More violence rocks northern Chiapas; Zapatistas reported killed
Just as the country was starting to calm down from the tension
produced by the arrests of priests and indigenous leaders near
Palenque last week, it woke up on March 15th to the news of even more
serious problems in the north of Chiapas. On Friday, March 14th, the
small community of San Pedro Nichtalucum, in the municipality of El
Bosque (north and slightly west of San Crist?bal), was the site of
escalated violence involving members of the PRI and PRD parties, as
well as civilian Zapatistas.
The municipality of El Bosque--like many regions of Chiapas--had been
the site of post-electoral conflicts between the PRI and PRD since
1995. San Pedro Nichtalucum is a small ejido in which members of the
PRI are a majority; nevertheless, it is located within the autonomous
municipality of El Bosque, governed by the PRD opposition.
According to police reports, on Thursday, March 13th, members of the
the Union of Indigenous Communities of the North of Chiapas
(Uncizon)--an organization whose members support the PRD and are
allied with the EZLN in the zone--took over the offices of a municipal
agency in San Pedro, demanding to know where the government resources
allocated to the community were actually going. They held four local
PRI authorities as prisoners inside.
In retaliation, a group of pri?stas from San Pedro then kidnapped 12
militants of the Uncizon. At 1:00 am on the 14th, the state judicial
police were contacted by the pri?stas, and asked to intervene on their
behalf. The police claim that they arrived at about 11:00 am on March
14th, backed up by 200 elements of the public security forces. They
proceeded to "free" the PRI authorities held by the Uncizon, and then
arrested the members of the Uncizon being held by the PRI. They
further claim that the fighting started when they were "ambushed" by
members of the Uncizon while taking those detained out of the area. A
"battle" supposedly ensued, in which at least five Zapatistas or
perredistas were killed, 27 arrested and badly beaten (including some
identified by local PRI authorities as "Zapatista leaders"), and at
least 6 police wounded. The police called for reinforcements, and
about 500 elements of the public security forces arrived over the
course of the day, backed up by several convoys of Mexican Army
troops.
The story of the campesinos who survived the events, however, is quite
different from that told by police. According to those who became
refugees following the brutality of March 14th, the problems started
the night of the 13th, when a group of drunk PRI militants picked a
fight with members of the Uncizon, following the latter's takeover of
the municipal agency office earlier in the day. (At this point, it was
a PRI-PRD conflict, without direct involvement of the civilian
Zapatistas in the zone).
The PRI militants took members of the Uncizon captive, however, and
some of the Zapatistas then went out with the Uncizon members in order
to free their companeros. The following morning, a band of about 30
pri?stas kidnapped two young Zapatistas, of 16 and 18 years of age,
and held them captive until they were driven off by another small
group of perredistas and Zapatistas.
But the pri?stas, according to the testimonies, then simply went to
the other side of the village and "captured" six men from a family,
all Zapatistas, who were apparently not even aware of the problems of
that morning. The six were tied and beaten.
It was then when the Zapatistas of the community met in mini-assembly
and decided to capture six PRI militants, in order to exchange them
for their own companeros being held by the PRI. In the end, they
captured four, including a local official of the PRI. Next, they
approached the PRI militants to see if they were in agreement with the
"prisoner exchange". The response was clear: "No, we aren't in
agreement, what we're in agreement with is killing your Zapatista
friends. We'll take care of all of them right here".
Shortly thereafter, the helicopters arrived. Two of them flew low over
the ejido of San Pedro, low enough for the campesinos on the ground to
distinguish the ejido's commissioner, Sebasti?n P?rez P?rez--from the
PRI--pointing out particular houses to others in the helicopters, and
then landed a short distance away.
Then came the public security forces and the judicial police. First,
they went to where the six Zapatistas were being held and beaten, and
promptly arrested them, supposedly for the kidnapping of the PRI's
militants.
As one element of the security forces then tried to leave the
community with the Zapatista prisoners, they ran into a roadblock made
of large stones, placed by the Zapatistas and the members of the
Uncizon so as to keep the police from leaving with their compa?eros.
The cars stopped at the roadblock; but as they were being approached
by the unarmed Zapatistas in order to negotiate the liberation of the
prisoners, the police opened fire.
According to the survivors, it was an unequal battle
from the start: the campesinos were only armed with what they could
pick off the ground when they were fired upon. Immediately thereafter,
the helicopters began opening fire from the air; and in a matter of
minutes, the Mexican Army arrived with a convoy of troops.
When it was all over, according to women from the community who gave
their testimony to La Jornada journalist Hermann Bellinghausen, the
army had entered every house in the community signalled out as
"Zapatista", and destroyed it. All the civilian supporters of the
EZLN, the PRD, or the Uncizon who didn't manage to escape into the
surrounding hills or fields, were either killed or taken prisoner.
The community heath promotor for San Pedro--herself a witness to the
events--said there were at least 4 dead (including one injured man who
was then shot at point-blank range); an undetermined number of
wounded; 27 people arrested, some of whom had been beaten so badly
"they might die in Tuxtla"; and two children of 8 and 9 years were
reported missing.
As of March 16th, the community of San Pedro had been virtually sealed
off by the security forces, and none of those who were driven out by
the army were being allowed back inside. Thus, it is still difficult
to know exactly what the current situation is inside the village, and
if the death, injury, and arrest tolls being reported are truly
accurate. Nor has there been any word yet about the whereabouts of the
prisoners themselves, although it is assumed they were taken to Tuxtla
Gutierrez (the state capital of Chiapas).
Comments: joshua@peak.org
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Zapata Vive!
Visit the official web sites of the
Zapatista Front of National Liberation:
http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/
http://spin.com.mx/~floresu/FZLN/
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