File spoon-archives/marxism-news.archive/marxism-news_1998/marxism-news.9801, message 5


Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 11:53:10 -0600 (CST)
From: Jose Guillermo Soto Perez <gsoto-AT-fcfm.buap.mx>
Subject: M-NEWS: [AFIB] Massacre in Chiapas (fwd)




---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 10:20:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Tom Burghardt <tburghardt-AT-igc.org>
Subject: [AFIB] Massacre in Chiapas

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                              *****
 
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|| * --  SPECIAL -- *  December 30, 1997  * --  EDITION  -- * ||
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                       * SPECIAL EDITION *
 
                              * * *
_________________________________________________________________
 
                        MASSACRE IN CHIAPAS
_________________________________________________________________
 
                             CONTENTS
                              ------
 
     1. (FZLN)   ZAPATISTA FRONT OF NATIONAL LIBERATION: Massacre
                 in Chenalho
 
     2. (LAC)    `LAS ABEJAS' OF CHENALHO, CHIAPAS: A Tragic
                 Christmas for Us
 
     3. (LJ)     LA JORNADA: Who Are the Paramilitaries?
 
     4. (GE)     GLOBAL EXCHANGE: Massacre Exposes Low-Intensity
                 War
 
     5. (NAPE)   NUEVO AMANECER PRESS - EUROPA: Clinton's
                 `Interference' in Mexico - From Wounded Knee to
                 Chiapas
 
                              * * *
 
     Counterorganization often involved the more reactionary
     social sectors that felt threatened by the insurgency (or by
     the social, racial, or religious group identified with the
     insurgency) and needed little encouragement to exercise
     violence against their social adversaries. In numerous
     counterinsurgency states, the composition of the
     counterorganizations -- the political groups, local elites,
     religious or ethnic minorities who took on special tasks and
     powers -- served to exacerbate the violence of government
     operations. Counterorganization could serve to ignite
     simmering passions of class, race, religion or ideology, and
     turn the energies released to counterinsurgent purpose (with
     the consequent intercommunal violence sometimes spinning out
     of control). The combination of counterterror with
     counterorganization could result in enormous levels of
     violence.
 
     Michael McClintock, "Instruments of Statecraft: U.S.
     Guerrilla Warfare, Counter-Insurgency, Counter-Terrorism,
     1940-1990," New York, 1992, Pantheon Books, pp. 255-256
 
                              * * *
 
           * ZAPATISTA FRONT OF NATIONAL LIBERATION *
      Web: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/massacre.html
                   - Monday, 29 December 1997 -
 
                              -----
_________________________________________________________________
 
                      MASSACRE IN CHENALHO
_________________________________________________________________
 
                                *
 
     Shortly before noon on Monday, December 22, a group of 60-70
members of a PRI-backed paramilitary group descended upon the
Tzotzil village of Acteal, in the highland Chiapas municipality
of Chenalho, where hundreds of displaced Zapatista supporters and
members of the peaceful civilian organization known as "Las
Abejas" had taken refuge.
   
     The attackers were armed with AK-47 rifles and expanding
hollow-tip bullets -- weapons which they could only have obtained
from military or police sources. They opened fire on the village
as many of its inhabitants where attending church services and
praying for peace and reconciliation in the municipality. The
slaughter continued as hundreds of people ran toward a nearby
river in a vain effort to escape.
   
     45 people are now confirmed dead (21 women, 14 children, one
infant, and 9 men), and at least 25 others have been wounded. The
bloodbath lasted five hours, during which time the Public
Security police stood by -- some no more than 200 meters away --
and refused to intervene.
   
     Since the massacre, President Zedillo has said the security
of Chiapas, as well as the "investigation" into the "incident"
will be the responsibility of the federal government. Perhaps as
a sign of this new responsibility, the federal army has declared
itself on "maximum alert", and troop units from the states of
Yucatan and Campeche have been moved into the southeastern jungle
zone of Chiapas.
   
     While Jacinto Arias Cruz (the mayor of Chenalho and a known
paramilitary leader) and 23 of his followers have now been
formally charged with murder for their participation in the
massacre, the government appears to be orchestrating a careful
cover-up of the involvement of higher officials at both the state
and national levels, and now insists that the massacre was the
result of a "local feud between three families dating back sixty
years", rather than an action taken by a government-sponsored
paramilitary organization committing mass murder in order to
destroy the Zapatista bases of support.
   
