The Mexican state of Chiapas became famous throughout the world with the armed uprising in 1994 of the Zapatista Army of Subcomandante Marcos. Almost 30 years later, human rights defenders denounce an increase in criminal violence with the complicity of the State. And to talk to us about this reality, Rosa Rodríguez, who has been a member of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center for 25 years, is making a stopover in Paris today.
“Weapons have increased throughout the territory. Today there are territories that are isolated by armed groups where they are shooting day and night,” denounces Rosa Rodríguez, who has just finished a tour of northern Spain and Paris to talk about the disastrous situation of violence in your State.
‘Chiapas. A disaster between criminal violence and the complicity of the State’ is the title of the report that has just been published from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center. ANDIn it they denounce the violence of the armed groups, but also that counterinsurgency and the complicity of the Mexican State, which has been increasing in recent years.
“Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a speech that seems who lives elsewhere. He says that torture no longer exists in Mexico and we document cases of torture on a daily basis, he says that human rights organizations should not exist because the Mexican State does not violate human rights and yet, it is something we have on a daily basis. I think that the situation is getting out of hand for her because of the permissibility towards the armed groups,” explains the human rights activist.
Rosa Rodríguez assures that the situation is worse now than a few years ago due to the increase in organized crime. “It’s not just drugs anymore, it’s also human trafficking, extortion and control of territories. For them, migrants are merchandise, they we found that there are many disappearances of migrants,” he says, and it is that Chiapas is a transit point for migrants from southern Mexico who try to reach the United States border.
Thousands displaced by organized crime
According to data from the report, there have been 16,755 displaced people in Chiapas since 2010, data that does not include recent displacements, since in recent weeks, 3,000 people had to leave their homes.
“Now we very clearly have a territorial dispute, between these cartels that are seeking to gain ground. On May 22, a group entered the municipality of Frontera Comalapa, which is next to Guatemala. They told us that they had entered to recruit men, they took some and said that there were around 60 dead and 3,000 displaced due to this situation,” he tells us.
We took the opportunity to ask him about Subcomandante Marcos, who since leaving the EZLN spokesman almost 10 years ago, in 2014, has not given much news. “He continues to work on strengthening autonomy for indigenous communities,” concludes Rosa Rodríguez.
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A program coordinated by Florence Valdesdirected by Souheil Khedir, Jérémy Boucher and Jérémy Besset.
