By: Alejandro Reyes
Since early this year the authorities of the zapatista communities in resistance have been denouncing increasingly serious aggressions and threats by the paramilitary organization Opddic ("Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights"). Land invasions, threats of violence, shots to the air, destruction of corn fields and property, theft of crops, beatings, detentions, and kidnappings have become an everyday source of terror that affects hundreds of indigenous families in Chiapas. Even worse: according to the autonomous authorities, all of this is done with the support and complicity of the state and federal governments, the police, and the armed forces.