The Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca arrested the mayor of San Pedro Ocotepec Mixe and seven members of his council for their alleged responsibility in various violent events, which have left at least 16 people dead due to an agrarian conflict with the neighboring community of San Juan Juquila Mixe.
For this reason, residents of San Pedro Ocotepec formed a general assembly of citizens and called on Governor Salomón Jara Cruz and the state attorney general, Bernardo Rodríguez Alamilla, to release their municipal authorities as soon as possible or they will undertake various actions until the mayor and the members of his council are released. They reported that, since their arrest, they have all been incommunicado.
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed on Thursday afternoon the arrest of the authorities of San Pedro Ocotepec, a municipality located in the Mixe district, in the Sierra Norte region of the state. He reported that the eight detainees are under investigation for crimes committed in that part of the state, which derive from conflicts between neighboring communities.
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During an operation, elements of the State Investigation Agency (AEI), attached to the State Attorney General’s Office, arrested 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 two other people.
The operation was carried out last Wednesday at the Cultural and Convention Center, located in the municipality of Santa Lucía del Camino, in the suburbs of the city of Oaxaca, where the municipal authorities went to register. The detainees were placed at the disposal of the corresponding Ministerial authority, for crimes against acts of investigation, public security activities and the State, as well as crimes against authority.
These investigations are regarding various criminal acts derived from the agrarian conflict between San Pedro Ocotepec and San Juan Juquila Mixe, which from 2017 to January 2025 there is a record of the opening of 14 investigation files for homicide, among which there are 16 deceased people (14 men and 2 women).
This dispute began in September 1975, when the issuance of a Presidential Resolution determined that 47,977 hectares of communal lands were granted to San Juan Juquila Mixe, which generated discontent among the residents of Ocotepec.
Following an armed attack in January 2017, at least 350 people from the Guadalupe Victoria agency were displaced and were then housed in the municipality of San Juan Juquila Mixe.
In July 2022, the murder of Crispín Reyes, a human rights defender from San Juan Juquila Mixes, who was a representative of 128 displaced families from the Guadalupe Victoria agency, was recorded.
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As part of the background, the Prosecutor’s Office specified that, in October 2022, in the place known as El Basurero, an armed attack occurred in which four people identified as Agustín R.M., who was a councilor of San Pedro Ocotepec, also Joel M.V., Iván M.O. and Miguel R.T., all of them originally from San Pedro Ocotepec, died.
In August 2024, on the border of San Pedro Ocotepec with San Juan Juquila Mixes, another armed attack occurred in which three people lost their lives and one more was injured.
The last of the criminal acts being investigated by the Oaxaca Prosecutor’s Office occurred on January 1, 2025, in the Paraje Río Zapote, in the Municipal Agency of Guadalupe Victoria, where a man and his daughter were killed, who were attacked with gunshots when they were on their plot.
In a statement addressed to the public, the General Assembly of Citizens of San Pedro Ocotepec Mixe demanded the immediate release of its municipal authorities and denounced that they were detained without respecting their human rights and for administrative violations of resistance to private individuals, while other crimes were being fabricated against them.
He accused the Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca of “becoming subservient to fulfill the whims of Governor Salomón Jara Cruz, in criminalizing our municipal authorities, since until yesterday evening, Thursday, January 9, the Attorney General refused to receive documents to appoint legal defenders for our authorities, for an adequate defense.”
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According to the citizens’ assembly, since the arrest of their municipal authorities until yesterday evening, Thursday, January 9, they have been isolated and incommunicado.
The assembly called on the Organizations for the Defense of Indigenous Rights, the Human Rights Ombudsman of the People of Oaxaca and the National Human Rights Commission to intervene immediately and prevent their authorities from being criminalized and their human rights from being violated.
The General Assembly of Citizens denounced that the municipal authorities of San Pedro Ocotepec detained by the Attorney General’s Office “are people of integrity and high honorability in their community.”
“The assembly has entrusted them with generating dialogue processes for the pacification and reconstruction of community fabrics. We are sure that they have not committed any crime as the Attorney General’s Office has announced to the media,” they said.
They accused that none of the detainees have had access to an interpreter or a lawyer to defend them.
Source: oem