     Meanwhile, close to 4,000 indigenous civilians in Chenalho
have fled to the rebel community of Polho in just the last few
days, out of fears that they, too, would be killed if they
remained in their homes.
   
     The importance and urgency of this situation cannot be
underestimated. Send letters, phone calls, and faxes of protest
demanding the dissolution of powers in the state of Chiapas to:
   
Lic. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
Presidente de la Republica
Palacio Nacional:
C.P. 06067, Mexico, D.F.
Fax: int-52-5-516-5762 / 515-4783
email: webadmon-AT-op.presidencia.gob.mx
       
Emilio Chuayffet Chemor
Secretario de Gobernacion
Bucareli 99, 1er piso
Col. Juarez
C.P. 06699 Mexico, D.F.
Fax: int-52-5- 546-5350
       
Jorge Madrazo Cuellar
Procuradura General de la Republica
Paseo de la Reforma No. 75
Col. Guerrero
C.P. 06300 Mexico, D.F.
Fax: int-52-5-626-4419
 
                              *****
 
                 * `LAS ABEJAS' OF CHENALHO *
      http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/abejas971223.html
                  - Tuesday, 23 December 1997
 
                              -----
_________________________________________________________________
 
                    A TRAGIC CHRISTMAS FOR US
_________________________________________________________________
 
                                *
   
San Pedro Chenalho, Chiapas
 
     TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO:
     TO THE MEXICAN PEOPLE:
     TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY:
   
     We, the civil society "Las Abejas" of Chenalho, Chiapas,
denounce the violent acts which occurred yesterday, the 22nd of
December 1997, while we were in prayer adoring and requesting to
God that the problems we have been suffering these past months in
the municipality of Chenalho would calm down; we are members of a
civil society that seeks peace and tranquility for all.
   
     We have always stood up against the use of weapons. However,
on that day our members were massacred without pity at the hands
of murderous pri-istas. What have we done to deserve that our
women, our children and our men be killed? What have our children
done that they deserve to be massacred with high-power weapons?
We of the civil society "Las Abejas" demand the imprisonment and
a lifetime sentence to all the assassins in this crime, that the
government doesn't turn a blind-eye and continue pronouncing that
there is no low-intensity war going on in Chiapas. We demand that
the appropriate authorities punish the intellectual authors of
this crime.
   
     If the government is so afraid of losing power, it should
try to maintain it fairly; and not by way of paramilitary groups
and the formation of death squads to terrorize the people of the
region. If these killers are so eager for war, they should
confront people who could at least defend themselves.
   
     We, the members of civil society, who have only searched for
peace and justice, are a group of people which has struggled for
five years as an organized civil society. We do not use weapons,
but they kill us with weapons.
   
     We demand the removal of the following persons as being
directly or indirectly involved as intellectual authors of this
massacre:
   
  1. Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, the current, imposed State Governor,
     for being indirectly responsable for the massacre of
     innocent people in the state, because he has not listened to
     our demands. We request that he be punished and that he be
     put in jail, as any other course of action would be
     inconcievable with so many innocent people already dead in
     the North, in the Highlands, and in the Coast -- all regions
     in the state of Chiapas.
   
  2. Jacinto Arias Cruz, substituted Municipal President of
     Chenalho, Chiapas, and his City Council, whose activities
     include the trafficking of weapons, and who spend their
     efforts supporting and paying the paramilitary guardias
     blancas; therefore, as residents of Chenalho, we demand
     their removal and punishment.
   
  3. We, as a people, demand that Uriel Jarquin, the
     Undersecretary of the Government, be punished because he is
     responsible for directing the police force that is killing
     us, the indigenous people.
   
  4. We demand that the Secretary of State, Homero Tovilla
     Cristiani, be put in jail because he is responsible for the
     police who are training and supporting the paramilitary
     forces.
   
     And we demand punishment for the murderous pri-istas and
cardenistas that live in the communities of Los Chorros, La
Esperanza, Kanolal and Tzanembolom, Chimix, Acteal, and Colonia
Puebla, all in the municipality of Chenalho, Chiapas.
   
     We denounce that in the community of Los Chorros there
exists a training camp, where these assassins receive their
orders to exterminate the Civil Society: men, women and children,
who are sympathetic to the EZLN and the Autonomous Municipality
of Polho.
   
     WE ALL HAVE TO DEMAND JUSTICE NOW, AT A LATER DATE IT WILL
ONLY BE MORE DIFFICULT. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH THE DEATH, POVERTY
AND REPRESSION!
   
