Chenalhó Chiapas

Anyone visiting this week..stay away from Chenalhó and past Chenalhó areas like Acteal Polhó and Pantelhó which are on the same road past Chenalhó.. There are political problems that started in the last 2 weeks with the take over of city hall in Chenalhó to kick out the elected preseidente who did not keep her promises..all this according to the people who are mad of course.. The situation seemed to calm down when a new presidente was chosen but as of yesterday the Governor declared that the elected presidente could not be deposed and that she would stay on..
One of the man from one of the indigenous communities, I know called me this morning to tell me not to go in that ara, people are angry and they were talks of armed cars being seen in the area. Since the massacre of Acteal people get pretty nervous when they hear about armed people coming their way..

Hopefully that conflict can be resolved soon but this week it is best to stay away from that area. Stay tune until the next episode...

Thank you for your on-the-scene updates!

I just read the article on the news about it, always interesting to read what the press has to say.. in this case I think they are wrong as they say it may be a case of sexism
I know from the women who are working in artesania, mostly weavers that the weavers understood the presidente promised 5000 pesos to each family involved in artesania.. What was really said I do not know but that is what the artisanas understood and now whole indigenous communities i are up in arms because they did not see any money after the Party Verde won..Another surprise. Promises to buy vote...another surprise..
Hopefully the problem can be resolved if the Presidente resigns and another one is declared presidente from the same party .. Probably qould have to be a woman as well to keep the representation at 50% men 50% women..another slight hitch since the proposed presidente is a man..

My friends from the area just told me that the problems will continue tomorrow, the night shift came in and the day shift was told to go back tomorrow. Two people got beaten up and arrested so it is not getting better..

This is what Mexico News Daily has to say about it:

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/police-repel-blockade-of-chiapas-congress/

yes I know and this is total BS

After checking around about people´s feeling about women Presidente..the general answer is that no one cares as long as they keep their promise.
It seems that the way to buy votes is to make promises of help to each man and women and if the help does not come, there are problems..

Must be lots of unkept promises in Chiapas..

I saw on the news today that two children died in an ambulance headed for San Cristobal de Casas when the ambulance was blocked by protesters..
QUE PENDEJOS son estos mensos de Chiapas!

Yes there are 3 hot points in Chiapas right now Simojovel Chenalho and Chanal.
Two kids from Chanal who were being rushed to the hospital died because , of the blockage. They arrested the man responsable for not letting the ambulance through but my friends tell me he has power and nothing will happen to him.. It is pretty disgusting.

By the way the same thing happen to my father in France. My mother thought my father was having a stroke and she called an ambulance. The ambulance could not get through to the hospital because of demonstrations.. then my father culd not get an MRI for a cuple of weeks as the doctors and hospitals were on strike..They had a triage system where the most urgent cases were handled first. Old folks were not considered urgent cases..It turned out he had brain cancer so thre was no urgncy as he was dying anyways but if it had been the case of a stroke it would have been the same deal..

jovel and Chanal are back to normal.
Chenalho may start problems again on the 2oth..
Some Oxchuc people were demonstrating yesterday but it was peaceful..until the next tome. These people were the people whose houses were destroyed when the presidente was kicked out and Oxchuc people burned down city hall..
So everything is quiet until problems start again..

The mess continue, yesterday the various transport companies blocked the autopista so only the libre was open to Tuxtla, today both roads are blocked..sometimes you can cross walking and paying and some others not..

We do not know what the transport companies will do next then on monday the maestros will block the road we do not know how long..and on.. We were also told that roads will be blocked on the 15. 16 and 17, I wonder how long this mess will go on before something gets done about all these demonstrations..They are getting really tiring and sure hurt business...be forwarn if you come here..you are at the mercy of any group who decides to
protest and it seems there is a new group every day..

Sounds like I got lucky. If nothing else, taking the libre to the airport yesterday morning from SC was unexpected and interesting, with one eye closed and one eye open, in the fog, in the mornng, etc. In the end, i made my flight....and that's all I cared about, as a tourist. I would definitely get frustrated if I had to deal with it daily, for sure. Hope things settle down soon.

