Rising Tensions in Mexico
Assassinations and Attacks Against Civilian Organizations in Chiapas
While the rebels wait in the jungle for a military
confrontation, the repression in Chiapas is taking place on the
local level. Starting with the assassination of a local leader
and PRD organizer, Roberto Hernandez Paniagua, in the town of
Jaltenango La Paz on September 6, killings, attacks,
provocations and threats have been unleashed upon the local
organized population. The declaration that appears below,
released by the Chiapas State Democratic Assembly, details the
repression of just the past few days. The State Democratic
Assembly was formed in June by campesino, PRD, non-governmental
and women's organizations within the state.
The Zapatista rebels released a communique on the 16th of
September saying that they will not stand by and watch the
repression of the civil resistance movement. They accused the
government of augmenting the number of Federal soldiers within
the state to 50,000, and stated their willingness to reenter
into armed confrontation. They declared themselves in a state of
alert.
What appear to be government-engineered provocations have
made the situation all the more volatile. Armed men with
bandannas over their faces attacked the town hall of Teopisca
yesterday. Among campesino groups, infiltrators have provoked
armed confrontations. Recently a landowner was killed in the
county of La Trinitaria and the blame was immediately placed
upon a local campesino organization. The government used this as
an excuse to begin violently attacking the houses of members of
this organization.
DECLARATION OF THE STATE DEMOCRATIC ASSEMBLY OF CHIAPAS
The state government has chosen to repress the members of our
assembly that participate in actions of civil resistance,
actions which are a response to the demands of popular will and
a response to the social problems of the state. There is a
campaign of repression and persecution against members of
organizations which are participating in civil resistance, in
particular the Independent Statewide Coalition of Indigenous and
Campesino Organizations (CEIOC).
In Chicomusclo, on the 17th and 18th of September, the
state police (Seguridad Publica) surrounded a meeting of the
OPEZ-CNPA (Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization - National
Coalition of the Plan de Ayala), members of the CEOIC in that
region.
The 17th of September in the town of Rodulfo Figueroa,
county of Trinitaria, 20 members of the Judicial Police
violently entered and ransacked the houses of the following
members of the CEOIC; Antonio Hernandez Perez, Celerino Perez
Alvarado, Reynaldo Perez, Luis Perez Maldonaldo, Reynaldo Perez
Jimenez, Constantino Alvarez and Margarito Hernandez.
In this case the police arrived in three white pick-ups,
accompanied by a red one which belongs to one of the landowners
of the region. Three men have been detained and their
whereabouts are still unknown. Their names are Margarito
Hernandez, Mario Hernandez Hernandez and Romaldo Vazquez Lopez.
Various minors and women were beaten, especially the sons of
Colerino Perez and his family.
It was verified that there are 30 arrest warrants for
members of this organization in the towns of Rodulfo Figueroa,
El Lagartero and El Recrea, issued by the judge in the district
of Comitan.
Today, the 19th of September, in the county of Suchiate,
the state police violently expelled 300 campesinos, members of
the OPEZ (Emiliano Zapata People's Organization), who had taken
the land belonging to the plantation La Herradura.
At 8:00 AM more than 700 police officers entered the land
takeover by force, arrested 300 farmworkers and forced them into
a truck in order to take them away. Passing through the town of
La Libertad, the townspeople there found out about what was
happening and mobilized themselves to block the taking away of
their fellow farmworkers. This provoked a confrontation that
lasted until 11:00 AM, and in that period of time the police
received reinforcement from helicopters. In the end the
townspeople freed their fellow campesinos. Nevertheless, another
group of campesinos was detained, and among them are the
brothers Melquiades and Carmelino Villareal, who were badly
beaten for having resisted at the landtakover.
During the attack, the police threw teargas bombs,
including in the area of the schools of the town, with the
result that children were injured.
The population is outraged and organized a protest march
from La Libertad to the county seat of Suchiate, in which
participated campesinos and teachers; it is expected that other
communities will join the march. At 4:00 PM a press conference
will be held in Tapachula.
That same day another raid of a land takeover took place in
Suchiate. At 12:00 PM campesinos from the OPEZ were brutally
expelled from Dorado Nuevo. The state police destroyed houses,
burnt all the belongings of the campesinos and beat dozens of
people. The police forced women, children and men onto a large
truck and took them away with an unknown destination.
The government did not keep its word in beginning the
expulsions without prior warning.
The 4th of September, as a part of civil resistance,
campesinos of the OPEZ took 26 commercial banana plantations in
the coastal region, 10 of which belong to multinational
companies, both German and North American. The 11th of
September in Tuxtla Gutierrez, an agreement was reached with the
governor Javier Lopez Moreno in which he committed to give over
800 hectares by Thursday the 16th, and in return the campesinos
would disoccupy the land takeovers. The night of the 18th the
governor declared on television that the members of the CEOIC
had not kept their part of the agreement, for which reason
expulsions would begin. Without previous warning to the
campesinos, the police expelled them the next day.
There also have been death threats against the members of
the Assembly. In Ixtapa, the leaders Hipolito Perez Coutino,
Pedro Lopez Hernandez and Porfiro Sanchez Guillen, among others,
were threatened with death by the ex-members of the PRI town
government, Jose Gomez Cameras and Juan Antonio Bonifaz Centeno.
In Tila, Efrain Vasquez Gomez, social leader of the county,
received anonymous kidnapping threats on the 18th of September.