     PUNISHMENT FOR JULIO CESAR RUIZ FERRO, URIEL JARQUIN AND
HOMERO TOVILLA CRISTAINI! FOR THIS WE REQUEST EVERYONE'S SUPPORT;
OTHERWISE, IT A SHAME FOR MEXICO THAT OUR GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO
BE RUN BY ASSASSINS. WE BELIEVE THAT THIS SITUATION CAN NO LONGER
BE PERMITTED.
   
     SINCERELY,
     THE CIVIL SOCIETY "LAS ABEJAS" OF CHENALHO, CHIAPAS
 
 
                              *****
 
     http://www.ezln.org/news/paramilitaries971223-eng.html
 
                              -----
_________________________________________________________________
 
                   WHO ARE THE `PARAMILITARIES'?
_________________________________________________________________
 
               La Jornada Tuesday, December 23, 1997
                  By Andres Aubry and Angelica Inda
                     Translation: Duane Ediger
 
                                *
 
     The conflict in Chiapas has given anthropologists a new
task: to identify a new societal subject, the protagonist of
violence, which arose first in Chiapas' northern zone, then
spread to the highlands and canyonlands. A methodical inventory
found different levels of "paramilitary" activity among five of
Chiapas' nine indigenous ethnic groups: the Chol, Tzotzil,
Tzeltal, with some activity among the Tojolabal, and timid
beginnings among the Zoque. In Chenalho alone, 17 townships are
affected: one-third of the villages and half the population. The
scope of the phenomenon, as well as its ravages and number of
victims, point to its need for study under disciplined methods.
   
     By historical precedent, they were called first pistoleros
(gunmen) or guardias blancas (white guards), for the wounds they
have wrought in the collective memory of Chiapas. Though these
are still present, the media began calling some paramilitaries to
differentiate them from the former (agents from outside the
communities, whereas the newer paramilitaries came from within
them), because they act in an ambiguous and undeclared relation
with the police, military and government, and they intervene with
their own arms.
   
     Despite repeated shows of proof to the contrary, the state
has denied the existence of paramilitaries, arguing that some
local congress people and public opinion shapers refused to
believe. For lack of a better term, and out of respect for the
authorities, we will continue to name them after the fashion of
the media, but in quotation marks.
   
     Who are the "paramilitaries"? They appear almost exclusively
among young people frustrated by rural authorities. In the 17
townships of the municipality of Chenalho in which we were able
to document the existence of 246 of them, rural inertia combined
with population growth provides neither land nor work, not even
farm work, to the young people who reach the age of membership in
an ejido. (An ejido is a communally held and worked parcel of
land; it also refers to the land holders.) Married and the heads
of their households, they find themselves in the same situation
as their parents: unable to find work, surviving by miracle or by
stealing land and harvests. Obligated to live as delinquents,
they not only lack a subsistence, but also have no reason to
attend the assemblies and for that reason they are excluded from
decisions made by the ejido which considers them pariahs. First
conclusion: these criminals are products of the system and of
their economic, agrarian and labor options.
   
     Immediately "paramilitarization" offers them a way out and
prestige. The way out is first the heavy war tax they levy (25
pesos, or US$3, biweekly per permanent adult, or a one-time
payment of 375 pesos, or US$47, per person for those who don't
pay the 25 pesos biweekly), which gives them an income; secondly,
the booty of animals, harvested crops and domestic goods
(including automobiles); these in turn legitimize the humiliating
theft of corn, coffee and poultry. The weapons--and these are not
light arms--bring prestige and confer upon them power and status
unlike they or their landless parents have ever known.
   
     Because they have led an itinerant life looking for work,
and have not been ejido members, they never had the civic
education afforded through periodic assemblies in which the
collective destinies of villages, townships and municipalities
are decided, and they escaped all communal responsibility. For
this reason, the "paramilitaries" have no social or political
project. They make no proclamations; they simply impose
themselves. The only masters they have had are the monitors of
their military training, a condition they must meet in order to
acquire the arms they carry.
   
     Their mentors, whether in encampments or on patrols, conduct
themselves in a way very similar to the Kaibiles of Guatemala.
They can be seen at their checkpoints, clearly affected by drug
use. Their way of talking and carrying themselves betrays the
fascistic nature of their formation.
   
