Three people disappear, shots and 23 houses burned, the terrible balance of an agrarian dispute in San Cristóbal de las Casas

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Dozens of people are sheltering in the mountains, fearing new attacks.

Tzeltal indigenous people from the El Bosque ejido, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, were attacked by about 350 people from the Pedernal Yashtinin ejido, who set fire to 23 houses and two vehicles, in addition to kidnapping one person and reporting three missing and several displaced families.

According to journalistic versions, the events occurred on the morning of Tuesday, December 29, when residents of the Pedernal Yashtinin ejido, many of them with large-caliber firearms, arrived in the El Bosque community, as a result of a dispute over 1,064 hectares.

According to the newspaper Excelsior, the Tzeltal indigenous attacked belong to the Revolutionary Democratic Front of Workers and Peasants (FDROC), who sell gasoline on federal highways in indigenous areas.

Juan Díaz Montejo, spokesman, and leader of the FDROC, reported that the balance of the attack were 23 houses and two cars burned, while Arturo Gómez Núñez, as well as the brothers José and Alejandro Gómez Santiz, are missing.

Also, said Díaz Montejo, a woman has gunshot wounds, while dozens of people, including men, women, children, and the elderly, all indigenous, are refugees in the mountains in fear of another attack, as reported by the weekly Process.

“Since yesterday (Monday) we began to request precautionary measures before the General Secretariat of Government and the State Attorney General’s Office because it was known that they were going to burn the houses; however, unfortunately, there was no intervention, ”said Díaz Montejo.

He explained that although they requested the support of the Directorate of Agrarian Affairs, to resolve the conflict, the authorities have been omitted, for which they demanded the removal of Rafael Arcángel Góngora y Aguilar, head of the directorate.

After the violent events, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said that it started the investigation folder to determine responsibilities for the crimes of damage and deprivation of liberty, against whom or who are responsible.

According to the State Commission for Human Rights (CEDH), in Chiapas, there are at least 115,000 people displaced from their communities since 1994, due to various conflicts.

According to the report on Internal Displacement in Chiapas presented last June, the municipalities with the most cases of displacement are San Cristóbal de Las Casas (5), Huixtán (4), Las Margaritas (4), and Chenalhó (4). However, in the latter, there are more causes of displacement such as armed conflict (1), generalized violence (1), and human rights violations (2).

In Chiapas, the forced displacement of people has several peculiarities such as indigenous composition, marginalization, post-electoral, inter-ethnic and religious social conflicts, land ownerships, development of infrastructure works, and natural disasters.

Source: infobae.com

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