Mexico City.- Residents of Motozintla who were forced by organized crime to march “for peace” were attacked with bullets on the Nuevo Amatenango highway, which unofficially left at least two dead.
“We are arriving at Nuevo Amatenango, but now they really came out to confront us, it is no longer possible, we are going back, all the people are fleeing,” says one resident, according to a video posted on social media.
Since yesterday, community members reported that they were called by criminals to gather at one of the entrances to that town to demand peace and then march to Frontera Comalapa, however, on their way they found another protest in which an armed group was going, which unleashed a shootout. Users on social networks accused that it was an ambush by another criminal antagonistic to the one who organized the mobilization.
In WhatsApp groups, residents said they had received threats from the “Sinaloa Cartel” for attending the demonstration, or “they would be punished.”
The violent incident caused hundreds of residents to stampede along the highway to the Amatenango de la Frontera municipality, some 20 kilometers away. As people were desperate to flee, dozens of cars were abandoned on the road due to the bottleneck formed by the demonstration. Local sources reported two people dead as a result of the armed attacks, however, so far no authority has spoken out about these events. Some residents managed to reach Amatenango, however, they found a series of blockades organized by criminal cells, according to security sources. After these events, Motozintla was paralyzed in its commercial activities and the municipal capital looks like a ghost town. Public transportation was also suspended. Residents complained that the violent events were reported even with the military presence in that region. The situation of violence spread since yesterday to Chicomuselo, Comalapa, Jaltenango, La Concordia and other regions of Chiapas, where armed confrontations were reported until last night. In the area, there are also reports of a desperate search for food and gasoline. A caravan of hundreds of displaced people managed to leave Chicomuselo towards Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Comitán. Last night, several of these residents spent the night in La Concordia and this morning they crossed the cable-stayed bridge on foot, recently inaugurated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to flee towards the center of the State.
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