Murder of Father Marcelo Pérez comes amid surge of violence as cartels battle for control of strategic state thousands of mourners packed the town center of San Andrés Larráinzar in Mexico’s mountainous southern state of Chiapas They had come to bid farewell to a beloved priest known as a peacemaker in a region racked by violence revealed the bandaged head of Father Marcelo Pérez who was shot and killed while leaving mass in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas early on Sunday “He didn’t just see the injustices towards the poor he denounced them,” said the bishop Raúl Vera in Tuesday’s funeral mass Pérez was a rare leader willing to speak against those responsible for abuses of the state’s Indigenous communities he led a massive march to the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez to demand peace Father Marcelo Pérez in San Cristóbal de Las Casas Photograph: Gabriela Sanabria/Reuters“Amidst everything happening in Chiapas it’s a blow to the struggles for peace and community organization,” said Jorge Santiago a theologian and adviser to the San Cristóbal diocese Pérez is the first priest in recent history to be killed in the San Cristóbal diocese San Cristóbal was the epicenter of the Zapatista uprising in 1994 when thousands of masked Indigenous insurgents seized the city on New Year’s Day inspired in part by the liberation theology taught by local priests and led by the Zapatista National Liberation Army resulted in the largest land redistribution in Chiapas’s history returning 250,000 hectares of land to Indigenous people But in the following years, the Mexican state funded paramilitary groups who launched a string of bloody reprisals against Zapatista communities and allies. On 22 December 1997, dozens of people from a pacifist religious community were slaughtered while at prayer in the village of Acteal recalled that Pérez visited the community every month on the 22nd to commemorate the victims Parishioners surround the coffin with the body of priest Marcelo Pérez on Monday Photograph: Gabriela Sanabria/Reuters“They killed him because he was an obstacle because what they want is to intimidate us,” said Vásquez Luna the bloodletting has only escalated in Chiapas whose location on the Guatemala border makes it a strategic territory for trafficking migrants Under former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador Chiapas become yet another battleground for Mexico’s two most powerful organized crime factions the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel which brought with them high-calibre weapons and new levels of aggression Entire villages were displaced, and more than 1,000 people have been forcibly disappeared in the last nine months. So fierce has the conflict become that earlier this year around 500 people fled across the border to find safety in Guatemala reversing a historic flow of migration north they say: ‘You’re experiencing what we went through 20 years ago,’” said Jose Luis Vizares vicar of the Diocese’s justice and peace office Pérez intervened in conflicts that the authorities avoided a former mayor of the municipality of Bochil recalled the priest’s intervention after a murder in 2021 “The prosecutor’s office couldn’t enter to recover the body The father talked his way into the community and gave that person a holy burial,” he said Parishioners react as they attend the burial of Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez Photograph: Gabriela Sanabria/ReutersPérez knew that his work made him enemies he requested protection from the Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation The organization documented near-constant threats: men on motorcycles followed the priest around; the brakes and tires on his car were tampered with he faced persecution from state authorities seeking to discredit his work Prosecutors accused him of close ties to an Indigenous self-defense militia accused of forcibly disappearing 21 people during a conflict with an organized crime faction An arrest warrant for him was issued but never executed The Inter-American Human Rights Commission ordered the Mexican government to protect the priest After he was about to drive away after mass on Sunday a man walked up to his car window and shot him The federal government announced the deployment of 200 extra troops to Chiapas and a suspect in the murder was arrested on Tuesday the crowd pressed into the churchyard to bid a final goodbye They weeped and tossed confetti and flower petals onto the casket and as the coffin was lowered into the earth “Today we’re planting the body of Father Marcelo is paying his success forward by helping one of his former employees make her dream of owning a restaurant come true and her brother-in-law Elliot have three food trucks and Lupe was head chef at Funky Fresh Spring Rolls credits Lupe with helping him grow his business to where it is now McGee's spring rolls are now sold in the frozen food section of select grocery stores in Wisconsin Even though there was a little language barrier she was able to take our recipes and elevate them to such a higher level," McGee said As Lupe worked to help elevate Funky Fresh Spring Rolls she and her family embarked on opening three food trucks of their own She then set her sights on a dine-in restaurant she found a former restaurant closing its doors and thought it would be the perfect home for Los Tuxtla named after her family's hometown in Mexico Watch: Paying it Forward: Owner of Funky Fresh Spring Rolls paying his success forward Combining her culinary skills with those of her husband and brother-in-law Lupe wanted