     What is their aim? Why do they operate only within the close
boundaries of the zone of influence within which they enjoy
perfect impunity? The reason is strategic, and they themselves
are probably unaware of it, for they would not exist were it not
for the manipulation of a hidden Director. The villages that fill
the local news form a wedge between the four contiguous
municipalities of Chenalho, Pantelho, Cancuc and Tenajapa. The
warning signs that mark the training area of the group MIRA
reveal the same tactical option: these "paramilitaries" are based
at the convergence of the four municipalities of Huixtan, Chanal,
Oxchuc, and Cancuc, anticipating an eventual bridge to the
paramilitaries of Chenalho.
   
     The commanders of the Paz y Justicia group, near El Limar,
control the five Chol Indian municipalities and the entrances to
Amatan, Huitiupan, Simojovel, El Bosque, and Chilon (via the
Chinchulines of Bachajon). Taken together, they dominate the
public policy space in nearly all of the municipalities
administered by SEAPI (State Secretariat for Attention to
Indigenous Peoples). The objective of all of them is to dismantle
any and all--unarmed--opposition bases of support.
   
     After the military offensive of February 9, 1995, one of the
military tactics denounced by the observer missions was the
destruction of productive installations, crops and even farm
implements to take away the dissidents' future. The
"paramilitary" tactics employed in Chenalho are the same. The
operations began when the coffee was near ready to harvest, in a
year when the price was high. Like flies shooed away, productive
farmers were expelled en masse. Like undesirables getting the rug
pulled out from under them, the indigenous of Chiapas' are robbed
of their future.
 
     Andres Aubry and Angelica Inda are sociologists and
     historians living in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas,
     Mexico.
   
     Duane Ediger is a resident of Dallas and a frequent traveler
     to Mexico.
 
 
                              *****
 
                       * GLOBAL EXCHANGE *
                    2017 Mission St., Rm. 303 
                     San Francisco, CA 94110 
                        Tel: 415.255.7296 
                        Fax: 415.255.7498
                Web: http://www.globalexchange.org
                 - Wednesday, 24 December 1997 -
 
                              -----
_________________________________________________________________
 
               MASSACRE EXPOSES LOW INTENSITY WAR
_________________________________________________________________
 
     By Michael McCaughan, Irish freelance journalist based in
     Chiapas
     Tel-1-707-5233701
     Source: PeaceNet in igc:reg.mexico
     Sent by Global Exchange
 
                                *
 
     Last Monday's massacre in Aj'teal, Chiapas, which left 45
dead and 20 wounded, had been announced and anticipated for
months. Mexico has seen marches, US delegations, local pleas and
testimonies by the walking wounded sleeping under plastic sheets
without blankets or food. But it wasn't enough.
 
     The local Indian people denounced the exaggerated
militarisation of Indian villages in Chiapas and the proven links
between armed paramilitaries and the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary party, (PRI). Last Sunday Mexico's daily paper 'La
Jornada' published a document signed by state governor Julio
Cesar Ruiz Ferro, confirming the handover of US $450,000 to 'Paz
y Justicia,' a PRI-linked paramilitary group. The alarm bells
sounded but Chiapas governor Ruiz Ferro simply denied the
existence of any paramilitary groups and carried on with business
as usual.
 
     Last Monday morning however the illusion was shattered.
Between 11am and 3pm, 60 armed men surrounded hundreds of
refugees huddled under a plastic tarp in Aj'teal, north Chiapas,
mercilessly cutting down the defenseless displaced people. The
refugees had fled their homes after threats by paramilitaries
with names like Red mask and Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary
Movement, who have spread fear and violence through the Chenalho
municipality. The rise of the armed groups coincided with the
growing influence of Zapatista supporters who have successfully
installed an autonomous ruling assembly in the area.
 
     In Chenalho like all Chiapas villages there was only one
political party until 1994, the PRI, which won upward of 100% of
votes in local and national elections. Once the local officials
delivered the votes to the PRI, the villages remained at peace.
After 1994 however, villagers openly supported the demands of the
Zapatista National Liberation Army, (EZLN) and in last year's
municipal vote, 63.2% of Chenalho's villagers cast a vote for
Zapatista-linked candidates.
 
     The defeated PRI 'caciques' (local political bosses) sought
help from security forces to prevent the Zapatistas from gaining
further ground, hence the threats, burned-out homes and 4,500
displaced people.
 
     The state governor Julio Ruiz Ferro denied the existence of
the paramilitaries, inserting large paid advertisements in the
national press, announcing the return of displaced people and
financial aid to rebuild homes and replace lost possessions. Just
a week ago this journalist visited Chenalh'o municipality to
witness the living conditions of Chiapas' displaced.
 
