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Displaced Indigenous People Face Massacre in Mexico: NGOs
Displaced people from Chalchihuitan, Chiapas, who have been forced from their homes and land by paramilitary gangs. | Photo: Twitter @CdhFrayba
Published 5 January 2018
Displaced indigenous people returning to their homes in Chalchihuitan are going "straight to the slaughterhouse," warn NGOs and civil society groups following the case.
More than 5,000 people from Chalchihuitan in Mexico driven from their homes late last year by fear of paramilitary violence are returning home, where NGOs warn they face a "clear risk of massacre."
The conflict centres on a territorial dispute between the neighoring tzotzil communities of Chalchihuitan and Chenalho. The legal issue started in 1975, when the now-vanished Land Reform Ministry mistakenly gave both communities rights over 350 hectares.
In a letter written to NGOs and civil society groups, the community announced its return to Chalchihuitan on January 2 and blamed the government for not taking appropiate safety measures. People have lost their crops, animals, homes and possessions, they said, and felt compelled to return to address the situation.
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