San Juan Copala is a town in the municipality of
Santiago Juxtlahuaca in the Mexican state of
Oaxaca
Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...
. It is located at , at an altitude of 1578 meters above sea level. According to the 2005 census, carried out by the
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI from its former name in ) is an autonomous agency of the Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Statistical and Geographical Information of the country. It w ...
, San Juan Copala has a total of 786 inhabitants.
San Juan Copala is exclusively inhabited by the indigenous people of the area, the
Triqui
The Triqui (, ) or Trique () are an Indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, centered in the municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Putla, and Tlaxiaco. They number around 23,000 according to Ethnologue surveys. The Triq ...
.
Autonomy and political struggles
San Juan Copala was an independent municipality of Oaxaca from 1826 to 1948, when the state congress ordered its dissolution and annexation to the nearby territory of
Santiago Juxtlahuaca. Since this annexation, Triqui people have been in a sometimes violent struggle with state and local authorities over the control and governance of their town. Due to a large series of political and social conflicts, in 2006 some residents of the town declared themselves an "Autonomous Municipality" following the example of the
Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas in
Chiapas
Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...
.
It has been the setting of events that brought international attention to the human rights situation in Mexico in 2010, when
human rights observer
Legal observers are individuals, usually representatives of civilian human rights agencies, who attend public demonstrations, protests and other activities where there is a potential for conflict between the public or activists and the police, sec ...
s
Jyri Jaakkola and
Bety Cariño
Bety is a nickname. Notable people with the name include:
*Bety of Betsimisaraka
Marie Elisabeth "Bety" Sobobie of Betsimisaraka or ''Betia'' (c. 1735–1805), was queen regnant of the kingdom of Betsimisaraka, consisting of the island Île Sa ...
were murdered by members of the local paramilitary group
UBISORT while trying to deliver humanitarian goods to San Juan Copala, which had been cut off from supplies such as food, medicine, electricity and water by a UBISORT blockade for several months.
[Paramilitaries Kill Two Human Rights Activists in Oaxaca, Democracy Now!, April 30, 2010, https://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/30/paramilitaries_kill_two_human_rights_activists]
References
Populated places in Oaxaca
{{Oaxaca-geo-stub