Overview

• Traditional authorities in El Pozo, San Juan Chamula, detained four Tzotzil women after they refused to cede rights to plots containing a communal spring.
• The incident occurred around midday during a community assembly, and the detainees were held in the local jail.
• The women were freed about five hours later following intervention by the state’s Indigenous Justice unit, prosecutor Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca said.
• Authorities opened an investigation into those responsible, and a 19‑second video circulated showing one woman struggling with officials as several men surrounded her.
• The case is the second reported this month in Chiapas involving the detention of indigenous women, following an Aug. 8 episode in Ejido Hidalgo, Las Margaritas.