Authorities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas are waiting for information to determine what happened to a local mayor after a group of villagers violently kidnapped him out of a police car. The villagers put him in another vehicle and fled the scene.
The incident took place this week in a rural area of Chiapas, where Alfonso Gomez Gomez, the mayor of Santiago El Pinar was traveling in a police vehicle along the highway that connects San Cristobal de Las Casas and San Juan Chamula.
#OJO | ‘Levantan’ a alcalde de Santiago El Pinar, Chiapashttps://t.co/sT47oeCyN2
— La Razón de México (@LaRazon_mx) April 11, 2024
After the villagers took the local elected official, they left the police vehicle behind. Authorities recovered the vehicle and are in the process of trying to find the missing politician.
According to Mexico’s AM News, villagers were members of the Toztziles indigenous people. Since then, no demands for ransom have been made. None of the various indigenous groups or organizations in Chiapas have claimed responsibility for the abduction.
In recent weeks, Chiapas began to see high levels of violence as rival drug cartels have started clashing in the region for control of lucrative drug trafficking as well as human smuggling routes into Mexico. Chiapas is on the southern border with Guatemala. It is considered one of the immigration hotspots as that is where a large portion of Central and South American migrants enter the country trying to make their way north to the US-Mexico border.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.