Mexico: At Least 3 Killed in Indigenous Community in Chiapas

In 1997 the area saw the killing of 45 Indigenous people by paramilitaries, including pregnant women and children, in the Acteal community in Chiapas, Mexico. | Photo: Reuters

For decades Oxchuc in the Mexican state of Chiapas has been the epicenter of a land conflict where paramilitares attack local Indigenous communities.

At least three people were killed in the local Indigenous community of Oxchuc, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, after clashes broke out between supporters of the town’s mayor María Gloria Sanchez Gomez and supporters of former mayor Oscar Gomez Lopez, government officials and locals said Thursday.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that the clashes took place Wednesday and injured at least 14 people, the Associated Press reported Thursday, while the local Human Rights Center Fray Bartolome de las Casas, known as Frayba, put the number of those injured at 17

The violence in the area is nothing new as various social organizations as well as the local church authorities have for years denounced the existence of paramilitary armed groups.

Frayba, which promotes Indigenous human rights in Chiapas, also said that 20 people have gone missing after the clashes.

The group said that during the clashes the municipality “had to evict girls, boys and teachers from schools, as well as patients, medical and nursing staff from a local hospital, which indicates a situation that violates the security and integrity of women, girls and children” in the local Indigenous community.

The clashes seemed to have continued through Thursday, according to Frayba, which added that residents suggested that the armed groups were not locals, heavily armed and trained. No police or government forces were present at the scene at the time of the clashes.

While the state government later said that its forces had secured the area, the villagers warmed that in the next few days the town will be “invaded by an armed civilian group, and the women and children will be terrified," according to the human rights group.

Oxchuc is the scene of post-electoral conflicts since 2015 between the current mayor, a member of a political party, and elected Indigenous leaders through the traditional methods of these communities, which is recognized by the Mexican state.

The area has always been at the center of a land conflict between the local Indigenous community and paramilitary groups. Over the past two decades, 5,000 Indigenous people have been displaced in Oxchuc and surrounding areas.

In 1997 paramilitaries killed 45 Indigenous people, including pregnant women and children, in the nearby Acteal community.