160 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
160 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
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Report from Chiapas, Mexico
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INDIGENOUS PEOPLE VS. DIRTY WAR
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By Gloria La Riva
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San Crist"bal, Chiapas, Mexico
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While the Mexican government talks peace, its actions speak
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otherwise. The Salinas government is at war with the indigenous
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people of Chiapas. And the war is widening.
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The Salinas government's Commission for Peace and Reconciliation,
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headed by Manuel Camacho Solis, spent several days traveling to
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small villages in Chiapas with well-publicized "caravans of
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peace."
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But as the "peace caravan" was winding its way to Las Margaritas
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Jan. 13, a column of 20,000 Mexican troops--the most ever
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assembled in Chiapas--advanced toward the region of Guadalupe
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Tepeyac near the Guatemalan border.
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The column was preparing for what the Mexican military calls a
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"final offensive" against the Zapatistas in its Bulletin No. 13.
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During the so-called cease-fire, combat between the Mexican army
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and Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) was reported in the
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Tzetzal villages of San Miguel Patathe, Cuvi, Celicias, Patihitz,
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Rio Blanco, Balaxle and Bamalha.
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Guadalupe Tepeyac is a jungle area southeast of San Crist"bal. It
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is mainly populated by Tojolabal people, one of nine major Mayan
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peoples.
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DANGER OF A MASSIVE ATTACK BY ARMY
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Although the army offensive appears to be postponed, the danger
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of a massive attack exists as long as the deployment remains.
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Since Jan. 2, the Zapatistas have held Absalon Castellanos
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Dominguez captive in that area. Castellanos is a notorious
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landlord and former governor of Chiapas. As military commander of
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Chiapas for 12 years, Castellanos conducted brutal campaigns
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whenever Indians tried to organize.
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Mexican army troops sow fear in the villages they occupy and pass
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through. In the Chilin neighborhood of Chanal, a village 30 miles
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east of San Crist"bal, the Mexican army arrested and tortured 21
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Indian villagers on Jan. 8.
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Soldiers then took them 90 miles from their homes before
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releasing them several days later.
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The Zapatistas are calling for the removal of army troops from
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Chiapas as one of the conditions to consider peace talks.
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Many indigenous and Mestizo activists have little reason to
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believe the government's claims it seeks peace. People who would
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not give their names for fear of reprisal talked about a long
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history of government forces grossly violating basic human rights
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with severe beatings, killings and disappearances.
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Roger Maldonado, a Mexican human-rights activist with the
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organization CONPAZ in San Crist"bal, said: "The government is
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now waging a dirty war, repression against the indigenous people
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of Chiapas. This is why they are using heavy force from the
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start."
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Marta Figueroa, an attorney with a women's rights group in San
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Crist"bal, said that the federal government refuses to allow the
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International Red Cross to provide medical aid or food.
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Down a winding road from San Crist"bal de las Casas to Ocosingo
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50 miles away, two cars stopped to get directions from three
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Indian men. Asked if they had been affected by the war, one man
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spoke with obvious fear.
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He whispered, "We can't gather here, we can't talk." Mexican army
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soldiers were visible along the road.
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Camacho's government "Peace Caravan" had just passed by five
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minutes before, but it provided little comfort to him.
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The Mexican army is carrying out a systematic operation of
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search, arrest and intimidation. This operation follows the
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campaign of bombing in the mountains during the early days of the
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war, which caused many casualties.
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The government denies bombing deaths and repression of civilians.
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But conversations with villagers contradict the government.
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Helicopters constantly fly overhead. They are U.S. helicopters,
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many purchased supposedly for the so-called drug war.
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CLASS STRUGGLE IN OCOSINGO
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The town of Ocosingo was the scene of the heaviest combat between
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the Zapatistas and Mexican army. One woman there said 150 people
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died from government bombings in her neighborhood of San
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Sebastian, more than the government admits died in the whole
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uprising.
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Ocosingo residents courageously denounced the army's repression
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against them. Some openly sympathize with the Zapatista demands.
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One man said, "The guerrillas, the compa$eros, never mistreated
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anyone in the village."
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In Chiapas, the class struggle is clearly divided between the
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campesinos--mostly Indians--and the large landlord growers of
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corn and coffee. The right-wing forces are now mobilizing to
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support the occupying army and to help intimidate the campesinos.
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In Ocosingo, these right wingers--mostly landlords and
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middle-class residents--marched through the streets shouting
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"down with human rights." They also pressured people to sign a
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paper calling for the continued presence of the Mexican army.
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Those refusing to sign face reprisals.
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PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE
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The government claims it wants peace--but it apparently really
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means to impose "pacification" at the hands of the army, peace
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without justice, without improvement in the desperate economic
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conditions.
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One man said, "We are only paid 5,000 pesos [$1.70] by the
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ranchers, and they even try to lower our wages to 3,000 or 4,000
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pesos [$1 to $1.33] a day." The minimum wage in Mexico is about
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$4 a day, hardly enough to survive.
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Everywhere, the poverty is intense and widespread. The struggle
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in Chiapas is clearly not over. The Zapatistas, the thousands of
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peasants who took up arms, even with wooden rifles and spears,
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did so because they have no other alternative.
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The Zapatistas also speak for tens of millions of indigenous and
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poor people throughout Mexico and Latin America.
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Oswaldo Guayasamin, famed Ecuadoran painter, said that because of
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the Zapatista uprising "a strong response could arise among
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indigenous peoples throughout Latin America, Guatemala, Brazil,
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Peru, Ecuador."
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-30-
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(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
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if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World,
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55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.)
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