2021

January 1: the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) releases a statement entitled “Part One: A DECLARATION … FOR LIFE” in which it informs that with the support of hundreds of organizations, artists, writers, intellectuals and people from more than 30 countries, they agreed to fight for humanity in the five continents.

January 7: National Migration Institute (INM) agents in the city of Tapachula report that they had temporarily suspended their service for receiving documents from migrants, due to the lack of secure conditions.

January 21: The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center denounces that “members of the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO) have attacked the community of Moisés Gandhi.”

January 27: representatives of the Tseltal Maya people of the municipality of Chilon report that they filed a claim for protection for the construction of a National Guard Headquarters in their territory.

February 3: several civil organizations and groups adhering to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the Support Bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN) from Nuevo San Gregorio denounce the presence of an invading group in the community’s farm lands.

February 6: A march is organized to demand the protection of wetlands in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

February 15: members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and residents of Ocosingo publish an urgent action in which they denounce the arbitrary and unjust detention of Fernando Espinoza Perez and Baldemar Espinoza Perez, members of the CNI.

February 18: The organization Agua y Vida: mujeres, derechos y ambiente presents the document “Megaprojects, Extractivisms and Socio-Environmental Conflicts in Chiapas, Mexico” where it emphasizes that women community defenders face violence that puts at risk their organizational forms, community projects and their own lives.

March 1: organizations, groups and networks adhering to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle present a report to denounce the attacks, threats and harassment against the support bases of Nuevo San Gregorio.

March 3: the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) announces the installation of Civil Observation Brigades (BRICO) in Nuevo San Gregorio with the aim of “monitoring human rights violations in a context of generalized violence”.

March 15: the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) publishes a statement entitled “STOP PARAMILITARY VIOLENCE IN SAN ANTONIO BULUJIB, CHILON, CHIAPAS”.

March 15: The organization “Water and Life: Women, Rights and environment” publishes the “Women’s Pronouncement against Oil Palm Monocultures”.

March 22: the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) denounces that attacks with firearms persist in Aldama.

March 29: elements of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) kill the Guatemalan Elvin Mazariegos Perez, when he was returning to Guatemala after buying merchandise in Mexico.

April 10: Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés explains how the Zapatistas’ trip to Europe will take place next summer.

April 13: Two members of the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) are kidnapped while they were traveling to the city of Palenque.

April 14: after 40 hours of detention, the two human rights defenders, members of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba), are released.

April 16: Zoque, Tseltal and Tsotsil representatives of agrarian groups of Chiapas declare themselves against the “Highway of Cultures” and other megaprojects.

April 26: the EZLN maritime commission begins its “Voyage for Life-Europe Chapter”.

April 27: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) grants precautionary measures in favor of the Tsotsil indigenous families living in 12 communities in the municipality of Aldama.

April 28: the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal, reports that due to the lack of conditions for their safety, six displaced families suspended their return to their Los Chorros community, Chenalho municipality.

April 28: the Collective for the Observation and Monitoring of Human Rights in Southeast Mexico denounces that INM and officials harass Migrant Defenders.

May 2: different neighborhood organizations, human rights groups and priests of the diocese hold a march/pilgrimage in San Cristobal de Las Casas in defense of the wetlands.

May 2: the Zapatista delegation called Squadron 421, made up of four women, two men and one “other”, set sail for Europe.

May 5: the agrarian dispute for the possession of thousands of hectares of land in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza leaves a balance of at least two dead.

May 8: the Permanent Commission of the 115 Community Members and Displaced Persons of Magdalena Aldama reports the death of Pedro Lunez Perez from gunshots while he was at home in the community of Coco, municipality of Aldama.

May 18: the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office detains 95 students from the Mactumactza Normal Rural School.

May 20: six displaced families, part of the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas de Acteal, return to their place of origin, Rio Jordan, Colonia Miguel Utrilla, Los Chorros, in the municipality of Chenalho

May 21: The 14 people who will occupy positions in the new Community Government Council in the municipality of Chilón are presented.

May 23: the 74 women students from the Mactumactza Normal Rural School arrested on May 18th leave El Amate prison, in the municipality of Cintalapa. Their release was conditional and they will continue their trial in freedom.

May 24: the bodies of three murdered men are found in the Nuevo Soyatitan ejido, Venustiano Carranza municipality.

May 25: a state judge decrees preventive detention against 17 student teachers from Mactumatza and two displaced people from Chenalho, accused of the crimes of rioting and gang activity among others.

May 27: seven male councilors and one female councilor of the new community government are appointed in the municipality of Sitala.

May 30: Hundreds of residents of Chicomuselo march in the municipal capital to demand respect for the territories threatened by mining companies.

June 6: Violent election day.

June 13: Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) announce that “non-existent” or “simulated” operations were identified for more than 500 million pesos by the Government of Chiapas during the mandate of Manuel Velasco Coello.

June 15: Zapatistas denounce “obstacles” to get passports; AMLO requests redress.

June 20: “Squadron 421” arrives at Vigo, Spain, after 47 days crossing the Atlantic.

June 25: the Collective for the Observation and Monitoring of Human Rights in Southeast Mexico (COMDHSE) expresses its concern about acts of torture against the migrant and refugee population at the Siglo XXI Migration Center.

