Two families who adhere to the indigenous organization Las Abejas have fled their homes in the hamlet of Tzanembolom, Chenalhó municipality, following threats from local followers of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state. The families, totalling 16 individuals, have taken refuge in the hamlet of Acteal—ironically, the scene of the Decmeber 1997 massacre in which 45 Las Abejas followers were killed by a PRI paramilitary group. The Tzanembolom Abejas were accused of breaking accords signed with the PRI-dominated community (presumably over land use), which they, in turn, say they had signed under coercion. (La Jornada [2], May 13)
Elsewhere in Chiapas, armed men attacked a rural property beloning to followers of the Casa del Pueblo, a campesino group in Venustiano Carranza municipality. Casa del Pueblo, an organ of the Emiliano Zapara Campesino Organization (OCEZ [3]), said the attackers burned a truck and fired on homes with AR-15 rifles in the night raid May 11 at Rancho La Garnacha, Pujiltic hamlet. (ibid)
See our last posts on Mexico and the Chiapas conflict [4], and Acteal [5].
