{"id":70757,"date":"2021-08-12T22:43:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T03:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=70757"},"modified":"2021-08-12T22:43:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T03:43:53","slug":"70757","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=70757","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The members of \u201cEl Machete\u201d are violating Mexico\u2019s extremely strict gun control laws just like the cartels are. And why are they doing it? Because they have a human right of self defense, even if their government wants to make it nearly impossible for them to legally own a gun.<\/p>\n

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A Mexican Cartel Was Driven Out of Town By Indigenous Vigilantes Called \u2018El Machete\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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PANTELHO, Mexico – As smoke curled from neighboring buildings that had been ransacked and torched the day before, a couple of thousand Indigenous people armed with makeshift weapons gathered around city hall to hear their leaders speak.<\/p>\n

Led by a new self-defense militia called \u201cEl Machete,\u201d the people had descended from their mountain villages on the town center the previous day to expel the collaborators of a criminal gang who they say has terrorized their community for years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As outnumbered state security forces stood by, the attackers raided homes and businesses and tied up 21 suspected gang members.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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At least a dozen buildings\u2014their walls spray painted with the rallying cries of \u201cLong live El Machete\u201d and \u201cNarcos out\u201d\u2014were completely razed, scattering debris across town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe left the homes of the narcos and assassins the same way they left our family members when they killed them or stole their land,\u201d said a young man masked in a camouflage balaclava speaking from the balcony of city hall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ARMED WITH MAKESHIFT WEAPONS GATHERED AROUND CITY HALL TO HEAR THEIR LEADERS SPEAK AFTER THE CONFLICT. (PHOTO: JEFF ERNST\/VICE WORLD NEWS)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was late last month in the town of Pantelho, tucked into the highlands of Mexico\u2019s southernmost state of Chiapas. Three weeks before, a long-standing cold conflict between the area\u2019s majority Indigenous residents and a criminal gang called Los Herrera, who local people say has infiltrated municipal government, suddenly became white hot.<\/p>\n

Centuries of neglect and abuse by local power brokers lie at the root of Chiapas’ cycles of conflict, but the spasm of violence in Pantelho underscores how organized crime has wrapped itself around those age-old struggles. In response to the newest threat, the Indigenous residents took up arms and formed El Machete militia to exact their own justice.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the absence of the state, and with the presence of organized crime, the community was left with no other choice but to form its own self-defense group,\u201d said Father Marcelo P\u00e9rez, a local Indigenous priest and human rights activist.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mexico has a complicated history of\u00a0civilians arming themselves<\/a>\u00a0in the absence of an effective response from state security forces to the violence committed by organized crime. While there have been\u00a0examples of success<\/a>, it has often been fleeting, and the self-defense militias have at times been\u00a0infiltrated<\/a>\u00a0by the same kinds of groups they were created to fight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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El Machete were more likely inspired by the local Indigenous people\u2019s own history of resistance than by self-defense militias<\/a>\u00a0from other parts of the country. The evidence can be seen along the narrow road that cuts through the mountains to Pantelho.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Amid sky-high stalks of corn and coffee fields, the iconic image of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata wearing a traditional sombrero with a pair of bandoliers crossing his chest is printed on signs and buildings. So too are those of Indigenous men and women with rifles strapped over their shoulders.<\/p>\n

Here in Chiapas Indigenous communities began to organize some four decades ago, eventually\u00a0forming the Zapatista Army<\/a> of National Liberation. On January 1, 1994, the Zapatistas declared war on the Mexican state and briefly took control of a number of towns and villages until the military launched a counterattack that pushed the rebels back into the mountains.<\/p>\n

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Over the next few years, paramilitary groups hunted down the Zapatistas, leading to numerous human rights abuses. The worst of those, the massacre of 45 Indigenous people\u2014mostly women and children\u2014on December 22, 1997, took place in the village of Acteal, which borders Pantelho.<\/p>\n

Experts say that over time the paramilitaries have turned to other illicit activities, giving birth to the organized crime groups that have menaced the area ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Pantelho, a group led by the Herrera family emerged from the paramilitaries, and it allegedly has its hands in everything from trafficking drugs and arms to auto theft and land occupation. Residents accuse them of killing at least 200 people in the area over the past two decades.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Although the gang\u2019s patriarch, Austreberto Herrera, was\u00a0arrested on murder charges in 2019<\/a>, residents say that his sons picked up where he left off and the violence continued unabated. Meanwhile, Los Herrera appeared to gain a powerful ally in the town\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n

The convergence of organized crime and local government exploded into view in this past June\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

In the lead up to the vote, Los Herrera carried out a campaign of intimidation on behalf of their allies in the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD as it’s known for its Spanish initials, said Pedro de Jes\u00fas Faro, director of the Center for Human Rights Fray Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas which is in the area\u2019s main city, San Crist\u00f3bal de las Casas. \u201cIf [the people] did not vote for the PRD, they would face serious consequences, even death.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE LOCALS WHO WERE KILLED WITH THE ALLEGED COMPLICITY OF ‘NARCO’ POLITICIANS ARE SPRAY-PAINTED ON THE WALL. (PHOTO: JEFF ERNST\/VICE WORLD NEWS)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The threats were not empty. In early May, Los Herrera allegedly murdered an Indigenous man in his cornfield in order to make an example of him and spread fear, according to residents. VICE World News is reserving the identity of the residents of Pantelho it interviewed because those who have raised their voices in the past have often been killed.<\/p>\n

Within days, armed residents of the village where the man was killed and alleged members of Los Herrera clashed in a shootout. Two of the gang were reportedly killed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Soon afterward, a video started circulating on social media<\/a>\u00a0in which a narrator speaking the dominant Indigenous language Tzotzil says that community members are mobilizing \u201cin defense of the people of Pantelho\u201d against the drug traffickers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The shootout marked a turning point, and the formal beginning of El Machete.<\/p>\n