to reach an even broader audience He considered it an honor to help the person who had played such a significant role in his success 'Can you help us make videos to promote the restaurant?' I was happy to do it because she was such a huge part of our success and it wouldn’t have happened—literally—without Lupe," McGee said McGee believes that when successful entrepreneurs share their knowledge with those following in their footsteps and Funky Fresh Spring Rolls are sold in the frozen food section of Woodman’s and Outpost Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more. Report a typo or error Report a typo The following new temple presidents and matrons have been called to serve by the First Presidency They will begin their service in September Hernan Isaias Herrera Carmona and Rosa Safira Marin Palominos de Herrera called as president and matron of the Santiago Chile Temple President Herrera is a ward Sunday School president and a former Area Seventy A retired Church Educational System coordinator to Orlando Isaias Herrera Velasquez and Lila Alfonsa Carmona de Herrera Sister Herrera is a seminary teacher and a former mission president companion ward Young Women president and ward Relief Society presidency counselor to Ernesto Marin Zamorano and Rosa Marina Palominos de Marin Heber Cineo López Fuentes and María Teresa Salazar Chang de López called as president and matron of the Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mexico Temple succeeding President Moisés Ulloa and Sister Rosby Cruz de Ulloa President and Sister López are welfare and self-reliance specialists and temple ordinance workers A self-employed certified public accountant to Benjamin López Serna and Angela de Jesus Fuentes de López Sister López is a former stake Relief Society president to Arturo Salazar Jimenez and Consuelo Vda Veracruz has declared a state of emergency in 13 municipalities after heavy rain flooded homes and roads in the southern part of the state The Coatzacoalcos river overflowed its banks in the municipalities of Hidalgotitlán and Jesús Carranza while the Tecolapan river overflowed in Saltabarranca affecting towns in the municipalities of Jesús Carranza In the municipalities of San Andrés and Santiago Tuxtla hundreds of families lost everything when their homes flooded while owners of restaurants and stores in Catemaco reported severe losses State and local authorities continue to work to repair the damage and offer relief to victims State Civil Protection officials warned that if rains continue the emergency declaration could well expand to five more municipalities With the official declaration of emergency the affected municipalities have access to funds from a state disaster relief fund Source: Milenio (sp) ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC Titanium mining is threatening communities’ ecological stability and disrupting collective decision-making practices in Chiapas Truthout combats corporate power by bringing you trustworthy, independent news. Join our mission by making a donation now – whatever you can spare will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a matching grant! a farmer in the fertile region of Los Cacaos in Chiapas how innocently he used to walk over the area’s silvery blue rocks “I can remember those metals in the river ever since I was a child,” he told Truthout Now those same rocks have become highly sought after and the Chinese mining company Honour Up Trading is seeking to gain control of large swaths of land in Villatoro’s community to exploit one of the biggest seams of titanium in Mexico “We’ve already had open-pit titanium mining here [in 2009] Now they want to build the tunnel and leave us living on land resembling an eggshell,” he said “That would be the end of our shared land.” “I can remember those metals in the river ever since I was a child; we would kick them around on the paths unaware that it was titanium,” said Alberto Villatoro a farmer in the Los Cacaos region in Chiapas Mexico’s government gave the green light for titanium mining to occur below 500 of the 530 hectares that make up the Los Cacaos community via underground tunnels stretching from the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range up to the upper section of the town Villatoro and his neighbors in Los Cacaos express acute fears about the potential environmental effects of Honour Up Trading’s plans because it is a very wet area,” Villatoro told Truthout He believes that local leaders “were tricked into signing off on the exploration process” by the mining company But none of that went any further than just talk.” The status of Soconusco as one of the wettest areas of Mexico makes it a very important region with a complex hydrological network containing many permanent rivers The company even went so far as distributing food to gain the support of the community “They give the authorities a bit of money and they trick the people with a food store “I honestly have no need for a food store; I grow my cacao and my coffee … They are affecting our harvest Residents of Los Cacaos are also alarmed about the prospect of increased titanium mining due to its damaging health effects According to data from the REMA organization stomach and testicular cancer are five times higher than average in the Acacoyagua municipality where Los Cacaos is located and where two titanium mines are in operation Some of the cancer cases have occurred in children The increased pollution of the waters in Los Cacaos could affect many other communities as well because the abundant water from that region supplies other communities