AUT: Re: Post Electoral Troop Movements in Chiapas (fwd)

[motinrfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Manuel Callahan)]

Harry,

Why don't you also post this and similar notes of interest to
zapatismo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Manolo

At 12:46 PM 10/19/98, accion-zapatista@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>Folks: Things are NOT looking up here.
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 09:54:44 -0700 (PDT)
>From: tedlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: gx-mexiconews-action@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Post Electoral Troop Movements in Chiapas
>
>La Jornada
>October 17, 1998
>
>TROOPS AND ARTILLERY TOWARDS LOS ALTOS AND THE LACANDONA
>
>(Translated by: NUEVO AMANECER PRESS)
>
>Hermann Bellinghausen, correspondent
>Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas
>October 16, 1998
>
>Without any official confirmation on the subject, various observers in the
>zone - including this correspondent - have been able to observe an
>irrefutable fact:  intensive combat troop and artillery movements are being
>made towards the conflict zone.
>
>Continuous convoys are leaving this city towards Los Altos region, where
>dozens of Hummers and 5-ton trucks are carrying hundreds of troops.  Later,
>these convoys are returning empty, every day.
>
>Between yesterday and today alone, this correspondent saw one thousand
>federal Army troops going towards San Cristobal de Las Casas, and at least
>ten long-range bazookas, similar to those used in the attacks on Chavajeval
>and Union Progreso, some months ago.
>
>The vehicular military traffic is clogging the PanAmerican Highway,
>especially along the Tuxtla Gutierrez-Rancho Nuevo portion.
>
>At the same time, in the most conflictive spots in Los Altos and the Selva
>Lacandona, deployments and reinforcements of troops and artillery are
>continuous.  San Quintin, Taniperla, La Garrucha, Guadalupe Tepeyac,
>Altamirano and Ocosingo, as well as San Andres, Chenalho and Pantelho, are
>the scenes of this mobilization.
>
>Meanwhile, helicopter and plane flights are continuing over the zapatista
>communities and the five Aguascalientes.
>
>ALARMING SIGNS
>
>Beneath the apparent calm on the horizon following the elections, a new
>level of institutional violence is being incubated.  At least, that is the
>indication of certain signals and symptoms.  In addition, of course, to the
>strengthening of the military encirclement of the rebel communities.
>
>The election results, openly celebrated by the interim and substitute
>Governor, Roberto Albores Guillen, as a personal triumph, have tipped the
>chiapaneco municipal geography towards a scheme which favors the PRI
>paramilitary groups, particularly the MIRA.
>
>As is well-known, that group - supported by PRI and official ARIC leaders -
>has one of its epicenters in the canada of Taniperla, but it extends to
>other parts of Ocosingo, Oxchuc, Altamirano and the areas surrounding
>Chilon.
>
>It was just these four municipalities, currently governed by the PRD
>opposition, which were returned to the hands of the PRI.
>
>With voting in the state not reaching 30% of those eligible, the PRI
>regained Sitala, and once more won all the constitutional municipalities of
>the tzotzil region, where abstention ranged from 65% to 80%, and where
>numerous EZLN support bases exist.
>
>Nonetheless, the PRI did not recover the mayorality of Tuxtla Gutierrez,
>where the PRI candidate was a friend of Albores, and who received the
>widest journalistic and institutional support which has been seen in years.
> The tricolor also lost the municipalities adjacent to the capital, all
>PAN:  Alcala, Berriozabal and Suchiapa.
>
>This did not keep the government from installing a large portrait of
>Governor Albores on the outskirts of Chiapa de Corzo, where he may be seen
>smiling broadly, almost emphatically.  Next to him are noted some
>statistics of the achievements of his administration, of less than one
>year.  Few governors have given such emphasis to their personal presence as
>the state executive.  He is also the first in years to state that he is
>"winning."
>
>Simultaneously, according to statements by indigenous and human rights
>observers, tension within the communities, and the activities of armed and
>trained groups affiliated with the PRI, are increasing.
>
>In Taniperla the situation is exceptionally serious.  Threats against
>zapatista and PRD families are constant.  Many are living in hiding in the
>mountains in order to save their lives.  Harassment of campesinos by Public
>Security is continuous.
>
>Two observers commented separately today that Taniperla is experiencing an
>atmosphere of provocation "very similar" to that which was going on in
>Chenalho last year, during the paramilitary offensive which caused 10,000
>people to flee from their communities, and which ciulminated in the Acteal
>massacre.  The municipalities in the northern zones were also won by the
>PRI:  Huitiupan, Simojovel, Tila, Sabanilla and Salto de Agua, places where
>Development, Peace and Justice operates, another paramilitary organization.
>
>The Albores' jubilation has to do, perhaps, with this territorial
>strengthening of the counterinsurgency.  All the municipalities encompassed
>by the massive federal Army occupation were won by the PRI.  The
>paramilitaries are the government.  It will not be the first time someone
>in Chiapas decides they feel like it is the moment to act "in the name of
>the state of law."
>
>On the other hand, perhaps in anticipation of future and unsettling
>international observers in the region, an absolute control over the entry
>of foreigners has been established in the chiapaneco capital, at the
>airport and at the bus stations.  Now, in all the arrival and departure
>terminals, National Migration Institute agents are found, carrying lists of
>all foreigners arriving and departing from Tuxtla Gutierrez.
>
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