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/* Written 9:26 AM Feb 17, 1995 by moonlight in igc:reg.mexico */
/* ---------- "Jornada (Eng) We want food, not arm" ---------- */
La Jornada, Feb. 16 pg. 7
*Close to Patihuitz, a battalion of 600 military personnel*
*Terror of residents telling about discovery of nine bodies*
*We ask for healthcare and education, they sent us the Army:
Indigenous say*
Juan Antonio Zuniga, reporter, Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas,
Feb. 15
Through a one lane opening in the jungle, you get to one of
the most forgotten corners of Mexico, completed inhabited by
indigenous people, principally tzltales and tojolables.
Here, where the animals graze at the foot of the hillsides
and the men "bats'il k'op" have been abandoned with the
worst work on very poor lands. The Mexican Army stopped its
offensive 300 meters from the village of Patihuitz and
changed its war face to that of social assistance.
Next to an armored vehicle a hundred bags of food stay
untouched--two kilos of corn flower, three bags of pasta, a
liter of fortified milk, and a kilo of beans. Two powerful
speakers fill the afternoon's air with music on February 14,
and a banner "Mexican Army: The Social Voice in Support of
the People of Chiapas" invites all to come.
Meanwhile, in their assembly, the community--half of it,
because the other half has fled for refuge in the mountains-
complains: "This is what the government has given us, and we
need healthcare, education, housing, potable water, and
electricity. We have been asking for these things for many
years, since the time of our ancestors and they send us the
Army."
In the jungle it is easy to to find a battallion of 600
soldiers, who, amongst an array of 81mm morter rounds,
prepare their food with butane gas, in an area where
traditionally they cook using firewood.
The military column, billeted just a few meters from
Patihuitz--90 kilometers into the heart of the jungle--has
among its arsenal six armored tank-like vehicles, some of
which have powerful cannons with an unknown projectile
range, but which surely is not less than one kilometer in
distance.
The passage of the military convoys through the tight dirt
roads which lead to the villages, which do not have any
means of communication with the exterior other than the
radio, has left the communities of Axlumal, Nueva Estrella
and La Garrucha practically without any inhabitants. In
this last spot residents, whose faces show their terror,
state that they found nine people dead. They did not say
neither how nor where they were. They were only willing to
tell that they were buried at a farm nearby in a common
grave. However, it was not possible to verify such stories
nor the origin of various very loud noises which appeared to
be coming from La Garrucha and certainly were heard by
residents in various communities.
In the village of San Miguel, almost at the point that the path
splits, with ne way going in the direction of Monte Libano and
the other to Patihuitz, its residents also met in assembly, as
it is the traditional custom in these isolated areas, to solve
their problems. The federal army billeted itself in their
territory on Saturday February 11. They cut off the supply of
water to the community, and the troop used it, to bathe
themselves and wash their clothes, the clean water that is saved
in a storehouse for when the "dry" season comes.
In the community's primary school, called Benito Juarez, la
International Red Cross has been running a hospital for the
past year. There the residents of San Miguel now take
shelter, terrified. They do not want to go to their homes,
located just a few yards away. Men, women and children have
gone five days without working. There is hunger.
A sign on the door of the patio of the school says
"reporters are forbidden to enter the hospital".
In each community not yet abandoned the demand is the same,
in various forms of saying, "We do not want the federal army
on our land, we do not want more harassment, we want
everything to go back to normal, but without the federal
troops."
One important part of this community--where the malnutrition
of the children contrasts with the health of the cattle that
graze on the pastures in the lower lands--retreated into the
mountains with the members of the EZLN. "When we were with
the Zapatista Army we weren't afraid, except for the
possible start of the war, but between them, the Zapatistas
and the federal troops. They never bothered us. We are
brothers and sisters of the same race, and we know that we
understand their struggle, although we do not participate
with them."
The Nueva Estrella collective farm appears to be a ghost
town. Famished gs that see without understanding why
their owners left, chickens that cackle along with their
chicks, pigs and some half destroyed huts and tunnels with
small bottles of oil.
The military presence is constant, but the iron-willed
obstinacy that had kept these communities basically
completely isolated for more than 72 hours contrasts with
the serious amiability of the troops and officials after
noon on February 14th.
In some part of the jungle, Mario, a Zapatista militiaman,
gives his opinion: "The president knows that the causes that
began our movement are just, but since he is filled with
lies, just like all politicians, he has decided to respond
with repression nd not with anything to meet the needs of
our children, of our women. We do not want to live on our
knees, and for this reason we have decide to live with
dignity with our fmilies, working our lands, but without
the oppression of the powerful as it has always been for
many years and because of which all our ancestors died."
Question: Do you want the dialogue (between government and
EZLN)?
Answer: " I've said it already. If the government wants to
keep its word like a man, then let's go, but if it wants to
act like bastard, then so will we."
Another militiaman, Miguel, talked about the destruction in
some of the villages in the jungle. "There are many that are
not our people, but everyone knows how the federal army is,
detaining not whom they should but who pays them, and for
this reason many abandoned their homes withut taking
anything."
The jungle has many places. But basically it is split by
two large dirt roads and many paths. Everyone seems to live
in the same poverty and abandonment. In each ofthe
communities the residents make their decisions through an
assembly.
900 yards away from Patihuitz, the federal army stopped its
offensive in this direction. After insisting for two days, a
caravan of human rights defenders, made up of members of the
Pastors for Peace, University Radio for Democracy, and
Doctors Without Borders, among others, was able to get to
the community. "At their own risk and responsibility" they
came to Patihuitz, a community of some 110 families and more
than 500 residents, of which nearly half had abandoned their
lands and the rest had gone for five days without going out
to work because of the military presence.
In the assembly they lay out their demands. "We don't want
bags of food, we want tractors. This (showing the contents
of a bag of food that a lieutenant who spoke tzeltal and two
soldiers brought to the building) we can produce ourselves,
but we need good land."
Another voice interceded: "They erased article 27 (of the
Constitution). There is land. We are in the middle of the
hills like opposums. We want to be treated as equals. We
never eat like the government does, like the rich do. We
eat like animals, not like human beings."
A young tzeltal person expressed his concern " because our
grandmothers and elderly cannot walk and to leave fleeing,
they couldn't do it. If the army comes into the village,
the women and children will flee."
The lieutenant announced to them that he would attend to the
community's medical needs. The soldiers left the two bags of
food, but no one moved, they looked at him but they acted
like no one had heard him, their eyes hardened.
There remained the two bags, in front of the atrium of the
small temple. Here nothing more than beans and tortillas
are eaten, but they would not accept the bags of food, which
by the next day -February 15th- had grown to more than 100
bags, resting in the shade of an armored vehicle without
anyone collecting them. Although they were free, and
although hunger grows stronger.
(translated by Cindy Arnold, volunteer, National Commission
for Democracy in Mexico)
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