The social unrest in Mexico is at a peak. Indigenous campesino
organizations have been and are under heavy attack by government and
paramilitary forces. The Association Human Rights de las Etnias de Chiapas
reports seven men who were originally reported kidnapped have been found
dead in Chenola, just outside of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Two
have been identified as students and five others, now being recovered, are
at the bottom of a 100ft. deep cave.
Prior to the rebel attacks investigators from the Organization of American
States (OAS), criticized the failure of the Mexican government to punish
all responsible for the Aguas Blancas massacre of indigenous and later
warned that the militarization of the country could result in serious human
rights violations.
Paramilitary groups whose unofficial number is 1,500, are presumed to be
responsible. The paramilitary groups are currently operative in Mexico,
where crime rose by more than 30 percent from 1994 to 1995 and police
corruption led the government to sack dozens of agents and put the military
in charge of the security forces.
The majority of such groups are at the service of drug traffickers, local
bosses or large land-owners from areas with large indigenous populations,
like the southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, where the main
operations of the new rebel group have been concentrated.
Paramilitary members of OPEZ of the PRI, a faction of OPEZ-BFP that were
expelled from the campesino organization for aligning themselves with the
PRI government, have been jailed, after massive protest, for forced land
evacuation, destruction of villages, assassination and beatings of OPEZ-BFP
members.
Opposition politicians and human rights organizations have warned that
rights abuses and militarization of the country are only likely to
generate more sympathy for the Popular Army. Peasant groups charge that
many abuses against peasants occur in remote villages and are never
formally reported; they have already documented several cases.
The majority of paramilitary groups are said to be working for wealthy land
owners aligned with the PRI party and organized in an association of cattle
ranchers. Over a year ago, cattle ranchers were accused of threatening nuns
at the hospital in Altamirano and staging a massive protest against Bishop
Samuel Ruiz.
The People's Revolutionary Army, using the Spanish acronym (EPR), first
appeared in the state of Guerrero on June 28 at a peaceful protest marking
the first anniversary of a police massacre in Aguas Blancas of 17 peasants.
After six simultaneous attacks in southern Mexico on August 29th, an
estimated 3,000 troops and police have searched the mountains to try to
flush out the new Mexican guerrillas.
Officially, 18 people have died, including two rebels, two civilians and 14
soldiers in the coordinated EPR attacks in Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Mexico.
Reports of EPR attacks the following day in three other states - Michoacan,
Guanajuato and Puebla - have not been substantiated.
So far, the government has not had much luck in tracking down the guerrilla
group and arresting its leaders. However, 19 peasants are detained or in
jail charged with links to the group and with weapons violations. Only a
small number of arms and uniforms used by the guerrillas have been found.
The effort to track down guerrillas across the country is taxing the
limited resources of Mexico's army of 130,000 men. Since the 1994 Zapatista
uprising, most of the army have been deployed in Chiapas.
Government officials estimate the EPR's numbers at 150 to 200, but most
independent analysts place the estimate closer to 500, given the group's
geographical spread and reports of up to 80 heavily armed guerrillas
participating in a single attack.
The EPR attacks are yet one more sign that time has run out for Mexico's
archaic political system. Any chance of a stable transition to democracy is
rapidly diminishing, say political analysts. Militarily, the EPR is mobile
and favors hit-and-run tactics. According to government sources, that makes
the new guerrillas harder to track.
The EPR has said its attacks on the security forces were carried out in
self-defense, and that it doesn't want a war with the government. In a
communique it called on the government to resign, accusing it of being
opposed to a "democratic transition and justice." The guerrillas described
the attack as "a reply to the repression, kidnapping, torture and
imprisonment being carried out by the federal army and police against the
civilian population and its organizations."
The EPR has demanded the creation of a new government, the drafting of a
new constitution, the reorganization of the national economy, and the
installation of an authentic republic.
At a clandestine press conference, the EPR described themselves as a union
of 14 armed organizations with roots stemming from the 60s and 70s. The
organizations mentioned are: el Partido Revolucionaria Obrera Clandestion
Union del Pueblo (PROCUP), el Comando Francisco Villa, el Comando Morelos,
Comandos Armandos Mexicanos, la Brigada Genaro Vazquez, la Brigada Vicente
Guerrero, la Brigada Obera de Autodefensas, la Brigada 18 de Mayo, la
Brigada Campesina de Ajusticiamiento, el Partido de los Probres y la
Organizacion Revolucionaria Armada del Pueblo, la ORAP,and la Organizacion
Revolucionaria Ricardo Flores Magon.
Roderic Camp, a Mexico specialist at Tulane University in New Orleans says,
"their impact will be determined by how successful they are at evading the
Army and keeping up these attacks. At first glance, they don't seem all
that significant, but they do have an impact in several ways."
Camp predicts stepped-up patrols around the country where the EPR have been
active could increase tensions between the Army and the rural population.
Social unrest due to unbearable living conditions blamed on globalization
and neo-liberal policies have been the theme of protest marches in most
states.
In a September 3 EPR communique, the guerrillas affirmed that, "the
continuance of criminal neo-liberal policies imposed by force, which has
subjected the people of Mexico to hunger, misery, repression and political
oppression and the protection of high government officials from
underhanded crimes, thefts and fraud against the society demonstrates
that the current government is a vile instrument of the oligarchy and
foreign interests."
Observers predict during the patriot holiday of Sept. 16, "Independence
Day" vast protest marches and scattered attacks by guerrillas may occur.
Mexico's 31 state governors and four Cabinet minister officials met in the
capital at the Interior Ministry to discuss action against the Popular
Revolutionary Army. Presently, Mexican oil installations, power plants and
electricity towers are under strict surveillance to prevent any attack that
could endanger the population's fuel supply.
To refresh our memories, United States Defense Secretary William Perry meet
with Mexican Defense Secretary Enrique Cervantes Aguirre in Washington last
April to discuss joint military exercises,weapon system development and
exchange of military officers and training in each others institutions
which are already under way or in the planning stages.
National Defense Secretary Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, along with the
Commander of the VII Military Region that controls Tabasco and Chiapas,
Mario Renan Castillo Fernandez, and 36th Zone Commander, Jorge Gonzalez
Betancourt, inspected construction of new military facilities at the IV
Regiment of Caballeria Motorizada in Tapachula and the 36th Military Zone.
Construction was completed in Zone 16 and the Copalar Military Air Base,
the 83 Infantry Batallion in Comitan, the major infrastructure of Sed and
the 39th Zone in Ocosingo, also two regiment expansions in the region of
Altamirano and Palenque. Adding to this, the Mexican Armada built new
installations at the naval base in Tonala.
Estimado todo,
I am a photojournalist and documentary film producer. My latest
documentary film on Chiapas is titled "Low-Intensity War and
Neo-Liberalism." Currently I am in post production of footage I took in
Guatemala this summer. The subject matter concerns land struggles and
grass root Mayan organizations. I have a television series called Mayan
Prepective that will begin airing on Austin Access TV in October. My films
will aslo be shown in Houston, Texas. I would like to link up with others
who are access TV producers in hopes of airing my documentaries in other
cities. I am also interested in airing other current films about native
struggles and culture.
Patricia Moore