     Across a mist-filled muddy hillside close to Polh'o, in the
municipality of Chenalho, there were 23 families, 106 men, women
and children, living under a leaky tarp sustained by six wooden
poles. The coughs and sneezes of the children announced the camp,
where the local Zapatista-led council opened the village doors to
the refugees, but had no food, blankets or shelter to offer.
 
     The bloody massacre, painfully reminiscent of Central
America and Colombian wars, is a wake-up call to Mexico's
complacent ruling party. There will be loud condemnation by
Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, by state officials, opposition
parties, church representatives and the press.
 
     But the structures which led to the creation of the
irregular Rambos will remain untouched. The key factor in
sustaining those paramilitaries is the impunity of armed forces
and PRI-linked officials. On January 7th 1994, hundreds of troops
occupied the village of Morelia, inside the conflict zone,
looking for Zapatistas. Three elderly men were tortured,
disappeared and killed. In June 1994 three Tzeltal women were
raped by a dozen soldiers at an army roadblock outside
Altamirano. Not a single soldier has been prosecuted. In sharp
contrast, one soldier who is safely behind bars is General Felix
Gallardo, imprisoned after his public call to create an army
ombudsman.
 
     The Chiapas scenario has been played out in Colombia, where
paramilitaries were first trained by the army, financed by
landowners and acknowledged by no one. Then came the first
deaths, bringing horror, condemnation and eventually resignation.
The paramilitaries are a frankenstein with a life of their own
now and some 20,000 would-be Rambos are sowing death and
destruction in Colombia's tortured countryside.
 
     In the past month the deaths in Colombia have become
football scores, one day 15 dead, 14 the next, then 23 then 30, a
grisly necro-statistical count. When the international outcry
became too loud, Colombian authorities located and detained a
renowned paramilitary leader within 48 hours, despite years of
denial of their very existence.
 
     The only way to end the violence in Chiapas is to resolve
the deep-rooted causes which gave rise to the 1994 rebellion. The
first step has already been taken, in January 1996, with the
signing of the San Andres peace accord on 'Indigenous Culture and
Rights,' but the government has blocked all attempts to implement
the accord. The US public and the Bill Clinton administration
have considerable influence over Mexican affairs and should act
now to prevent further bloodshed.
 
 
                              *****
 
                * NUEVO AMANECER PRESS - EUROPA *
                     E-mail: dwood-AT-encomix.es
                   - Sunday, 28 December 1997 -
 
                              -----
_________________________________________________________________
 
               CLINTON'S `INTERFERENCE' IN MEXICO
                   FROM WOUNDED KNEE TO CHIAPAS
_________________________________________________________________
 
               By Darrin Wood, Director NAP-Europa
 
                                *
 
     According to the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations, US
President Bill Clinton has just "interfered in Mexican internal
affairs" by demanding an exhaustive investigation into the
massacre which recently occurred in Chenalho, in the Mexican
state of Chiapas.
 
     Since Clinton wants an investigation and the government of
Ernesto Zedillo doesn't want anyone on the outside looking into
how Mexico murders its Indians, we at Nuevo Amanecer Press -
Europa have come up with a handy solution for both of them. Why
doesn't someone order an investigation into US Military
"interference" in Mexico?
 
     Last year, the US Army Special Forces began a massive
training program of Mexican Special Forces (GAFE - Airborne
Special Forces Groups). From fiscal year 1996 until fiscal year
1997 around 3,200 Mexican soldiers will receive training in Fort
Bragg, North Carolina, by the Green Berets' 7th Special Forces
Group (the same ones who brought you all those "democratic
freedom fighting" human rights abuses in Honduras and El Salvador
in the 1980's).  The program allegedly forms part of the "War on
Drugs" led by ex-SOUTHCOM head honcho Barry McCaffrey. Sounds
nice but...
 
     The Mexican news agency APRO reported on December 25th that
"An important detachment, composed of members of the [Mexican
Army] Airborne Special Forces Groups (GAFE) was sent to the
community of Acteal, in the municipality of Chenalho, where this
past Monday "a paramilitary group linked to the PRI" carried out
the biggest massacre in recent years in Chiapas, leaving a total
of 46 dead and 25 wounded, the majority being women and children.
The soldiers of the GAFE, experts in counterinsurgency and
specialized in operating in rough terrain as can be found in
Chiapas, immediately set up three roadblocks on the highway that
leads from the Chenalho to Acteal in order to meticulously search
all vehicles which passed through the troubled area."
 
