Residents of the municipality of Tila reported that the paramilitary group, “Los Autónoma del Municipio de Tila,” organized and mobilized this Saturday to enter the homes of residents known as legal residents of three communities and the municipal seat, seeking to “disappear or murder” them in revenge for the death of José Pérez Martínez, the Tila communal land commissioner.
On Wednesday, September 10, Pérez Martínez was ambushed on a path leading to the Río Grande community after participating in a meeting with Chol indigenous people from the municipality of Tila, which for years has been mired in a wave of violence over the dispute over control of the municipality.
A few hours after Pérez Martínez’s murder, the Autónoma del Municipio gave the federal, state, and municipal governments 72 hours to find those responsible for the homicide of the commissioner, who had been elected according to customary law, although he is not recognized by the agrarian authorities.
This Saturday, the autonomous groups are preparing to enter three communities and the municipal seat. “They are organizing and mobilizing to enter and remove from their homes the representatives of the legal group from the towns of Cantioc, Unión Juárez, Misijá, and Tila, who are part of the dialogue table where they signed the civility pact, from their homes to disappear and/or murder them.”
Since the murder, the legal group has asserted that they have nothing to do with the ambush. “We, the representatives of the legal group, completely disclaim responsibility for the murder of José Pérez Martínez, since we have always acted legally, always believing in the authorities, the laws, and justice.”
To reinforce their claim, they explain that they have not walked through the area where the ambush occurred for several years because it is under the control of the paramilitary group. “It is the area where the autonomous criminals travel and take refuge,” they assert in a statement signed by “the people of Tila and its annexes.”
“We hold the municipal council of Tila and the leaders of the autonomous group of the Tila ejido responsible for what may happen in the coming hours.”
They know that the autonomous groups intend to evict the widow of the ejido commissioner, whose identity is unknown, from her home “because according to them, she has the money that José Pérez Martínez refused to share among the leaders, and this appears to be the motive for the murder in question.”
On March 13 and 20, in Tila, convened by the Chiapas government, the three main groups vying for political and agrarian control in the municipality—ejidatarios, autonomous groups, and residents—signed a civility pact.
On the 27th of that month, an armed group calling itself the Indigenous Community Front declared that it did not agree with the signing of the pact, claiming it could be “a trap.” “Hopefully, this isn’t a strategy of betrayal on the part of the government, because we have experience that everything the government has done has been pure betrayal.”
In July 2024, between three thousand and seven thousand residents of Tila fled their homes when the autonomous groups launched an offensive in the municipal seat, burning and looting homes and businesses, destroying vehicles, blocking roads, and murdering and disappearing several residents.
In Tila, a municipality bordering Tabasco, there is a dispute over 130 hectares of land occupied by relatives of the municipality’s founders, whom the autonomous groups have sought to expel from the municipal seat to seize their properties.
Source: eluniversal
