Four people were wounded in an armed clash between rival factions of Tzotzil Maya settlers in the outlying colonia (neighborhood) of Molino de los Arcos in the Chiapas Highland city of San Cristobal Dec. 21. The settlers are originally from the nearby village of San Juan Chamula, but were forced to occupy lands on the outskirts of San Cristobal after being expelled by Chamula's authorities for practicing evangelical Protestantism. One faction in the land conflict was said to be led by the Council of Indigenous Representatives of the Chiapas Highlands (CRIACH), and the other by the National Union of Agricultural Workers (UNTA). Domingo Lopez Angel, director of CRIACH, said the violence began when members of his organization, who had gathered in Los Arcos to build a church, were set upon by a group led by UNTA director Mariano Lopez Cruz, armed with clubs and pistols. Two of the injured received bullet wounds. (La Jornada [1], Dec. 22)
Source archived at Chiapas95 [2]
See also WW4 REPORT #77 [3].
See our last posts on Mexico and the struggle in Chiapas [4].
