The Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala is an entity made up of Trique Indians who declared their autonomy of the Mexican state in 2006 as a reaction to repression by the Mexican state, especially the Oaxacan government, whose leader Ulises Ruiz was targeted by the APPO movement at the time.
The Mixtecan language family, as one of the largest and most diverse families in the Oto-Manguean group, includes three groups of languages: Mixtec, Cuicatec, and Trique.
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The Triques, Amuszos and Cuicatecos are related to the Mixtecs and have similar languages, The Chochopopolocas and Ixcatecos are similar to the Mazatecos; the Zoques are related to the Mixes, and the Chatinos are related to the Zapotecs.
The Trique are an indigenous people of the western part of Oaxaca, centered in the municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Tlaxiaco and Putla.
San Juan Copala is a little town in the municipality of Santiago Juxtlahuaca in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, inhabited by Trique Indians.
In 2008 two women belonging to the Trique people were shot dead by the Ubisort militias in what is thought to be a government-funded attack.
Trique |
He was on his way to San Juan Copala, a village of indigenous Trique people that has declared itself autonomous, as a human rights observer when he was shot dead by UBISORT, a paramilitary organization connected to Institutional Revolutionary Party.