HR ABUSES CONTINUE IN MEXICO
Javier Garibay Gomez (gari@igc.apc.org)
Thu, 11 Nov 1993 14:22:00 PST
>From the Indigenous Movement Xi'Nich
The present attempt to remove Don Samuel Ruiz, Bishop of San
Cristobal de las Casas is a logical continuation of the threats
and pressures released by way of rumors and insinuations by
various powerful groups in Chiapas. These groups include, local
authorities, dealers in land, beef and wood, hotel and restaurant
owners.
This climate of accusation and mud slinging that has been
promoted by the State Government and these power groups, is now
being taken advantage of by Federal Government agencies in order
to undermine the Bishop's pastoral work and his commitment to
those from the most unprotected sectors of society. It has been
this commitment that has obliged him to travel to foreign
countries to bear witness to the struggle of the indigenous
people to survive and resist and denounce abuses.
Don Samuel has denounced the deep and immediate causes of
violence in Chiapas where extreme poverty does not affect all
men, women and children equally.
In such terms he wrote to us in his Pastoral Letter, a copy of
which was given to the Pope during his last pastoral visit to our
country. "We are in a difficult situation, in a difficult time,
as much politically as economically, as much socially as
ideologically. We must talk about the current economic system
because we find ourselves in a whole way of life and production
that is oppressive to us. We see that in these new times, those
who accumulate wealth mainly need two things in order to continue
making a profit: privatization and NAFTA."
Such declarations anger Federal authorities and these current
pressure for the Bishop to resign are a sign of a political
decision that the government has placed in the hands of the
Catholic Church just as the country faces presidential elections
in 1994. The Government is doing so in order to subordinate the
Church and so finish once and for all with this prophetic
criticism.
Don Samuel Ruiz and his Diocese has been a voice for the
communities of indigenous peoples of the State of Chiapas. The
Ch'ole and Tseltal people of the movement Xi'Nich remember well
the repressive measures to which their organizations have been
subjected for a long time. The move to the Capital of the former
State Governor, Patrocinio Gonzalez, achieved nothing in terms of
slowing the patterns of murder, illegal arrest and violent
evictions that we suffered in December of 1991. We continue to
bear witness to the harassment and premeditated authoritarianism,
to the cringing attitude of all Government functionaries to
higher authority, to the fact that their only goal is to place
obstacles and to repress any organization that proves to be
independent of official agencies, to the fact that they
constantly attempt to prevent ordinary citizens from exercising
their rights: all this they see as the solution to their own
needs and is their "daily bread".
In this the last year of the current Presidency, when he presents
a picture to us and to the world of a "flourishing and modern"
country, where in the south-east the Government sponsored
program: "The Mayan World" exalts the indigenous folklore and
where "Solidarity" (another Government project) produces so much
propaganda for the official programs of help to indigenous
sectors, the attempt to remove Don Samuel Ruiz and this new
attack against the Diocese of San Cristobal is an attack against
the indigenous people in an attempt to leave them with no
protection, an attack made against those who continue to be like
"a species in extinction".
As the coordinating body of the Movement Xi'Nich, we express our
full solidarity, support and help for our Bishop Samuel Ruiz
Garcia and for his Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas.