EYEWITNESS CHIAPAS
Report from a war zone
By Bill Hackwell
Chiapas, Mexico
Hackwell is a photo-journalist who participated in an
emergency Pastors for Peace caravan from the United States to
Chiapas, Mexico, in early May. The delegation delivered 32 tons
of humanitarian aid to eight Indigenous communities and the San
Carlos Hospital in Altamirano.
Tt has been over two years since the Mexican
government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)
signed the San Andreas accords. These officially recognized the
right of Indigenous communities to choose their own leaders and
control the natural resources in their territories.
Members of the Pastors for Peace caravan that visited
Chiapas in May could see immediately that the Mexican
government is not respecting this agreement. Instead of moving
towards peace, Chiapas is a war zone.
It reminds me of how Vietnam looked when I photographed the
war there 30 years ago.
Just to get to the Chiapas border, the emergency caravan had
to go through 15 military checkpoints inside Mexico. Once in
Chiapas, we saw many Mexican Army convoys and military bases
using U.S.-supplied hardware, ranging from Humvees and assault
helicopters to army uniforms and everything in between.
Mexico and Colombia are the main recipients of U.S. military
aid in Latin America. Over one-third of all officers being
trained at Fort Benning's School of the Americas are now from
the Mexican Army.
The "low-intensity, counter-insurgency" war being carried
out against the Indigenous population here is made in the
U.S.
U.S. military sales to Mexico rose from $4.8 million in 1996
to $28 million in 1997. Since President Ernesto Zedillo took
office in December 1994, spending on the military has
doubled.
The cost rests on the backs of the Mexican workers.
Autonomous communities
Despite this growing military presence, autonomous
communities that have broken away from control by the ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) continue to
survive.
Of 110 municipalities in Chiapas, 38 have declared
themselves autonomous communities. This is defined by setting
up a ruling council unconnected to the PRI and refusing help
from the government.
The caravan visited eight autono mous communities. Near each
one there was a big Mexican Army presence.
This included checkpoints, army encampments complete with
assault vehicles, and active patrols in full combat gear.
Indigenous community leaders told us that they are on red
alert because of increased activity by the Army and other state
and federal security forces. The heightened tension throughout
Chiapas has halted all development projects and disrupted
agricultural activity. Basic food crops like corn and beans
were not planted this spring in many communities because of
fear that the crops would be burned or people attacked in the
fields.
In the EZLN highland center of Oventic, Comandante Moises
inventoried antibiotics and other medicines brought by the
caravan. He stood in front of a community medical clinic
adorned with murals of Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano
Zapata, Che Guevara and masked Indigenous women.
At a public amphitheater nearby, large poles with pointed
ends stick out of the ground. Moises explained they are to
prevent military helicopters from landing.
"There are Army night patrols that come into the center," he
said, "and we are constantly harassed by the helicopters that
fly very low. The army will not do this while you are here, or
as long as the international observers stay."
Importance of
international observers
The solidarity of international observers has become
essential in the defense of the autonomous communities.
Acteal is the village where 45 unarmed men, women and
children were brutally massacred in December. A sign there
reads: "Welcome to national and international
compañeros. We do not accept people from the
government."
While the EZLN and its supporters encourage the observers,
the Zedillo government is on the attack against them. The
Mexican government is waging a war of genocide and does not
want eyewitnesses to tell the world about it.
Since 1996, some 200 foreigners have been expelled from
Mexico for "meddling in the country's internal affairs." The
number of international observers today may be as few as
45.
Mexican immigration officials told the newspaper Reforma
that agents were searching for 40 foreigners in Chiapas who are
acting as human rights observers "without the correct
visas."
The "correct" way is to register with the government and get
an FM3 visa, which specifies where you can go and what you can
do. But observers applying for an FM3 are usually turned down.
Most people come to Mexico on a tourist visa. That has now
become a pretext for expulsion.
At most military checkpoints we encountered immigration
agents as well as Judicial Police. In April the newspaper
Novedades actually published a list, complete with visa
numbers, of 47 foreigners acting as human-rights observers.
The real meddling
While Zedillo attacks foreigners sympathetic to the
Indigenous people of Chiapas, the real interventionists in
Mexico are the International Monetary Fund and U.S.
corporations.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in
January 1994, the Mexican government's debt has reached $170
billion. That has set off a fire sale of national industries
once protected by the Mexican Constitution.
