Since the EZLN uprising in 1994, the Mexican state’s strategy has been to militarize the region. Currently, there are 3,484 National Guard troops in Chiapas. Ten coordinated barracks have been built in eight regions for the purposes of migratory and territorial containment, as well as organizational processes.
On October 15, 2020, the Tseltal Maya people of Chilón peacefully demonstrated against the construction of a National Guard barracks on their territory, located in northern Chiapas. In the morning, around 300 members of the Municipal Police, the Chiapas State Police, and the National Guard repressed the peaceful protest at the point known as Crucero Temó, on the Ocosingo-Palenque highway.
During the operation, the Tseltal community defenders César and José Luis were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, followed by torture and ill-treatment; 11 more people were injured. Two and a half hours after their detention, they were presented before the Ocosingo Public Prosecutor’s Office, accused of rioting. In the early morning of October 17, César and José Luis were transferred from CERSS No. 16 in Ocosingo to CERSS No. 14 in El Amate in Cintalapa, without prior notification to the defense.
On November 1, after being illegally detained, tortured, and subjected to prosecution, they were released on bail, limited to signing in at the courthouse every two weeks, and restricted from traveling beyond the municipalities of Chilón and Ocosingo.
On March 22, 2021, the Judge of the Judicial Branch of the State of Chiapas dismissed the arguments of human rights violations and torture, admitting evidence obtained through human rights violations. The Public Prosecutor’s Office maintained that the injuries suffered by César and José Luis were self-inflicted.
Both human rights defenders are subject to an unfair criminal proceeding that criminalizes the defense of life, framed within the strategy of militarization of Indigenous Peoples’ territories.
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