Chimalapas territory conflict

The Mexican government has repeatedly tried to classify it that way, but due to the adamant refusal of indigenous communities in the area this has not succeeded.

Then on March 24, 1687, the priest Domingo Pintado paid twenty-five thousand pesos in gold to the Crown of Spain for the lands of Santa María (the Chimalapas were then one community), which existed of 900.000 hectares.

Then he resold this back to the Zoque people, arguing that by not getting robbed of their land they had to pay gourds filled with gold.

Because of this project the Zoques of the Chimalapas asked the president Jose Joaquin Herrera in 1850 for the ratification of the colonial title, which was granted.

[1] With the agrarian revolution of 1910–1915 and the consequent change in legislation, the Zoque were again forced to seek recognition of their lands, which became invaded by farms in the north and west.

Furthermore, from 1980 to 1989, the entire eastern part of the Chimalapas became violently colonized by indigenous Tzeltal and Tzotzil people from Chiapas, which made the territorial issue even more complex.

The laborers and workers who joined the villagers in this struggle then asked for admission to the community and for the foundation of five communal congregations in the east of the Chimalapas.

[1] The official recognition of the Zoque territory of the Chimalapas was achieved only in 1967, when President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz divided the original community into Santa María and San Miguel, which together formed about 594.000 ha.

[1][5] In order to stop the conflicts the Zoque communities of the Chimalapas determined in 1991 that most ejidatarios of Chiapas are as indigenous and poor as them and that they were both victim of deception and manipulation by the government.

[5] This conflict exploded violently in April 1998 when 22 settlers who were cutting down trees of the jungle were stopped by an indigenous committee and taken to prison in Santa María.

Then, in May of that year, the Community Assembly of Santa Maria decided to delimit its boundaries with Cuauhtémoc on the ground “with the government or without it”, which again put up the risk of violence.

[5] The Oaxacan governor Gabino Cué has met the presidents of the communal land of Santa María and San Miguel Chimalapa, iterating that he wanted to find ways to resolve the problems they have with the states of Veracruz and Chiapas.

[8] Around the same time the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines Guerrero, publicly announced the creation of a new municipality in Chimalapas: Belisario Domínguez, which is now the basis of one of the most intense conflicts in the area.

On February 25, 2004 the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, gave formal recognition of the possession of the 12.850 acres, that Cuauhtémoc had taken before, to the community of Santa María Chimalapa.

Regarding this issue Gabino Cué has argued to defend the Chimalapas area from invasions, but the building of municipalities from Chiapas has not stopped.

[12] In November 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court resolved the border dispute in Oaxaca's favour,[13][14] and annulled the 2011 decree by the Congress of Chiapas that had created Belisario Domínguez.