Oventik Zapatista Caracol

"May 25, 2024
Today I went there but I couldn’t enter the village bc foreigners have been banned since 5 months ago. To get there I took a shared taxi from the Mercado Viejo to Larráinzar and then another shared taxi to the village. All in all it was about 1.5 hour trip. I studied about Zapatistas at University and had great respect and interest in them so I was extremely sad that they didn’t let me in. The only places you could see there are a few murals on the street and a small Zapatista community shop/comedor. I met a former Zapatista woman on the street. She was an older woman who left the group 7-8 years ago. She said that the community was dying and that there a few members left. She said she left because there were too much work to do everyday. It was sad to hear that a community so special and revolutionary was also dying with the years."

Satomi T

"UPDATE 2025*
For all the visitors who have been here lately and complain that they have not been allowed in, it is important that you know that it is for your SAFETY.
The Zapatistas and their support bases are suffering constant attacks and threats from organized criminal groups.
They cannot guarantee the safety of visitors or their own, that is the reason for the closure to visits.
Before you criticize and leave a negative review, educate yourselves, that place is not just another "tourist attraction", it is a community.
*
2024:
We were lucky enough to visit El Caracol last year, and it turned out to be one of the best experiences of our trip.
I have known and supported the Zapatista struggle for decades, so being able to walk through Oventik, meet the community, see its murals, buy crafts... was an unforgettable moment.
Currently, due to the attacks received in various Zapatista communities, for security reasons, it is not open to visitors."

Cris VarelaDoval

"We were there… today. We couldn’t get in.
We took a taxi collectivo from San Cristobal, where we had asked for information and they told us that they are usually quite friendly. And in truth they are. It’s about an hour and something of a journey.
There were only two of us, we asked to see the community and they told us that it is closed and no one enters, we told them that we simply wanted to get to know the territory and that we had already been to Roberto Barrios (which is open), they told us that we could walk around there and take photos but not enter. In the end we spent a good part of the morning at the gate talking to these basically kids. Apart from one who was in his fifties, the others were sixteen, I wanted to understand what a sixteen year old thinks today about this revolution thing. We have been to Cuba, if you talk to the young Che Guevaras I wouldn’t say that they barely know who he is but almost, they are distant things… in reality they seemed a bit confused to me. They go to school, work in the fields and then stay all day guarding the entrance, I ask them from whom, considering that they themselves are constantly going back and forth to get coke and ice cream at the kiosk. Who shouldn’t they let in? The pueblo is a handful of houses and it’s always their pueblo. They tell me that ‘the others’ have to stay outside. They seem a bit confused and so do we. We left a bit perplexed, that’s it…"

Silvia Stefanelli