2023-04-22 06:33:07
Elio Henríquez/La Jornada/San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chis. – Twenty-five organizations headed by the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), expressed their “deep concern about the increase and excessive violence of armed groups in San Cristóbal”, where “it is evident that factual powers use them through actions of terror, to control the population and strategic territory for the legal and illegal economies of organized crime”.
In a joint statement, they stated that “it is clear that the security strategy implemented by the Mexican State in all its levels of government has not resolved the problem, but rather has generated a spiral of greater violence, which is why it is necessary to generate alternatives from society.” with a vision of building lasting peace”.
They added that “in San Cristóbal, clientele organizations have proliferated that irregularly administer markets, public transportation, the sale of occupied land, and other legal and illegal economic activities.”
They recalled that after the assassination of Jerónimo Ruiz, one of the leaders of the Association of Traditional Market Tenants of Chiapas (Almetrach), which occurred on the 17th of this month, violence in the city increased. “For more than 8 hours, people with high-caliber weapons detonated bursts of shots at various points, burned at least three houses and killed two other people, in addition to spreading various threats and rumors on social networks.”
They affirmed that “the climate of violence caused terror among the population, which led to the fact that in the afternoon of that day and the following day schools of all levels suspended classes, various businesses closed and a high percentage of inhabitants took refuge in their homes.” .
The groups, among them, Services and Advisory for Peace (Serapaz), the Commission for Support of Community Unity and Reconciliation (Coreco), Economic and Social Development of Indigenous Mexicans, (DESMI) and the National Network of Civil Organizations of Human Rights All Rights for All, they assured that “despite the constant interpellations to the Mexican State for the current crisis of violence in Chiapas, there has been no effective response.”
On the contrary, they added, “there are various signs of collusion, minimization, or inaction, which increase the risk and defenselessness for the victims and society in general, particularly girls, boys, adolescents, women, older adults, indigenous peoples, defenders of human rights and journalists”.
They stressed: “It is clear that the security strategy implemented by the Mexican State in all its levels of government has not resolved the problem, but rather has generated a spiral of greater violence, for which reason it is necessary to generate alternatives from society with a vision of lasting peace building.
They maintained that “in recent years the link of some of these organizations with state officials and organized crime has been evident, since they are in charge of controlling the trafficking and sale of drugs, high caliber weapons, trafficking in people, the exploitation of wood and stone materials, car theft, pornography, etc. These organizations have used high caliber weapons to impose themselves by increasing violence and collusion between companies, organized crime and politicians”.
This phenomenon, they added, “is part of a well-known current dispute between drug cartels in the territory of Chiapas, increasing the risk for the inhabitants and human rights defenders in the region.
After calling on the population “to build, from our different realities, life alternatives that represent a barrier to violence in our different territories,” they considered that “it is still possible to walk and weave an alternative world because in Chiapas there are processes references, especially in the original peoples who for more than 500 years have struggled to maintain and strengthen the good life from social, spiritual harmony and relationship with the territory.
They recognized “the plurality of our state, which, far from fueling intolerance, represents great potential to devise, from different thoughts, alternatives for peace where girls, boys and adolescents can dream of a future of life.”
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