July 5: the human rights defender and member of the Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society Organization, Simon Pedro Perez Lopez, is shot dead in Simojovel.

July 6: Alarming Femicidal Violence – Two Women and a Minor Murdered in Tapachula

July 10: national and international civil society organizations carry out a human rights observation mission in the municipality of Chenalho, to document the situation of part of the 3,205 people who are displaced after the violence that escalated in the municipalities of Pantelho and the outskirts of Chenalho.

July 11: 42-year-old Italian volunteer, Michele Colosio, cyclist, agroecologist, farmer and radiologist, is murdered in San Cristobal de Las Casas.

July 14: the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) announces the arrest of Hugo Rolando “N”, allegedly responsible for the murder of the human rights defender, Simon Pedro Perez Lopez.

July 18: in the San Jose Buenavista Tercero community, in Pantelho, around three thousand Tseltal and Tsotsil inhabitants of 86 communities in this municipality express their support for “El Machete” Self-Defense Forces.

July 23: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) calls for participation in the referendum on August 1st to enable the creation of a commission for truth and justice for the victims.

July 26: Inhabitants of Pantelho search and burn homes of people presumably linked to Organized Crime.

August 3: the first round of dialogue is held between representatives of the 86 indigenous communities and 18 neighborhoods of Pantelho and state and federal authorities.

August 10: Gregorio Pérez Gómez, Indigenous Justice Prosecutor in Chiapas, is murdered. He was in charge of the Pantelho investigation.

August 24: Thousands of Haitians stuck in Tapachula demand facilitation of migration process.

August 31: The Electoral Court of the State of Chiapas declares null and void the municipal elections of San Cristobal de Las Casas and Comalapa due to different irregularities in the electoral processes.

September 7: the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas expresses its concern about the situation of violence that continues to exist in different communities where it is present. It mentions in particular the case of Father Marcelo Perez Perez who, due to his work as a defender of the human rights of indigenous peoples, has been the victim of death threats, defamations and attacks.

September 11: EZLN Squad 421 returns to Mexico after four months in Europe.

September 14: the AJMAQ Resistance and Rebellion Network denounces that since September 11th, members of the Regional Organization of Coffee Growers of Ocosingo (ORCAO), retained two members of the Good Governance Council (JBG) Patria Nueva, municipality of Ocosingo.

September 15: a group of people sets fire to the Altamirano mayor’s office and burned a patrol car of the municipal police

September 15: Armed Group from Chenalho murders EZLN member.

September 19: Chiapas on Verge of Civil War declares EZLN.

September 29: More displacement in Pantelho due to increase in violence.

October 7: Group of armed people in Altamirano, prevents the taking of protest of the elected candidate Gabriela Roque Tipacamú.

October 12: Dayli de los Santos Herrera Gutiérrez, identified as the alleged intellectual author of the murder of the indigenous justice prosecutor on August 10, is arrested in the Ejido Independencia, municipality of La Concordia.

October 14: Tseltal community defenders of Chilón demand an end to the criminalization they face for defending their territory against militarization.

October 14: the state delegation of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) reports on the seizure of an arsenal in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa.

October 15: Civil Society organizations demand that the aggressions against the migrant shelter “Casa Betania Santa Martha” in Salto de Agua, Chiapas, stop.

October 23: the migrant caravan “for dignity, freedom and peace” begins in the municipality of Tapachula, Chiapas.

October 28: two Haitian migrant women are murdered in Suchiate and Tapachula. Four policemen are detained and are under investigation.

October 28: the journalist and columnist Fredy Lopez Arevalo is shot dead on the street where he lived in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

October 31: the National Guard shoots and kills a Cuban migrant in Pijijiapan, Chiapas

November 7: Jesus Solorzano Diaz, a member of the Carranza Region Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ-RC) is murdered.

November 9: the State Congress of Chiapas challenges the constitutional PRD mayor of Pantelho, Raquel Trujillo Morales, at the request of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE)

November 11: a group of ambassadors and representatives of the European Union visits Chiapas. Members of civil society as well as human rights organizations and journalists expose the main problems of the state.

November 21: Armed Attack by Tsotsiles in Esquipulas Guayabal.

November 27: the organization Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society receives the Mariano Abarca award in recognition of their peaceful struggle in defense of the land, territory and life.

December 2: the Good Government Council of Caracol 10, Patria Nueva denounces, through a statement, new harrasments of Nuevo San Gregorio community.

December 3: five members of the independent Chupactic water system are detained by residents of the lower part of Molino de los Arcos neighborhood, who illegally inhabit the Reserve in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

December 9: a terrible accident on the Chiapa de Corzo-Tuxtla Gutierrez highway section leaves at least 53 dead and more than 50 injured, all of them migrants from Central America, mostly Guatemalans.

December 15: The elections thru indigenous forms of governance are suspended in Oxchuc due to violent confrontation.

December 20: a march is held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas to demand justice for the femicide of Dr. Daniela Toledo.

December 22: the 24^th anniversary of the Massacre of 45 members of the Acteal community is conmemorated.

December 23: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requests from the Mexican State to be able to “make a visit in situ in order to know the situation of the Precautionary Measures implemented in the municipalities of Aldama, Chalchihuitan and Chenalho.”