Different Faces of Dispossession: San Marcos Avilés

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What happened in San Marcos Avilés?

San Marcos Avilés is an indigenous Tseltal community in the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, founded after the Zapatista insurgency of 1994. At that time, all of the residents were sympathizers of the autonomous project, although with the passage of time, several of them stopped supporting that movement, leaving a group made up of Support Bases for the Zapatista National Liberation Army (BAEZLN).

In 2010, the BAEZLN agreed to build an Autonomous School for their children. However, disagreement from a group belonging to the Mexican Green Party (PVEM), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN) provoked harassment towards the Zapatistas. In September of the same year, these threats were so severe that they caused the displacement of the community for more than a month in their efforts to avoid being attacked. In October…