SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico – One Indian was killed and another was seriously wounded in a gunshot attack in a tourist zone of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, while 17 foreign tourists were briefly stranded in that area due to a road blockade, officials said.
The attack came amid a dispute between inhabitants of the small indigenous community of Bachajon and supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN, the Chiapas state government said, adding that the two sides have been battling for control over a sand-extraction business and a tollbooth on the road to the Agua Azul waterfalls, a local tourist attraction.
Bachajon Commissioner Francisco Guzman said Thursday that a group of peasants in that town had taken control of the tollbooth from the EZLN supporters the morning before.
The Zapatista partisans returned Wednesday afternoon with guns and began firing, leaving “one person named Marcos Moreno Garcia dead and Tomas Perez de Ara wounded.”
Guzman said the conflict dates back to 2002 and that authorities were asked to intervene on Wednesday after the opposing side knocked down trees and blocked the road to Agua Azul, where the group of tourists were apparently trapped.
A few hours later, the Chiapas state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that state and federal police entered the area to ensure the tourists – who were reportedly unharmed – could safely exit the area.
Police removed the roadblock during the operation and arrested 116 indigenous EZLN supporters as part of their investigation into the armed attack, the state AG’s office said.
Chiapas, one of Mexico’s poorest states, has a large Indian population, and many indigenous people supported an uprising staged nearly 20 years ago by the EZLN.
The overwhelmingly Indian Zapatistas launched an armed rebellion on Jan. 1, 1994, the military phase of which lasted only a few days.
EZLN supporters in hundreds of communities in Chiapas have declared themselves to be in “rebellion” and refuse to pay taxes and utility bills. EFE
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