Photo: BARCROFT MEDIA / copyright
The news that would change for the better the life of a small town in Chiapas, in southern Mexico, ended up becoming a nightmare for its neighbors.
At least 22 families of indigenous Tzeltales from the municipality of Ocosingo reported having been forced to leave their homes after receiving threats from a group criminal.
The reason? Refuse to invest in arms the money they had won in the famous draw for the presidential plane of Mexico held last year, as they claim.
“They say the money is for buy weapons and we do not agree, “said one of the spokesmen of the neighbors to local media during a recent protest.
The” Calvary “, as as they define it, it began when the preschool José María Morelos y Pavón in the town acquired the number 4344899 for the draw that put into play the equivalent of the cost of the luxurious aircraft that the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has tried to sell without success for years.
The 11 September 2020, his “little piece” was the winner of 20 million pesos (about US $ 950. 000) and the neighbors received the news with great joy.
However, they say that shortly after made public that they had been winners, they began to receive threats from a local armed group called Los Petules to buy them weapons with the prize won.
High-caliber weapons
In March, parents and Mothers of the school started works to improve the building with part of the money. The rest, they planned to invest in works to improve the living conditions of the town.
But they denounce that the threats rose in tone and that even one of them was injured by bullets from men sent by the armed group to agree to his claim.
They affirm that the objective of Los Petules is to attack groups from a nearby community and keep hectares of land. When threatened neighbors refused to buy weapons, they claim that armed men expelled them from their homes.
“We left our community due to threats with firearms from high caliber ”, one of his spokesmen, Melecio López, told BBC Mundo.
A group of 28 families of the El Nacimiento community reported that a month ago they left their homes in fear that the armed group known as “Los Petules” would kill them https://t.co/th5SZKTiIl
– El Universal (@El_Universal_Mx) November 22, 2021
As reported by the newspaper El Universal, Los Petules were accused about d efforts by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) to attack their bases in the area.
Complaints to authorities
The residents filed a complaint with the Chiapas Indigenous Prosecutor’s Office and the Secretariat of State government, but they assure that there has been no progress to solve the situation.
BBC Mundo contacted both institutions and they responded that they were unable to provide information on the case, although the Secretariat confirmed that it was aware of what happened after the neighborhood complaint.
Threats and attacks were on the rise, residents say, which forced last month to that at least 28 families had to flee the village to save their lives.
“We lost more than 250 head of cattle, houses, refrigerators, crops of corn, beans and farmyard animals and they took away our bank card losing the right to all government benefits, “said neighbor Marcelo Santiz to the EFE Agency.
The displaced say that until the group is disarmed they will not be able to return to their homes. They have been away from their homes for a month in different places in the area and fear that they could be located.
Therefore, they ask the Chiapas authorities and President López Obrador for help, the main promoter of the lottery draw that they won and ended up turning into a nightmare.
The problems of the draw
The The presidential plane raffle was an idea by López Obrador to get rid of the aircraft used by his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, and identified by his government as one of the greatest symbols of luxury and waste of previous Executives.
However, given the innumerable obstacles involved in delivering an aircraft of these characteristics to a citizen, finally it was decided to raffle the equivalent in money to the current value of the aircraft: 250 prizes of 20 million pesos each one.
- Why the raffle for Mexico’s luxurious presidential plane will not allow the government to get rid of it (and why some call it “propaganda” for AMLO)
- Its past as a test model and 3 other reasons that make it so difficult to sell or raffle the presidential plane of Mexico
Also the solidarity purpose of the raffle gave a lot to talk about. The proceeds from the sale of tickets were going to be used to buy medical equipment for hospitals but, given the lower-than-expected sales rate, the government decided to buy about a million tickets to distribute among medical centers.
That is, the government spent its own money to that hospitals could opt for a prize -funded, on the other hand, also with resources from the Executive-, instead of directing that amount directly to the health sector and not making it depend on chance.
After the symbolic draw, the Mexican presidential plane continues to cause maintenance costs while waiting to find a buyer, something that is hampered by all the modifications that the aircraft suffered to include luxurious details in its interior.
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