In commemoration of our 30th anniversary, we decided to sit down with people who have encountered SIPAZ along the way. One of them is Jorge Santiago Santiago, a renowned human rights defender, theologian, and pastoral advisor in Chiapas.
In recent years, due to its geographical location connecting the north with the south of the American continent, Chiapas has become a territory disputed by different criminal groups, which has led to an alarming increase in violence in the state to which the entire population is vulnerable.
The International Service for Peace (SIPAZ) regrets the murder of Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez that occurred on October 20 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. According to preliminary reports, he was shot four times by unknown persons on a motorcycle while he was heading to the Guadalupe temple, after celebrating mass in the Cuxtitali neighborhood in this same city.
In April 2024, at the facilities of the Institute of Intercultural Studies and Research C.A., a change of direction of the organization was made. Ernesto Martin Guerrero Zavala left office and Gerardo Torres Estrada took over as the new director.
For some years now, various human rights organizations and groups of searching families have been documenting and denouncing the crisis of disappearances in Mexico. In 2023, people spoke with surprise about the alarming figure that had been reached: 100 thousand missing people; today there are more than 116 thousand.
In January, the report “Voting Under Fire: Understanding Political-Criminal Violence in Mexico” was presented, which documents that in 2023 there were 574 incidents of political-criminal violence. 264 of them were against public officials or candidates for elected office, says Data Civica, the consulting firm behind the report.
In August, the Forum “Spinning Alternatives with the Children of Chiapas” was held in San Cristobal de Las Casas, convened by Melel Xojobal, the Network for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (REDIAS) and Slamalil Kinal.
In June, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) recognized that during his government recorded homicides have exceeded those of previous administrations. In 2019, 34,690 murders were recorded, in 2020, 34,554, in 2021, 33,308 and in 2022, 30,968, while in the first quarter of 2023 there were 9,912, an average of 83 per day.