in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range Children from the community of Los Cacaos have skin problems which residents say result from people bathing in local rivers contaminated by mine pollution The Undermining of Los Cacaos’ Democratic Process It is one of the distinctive agrarian hubs that still remain as a result of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 “An ejido is a communion of between 100 and 200 people who equitably possess a part of land,” explained Villatoro There is a commission that represents everyone The commission ensures that what is decided in the assembly actually takes place.” Villatoro said there were irregularities in the convening of the assembly and the formation of the agreement in which the mining project was approved “They did not meet the requirements of the Agrarian Law,” he said “There were not enough signatures of ejido members that are legally registered on the national agrarian register and this means those that signed are falling into an irregularity.” Furthermore the authorities said that the mining would last for one year When they brought along the signed agreement The ejido authorities had already sold themselves to the company and many people do not speak out due to fear.” a researcher from the Otros Mundos (Other Worlds) civil association told Truthout that “what we are seeing is that the companies have started to use a pattern with communities: dividing them employ all sorts of pressure and extortion This happens with all the extractive projects in the country The contract that grants the El Puntal SA mining group permission to extract minerals from the Los Cacaos ejido stipulates that “the ejido and the beneficiary agree on a payment of 500,000 pesos for the fulfillment of this contract … as well as a bonus of US$5 per ton extracted.” It adds that “plots which contain minerals will have to be negotiated in private with the owner of said plot.” The contract also stipulates that a “pay bonus of US$2 per ton extracted” would be paid to the landowner These sums of money offered on behalf of the exploitation of minerals are far too small to cover the negative impacts of mining the individualized nature of the contracts threatens the very form of organization specific to the ejidos which traditionally make decisions that affect the community as a whole through assemblies Individual negotiations are the reason why communities are divided and internal confrontations are created Dividing communities through the negotiation of individual contracts is a strategy used in most extractive contracts carried out in Mexico An official evaluation published by Mexico’s own Environment and Natural Resources Ministry admitted that the mining project in Los Cacaos threatens a region of high biodiversity and ecological importance but the ministry nevertheless signed off on the project the Environment and Natural History Ministry of Chiapas published its own evaluation of the mining project in September 2014 and issued this damning opinion: “The project entitled ‘casas viejas mining project,’ to be carried out in the Acacoyagua municipality is deemed unfavorable given that the carrying out of said actions would cause irreversible damage to the environment.” Federal authorities ignored this technical evaluation governments have an obligation to guarantee foreign investments or face being sued in the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) where investment disputes between companies and nation-states are resolved “If governments do not guarantee investments they are accused of indirect expropriation,” Soto said Many multinational companies have sued governments because of laws that hinder investments or because the governments withdraw concessions There are studies which show that 60 percent of company lawsuits in the ICSID come from the mining industry.” Governments therefore have to adapt laws within their legal framework in order to facilitate investments 52 percent of land in Mexico was communal property,” Soto added With the package of structural reforms that the government has been promoting the land of indigenous people and farmers is being privatized so that international investments can force their way in.” The El Triunfo community in the Escuintla municipality of Chiapas is facing similar problems as Los Cacaos Honour Up Trading was issued a concession in La Joya which manages and owns the land collectively as an ejido “We had never had problems with cancer in our communities before but now there have been many recorded cases since the mines began operating,” Paula Velázquez “Young pregnant women are now having fetal deformities El Triunfo reserve is home to 10 different types of ecosystems secretary of the ejido committee of the Independencia community in Escuitla “The government gives out the concessions with no concern for the well-being of human beings Independencia’s ejido is arguably the most well organized town in the region The community and its leaders are against mining They have filed complaints on many occasions mainly against the owners of the La Joya mine At least three other mining concessions of a greater size in the same area that border on the La Joya project are The mining concessions form a continuous line along Chiapas’ Sierra Madre mountain range which indicates the existence of a large vein of titanium primarily in the whole strip A huge number of streams and rivers run down along the entire length of the range which are used by the communities to drink “We don’t want them to destroy the Sierra Madre because we have lots of vegetation and water,” Bautista said “We have two streams that will be polluted if mining takes place; lots of disease Women oppose titanium mining in the community of La Independencia The majority of concessions in the state of Chiapas are located in the region’s Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains the Civil Protection Ministry for Integrated Disaster Risk Management in the state of Chiapas evaluated the region surrounding the La Joya mine as being at “high risk” of problems resulting from the mine the concession was awarded to Honour Up Trading by the federal government who is following the process in the region said the mining company used bribery to get members of the El Triunfo ejido to accept the project “The ejido members had reached an assembly decision to safeguard the ejido from mining but the company arrived in late 2014 and offered them $1,000 for each ejido member’s vote A river polluted by the extraction of titanium in the community of La Libertad The Global Imperative Behind Mining in Chiapas The push to increase titanium mining in Chiapas is part of a global response to the demand for titanium created by the increasing popularity of laptops and mobile phones predicted in 2012 that by the year 2020 there would be 50 billion mobile phones connected Manufacturing a single mobile phone requires at least 200 types of metals naval and nuclear engineering industries and is heavily sought after by the United States Mexico is one of five Latin American countries where the presence of the material has been identified Mexico’s Finance Ministry maintains that the country could meet a significant part of the world’s demand for titanium pointing to deposits in the subsoil of Chiapas According to the Mexican government’s Comprehensive Mining Administration System (SIAM) and Infomex 99 mining concessions have been granted by the federal government in the state of Chiapas in 2015 with operating licenses that are valid until 2050 and 2060 The peasant land and indigenous territory granted in concessions totals approximately 1,057,081 hectares the equivalent of 14.2 percent of the state’s area Otros Mundos’ Gustavo Castro Soto said that in addition to these there are also many other hectares still awaiting to be granted in concessions given that there are minerals across the whole state inactive concessions and others that are in force which does not mean they are currently being mined,” he said “We also know that there is a lot of illegal mining The concessions have primarily been awarded to four foreign companies Three of them are Canadian: Linear Gold (now called Brigus Gold) The fourth is the Chinese company most active in Los Cacaos: Honour Up Trading The biodiversity and environmental importance of the Soconusco region in the southwest corner of Chiapas make the threat of mining particularly alarming According to Soconusco’s Regional Development Program six uninterrupted wildlife reserves exist in the area: three state reserves (El Cabildo Amatal El Gancho Murillo and Cordón Pico el Loro-Paxtal) and three federal reserves (La Encrucijada-Volcán mangroves stretch up to 35 meters in height making them the tallest mangroves in North and Central America Studies carried out by the Frontera Sur College (ECOSUR) and the Chiapas State Institute of Ecology and Natural History have confirmed that there are 69 species of mammals and 23 families in eight orders in the reserve located on the strip of mangrove forest along the state’s coastal zone The Cordón Pico el Loro-Paxtal protected area is connected to the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor which is traversed by endangered species such as the jaguar The El Triunfo reserve is home to 10 different types of ecosystems including the globally threatened cloud forest which allows water to return to the Sierra Madre Mountains where one of every three hectares has been awarded in concessions to the mining industry local residents have carried out protests this year in nearly every community against the impacts of mining residents of the Nueva Francia ejido in Escuintla agreed to impede the operations of the El Bambú mining project which is in charge of the Mazapa and El Puntal projects that have been mining titanium for more than eight years various municipalities decided to declare themselves “free from mining” in a community general assembly This mine was stopped temporarily by community protests Close to 300 representatives from the municipalities of Tapachula Cintalapa and Tonalá took that step due to the serious health effects that have become evident in the region “We join ours to the 2,000-plus ‘free from mining’ declarations in the country and to the 80-plus ejido agreements and communal lands Puebla and Chiapas whose inhabitants share the same position of ‘no to mining!'” we are witnessing a terrifying array of anti-democratic tactics to silence political opposition increase surveillance and expand authoritarian reach Truthout is appealing for your support as Trump and his sycophants crack down on political speech Nonprofits like Truthout could be caught in Trump’s crosshairs as he attacks dissenting groups with bad faith lawsuits and targeted harassment of journalists these attacks come at a time when independent journalism is most needed The right-wing corporate takeover of media has left reliable outlets few and far between with even fewer providing their work at no cost to the reader Who will be there to hold the fascists to account We ask for your support as we doggedly pursue justice through our reporting Truthout is funded overwhelmingly by readers like you Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation