San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico – The number of dead in a land dispute among Indians in the southern state of Chiapas rose to three on Tuesday, officials said, while a human rights group put the figure at 14.
The state attorney general’s office announced on Monday that in the confrontation the opposing groups beat and hurled stones at each other, but some resorted to gunfire which killed two people and wounded two others, one of whom later died.
During the wait for the state government of Chiapas to release an official report on the matter, Fray Bartolome of the Las Casas Human Rights Center said that 14 people had died in the clash.
The center, which has close ties to the Roman Catholic archdiocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, said that the dead included six men, six women and two children, basing its figures on residents’ reports.
The confrontation took place on Monday in the Lacandona Forest when a group of Lacandon Indians demanded the return of a piece of land known as Viejo Velasco, that had been occupied by residents of the Nueva Palestina community.
According to the center, a group of Indians of the Lacanja Tzeltal community, which is near the site of the clash, said that the two groups who engaged in the violence each were holding several injured hostages from among their rivals.
“They are running the risk that that if the wounded from Nueva Palestina die, they will kill the injured hostages from Viejo Velasco,” the institution said.
The agrarian conflict in the Lacandona Forest dates back more than 30 years when the Mexican government turned over 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) to the Lacandon tribe, which consists of less than 1,000 members, but denied land to more than 40 communities populated by other indigenous groups. EFE
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