LIFE IS CHEAP IN MEXICO
The following is the text of a letter that I wrote to the Editor of
The London (Ontario) Free press on March 27.
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The recent assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio got a big
play in your edition of March 25. Was it important because he was
president elect? In Mexico there is a monarchy by anointment
rather than by blood line.
President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had named Colosio to lead
the long ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). That
should have made him a sure winner in the impending election.
The assassination is more important to Canadians because our
Prime Minister, Jean Chretien was a visitor to Mexico at the time.
Canadian Press quotes Chretien, "We are confident that this
dreadful act of terrorism will not deter the people of Mexico in
their commitment to democracy."
And democracy has a warped definition in Mexico with its
charges of fraudulent elections, flagrant violations of human
rights, organized military terror to the civilians in Chiapas,
suppression of the indigenous Mayans, and modification of Article
27 of the Mexican Constitution.
When Article 27 was quashed in the interests of NAFTA,
peasants were denied the benefits of collective ownership of the
land they work.
Your paper did not report the assassination of Mariano Perez
Diaz on March 9. Diaz was leader of a peasant organization, one of
280 grassroots organizations in Chiapas. His life and the lives of
many more who have perished were too cheap to report.
It is believed that Diaz' assassination and attacks on Bishop
Samuel Ruiz Garcia, negotiator for the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation at the peace talks, are a part of a destabilization
campaign by large landowners, merchants, and politicians who fear
their interests might be affected by successful completion of the
Peace agreement.
The Mexican government has threatened 57 priests and 21 nuns
in Chiapas and unjustly accused them of participating in the
Chiapas uprising. The Mexican government has no solid evidence of
their complicity.
Amnesty International has studied human rights abuses in
Chiapas for several years and has documented massive and arbitrary
arrests, torture, ill-treatment, and political killings. Amnesty
has confirmed recent human rights abuses including extrajudicial
executions of at least five rebels and the torture of rebel and
civilian detainees at the hands of the security forces. Amnesty
has listed the names of 14 Tzeltal Indians who have "disappeared"
and is concerned for their safety.
Many non-governmental organizations have mounted fact finding
missions to Chiapas. They have denounced a "third armed force
called 'the white guards,' who work for private citizens who in
turn control the political and economic situation" of the region.
These guards "are against those who fight for the defence of (the
people's) rights, particularly those related to land ownership."
Life is indeed cheap in Mexico.
This is the "democracy" to which the people ["administration"]
of Mexico are committed according to our Prime Minister.
Yours sincerely,
Harold P. Koehler.