Neither Legislators nor Bishops have been able to hold back "the other
war" in Chiapas; more than 80 murders since 1994
Julio C?sar L?pez, translated by Duane Ediger
Limar Chiapas -- Neither the visit of the Bishops, the legislators and
representatives of human rights organizations, nor the pilgrimages in the
northern part of the state, primarily in Tila, Tumbal?, Sabanilla and Salto
de Agua, have been able to assuage the violence between the two sides in
the northern zone of Chiapas.
On one side is the organization Arriera Nocturna (Night teams(?)), formed
by campesinos considered to be the bases of support for the EZLN; on the
other side is "Paz y Justicia," a paramilitary group presumed to be
financed by the PRI. Both set the scene for "the other war" that,
according to according to a commission of the Mexican Bishops' Conference
(CEM), "is more cruel than that of January 1994, in the highland zone."
The last confrontation occurred in the early morning of Friday, April 25,
in a section of the road named "Francisco Villa-Emiliano Zapata," in
Sabanilla municipality, when state police officers were attacked while
transferring a detained person to Tuxtla Gutierrez. Officer Gabriel
Galdamez S?nchez died, as did one of the aggressors, who as of Friday
afternoon was not identified.
During a trip of this reporter to the zone, awaiting the arrival of the
commissions to interview those affected on both sides, Proceso received
testimonies of widows, orphans and survivors of some acts of violence.
In recent days the Bishops' Commission for Peace and Reconciliation of the
CEM, headed by Bishop Sergio Obeso, and the Congressional Commission on
Concord and Pacification (COCOPA) toured the zone, taking affidavits and
testimonies about the confrontations.
It was members of "Paz y Justicia," until now the more accused of provoking
the murders and other acts of violence, who took advantage of the visits to
defend themselves and denounce, according to them, the murder of their
sympathizers by members of the EZLN.
In Limar, the reporter interviewed two of the principal leaders of the
alleged paramilitary group "Paz y Justicia." Marcos Albino L?pez Torres
and Raymundo Hern?ndez Trujillo gave their version:
"When the EZLN appeared, the members of "Arriera Nocturna"(Abux? in Chol)
began killing those who did not agree with them, those who did not want to
support the taking of municipal councils and the blockading of street.
That's why we had to organize, to defend ourselves."
"Paz y Justicia" appeared publicly on July 14, 1995, and since then chilled
(?--arreci?) the violence.
According to Raymundo Hern?ndez Trujillo, ex-member of the Tila affiliate
and Director of the organization, "There was a time when the religious
centers turned into recruiting stations. We have here testimonies of men
who began working with them, but fortunately they figured out they were
being induced to go against their own compa?eros. They reacted in time and
left."
Marcos Albino L?pez, leading member of the Tila Municipal Council, accused
of giving military instruction to the members of the organization, adds,
"It got worse because after the death of the compa?ero Nicol?s P?rez, they
made a list of the other men that were to be executed. They had the
Presidency under their power and obligated the nearby communities and
merchants to offer beans and corn for their subsistence. We couldn't do
anything about it.
"Then the communities came to a general agreement that if they aggressed
upon us again, we would detain them and hand them over to the authorities.
We had to organize, because otherwise who would held them back?"
Albino L?pez, short and of robust complexion, in the presence of the
reporter, gathered a group of widows, orphans and injured in the plaza.
Afterward, he said, "Our organization was born because their husbands were
assassinated. The children are orphans. And now you ask me if I train an
armed group. Look at the widows, at the orphans and at the injured who
still have bullets in their bodies. I can tell you, here we are, we are
unarmed and we are the ones aggressed against."
He said that forty of his compa?eros had died and an equal number had
disappeared. "The worst is that in the newspaper it always says that we
are finishing off the Abux?, and it's not so. We defend ourselves, because
we can't live under such terror.
However, the first campesino murdered in Tila, in 1994, was Pascual S?nchez
Sol?s, of the PRD, who was shot with an R-15 by mayor Jes?s Artemio Decelis
Guill?n. After that several PRI members were killed, such as Nicol?s P?rez
Ram?rez, of Panhuitz; Laureano Dom?nguez Guti?rrez y Ernesto Cruz Torres,
of Limar; Lorenzo Garc?a Garc?a, of Tzaquil, and Mateo V?zquez Pe?ate, of
Lote 8, Salto del Agua municipality.
> From 1994 to now both groups have produced a combined total of 80 deaths,
dozens of injured and disappeared and several thousand displaced.
Congress members of the PRD party have documented the murders of 38 of
their activists--among them nine minors--that they attribute to "Paz y
Justicia."
In the face of the violence in the zone, the Diocese of San Crist?bal de
las Casas sponsored a "Pilgrimage for Reconciliation and Peace" in Tila on
April 13, headed by the seven Bishops of the Episcopal Commission for Peace
and Reconciliation in Chiapas.
In the Church's atrium, replete with some 20,000 Catholic worshipers,
Sergio Obeso Rivera, Archbishop of Xalapa and President of the CEM, called
for forgiveness after hearing the testimonies about violent acts.
His voice trembling with emotion, Obeso Rivera said, "Humanly speaking,
when one hears of all the vexations our brothers and sisters are subject to,
the spontaneous response is one of disquietude, of vengeance. But we
Christians, even in the face of so much suffering, must know how to
forgive."
All of the testimonies that the CEM heard in Tila--of murders of indigenous
people, house burnings, destruction of property and rape--placed
responsibility for the attacks on "Paz y Justicia."