The Law for Amnesty and Disarmament of Civilian Groups in Chiapas, presented by Governor Roberto Albores to the State Congress, deliberately omits the Paramilitary concept: rather than recognizing their existence, it substitutes the term Armed Civilian Groups for them. Because of this, the views, discussions, reflections and opinion articles by intellectuals, political party leaders, leaders of social organizations, religious leaders, NGO's and so forth, have tended to emphasize that this government proposal is an attempt to let the paramilitary groups - who have provoked bloody incidents and who left more than 300 dead, more than 21,000 displaced, 45 Catholic churches belonging to the Diocese of San Cristóbal closed, harvests lost - go unpunished. This is believed to demonstrate the lack of political will to serve justice, as well as the blatant protection of these groups. It is within this framework that the federal deputy for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and member of the Commission of Concordance and Peace (COCOPA), Gilberto López y Rivas, accused the governor of the state, Roberto Albores Guillén of staging acts of purported zapatistas turning in weapons and of protecting paramilitary groups. The response from Governor Albores, as well as from PRI Deputies, the State Congress, and the State Congress Representative to the COCOPA, was to reject the denunciations and to order López y Rivas to present evidence for his statements. In response, López y Rivas took the floor, and, on April 30, he presented a complaint to the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (PGR). In the complaint, he presented a series of documents and studies which demonstrated the existence of paramilitary groups. The complaint denounced that, as part of the strategy of war orchestrated by the former Commander of the VII Military Region (headquartered in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas), Mario Renán Castillo - trained in the School of the Americas - the creation of paramilitary groups had been considered as part of his counterinsurgency strategy. These paramilitaries would "actively support the state and federal governments in this low intensity warfare."⁽¹⁾

The complaint includes, among other issues, the military involvement in this strategy, with "the presence of military personnel in the Acteal massacre is the presence of a person that the White Book on Acteal identifies as former soldier Mariano Pérez Ruiz" "Who received an AK-47 from the former municipal president of Chenalhó, Jacinto Arias Cruz, a weapon that Mariano Ruiz used, among other things, to train various persons in the town of Pechiquil"⁽²⁾

It should be remembered that Pérez Ruiz, in June of 1998 in File No. 96/98 stated and admitted to the Attorney General's Office of the Republic: "that former officials and leaders of the PRI are responsible for contracting soldiers and police officers to give instructions in the use of weapons and paramilitary strategy to the indigenous communities in Chenalhó." He added: "It is true that I said that, it was because the military police officers made me state that, since, if I hadn't done so, they were going to make me disappear, and besides, I was still active in the military, and I had to obey orders from a superior." Pérez Ruiz commented that: "In the bar called "La Poblanita" in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a gentleman, whose name I don't remember, was in charge of hiring the soldiers and police officers who would be in charge of organizing operational groups to protect the PRI's from the zapatistas in the community of Los Chorros, for which they were paid 5 to 6000 pesos for three days.", "it was Tomás Pérez Méndez, a member of the PRI Municipal Committee who made the payments, according to File No. 96/98."⁽³⁾

López y Rivas' complaint states that: "The paramilitary groups are now the active containment forces in Chiapas. While the army has been deployed as a passive containment force, the paramilitaries have been engaged in harassing, through armed actions, the zapatista support bases, or those who are allied with the PRD, agrarian leaders and the Bishops and Priests of the Diocese of San Cristóbal."⁽⁴⁾

The complaint asks that legal action be taken against 8 paramilitary groups and their leaders, among them: Peace and Justice, Anti-Zapatista Indigenous Revolutionary Movement (MIRA), Los Chinchulines, Los Degolladores and against Anonymous Groups who are armed in at least seven municipalities in Los Altos, the North and the Border regions of Chiapas. It states that, in the arena of "cooperation between the military and the police, one may assume that a counter-guerrilla military tactic known as 'anvil and hammer' is being applied, which consists in the army or police forces adopting the role of containment forces (the anvil), and allowing the paramilitary groups (the hammer) to carry out the role of strike force against the EZLN and their sympathizers."⁽⁵⁾

