A Tseltal Maya man and woman who followed ancestral traditions were lynched and burned alive on Tuesday night in the community of Las Tacitas, in the municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas, after being detained by a group of residents who accused them of practicing sorcery.
According to local residents, the mob abducted the victims and took them to the community’s main covered sports court.
There, both individuals were subjected to physical and verbal abuse for several hours until the attackers doused them with fuel and set them on fire—burning them alive.
After the attack, the victims’ bodies were left on the side of a road just outside the community, where they were guarded by associates until forensic services arrived.
Relatives of the deceased have requested the intervention of justice institutions to prosecute those responsible for the attack—a demand supported by the region’s traditional Zapatista authorities.
The Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), through the Indigenous Justice Prosecutor’s Office led by Floralma Gómez Santos, has opened an investigation into the double homicide. Prosecutors have contacted the grieving families to formalize legal proceedings and identify the perpetrators of the crime.
