Ejidatarios, artisans, street vendors and tourist guides collected 1,124 signatures to support their demands and file complaints with the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the Ministry of Public Administration and the Yucatán Human Rights Commission (Codhey) against the director of Chichén Itzá, Marco Antonio Santos Ramírez, whom they accuse of abuse of power, mistreatment and corruption.
However, as of yesterday afternoon, neither the Codhey nor the Attorney General’s Office had received any complaint, much less the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Meanwhile, the director of the INAH-Yucatán Center, José Arturo Chab Cárdenas, did not give the results of the dialogue scheduled for the night of Monday the 9th.
In Pisté, the non-conformists indicated that they had already collected the signatures, all of them with their respective folio from the National Electoral Institute (INE), and that they would travel to Mérida yesterday to file the complaints. The leader Arturo Ciau Puc explained that they have taken the legal route because the INAH authorities have repeatedly refused to attend to their demands, arguing that they have no proof against the director of the archaeological zone.
He also affirmed that it is false that they have had a dialogue with the director of INAH Yucatán to seek an agreement for the blockade of the federal highway to Mérida, at Xcalacoop and Pisté.
“There has been no meeting with the ejidatarios, artisans and tourist guides involved in the movement, so the official’s statements that negotiations are going well are false,” he said.
In Mérida, in spite of the notable movement that took place yesterday at the FGR, none of the protesters showed up to file a complaint; likewise, the Codhey denied this version and stated that as of 5:00 p.m., the protesters had not arrived.
On the other hand, Santos Ramírez went to the Valladolid Public Prosecutor’s Office to ratify his complaint of death threats against the demonstrators, which he filed on Thursday, the 5th.
At the State General Prosecutor’s Office (FGE) he denounced, according to file number G8/67/2023, slander and moral damage, in view of the statements made by the protesters who since last Monday the 2nd have taken the federal highway leading to the archeological zone. The complaint accuses Armando Dzul Mex, ejidal commissioner of Piste; Arturo Ciau, representative of the protest group; Silvia Cime Mex and Teresa de Jesús Díaz Santamaría, leaders of the artisans; vendors Pablo Euán Cen and Luis Mis; Tinum councilman and tourist guide Carlos Galdino Nahuat Mex; Arturo Ciau Puc, secretary of Indigenous Affairs of Yucatán, and whoever else is responsible.
The complaint before the FGR was for the crime of death threats by the aforementioned, especially Luis Mis, who recently had a construction project stopped because he had used machinery to damage the cultural heritage of the archaeological zone.
Both Dzul Mex and Luis Mis encouraged and promoted deforestation and the deterioration of the cultural heritage in order to open new parking lots, in addition to charging fees to those who sell handicrafts or offer their services as tourist guides.
Nine days after the protest, with the closure of the highway leading to Chichén Itzá, close to 63,000 tourists have already been unable to visit the archaeological site, with a loss of more than 18 million pesos in entrance fees. Visitors are transferred to Izamal and Ek’Balam.
TYT Newsroom
