Members of a documentation caravan reported acts of harassment in communities in Chilón that oppose the highway project in Chiapas: “From the Documentation Caravan for the San Cristóbal de las Casas-Palenque Highway Project, we support the struggle of the human rights defenders who oppose the highway project and denounce the fact that in recent weeks, communities in the municipality of Chilón have experienced an increase in direct threats and harassment against human rights defenders, seeking confrontation,” warned the civil organizations, collectives, and human rights defenders participating in the Documentation Caravan for the SCLC-Palenque Highway Project in Chiapas.
They documented that on May 29 of this year, a group of people attempted to prevent them from putting up signs expressing their total rejection of the highway. Furthermore, communities that have rejected the highway through assemblies and formal agreements “are now being harassed by unidentified drones. They monitor and intimidate people who are organizing to defend their territory and are being sought out by members of the municipal and state police, as well as actors linked to these networks.”
They reiterate that for many people in the communities, this project offers no benefit whatsoever, “since from the outset, the state and federal governments have violated the right to information, simulated consultations, and invaded plots of land to conduct soil studies and topographic surveys with engineers who, without the communities’ consent, secretly enter their plots to extract resources and take samples from the land.” These actions have caused damage and losses to the coffee plantations and cornfields that constitute the main source of income for families, laments the Caravan, supported by more than 250 organizations and individuals, in its second statement.
Soure: educaoaxaca