The Development of the Strategy

While López and Rivas was presenting his complaint, indigenous communities and organizations in Chiapas were making several denunciations against the activities of alleged paramilitary groups, contradicting the positions of the state government and of officials, who were denying the existence of the paramilitary groups. Even when there are statements from Samuel Sánchez Sánchez, leader of "Peace and Justice," to the effect that that group admitted it had weapons, and they would be willing to put them down "if the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the red guards from the Diocese of San Cristóbal decided to disarm."⁽⁶⁾

A). - The Conduct of the Alleged Paramilitary Groups

Below we will present a chronology of denunciations from the communities, statements to the press and to human rights defense organizations concerning the activities of the alleged paramilitary groups:

On May 3, there was a new ambush of residents in the community of Los Plátanos, municipality of El Bosque, while they were on their way to work, leaving one person dead. Those who were attacked belong to the PRI and they held the zapatistas responsible. The zapatistas from Los Plátanos were displaced last June, during the attacks by the army and Public Security Police against the communities of Union and Progreso and Chavajeval (Expreso Chiapas, 5/4/99).

Authorities of the Ejidal Commission and Security Council of the municipality of Chilón denounced that 17 members of Los Chinchulines (a group accused of being paramilitary and of being responsible for the violent action that took place on May 5, 1996, in Bachajón, Chilón), recently released from the Cerro Hueco jail, are creating a wave of terror and harassment against those whom they consider to be their political enemies - whether from the PRI, the PRD or other social organizations - and holding the state government responsible for any possible incidents that might arise from it. They also asked the PGR to follow through on the charges that have been brought against this group (Cuarto Poder newspaper, 5/4/99).

On April 22, EZLN and PRD sympathizers held an indefinite sit-in in front of the District Jail in Yajalón, in order to demand the release of the two indigenous who had been detained by caciques in the area and delivered to legal authorities. They also denounced that there were a total of 36 arrest warrants in existence in the communities of Hidalgo Joshil and Union Buena Vista against those who had participated in the March 21 zapatista Consulta. They denounced the continuous harassment they were being subjected to by "Peace and Justice." They added that: "the persecution of our compañeros is part of a state government strategy, that is utilizing agrarian conflicts and old quarrels in order to create confrontations in the communities and to justify repression against those who oppose them. At this very moment, the government is carrying out operations in several indigenous communities, it creates a problem here and sets the police to persecuting the campesinos." (La Jornada, 4/23/99).

In an article by Jésus Ramírez Cuevas in La Jornada newspaper (4/25/99), in the Masiosare Supplement, statements by chol indigenous are reported, confirming what López y Rivas' denunciations. One example is from Ramón, who said: "..now that we are struggling peacefully, 'Peace and Justice" paramilitaries are continuing to attack us, they have good weapons and we have seen that the army is training them." "The government put a lot of money into programs and bought off community leaders. But it was the Peace and Justice organizers themselves who diverted money from the communities in order to buy weapons and clothes from the police. They gave transportation and weapons for the paramilitaries." Marcos Albino Torres (Tila union), Samuel Sánchez Sánchez (former state PRI deputy), Carlos López Martínez (former municipal president), Isabelino Martínez (councilperson) and Juan Martínez are the founders of Peace and Justice. " Now they're fighting among themselves over money. They met with government officials and with the soldiers in order to plan their attacks," Ramón denounces. "There can't be assassins in the municipal presidency. Peace and Justice hasn't been disarmed, but the government insists on disarming the zapatistas" This article offers a chronology of the violence that has occurred in the area since October of 1998.

Meanwhile, Mariclaire Acosta, the President of the Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights A.C., denounced that there is a harassment campaign against their representative in Chiapas, the defense lawyer for zapatista prisoners, Miguel Ángel de los Santos. It is believed to be the beginning of a persecution campaign against human rights defenders in the state. In addition, new violent incidents are forecast in Nicolás Ruiz. (La Jornada, 5/4/99).

