Mexico City. Hundreds of inhabitants of the community of La Esperanza (in the municipality of Chenalho, Chiapas state), abandoned their homes this Tuesday, due to the fact that members of the armed group of Los Herrera fired weapons at the town.
“There are approximately 800 people, mostly children and women, who have been displaced from La Esperanza for fear of being attacked,” they said. They clarify that at the moment no injuries have been reported.
“Since 5 o’clock in the morning they started shooting bullets; the people saw that about 200 armed people dressed in green and wearing skull masks came in; until 11 o’clock in the morning they were still shooting bullets,” they added.
“They are shooting directly against the community and towards other points such as Acteal Alto,” they said. They added that some of the displaced are heading to the municipal capital of Chenalhó, others to other communities and some to the mountains.
They reminded that La Esperanza borders the municipality of Pantelhó, headquarters of the group Los Herrera, which since July 2021 has been disputing political power with the self-defense groups El Machete, one of whose factions controls the municipality through a municipal council.
Along with Chicomuselo and Capitán Luis A. Vidal, Pantelhó is one of the three municipalities in which extraordinary elections have been scheduled for August 25, since they were suspended last June 2 due to the violence.
Original article published in La Jornada on July 30th, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.