     Oddly enough, on December 26th, the Mexican daily LA JORNADA
published an article on a recent operation of the GAFE in the
state of Jalisco where more than a dozen young men were kidnapped
and tortured. One of the youths, Salvador Lopez Jimenez, died as
a result of  this "Special Forces" action.  LA JORNADA states
that "The judge of this jurisdiction has ordered that charges be
brought against Lieutenant Colonel Julian Guerrero Barrios and
Captain Rogelio Solis Aguilar, who are accused of the crime of
violence against the people, as authors of homicide." The article
states that 15 other soldiers will be charged in the cover-up but
no names were given.
 
     Nuevo Amanecer Press - Europa has been able to confirm that
Lt. Col. Julian Guerrero Barrios is a graduate of the US Army's
School of the Americas - SOA, which he attended in 1981 in a
course titled "Commando Operations". Time to add another photo in
the SOA's "Hall of Fame". We do not know yet how many other of
those charged have received training recently at Fort Bragg. We
also wish to point out at this time that the mastermind behind
Mexico's counterinsurgency strategy in Chiapas, General Mario
Renan Castillo Fernandez, has received instruction at Fort Bragg
as well. The general, now the ex-commander of the Mexican Army's
7th Military Region in Chiapas, has recently been pointed out as
having served as an "Honorary Witness" at a ceremony where the
state government of Chiapas handed over half a million dollars to
the paramilitary group "Paz y Justicia".
 
     We find it odd that the two biggest recipients of US
military aid in Latin America, Colombia and Mexico, are also the
two Latin American countries with the greatest number of
massacres carried out by paramilitary organizations connected to
their respective armed forces. Therefore, we demand an
investigation to find out if the use of paramilitary
organizations form an active part of US counterinsurgency
doctrine. We have several questions that need to be answered:
 
  1. Is the financing and training of paramilitary - terrorist
     groups in Latin America currently being taught at the School
     of the Americas or at Fort Bragg? If not, has it been done
     in the past?
 
  2. According to a September 1997 report on Mexico from drug
     Czar Barry McCaffrey, the recent "gifts" of Huey helicopters
     to that country are supposed to be used by the Special
     Forces of the GAFE for fighting the war on drugs. Are any of
     those helicopters now being used in counterinsurgency
     operations by the GAFE in Chiapas?
 
  3. According to the Mexican press, on December 9th, two FBI
     agents were in the state of Oaxaca giving instruction in the
     "management of crisis and kidnappings" to police from
     Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca (as well as other troubled
     states). One article on the course quoted a US Embassy
     official as saying that police forces "have the right to use
     necessary force" to protect society. This person also
     defined "crisis management" as being confrontations between
     police and military forces with groups that "disagree with
     society", further stating that guerrilla organizations fall
     into that definition. Does the action of the Chiapas police
     in Chenalho, just two weeks after their FBI course, fall
     into the US idea of "crisis management"?
 
     It is time for a serious investigation, not empty protests
meant for internal consumption. It is impossible to take the
Zedillo government's protests of "interference in Mexican
internal affairs" seriously while he blindly obeys economic
policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund, the World
Bank and Wall Street which kill thousands of Indigenous and poor
Mexican citizens every year through hunger, malnutrition and
curable illnesses. In fact he is more than happy to obey foreign
economic interference. He only becomes angered when people
protest because the killing is being done by bullets and not
banks.
 
     The protests concerning the massacre in Chenalho by US
president Bill Clinton are also hard to swallow given that it is
the US which is supplying all the weapons and training for the
bloody counterinsurgency campaign currently being waged by the
Mexican Army in Chiapas, as well as other states. The same
atrocities have been carried out recently in Colombia and the US
government has just responded by approving an even bigger
military aid package for counterinsurgency in Colombia. The
message seems to be that if Mexico keeps on killing its Indians,
they too can expect to receive more aid.
 
     We demand an investigation!
 
     Tomorrow, December 29th, marks the 107th anniversary of the
bloody massacre Indian men, women, and children carried out by
the US Army at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. It would mark a
perfect opportunity to reflect on the latest massacre of Native
people in the Americas.
 
     Source: The A-Infos News Service
     Web: http://www.tao.ca/ainfos/
     29 December 1997
 
                              * * *
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     +:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+
     +:        A N T I F A   I N F O - B U L L E T I N        +:
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     :+                                                       :+
     +:     RESISTING FASCISM    *  BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY!   +:
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          ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
   ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++
  ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++




   

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