The background to the above denunciation is that the state government is accusing the lawyer of being the intellectual author of the current situation in Nicolás Ruiz. In this municipality, 600 comuneros decided to go over to become EZLN support bases, and the municipal presidency has been held for two consecutive administrations by the PRD. However, a group of 23 comuneros decided to go over to the PRI, thus breaking the community agreement, and they were expelled. This situation is creating tension, and it has been smoldering since last year, when the municipality was dismantled by police forces, and, as a consequence, several campesinos are in jail. Miguel Ángel is their defense lawyer.

Paramilitaries are threatening to repeat their violent actions and to take revenge against the civil society organization, Las Abejas, of Chenalhó, because of the recent detention of Lorenzo Pérez Vázquez, implicated in the violent actions of December 22, 1997 in the Acteal massacre. Between May 5 and 6, paramilitaries identified as PRI militants were firing several shots around the communities of Yibeljoj and Yashgemel. Residents of the community also saw them carrying high caliber weapons and hanging around the community. On May 6, in the community of Yabteclum, Agustín Vázquez Ruiz, leader of Las Abejas, received a death threat from PRI member Agustín Jiménez Méndez, because he held him responsible for Pérez Vázquez' imprisonment (Press communiqué from "Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas" Human Rights Center," 5/10/99).

The community of Jalisco, in the municipality of Altamirano, denounced that paramilitary groups in the area were going about the communities, passing themselves off as undocumented persons who were lost. They were asking residents to teach them the paths that the residents of each of the communities use.

Juan Encinos Gómez, leader of the "Tres Nudos" organization of the municipality of Oxchuc, denounced that there was a paramilitary training camp in the community of La Independencia (Cuarto Poder newspaper, 4/30/99).

b). - The Deployment of the Federal Army

In this section, we will present a chronology of denunciations from the communities, statements to the press and to human rights defense organizations, concerning the conduct of the army in the communities:

Federal deputy for the PRD, Manuel Pérez García, from the Jolnixtié community, municipality of Tila, denounced that, in the communities of Cruz Palenque, Masojá, Emiliano Zapata and Jolnixtié, the army had set up 4 new checkpoints and had deployed armored vehicles and soldiers in those communities, during the recent operations against communities close to the zapatista movement. The excuse they used was that of searching for a weapon that had been stolen from a soldier who was walking around the vicinity of the Jolnixtié and Masojá communities, dressed in civilian clothes. As a result of having made these statements, Pérez García was required by the Attorney General's office of the Republic to appear before the Special Prosecutor for the Federation (Expreso Chiapas, 5/4/99).

On April 25, the Autonomous Council of San Pedro de Michoacán, established in the constitutional jurisdiction of Las Margaritas, denounced that PRI's from the community of Vicente Guerrero, accompanied by the federal army, had, on April 19, dislocated zapatista support bases from a piece of land, where they were on the point of a confrontation (4/26/99).

On April 27, residents of the communities of Albino Corzo, First and Second sections; Boca Chancalá, San Martín Chamizal and San Francisco Palenque - close to the Aguascalientes of Roberto Barrios, in the municipality of Palenque - denounced that members of the army, accompanied by paramilitaries and PRI's, had set themselves up on the outskirts of the communities. The following they day they went onto the plots of land, asking who the zapatistas were and who was planting marijuana. On April 25, a group of armed civilians went into the community of San Martín Chamizal, asking about the zapatistas, who they were, where they lived and when they met. The residents asked them about their attitude, and they responded that they had come from the state government in order to carry out a study of the streets, and they began sketching the community (La Jornada, 4/28/99).

One week before the Encuentro of Civil Society with the EZLN was to begin in La Realidad, Chiapas, there was an increase in military checkpoints, and searches became more strict. With the excuse of enforcing the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law, the army set up at the Rancho Nuevo-Ocosingo crossroads, in the Boulevard of Comitán at the Las Margaritas-Altamirano exit, in Vicente Guerrero and in Guadalupe Tepeyac, 15 kilometers from La Realidad. At the same time, the National Immigration Institute, Public Security Police and PGR forces were at the El Carmelito Teopisca-Comitán crossroads and in the Gabino Vázquez and Zaragoza Ejidos, municipality of Las Margaritas. In the newspaper coverage where these acts were denounced, there was a series of statements about how the police and military forces at the checkpoints were treating the indigenous population of the area, as well as the foreigners who were members of the Civilian Peace Camps (La Jornada, 5/5/98).

