A new armed group of women and men who identified themselves as former members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced today their appearance in the municipality of Chenalhó, in support of the El Machete self-defense forces of Pantelhó; they declared themselves willing to confront “the hitmen of the criminal group Los Herrera.”
“We are former Zapatista compas; we have come to support you, to defend the right to life so that there may be peace in our beautiful municipality of Chenalhó,” said the group of about 30 people who wear dark uniforms and cover their faces with balaclavas, in a video posted on the internet.
In the statement read by a woman, they say: “We see that this war has no end, we are witnesses of what they have committed, there are many murders, ambushes and death threats against innocent people.”
“It pains us to see the suffering and situation of our brothers from La Esperanza and Centro Tzanembolom who are today out of their homes and displaced in Chenalhó; women, men, children and the elderly have left their homes, animals and all their belongings; they are getting sick and do not have much food.”
They claim that “the wave of violence of these criminal groups increasingly affects the population of Chenalhó. The three levels of government have done nothing about it; they have not acted against them, the criminal group Los Herrera and Fracción Tzanembolom.
“A lot of time has passed. They have not acted against them. They have already killed many innocent people this year and in previous years and they continue to kill more people. And justice has not been done for the bloodshed. We do not want another massacre like the one in Acteal in 1997.”
This new armed group from Los Altos de Chiapas, appears two days after a video was released in which alleged gunmen from “Los Herrera” tortured and cut off the head with a machete of a member of the El Machete self-defense forces.
They claim that “those from the Tzanembolom Fraction were and have been paramilitary groups, since that year and today they are doing harm to our municipality; now our population is affected; we cannot live in peace, and we are no longer safe from traveling, bringing our food from our plots because we can be victims of a stray bullet or even be killed because they are blocking roads.”
The new armed group claims that “this criminal group (Los Herrera) claims to be part of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel and they have people hired from other states to kill us all and we will not allow that.”
“A few days ago, they uploaded a video on social media of people from Tzanembolom being tortured; it is clear that these types of people have no mercy and if we allow this, they will continue to do it against all the people.”
They declare: “We are already tired of these crimes, that is why today we organized ourselves and took up arms to support the people of Chenalhó and the El Machete self-defense groups because they are defenders of the people (…) we are not going to allow more murders, death threats and ambushes; we are going to take care of our territory and our people.”
The Herreras and the self-defense group of the El Machete people have been fighting since 2021 for political and economic control of the municipality of Pantelhó, but in recent months they have expanded their operations to communities in the municipality of Chenalhó, where the ambushes have caused the displacement of dozens of families from both neighboring towns.
The “Los Herrera” group maintained control of Pantelhó for two decades, until July 2021, when the self-defense forces of the town of El Machete broke in, one of whose factions now has control through a municipal council. “Los Herrera” accuse “El Machete” of the disappearance of 19 men who were taken from their homes on July 26, 2021 and whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Source: proceso
