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If you thought shiria law was tough..


bmh

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A couple of men had the bad idea of stealing a car in Chamula , a community 10km away from San Cristobal and they were caught , jailed and a mob got them out, sat them on wooden chairs and set them on fire. The police arrived an hour later...

Same thing happen to some bicycle thieves a few years ago, this time in Las Hormigas, a colonia of San Cristobal de las Casas

http://www.uniradioinforma.com/noticias/mexico/364288/linchan-a-dos-presuntos-ladrones-en-chiapas.html

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http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/suspected-car-thieves-lynched-in-chiapas/

This is an article in English about the lynching. The photo is the photos of 3 cops (the sticks means that are cops and not part of the mob) probably before the mob got to take charge. Also it says the men were from Teopisca which means they may have been Tseltal rather than Tsotsil. Still pretty rough for a guy who sold his cab did not get the money so went to reposessed his cab..

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This demonstrates a breakdown in the "Social Contract". The Social Contract is between the people and the "State" whereby thet people give up dispensing this justice and turn that (the right to govern and apply laws and punishments) over to the state. What has happened here is that these people have learned that justice isn't applied equally and can be purchased or an exemption can be. Therefore the "deal is off".

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By the way lynching in Chiapas are common. The indigenous town have their own laws and customs but usually when it comes to crimes, the Mexican justice is involved. In cases where they think justice will not prevail they follow their own rules. No need to have prisonners because we need to feed them and the only way to stop them from stealing or killing again is to make an exemple for the other and get rid off them. That is what was explained to me by one of the elder in one of these communitites.

I am not sure if it is a break down or just following their usos y costumbres rules and not recognizing outside justice.

It is hard to tell. This things usually happen to outsiders, very often indigenous from other religion or other ethnic group or town or someone representing the authority of San Cristobal or the State...It is always difficult to find out exactly why it happens.

Chamula is pretty independent and difficult to deal with so who knows why they lynched these guys. Maybe the guy who had "bought" the cab was a big shot who had no intention os paying the other man ..hard to tell.

All I have to say is that you have to be nervy to go into Chamula to do anything to one of their inhabitants..

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I have yet to hear nice things from the locals about Chamula. Everyone in their right mind stays out of there and do not sell on a promise, that is why I am wondering if the man who was burnt was not from there originally. The paper says he was from Teopisca but they are lots of Chamulan refugies in the Teopisca municipality so that would add religion to the situation .. there is more than what the story has, I am sure.

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Last year some other group burned a driver and his friend in Cancuc for hitting a kid. The kid had a broken leg but otherwise was ok. The driver and his friend were taken to jail , the mob got them out and burnt them to death as well..

Chamula is a big tourist place but Cancuc see no tourist to speak of. One group is Tzotzil and the other Tzeltal so it seems tha it is not good to run over anything or anybody in the indigenous villages. If you run over a chicken it will be the most expensive chicken you ever bought, god forbid if it is a sheep or a drunk sleeping on the road..then it gets really expensive..

Joke aside, I spoke with some friends from the villages around and they told me the Chamulas were" muy malo". Apparently the man was from Comitan or Teopisca, sold the cab , the Chamula did not pay him so the seller went to get his car and the Chamula falsly accused him of wanting to steal the car..

I know we are going through the indigenous territories very carefully as you never know when a drunk will fall in front of the car and then it would be hell to pay.I think that with gringos they would go for money..lots of it.

you can add thieves to your qualifications of that group.

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I won't be visiting Chamula,God forbid I should run over one of their chickens crossing the road and get doused in gasoline and burned to death.

Que pendejos tan ignorantes.

If the circumstances as reported are true, it's difficult to comprehend how any mentally functioning Human Being could rationalize the necessity of such an act. Either there is more to the story than reported or this is some kind of deep and ancient, instinctual bloodlust erupting from the psyche, possibly a carry over from their Mayan past? Some need for Human sacrifice and the taxi fiasco was just an excuse to execute their instinctual bloodlust? I guess we "civilized" westerners do the same come to think of it, in the form of waging war on a massively destructive scale, likewise using excuses that usually turn out to be lies and self-delusion. Either way, a very ugly side of "Humanity".

"Que pendejos mas ignorantes" is certainly an understatement here!

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