The Repercussions

The events recounted above refute official reports and reinforce López y Rivas' charges. They also force the government to fix their position. In the face of the evidence presented and the response from the PRD deputy, there has been an official silence in the press that demonstrates their lack of arguments to contradict the facts. The political effects, however, have a great impact in those places where Mexico's trade relations with Europe are at stake. As long as the government does not admit its lack of will to resolve the causes which led to the armed conflict - and it continues with its talk of calls to peace - and the activities of the police forces and the alleged paramilitaries contradict their activities - non-governmental organizations and national and international solidarity caravans will continue to gain credibility and to fight for a role abroad, in an arena where the government had previously been untouchable. The role that Governor Roberto Albores Guillén has played has contributed to damaging the Mexican government's image abroad, due to the daily acts of repression, but also because of the government policies enforced against foreign observers of the situation in Chiapas, utilizing the argument of respect for national sovereignty.

It is enough to mention two important events which are examples of that. The journalist Jaime Avilés, in his Village Idiot column (4/24/99), relates that on April 21, the International Committee of External Economic Relations of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium approved the speeding up of the Commercial Accord with Mexico. Of the 23 members of that body, 13 voted in favor, 7 against and 3 abstained. When, one month previously, 22 of them had been in favor. What influenced the quantitative and qualitative change was an information campaign by the European networks in solidarity with the peoples of Chiapas (among them, several persons expelled from Chiapas), conditioning the trade agreement on diplomatic pressure on the Mexican government in order to force them to stop their repressive practices against dissidents. It should be remembered that in April 1998 this body approved an Internal Trade Agreement of Economic Collaboration and Commercial Cooperation between the European Union and Mexico, remembering that, at the end of the process, they retained the ability to express themselves concerning the concrete results of the pact in its various arenas, among them being that of human rights.

On this subject, it is worth noting the work and reports that have reached the European Union in the area of human rights violations by human rights defense organizations, such as the "All Rights for Everyone" Network, the International Civil Commission for Human Rights (CCIODH) in February 1998, Amnesty International reports, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the OAS, and others.

The other event that should be noted is the Tenth Mexico-Spain Inter-Parliamentary Meeting, on May 3 in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. The drug trafficking problem and the conflict in Chiapas were on the agenda, with the legislators agreeing that dialogue and coordination were necessary in order to resolve the latter problem. The Spanish legislators respectfully called on the political actors to resolve the conflict in Chiapas, with justice and respect for the indigenous communities. They also stated that the killing of indigenous transcends borders. Following the Acteal massacre, Spanish political groups signed a four point document in which they set out their position regarding Chiapas:

1. - To pursue and to unmask the instigators of the terrible Acteal massacre.

2. - To resolve the conflict through peaceful means.

3. - To ask that the development model take into account the need to overcome inequalities and extreme poverty.

4. - To call on all governments to intensify their cooperation programs with developing nations.

They added that the Spanish parliament will not refrain from expressing their opinions on conflicts that "call human rights into question," as happened in Acteal.

During the course of this year, there will be a series of international meetings where Mexico will be present, and the issue of Chiapas will undoubtedly surface. If Albores Guillén's government continues with the policies it has been pursuing up to this point, their conduct will undoubtedly be on the agenda. It is within this framework that the UN meeting will be taking place this November, where there will be a special relator for Mexico who will address the situation of Economic, Political, Social and Cultural Rights. This is the arena in which the issue of those 21,000 displaced by alleged paramilitary groups in Chiapas will fall.

1. Complaint from Deputy Gilberto López y Rivas to the PGR, p. 16

2. Ibid., p. 16

3. Expreso de Chiapas newspaper, 6/2/98

4. Complaint by Gilberto López y Rivas, p. 15

5. Ibid., p. 11

6. Cuarto Poder newspaper, 1/3/98

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