This is the Popular Front podcast with me Jake Hanrahan.

We're focused on the niche details of modern warfare and underreported conflict

all across the world. Popular Front is completely independent.

Today we're speaking to journalist Joanne Grillo about the Mexican cartels that have moved into the district of Chippas, a pretty historical place in Mexico,

home to the EZELN, there's a patista's, home to many indigenous groups,

and now the cartels have moved in and have pretty much

taken over without having much of a fight at all from anywhere.

Jowin's been on the ground there many times he's going to be telling us the reality of

what's actually going on there. If you want more popular front support us at

patreon.com slash popular front Patreon. There's been some trouble in Shippas and I think that's one of these areas that everybody just kind of equates to,

oh ease of the land land it's a peaceful area

Zappatista's are there but I know through your work and actually a good friend of

mine got it works with us Tiago De and that there's a lot of other issues there,

there's indigenous tribes, there's cartel trying to move in, there's been some recent violence there, right?

Maybe you can just tell us, what's been going on there.

Yeah, yeah, so Chappas is a state in the south of Mexico and like you say a lot of people would know it from the Zapatistas.

The uprising there in 94 and then a lot of Italians, Brits, French going over there to kind of be observers or supporting

those communities. And as well as that you have these kind of Mayon pyramids, Palenke.

And so people saw that as being outside the cartel wars.

And for a long time it was outside the worst of the cartel wars,

but cartels were there. You know, there was, for example, Chappo Guzman, you know, Chappo, was laundering money through there and there was a guy in big city there called

San Cristoebal I discovered who'd be basically a shoe shine guy and then suddenly

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