Thanks for everything!

Glad you guys got together!
Brigitte, I was in the Huasteca Potosina and now in Jalpan de Serra, Sierra Gorda. Awesome area that reminds me of Costa Rica and in my mind rivals Chiapas for adventure travel. And WAY safer!

Chiapas is safe for tourists but right now it is a pain in the neck to have to deal with the closing of roads . If you stay put it is no problem but if you need to travel and make dead lines good luck..
Rosa Venus was lucky to make the flight, I hope I have the same luck next week to increase the odds I am going to stay in Tuxtla the day before because that libre in the fog is really not my idea of fun..

There are very recent news reports of areas of Chiapas that are still not safe.

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/thieves-target-buses-on-chiapas-highway/

If you stay put it is no problem??? Who travels to stay put!

Nobody robbing buses here or retenes. The indigenous here don't seem to have a beef and look happy and content.

I recommend the Huasteca Potosina and the Jalpan de Serra/Sierra Gorda Biosphere over Chiapas for travel and exploring.

Trailrunner I so not think you can possibly know what is going on in one place after going through it for a week or two... Indigenous have a tendency to look happy and content until you find out that they are not..

Playaboy that San Cristobal Ocosingo Palenque road has  always has been a problem and as you say it is still not safe especially at night. They are trying to bypass that road and build an autopista but some groups are holding the work right now with amparos..who knows if they ever will have a safe road there. At night the Palenque Bonampak road in not safe either  and neither is the Tuxtla Villahermosa road, not to speak of San Cristobal San Andres Bochil Villa hermosa that is really unsafe. You have to want to be robbed to travel those roads at night and most people do not.

Talking about the devil, I just got a message from a friend that the OCC bus from Tuxtla Bochil Pichucalco was assaulted and that the bus company OCC does not want to pay for what was lost so the passengers are doing a demanda...

brigitte wrote:Trailrunner I so not think you can possibly know what is going on in one place after going through it for a week or two... Indigenous have a tendency to look happy and content until you find out that they are not..

Playaboy that San Cristobal Ocosingo Palenque road has  always has been a problem and as you say it is still not safe especially at night. They are trying to bypass that road and build an autopista but some groups are holding the work right now with amparos..who knows if they ever will have a safe road there. At night the Palenque Bonampak road in not safe either  and neither is the Tuxtla Villahermosa road, not to speak of San Cristobal San Andres Bochil Villa hermosa that is really unsafe. You have to want to be robbed to travel those roads at night and most people do not.

See, thats what I mean, B. This shit was not happening where I was. Had dinner with locals in Xilitla who have a community cafe and they said no.

The road to Palenque and to Villa Hermosa or Simojovel has always been unsafe at night so nothing new here...
Tomorrow the teachers are blocking al the roads so everyone will stay put for a change..

brigitte wrote:
Tomorrow the teachers are blocking al the roads so everyone will stay put for a change..

It's el Dia del Maestro tomorrow,what a joke,son una bola de inultiles.
Yesterday my fifth trader's only task was to make a bracelet,Monday the "teachers" are taking the day off..

Down here all the transports were also blocking roads to be solidaire with the teachers and so on a real mess..

I have some friend's coming to San Cristibol next week. Should they be concerned about the highway from the airport to there?

They say that the  bloqueos will be over next week but who knows..They should know they could be bloqued but they should  not worry too much, just take a cab and they can always stay in Tuxtla or Chiapa de Corzo if they cannot go through..I just did that monday night.I will know more on Sunday.
The teachers are supposed to be on strike..the usua, l the problem are the people who want to help them...

Chenalhó is talking about doing something on the 22nd but I do not think it will be on that road again too early to know.



The rainy season has started so they should expect rain around 2 pm every day but as it is the beginning they may be lucky,,Also they should wear mosquitoe repellent if they go in the low lands like Tuxtla, Chiapa de Corzo , Palenque and other ruins..we have the chikungunya big time..zika and dengue are around as well.

I'll pass this along. Thanks.