U.S. companies are poised to buy all 57 airports in Mexico,
as well as essential railroad and telecommunication lines. The
national oil company, Pemex, remains nationalized-but 78
percent of the oil it produces goes to the U.S. to pay loan
interest.
While Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico, it is the
richest in untapped resources. It contains 81 percent of
Mexico's crude oil reserves. U.S. corporations see the
Zapatista movement as an obstacle to the exploitation of this
area.
On Jan. 13, 1995, Chase Manhattan Bank's Emerging Markets
Group wrote in a memo: "While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not
pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is
perceived to be so by many in the investment community. The
government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demo
nstrate their effective control of the national territory and
of security policy."
Low-intensity warfare
and paramilitary groups
Right after the release of this Chase Manhattan memo, the
newly elected Zedillo government took its cue from the U.S.
financial institutions to which it is mortgaged. In February
1995 it launched a two-part offensive against the Zapatistas
and the EZLN communities.
Today over 70,000 armed troops and security forces are
stationed in Chiapas. Most are camped in the eastern part near
the Lacandon forest, where the Zapatista army is strongest.
The intent is to cut off and isolate the EZLN from the
autonomous communities in the center of the state.
The other significant part of the government offensive is
the growth of paramilitary groups armed and financed by the
PRI. These groups are terrorist organizations similar to the Ku
Klux Klan in the United States.
According to La Jornada newspaper, since 1996 these groups
have killed over 800 people. They have conducted a campaign of
burning homes and looting Indigenous crops.
The Dec. 22 Acteal massacre of 45 unarmed Tzotzil Indians
was carried out by one of these groups, armed with army-issued
assault rifles. An elite Army unit had been seen with the
paramilitaries the day before the massacre.
According to Enlace Civil, the civilian link to the EZLN in
San Cristobal de las Casas, over 22,000 Indigenous people have
been displaced and are living in the mountains or in refugee
camps as a direct result of paramilitary terror sanctioned by
the Mexican government.
Women on the front lines
As our caravan neared the auto no mous village of Polho, we
saw rows of women, their faces covered, guarding the entrance.
U.S.-military-issued Hum vees patrolled the main road.
Yet the women were not intimidated. They have been
conducting a heroic front-line defense of many of these
communities. Here, and in the neighboring village of X'oyep,
women with babies on their backs have repeatedly repulsed Army
patrols trying to enter.
Their determined faces reflect a struggle that predates the
Zapatista uprising by 500 years.
The flashpoint of the struggle recently shifted to a small,
isolated commu nity in the eastern canyons of
Chiapas-Taniperlas.
The town had declared itself autonomous on April 10.
Immediately, Mexican Army troops along with Judicial and Public
Security Police invaded the newly independent community.
Twelve international observers were arrested and deported.
Six Mexican nationalists were imprisoned. Hundreds of military
troops continue to occupy the community.
Some 140 male EZLN supporters fled to the surrounding
mountains while women and children remain under house
arrest.
The emergency caravan decided on April 24 to attempt to
deliver food and messages of peace to the people of Taniperlas.
After driving 75 miles from Ocosingo on a small dirt road, we
delivered seven tons of rice, beans, corn, sugar and salt to
the displaced men in the highlands.
It was carried on the backs of mules, EZLN supporters and
the caravanistas. As the sun began to go down, the aid was
safely carried away from the heavily patrolled road to
Taniperlas.
When asked how they would get the food into the occupied
town, the men smiled and said, "We have our ways."
Paramilitaries harass caravan
The next morning the caravan proceeded to the town. The Rev.
Lucius Walker informed public security agents and PRI
sympathizers that the caravan was there on a pastoral
visit.
It was at this point that paramilitary members allied with
the PRI appeared. Many had clubs.
Unfazed, members of the caravan joined in a prayer for peace
and then proceeded to leave. Frustrated at the success of the
caravan's mission, the PRI sympathizers tried to block the road
and threw a rock, breaking one of the vehicle's windows.
This incident got international media attention-not the
occupation by the military. The reports made it sound as though
the people were hostile to the caravan.
The solidarity movement worldwide needs to continue to
expose the U.S. government's role in the Mexican ruling class's
war of extermination against the Indigenous population. The war
in Chiapas has slipped from the headlines, but this should not
be taken as a sign that the struggle is over.
In many respects the situation is more grave. More
confrontations are sure to come. The popular movement in Mexico
not only welcomes international observers, but says they are
urgently needed to expose the insidious warfare being conducted
against them.
Editor's note: On May 11, the Mexican government deported 40
Italians who had come to Chiapas as human-rights
supporters.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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