Massacre Exposes Low Intensity War (fwd)

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> Subject: Massacre Exposes Low Intensity War
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>                       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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