A month later, the husband of the current mayor was declared the election winner and the persecution of the mayoral couple\u2019s opponents continued. Community leaders delivered a formal complaint on June 26 to the state government.<\/p>\n

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But the brother of a popular priest and a beloved catechist were killed in the first week of July, perhaps in response to the complaint. Indignant, El Machete sprung into action.<\/p>\n

Before dawn on July 7, heavily armed members of El Machete set up blockades along the road that leads to the center of Pantelho, leading to sporadic shootouts between them and members of Los Herrera throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Frightened, confused and scarred by experiences of the past, as many as six thousand residents hastily fled up and over the mountains to shelter in schools and churches in neighboring towns.<\/p>\n

The next morning, state security forces sent to restore order were ambushed by El Machete at one of the blockades.\u00a0Nine military and police officers were wounded in the confrontation<\/a>, and El Machete later retreated, allowing security forces to take control of the town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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STATE FORCES BECAME EMBROILED IN THE CONFLICT WITH SEVERAL WOUNDED BY MEMBER OF EL MACHETE. (JUMBALAM\/VICE WORLD NEWS)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On July 10, the militia members stepped out of the shadows with a\u00a0video statement<\/a>\u00a0to clarify the motives and objectives of their cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went in not to attack the people, but to expel the assassins, the drug traffickers and organized crime,\u201d said a masked representative of El Machete in the video. \u201cWe went in because we don\u2019t want any more deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOnce Pantelho is free of organized crime \u2026 once it\u2019s free of assassins and drug traffickers, we as the defenders of the people will retire because we are not looking for power or money,\u201d added the man, who was flanked by others holding rifles and wearing black hats and t-shirts stamped with the group\u2019s logo, a pair of crossed machetes.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A week later, El Machete orchestrated a show of strength. About 120 fighters, carrying mostly hunting rifles and a few military-grade weapons, stood in formation on a basketball court in the mountainous outskirts of Pantelho, cheered on by a crowd estimated at over 3,000 people – roughly 15 percent of the town\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

It was an impressive demonstration of support given that so many residents had yet to return to their homes after fleeing days earlier or were simply too afraid to come out. \u201cThe self-defense militia is from the people, with the people and for the people,\u201d P\u00e9rez, the local priest, said.<\/p>\n

But not everyone agrees. VICE World News visited Pantelho on July 24 as residents were trickling back home after two weeks without confrontations.<\/p>\n

Along the main road into town, thick tree trunks with wilting leaves, splintered sandbags and corroded wire left from burned tires marked the spots where the militia had set up its earlier roadblocks.<\/p>\n

Down a side road where a bomb made by Los Herrera had exploded lay the charred remains of a vehicle near several homes with ripped off roof tiles and crumbling walls pockmarked by shrapnel. Nails and pieces of rebar lined the street at least a hundred feet in each direction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the town center, storefronts that had been shuttered were reopened and the streets started to show signs of life, but residents appeared to be outnumbered by security forces.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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While Indigenous communities live in the surrounding mountains, the majority of residents in the town center are mestizo\u2014people of mixed European and Indigenous descent.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Opinions about the militia seem to divide largely along ethnic lines. \u201cEvery citizen has the right to claim their rights,\u201d said a 65-year-old mestizo farmer who asked not to be named. \u201cBut [the militia members] are confusing values. They no longer just take things out on the aggressors, but sometimes with the people as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just about everyone appears to agree, however, that organized crime is rooted in Pantelho and won\u2019t be removed without a fight. Rumors started to spread that members of Los Herrera were returning mixed in with the displaced and plotting to take back the town as soon as the security forces inevitably withdrew.<\/p>\n

But El Machete and its thousands of supporters weren\u2019t about to just let that happen. Instead, they decided to expel the gang for good and launched the July 26 raid on their properties.<\/p>\n

The following day, the scene was completely different. Strategic points that had been manned by state security forces were now guarded by El Machete. Only about a hundred police and military remained inside the city center, all of them holed up on the grounds of a school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A MEMBER OF EL MACHETE WATCHES OVER THE TOWN OF PANTELHO. (PHOTO: JUMBALAM\/VICE WORLD NEWS)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The crowd of Indigenous men, women and even children at city hall were determined not to return to their villages until they could be certain that Los Herrera would not come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere there is no security, no peace, no tranquility, only fear, cries, terror, extortions and intimidations, not to mention corruption,\u201d said the El Machete spokesman who addressed the crowd. \u201cFor that reason, on July 26 we entered the town center to take justice into our own hands, to raid the homes of the assassins and narcos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Indigenous people of Pantelho have demanded that authorities annul the local election and recently held an election of their own to choose their own non-partisan leaders.<\/p>\n

But Mexico\u2019s president, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, appears unlikely to be willing to recognize the new authorities, because he has\u00a0expressed skepticism about the Indigenous people\u2019s motivations<\/a>. \u201cEither it\u2019s a question of political maneuvering in the region, control by bosses, or it\u2019s criminals,\u201d he said shortly after El Machete went public.<\/p>\n

But addressing the crowd on July 27, the El Machete spokesman challenged L\u00f3pez Obrador. To the cheers of the crowd, he posed a question.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo the lives of Indigenous people not matter?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The members of \u201cEl Machete\u201d are violating Mexico\u2019s extremely strict gun control laws just like the cartels are. And why are they doing it? Because they have a human right of self defense, even if their government wants to make it nearly impossible for them to legally own a gun. A Mexican Cartel Was Driven … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70758,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70757\/revisions\/70758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}