Municipal officials from San Pedro Ocotepec Mixe were arrested for alleged links to at least 20 homicides and for the probable perpetrators of the land dispossession and forced displacement of more than 100 families in the last five years.
The arrest was carried out by elements of the State Investigation Agency, attached to the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Oaxaca (FGEO) during the registration of municipal authorities that took place this Wednesday at the Cultural and Convention Center of the metropolitan area of Oaxaca, reported the security agencies.
In addition to the municipal president Marciano Montes Ortiz, the Trustee, José Carmona Montes; the Councilor for Works, Violeta José Juárez; the municipal secretary, Héctor Montes Antonio; the municipal treasurer, Benjamín Martínez Rosales and other employees of the community nestled in the Sierra Mixe were also arrested.
Among the crimes that are unofficially charged to these newly elected authorities is the murder of a farmer and his daughter on January 1, 2025 in the Guadalupe Victoria municipal agency, an area that has been facing an agrarian conflict since at least 2017, and whose historical balance includes attacks, threats, injuries and the operation of alleged paramilitary groups also in the community of Juquila Mixes, confirmed security authorities.
According to data from the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) published on its website, since 2013 the region has been a conflict zone due to the extraction of wood and the control and management of natural resources.
Source: eluniversal
