Massacre Exposes Low Intensity War
12/23/97
Chiapas Massacre Exposes Low-Intensity War in Chiapas.
by Michael McCaughan. Irish freelance journalist based in Chiapas.
tel-1-707-5233701.
Sent by Global Exchange
Last Monday's massacre in Aj'teal, Chiapas, which left 45 dead and 20
wounded, had been announced and anticipated for months. Mexico has seen
marches, US delegations, local pleas and testimonies by the walking
wounded sleeping under plastic sheets without blankets or food. But it
wasn't enough.
The local Indian people denounced the exaggerated militarisation of
Indian villages in Chiapas and the proven links between armed
paramilitaries and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary party, (PRI).
Last Sunday Mexico's daily paper 'La Jornada' published a document
signed by state governor Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, confirming the
handover of US$450,000 to 'Paz y Justicia,' a PRI-linked paramilitary
group. The alarm bells sounded but Chiapas governor Ruiz Ferro simply
denied the existence of any paramilitary groups and carried on with
business as usual.
Last Monday morning however the illusion was shattered. Between 11am
and 3pm, 60 armed men surrounded hundreds of refugees huddled under a
plastic tarp in Aj'teal, north Chiapas, mercilessly cutting down the
defenseless displaced people. The refugees had fled their homes after
threats by paramilitaries with names like Red mask and Anti-Zapatista
Revolutionary Movement, who have spread fear and violence through the
Chenalho municipality. The rise of the armed groups coincided with the
growing influence of Zapatista supporters who have successfully
installed an autonomous ruling assembly in the area.
In Chenalho like all Chiapas villages there was only one political
party until 1994., the PRI, which won upward of 100% of votes in local
and national elections. Once the local officials delivered the votes to
the PRI, the villages remained at peace. After 1994 however, villagers
openly supported the demands of the Zapatista National Liberation Army,
(EZLN) and in last year's municipal vote, 63.2% of Chenalho's villagers
cast a vote for Zapatista-linked candidates.
The defeated PRI 'caciques' (local political bosses) sought help from
security forces to prevent the Zapatistas from gaining further ground,
hence the threats, burned-out homes and 4,500 displaced people.
The state governor Julio Ruiz Ferro denied the existence of the
paramilitaries, inserting large paid advertisements in the national
press, announcing the return of displaced people and financial aid to
rebuild homes and replace lost possessions. Just a week ago this
journalist visited Chenalh'o municipality to witness the living
conditions of Chiapas' displaced.
Across a mist-filled muddy hillside close to Polh'o, in the
municipality of Chenalho, there were 23 families, 106 men, women and
children, living under a leaky tarp sustained by six wooden poles. The
coughs and sneezes of the children announced the camp, where the local
Zapatista-led council opened the village doors to the refugees, but had
no food, blankets or shelter to offer.
The bloody massacre, painfully reminiscent of Central America and
Colombian wars, is a wake-up call to Mexico's complacent ruling party.
There will be loud condemnation by Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo,
by state officials, opposition parties, church representatives and the
press.
But the structures which led to the creation of the irregular Rambos
will remain untouched. The key factor in sustaining those
paramilitaries is the impunity of armed forces and PRI-linked
officials. On January 7th 1994, hundreds of troops occupied the village
of Morelia, inside the conflict zone, looking for Zapatistas. Three
elderly men were tortured, disappeared and killed. In June 1994 three
Tzeltal women were raped by a dozen soldiers at an army roadblock
outside Altamirano. Not a single soldier has been prosecuted. In sharp
contrast, one soldier who is safely behind bars is General Felix
Gallardo, imprisoned after his public call to create an army
ombudsman.
The Chiapas scenario has been played out in Colombia, where
paramilitaries were first trained by the army, financed by landowners
and acknowledged by no one. Then came the first deaths, bringing
horror, condemnation and eventually resignation. The paramilitaries are
a frankenstein with a life of their own now and some 20,000 would-be
Rambos are sowing death and destruction in Colombia's tortured
countryside.
In the past month the deaths in Colombia have become football scores,
one day 15 dead, 14 the next, then 23 then 30, a grisly
necro-statistical count. When the international outcry became too loud,
Colombian authorities located and detained a renowned paramilitary
leader within 48 hours, despite years of denial of their very
existence.
The only way to end the violence in Chiapas is to resolve the
deep-rooted causes which gave rise to the 1994 rebellion. The first
step has already been taken, in January 1996, with the signing of the
San Andres peace accord on 'Indigenous Culture and Rights,' but the
government has blocked all attempts to implement the accord. The US
public and the Bill Clinton administration have considerable influence
over Mexican affairs and should act now to prevent further bloodshed.
ends..
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