Mexico: Dispossession of indigenous lands, Chiapas

About 271 families have been legally dispossessed of their lands. Out of these families, at least 70 families are currently at risk of being forcibly evicted from their lands in the municipality of Chilon (autonomous municipality of Olga Isabel), Chiapas state. Due to irregular procedures promoted by the Organization in Defence of the Indigenous and Peasant Rights (OPDDIC) conniving with local, state and federal authorities, the legal and legitimate rights of these families to their lands have been disregarded. The families in question currently face an eviction process. The legal dispossession and the potential forced eviction represent serious threats to the land tenure security of these families and heavily endanger the enjoyment of their rights to adequate food and housing.

Please send letters to the Third Agrarian Tribunal in Tuxtla Gutierrez requesting the definitive suspension of the eviction. Please send copies of your letter to the President of Mexico and to the Centre of Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research (CAPISE).