Other MoA event in Mexico on Sat 25th April 2026

An armed confrontation between suspected drug traffickers and members of the Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization (OCEZ)—the historic People's House—unleashed chaos Friday afternoon in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas. The clash left a trail of death that authorities have yet to officially quantify, although the smell of gunpowder and the silence of the residents tell a different story. Upon arriving at the scene, one can feel the accumulated tension in a municipality that is a nerve center of the territorial dispute; shards of glass and spent shell casings are scattered near the main entrances. The conflict originally began in the neighboring municipality of Nicolás Ruiz, when armed men from the Nuevo León ejido in Teopisca stormed in vehicles, triggering an initial shootout that claimed the lives of two people before the violence spread to Venustiano Carranza. Although the State Attorney General's Office remains cautious and has not confirmed any deaths, videos circulating on social media show lifeless bodies on the ground after the clash. Governor Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar reported six injured people receiving treatment at the IMSS Rural Hospital, while residents, speaking anonymously out of fear, claim the actual death toll is ten, including six alleged criminals and four community members. This outbreak is not an isolated incident. The OCEZ Casa del Pueblo (Community Organization of the State of Zacatecas) has historically defended its lands against powerful groups, but today it finds itself caught in the crossfire of cartel expansion that uses the Teopisca and Venustiano Carranza region as a strategic corridor to the border and the Los Altos region. The incursion of hitmen from Teopisca marks an escalation in the vulnerability of peasant organizations to the firepower of drug trafficking.