whereabouts of all of them are unknown, which represents a massive disappearance of people.”
According to the report of the organizations, “the Mexican Army remains in the area without acting, there is no authority to stop the violence that is becoming increasingly critical,” so that “the civilian population of Frontera Comalapa is a victim of the actions of both armed groups, both the one that directly controls their municipality and the one that is advancing.”
The organizations, among them the Mesa de Coordinación Transfronteriza Migraciones y Género. Guatemala-Mexico (MTMG), the Colectivo de monitoreo-Frontera Sur and the Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos Todos los Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes (Red TDT), state that in the area “there is no access to basic food and there is a shortage of the little they manage to get. There is no access to basic services, such as health and public education.”
Therefore, they made a new urgent appeal due to the critical situation of violence in Frontera Comalapa. They point out that since August 25 they have been warning about the increase in armed confrontations between organized crime groups that dispute the territory of the highlands and the border of Chiapas, specifically in the vicinity of the municipal capital of Chicomuselo.
“That day, in the Reforma neighborhood, municipality of Bejucal de Ocampo, an armed group killed between 5 and 10 civilians. At the time of this urgent action, the same occurred in the ejidos Emiliano Zapata and San José las Chicharras, municipality of Bellavista, as well as in Frontera Comalapa.”
In their urgent action, the organizations ask federal and state authorities to “build a humanitarian corridor that guarantees the exit of the civilian population held captive by organized crime groups, in order to safeguard the life and physical and psychological integrity of the neighborhoods, ejidos and communities of Frontera Comalapa and neighboring municipalities to avoid events that are difficult to redress” and “implement actions to provide comprehensive care to the civilian population fleeing the extreme violence.”
Likewise, it requests, “to implement routes of investigation and dismantling of the armed groups” and “to guarantee the life and physical integrity of the civilian population that is besieged by the attacks and confrontations in the area”.
The two largest criminal organizations in the country have been fighting for three years for territory in the municipalities of the highlands, border and frailesca regions, which has led to the murder of an undetermined number of people, disappearances, burning of vehicles, massive displacement of families, road blockades and the charging of “derechos de piso” (land rights).
In this context, since last Tuesday, the elected mayor of Frontera Comalapa, Aníbal Roblero Castillo, of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), who was deprived of his freedom in Tuxtla Gutiérrez by an armed group, has been missing.
Original article by Gabriela Coutiño published on September 6th, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.