today Santiago Navarro is an economist, a freelance journalist, photographer and contributor to the Americas Program, Desinformémonos and SubVersiones Renata Bessi is a freelance journalist and contributor the Americas Program and Desinformémonos She has published articles in Brazilian media: The Trecheiro newspaper magazine As Trump and his sycophants work to silence political dissent independent media is a key part of the resistance Support our work by making a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout today Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker A disaster zone was declared for the towns of Angel R Ignacio de la Llave in Veracruz by the occurrence of severe rain and river flooding on the 5th and 6th of July The agency also published a statement in the Official Gazette declaring an emergency in the municipalities of Tlaltizapán and Yautepec also due to severe flooding caused by rain on June 29th The documents state that the declarations are issued so that these entities have access to the resources and funds from the Disaster and Emergency Response Fund. Two cases of dengue fever have been confirmed in Nogales due to the flooding in recent weeks. Unofficial sources report that the rain was about 30 mm so the water was stagnant due to blocked sewers It might have been the gods that ordained musician and artist Alec Dempster to become an ambassador of Mexican culture Dempster introduces himself by saying that in 1971 his pregnant mother climbed the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán Despite yielding to pressure to take up a “proper” career Dempster’s father never gave up on music and several generations are painters The family was in Mexico due to his British father’s career in part because his father hoped to have luck being a musician there The rest of Dempster’s formative years were spent in Canada as he had mementos and photos as well as his own vague memories He began visiting the country during high school visits made all the easier since this godfather is Mexican artist Carlos Pellicer López nephew of the famous Mexican poet Carlos Pellicer Cámara Dempster began his college years studying music at Concordia University but transferred to York because he wanted to study art as well It was an interesting choice because such work is not highly valued in Canada Here he met musicians that specialized in the son jarocho music of Veracruz Son is a folk music style most prevalent in eastern Mexico – Veracruz and parts of Hidalgo The dominant styles are son jarocho (central and southern Veracruz) and son huasteco (northern Veracruz and the other states) indigenous and even African musical styles and are distinguished by their reliance on stringed instruments — no wind Events with this music are often accompanied by fandango and similar dances arriving in time for the annual son jarocho festival He says experiencing son played in context had a great impact on him seeing musicians and dancers coming in from all over town and performing Most son musicians are not full-time professionals but rather farmers and laborers he moved to Santiago Tuxtla and became involved with the musical community there as an artist creating graphic images that are still widely used He even published a lotería (like bingo) game with a son jarocho theme Dempster calls his first 15 years in Mexico a period of intense ethnographic research he did field recordings in the town square of Santiago Tuxtla and other locations to create a set of six CDs He interviewed a series of musicians from 2000-2005 and created 30 portraits he moved to Xalapa in the north of Veracruz working with son jarocho musicians living there Xalapa also put Dempster in touch with Huasteca culture and its style of son music Like many foreign artists who have spent significant time in Mexico the constant need to make money to live on was draining establishing himself as an export in the field there His work resulted in a Canadian grant in 2014 to study son huasteca in Veracruz Dempster returned to Mexico to live in 2016 and currently works in Mexico City where he makes his living as an illustrator and designer for books He is still an important professional son musician proficient in both the jarocho and huasteca styles He can play all the son jarocho instruments he is not what people think of when they hear his music and see (most of) his artwork He is white (not that unusual in central Mexico) meaning that the other musicians generally call him güero (light-skinned) instead of his name Perhaps what really makes him stand apart is the fact that he speaks Spanish with an Anglo accent Some Mexicans have had trouble accepting him and what he does because of it the quality of his work overcomes most doubts Dempster has had great success in building bridges and directing attention to this relatively unknown cultural phenomenon He has published books about Mexico and son music in Canada and Mexico and his story has been covered in the media of both countries as well as in the United States His unique background allows him to be a kind of “cultural translator,” taking something unheard of and making it understandable He believes it is important to promote under-appreciated art forms to a wider audience to work against monoculturalism Dempster’s most recent effort has been a collaboration with the film Fandango at the Wall, a documentary by Grammy award winners Arturo O’Farrill and Kabir Sehgal which will be released soon Much of Dempster’s work can be seen here. Leigh Thelmadatter’s culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily