In order to trace the situation of the displaced, we must begin by differentiating the type of displaced to whom we are referring, and, depending on when and where this phenomenon has occurred, we will be able to  formulate a corresponding strategy.

The phenomena of the displaced in Chiapas can be characterized by three  distinct types and stages:

a).   The first type of displaced we distinguish within the period of the beginning of the paramilitarization, from February 1995 to December 1997, and are those who are located within the municipalities in the Northern zone of Chiapas:   Tila, Sabanilla, Tumbalá, Salto de Agua and Palenque, and reached a total of 5873 persons, from approximately 20 communities, who took refuge in neighboring communities in order to seek safety from the paramilitary offensive of Peace and Justice.  This wave of displacement ran from the North to Los Altos, and had to traverse violent actions of the paramilitary group "Los Chinchulines" in Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, on May 5, 1998, against the opposition,  and which left 5 dead, various wounded, houses burned, and more than 500 displaced to Tuxtla Gutiérrez and to other cities near Chilón.  This process reached to Los Altos in Chiapas, especially Pantelhó, Chenalhó, and, ultimately to El Bosque, causing about 9500 displaced.

These displaced persons live in quite difficult circumstances because, during the entire time they have been displaced, they have not been allowed to plant or harvest, living solely on national and international aid from non-governmental organizations, the caravans, the solidarity of the neighboring communities,  support supplied by the Diocese of San Cristóbal and, occasionally, by the Diocese of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

The situation of those displaced who are living in the northern zone, in communities close to their communities of origin, is not as difficult as those living in Chenalhó, who are sheltered in camps.  Those overcrowded in the north are fewer in number, and they can help with the work of those who have given them shelter.  However, the situation is made difficult because of harassment from the paramilitary group Peace and Justice, which is directed against everyone not identified with the official party - the PRI - :  controlling the crossroads and paths, letting the residents through only if they are carrying "safe passage" passes given out by the paramilitaries, collecting tolls to allow passage, destroying harvests, profaning Catholic churches, assaulting foreigners, robbing homes, belongings and domestic animals, etc.  As bad as it is, the situation is worsened during the rainy season, when the roads become impassable where the rains are heavy, and access to humanitarian aid is diminished.

The displaced of Chenalhó are located primarily in 9 large camps, which are:  X'oyep (1098 persons), Acteal (750 persons) and Tzajalchén (18 families) belonging to the civil society "Las Abejas;  in Poconichim (736), Acteal (250) and Polhó (6550), by EZLN support bases. Displaced from Las Abejas in San Cristóbal live at the INI (National Indigenous Institution) facilities (17 families), in Don Bosco (150 persons) and in La Nueva Primavera (100 persons), also of Las Abejas.

The displaced are living in various communities in Chenalhó, in extremely difficult conditions, since, among other things, they cannot plant;  the shelters made of cardboard sheets were damaged with the first rains;  60 to 95 persons are sleeping in spaces that are 10 x 5 meters or 10 x 15 meters, and some houses have nylon roofs;  with one blanket to cover every two persons;  they do not have water in the camp, the 5000 liter barrel supplied daily by the Mexican Red Cross has to be shared with one part going to the Army and another to some PRI members, and, to make matters worse, on January 3, the Army took possession of the only spring of water which exists in X'oyep, harassing the women when they tried to draw water, and now the people have to bathe themselves in streams which are two to three hours away, with the added danger of being assaulted by the paramilitaries who prowl around the camps.  Health workers have been relegated to simply translating for several NGOs and the Red Cross who are working in the area, and they have seen the diminution of their organizational capacity, both in training and self-management.

This critical situation creates desperation in the refugee population, and they had been thinking of returning on the 25^th of this month,  which would be rather risky, because, in communities like Los Chorros, there are 8 armed paramilitaries who continue firing their weapons and harassing the population;  also, in Yashgemel there are 14 persons who have not been detained, despite the fact that they also participated in the massacre in Acteal.  Given the desperation of life in the camps, some have begun to return on their own, which entails great risk.  As Juan Gómez of Los Chorros says, "we are the representatives of Las Abejas, but the others have begun to go back on their own, which means our word has no force, our word is now going to be useless when we return to the community."  The risk is real:  in front of the army, on June 5, two paramilitaries from Majomut beat up two members of Las Abejas;  in Chibtic, PRI members continue provocations to such a degree that 27 families left the PRI, and are in the process of joining Las Abejas.  Many other cases like this continue to occur in Chenalhó.

Those actually responsible for the displacements in the northern area are the paramilitary group "Peace and Justice."  In Chilón and Bachajón the paramilitary group "Los Chinchulines" is operating:  of 26 members who had been jailed in May of 1995, 11 were released 15 days ago, after pressuring the authorities with a hunger strike at the Cerro Hueco jail. 

Meanwhile, there is a paramilitary group operating in Chenalhó which is not known by any name.  Some believe that it is the paramilitary group known as Red Mask, which operates in San Andrés Larráinzar, but that has not been proven.  What is certain is that they are armed militant PRI and Cardenista Party groups who continue to act with impunity.

The situation being experienced by the displaced  is being used by the government in several ways:

·        It proposes the return of the displaced based on the granting of aid, offering them projects, the reconstruction of damaged houses, with the caveat that they join the official party (PRI).  This is the case for the 85 displaced families in the north zone in Asuncion Huitiupan, where 41 of them had decided to return to El Paraíso, municipality of Sabanilla, where President Ernesto Zedillo visited on May 29.  This return was directed by two ex-convicts from La Voz de Cerro Hueco, who had been  released on the condition that they would join the PRI and would promote the use of alcohol among the displaced.  The rest of the families decided to remain and to continue to belong to the opposition.

·        The case of the indigenous in Tila who, on May 13, decided to return to Pantienejá:  they were pressured to leave the PRD, to not accept visits from the priests from the Diocese of San Cristóbal, to reject foreigners and to inform Peace and Justice of their meetings.

·        Within the current electoral context, the majority of the displaced are being offered support if they return to the PRI, and, if not, they are not being allowed to return to their communities.

·        The Zapatistas of Las Limas Chitamukum, municipality of Pantelhó, returned with support and mediation from the Center of Indigenous Rights (CEDIAC) of Bachajón, after 8 months of intervention, but the government took credit for this work, stating that it was they who had promoted the return, and that CEDIAC was only coadvisor.

b).   The second type of displacement is that generated as a product of the government's change in strategy, which began on April 11, 1998, with the dismantling of the Autonomous Municipality "Ricardo Flores Magón," and to this date has not ended, attacking primarily the municipal autonomies where the displaced's style of  living is differs from those living in the camps.  Those displaced up to this point in Taniperla in Ocosingo include, 144 persons living in the mountain (members of ARIC - Independent, and Zapatista support bases);  in Amparo Aguatinta, in Las Margaritas, there are 14 persons; in the last displacement in El Bosque, more than 800 displaced from the communities of Chavajeval, Union Progreso and Los Plátanos, are living in the mountain.  The profile of this type of war displaced is that the majority of them are men, and they are living in the style of the Guatemalan Communities of People in Resistance (CPR), fleeing to the mountain, moving from one camp to another, without food or even the most basic necessities of life, because the army, as well as the paramilitaries, go into the mountain to persecute and assassinate them.  In the case of Taniperla, there are two supposed ties between the state government and PRI militants, coordinated by Juan Villafuerte, replacement for Federal Deputy Norberto Santiz, (accused of being the primary leader of the paramilitary group MIRA), who presents himself as the (state) government's general secretary.  These are the ones who request information from the caravans of solidarity. It is presumed that they often receive orders to assault those who come to take testimony and to lend solidarity.  There are photographs of this in La Jornada. 

Until now, the denunciations of the communities of La Selva (Ocosingo, Oxchuc and Altamirano) have come from areas where the paramilitary group MIRA is operating.

Victims of this type of displacement have also been created by other newly appeared paramilitary groups such as "Los Plátanos" in El Bosque, or "Los Puñales,"  who extend to the zone of Amparo Aguatinta.  The paramilitary group "Los Quintos," recently identified in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza,  can reach their victims and the displaced population very quickly.

c).   The third type of displaced are those created by PRI members of their own people.  In Chenalhó they demand a 2000 to 5000 peso (US$222-556) collection for the support and maintenance of the 96 PRI members in the Cerro Hueco jail for the Acteal massacre.  In many of the indigenous communities in Chiapas, the conditions in which PRI members are living are not very different from those of many opposition members.  Some PRI families cannot or will not cooperate, and they are threatened constantly, as is the case in the north zone and other places, where it is presumed that they have even been murdered for refusing to cooperate.  Given this situation, they have two options:  either go to the Las Abejas' displacement camps, or, if the people are in the majority, request to join that organization.  Whereas, before the massacre, Las Abejas had a majority in 22 communities, there are now 27, joined by the communities of La Esperanza, Quextic, Sunux, Los Chorros and Tzajalucum.

There is a system of displacement caused by pressures on the Zapatistas by municipal authorities, as is the case in the community of Bademia, in the municipality of La Independencia, forcing them to either join the PRI or be expelled.  There are many other cases such as this, but not all of them manage to be denounced.

CONCLUSIONS

The first type of displacements, which we referred to in Subsection (a), corresponds to a logic which can be related to the great transnational projects regarding natural resources in Chiapas, where there is a large corridor of biodiversity of great importance.  This corridor begins in Marqués de Comillas in the municipality of Ocosingo, passing through Taniperla, the municipalities of the northern zone and Chenalhó in Los Altos, and ends at Malpaso, where it joins the hydroelectric dam of the same name.  It is worth remembering the statement by Comandante Julian of the EZLN, concerning the zone of Taniperla, in which he stated that the militarization corresponded to protection of uranium in this Canyon.  But it is not only the subsoil natural resources, but also the water resources: the Osumacinta River is found  and passes through Palenque and Tenosique, in the state of Tabasco;  and at the same time it also converges with the southeast project known as the Trinational Project of Osumacinta and the Route of the Mayan World, with large levels of direct foreign investment.

The large companies see the potential in the rivers and waters in this part of Chiapas, such as Osumacinta, Tzaconeja, Tulijá, Chancalá, Agua Azul, Izantun, the Grijalva, the Rio la Venta, etc.  In addition, there are large petroleum reserves in Ocosingo, parts of Chilón, and in other municipalities in the northern zone, where large reserves of gas also exist.  The aluminum and uranium deposits, which the federal government's Council on Mineral Resources has been exploring since 1983 in Tenejapa;  others are located in an area of San Juan Chamula and Ostuacan.  There are also the cloud forests that Pronatura has been exploring and trying to protect in the zone of Tila, Tapalapa, Tenejapa, Simojovel, Chilón, Ocosingo, Pueblo Nuevo, Solistahuacan and Chalchihuitán;  forests which figure within the large interests of future projects, such as the construction of hydroelectric dams, the seeding of large plantations, waterways and other subsoil resources.

In this area, the Monterrey business group, Grupo Pulsar, has projects already underway such as those in Tulijá for the planting of bamboo (gandhua variety), eucalyptus, African palm, etc.  We conclude that paramilitarization occurs where the government finds it necessary to provoke displacements as  a means of protecting strategic natural resources, and for the purpose of isolating the military structure of the EZLN by putting a wedge between them and their support bases.

The second kind of displacement to which we referred in Subsection (b), occurs with the failure of the government's strategy of military occupation of Zapatista territory in February, 1995, due to the fact that the Zapatistas had territory under their control by means of the autonomous municipalities, and not just through military force. This political project of the EZLN is supported by communities and peoples from other parts of Chiapas: so much so that in the latest communiqués from the General Command of the EZLN, they refer to their bases in the Sierra, the Coast, the Border and the North.  It is in order to undermine this project that the dismantling of the autonomous municipalities are being carried out, under the pretext of "re-establishing a state of law," at the cost of death and dislocation for the civil population.

At the same time, this "war strategy" and policy of imposition, opens the door to the state and federal governments to push their redistricting project, where the majority of the constitutional municipalities proposed by the government coincide with those of the EZLN. They merely change the location of the municipal seat to areas where the official party - the PRI -, paramilitaries or military, have control of local power in terms of politics, economics, territory, infrastructure, road access and loyalty from the population, among others.  This is extremely dangerous given that a scenario of this nature could generate more internal conflicts between the different actors in any particular territory, and the government would end up acting in the same way that they criticize:  imposing local authority.

The third type of displacements, to which we referred in Subsection c, leads us to suggest that we are seeing one more demonstration of the imposition and recovery of areas lost by the PRI which they are attempting to recover.  This is because the paramilitary plan imposes a regional political system that has its own economic and political rewards as a function of its control of territory.  We are facing a stage of exhaustion in the paramilitary scheme, which many PRI members are refusing to enter, and they are being coerced by force.  The government is entering the home stretch of a new military offensive in slow motion, using public security as a starting point, and the first anti-riot body of women in El Bosque, incorporated into the repressive state apparatus.  At the end of the day, this system seeks to remake themselves and to impose themselves by force of arms, it refuses to die, and the only thing it is willing to discuss with the EZLN is their surrender;  it has nothing to offer, and even less its lack of credibility and reliability.

Nonetheless, it is encouraging for the displaced that the International Red Cross (ICRC) in May 1998 obtained authorization from the Mexican government since May of this year to return to Chiapas. They are setting up with the aim of providing emergency support in the communities of Chenalhó and El Bosque, where there has recently been violence, and where the displaced are living in difficult circumstances.  This may help to ameliorate an emergency situation, but it could also facilitate security, and possibly the  accompanied return of the displaced to those communities where they are harassed by the paramilitaries.

"THE INSUPPORTABLE LIGHTNESS OF THE LAW:  IMPUNITY"

(Excerpt, Part X)*

e)      attacks against personal dignity, especially humiliating and degrading treatments, rape, forced prostitution and any form of assault on decency;

"A dead person can be wept over or made into a martyr or a hero, and a raped woman is a living testament to the attack against ethnic community or national identity," states the investigator, Marta Lamas.

Hundreds of raped women have been used as a lesson and a shame to others;  some denouncements have names and have been made public;  the majority remain silent out of fear of reprisals.  There is not one single person serving time for these war crimes in area prisons.

. . .Three months after the Zapatista uprising, three tzeltales sisters were raped; 6 or 7 soldiers raped them;  the rest "let them do it."

. . . On October 4, 1995, in San Cristobalito (San Andrés Larráinzar), three nurses from the Department of Health were sexually attacked by 25 disguised men.

That same month Cecilia Rodríguez was raped by three armed men at the Montebello lakes.  They were professional rapists.

. . .Julieta Flores, member of the Popular Campesino Union Francisco Villa, of the municipality Angel Albino Corzo, denounced that on December 15, 1995, after a series of land takeovers and mobilizations, which were demanding the installation of a plural municipal government, judicial police, accompanied by local public police, detained her, along with other campesinos from the organization.  They took her to the closest military base, where she was tortured and raped on several occasions.  Afterwards, she was freed, without any charge being brought against her, and without any record existing of her detention. 

. . .Through March 8, 1997, the Woman's Group of San Cristóbal de Las Casas had knowledge of more than 300 women who had been raped since the beginning of the armed conflict.

. . .The girls, Minerva Guadalupe Pérez Torres and Rebeca Pérez Pérez, 13 and 15 years old respectively, were kidnapped by members of the group Peace and Justice, in August of 1996.  The girls were held for 10 days in the community of Miguel Alemán, municipality of Tila, where they tortured and sexually abused them, and then, finally, killed them.

. . .Many of the displaced in Chenalhó state that women who are captured are forced to cook breakfast, wash clothes and are raped.   (Del Valle, S.  The Living Dead of Chiapas.   Doble Jornada,  La Jornada,  1/5/98,  p. 5)

According to the Center of Human Rights Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, the presence of the army corrupts the morals and good traditions of the citizens, by bringing in prostitutes, placing brothels in many communities and distributing alcoholic beverages and marijuana, which they sell or give to the residents.   (Muñoz, A.  La Jornada.  8/18/97,  p.5)

"The housewives are fearful, because of the diseases that they (the soldiers) transmit;  we don't want centers of vice in this town, like prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism, because we are very healthy the way we are."

The soldiers settled into the football field, located at the edge of town (El Bosque), and "the gentlemen of the municipal seat were opposed to that, because they know very well that the field is where the children play," stated the authorities of the communities of El Bosque  (Henríquez, E.  La Jornada,  4/6/97,  p. 10)

According to representatives of the rural municipal agency of Jolnachoj (municipality of San Andrés Larráinzar), the soldiers are constantly harassing the people:  "they rape the women, they get drunk, they raise hell at all hours of the night and they promote prostitution."  The rural authorities of Jolnachoj presented at least 10 letters of protest to the state government concerning the harassment suffered by various residents, but not one denunciation was ever investigated.   (Balboa, J. and Henríquez, E.,  La Jornada,  8/18/97,  p. 3)

In a document signed by the mayor of the municipality in rebellion of San Andrés Larráinzar, the increase of violations against young indigenous girls by the soldiers is denounced;  "many of them have become single mothers."  The saddest part, he explained, is that they are students at the bilingual primary school, Justo Sierra, and it is when they are leaving the school grounds that the soldiers follow them and rape them.

"The practice of prostitution, which comes from outside, has increased, and they throw the condoms anyplace, which the schoolchildren pick up and blow up for balloons.

In addition, the Jolmachoj River has been contaminated with trash, waste and filth, and has a horrible smell.  The contamination was denounced by the community to the people at the IMSS-Coplamar, but they didn't pay any attention," they noted.

Prostitution has changed the life in the regions occupied by EZLN militants and sympathizers:  children playing with condoms just used by soldiers, tattooed women strolling through town with soldiers in undershirts, prostitutes bathing nude in the rivers, women made pregnant by the soldiers and indigenous couples separated.   (Balboa, J.  La Jornada,  12/23/97,  p. 4)

A large increase in sexually transmitted diseases, the appearance of AIDS cases and the development of prostitution (they pay 100 pesos for virgins, while girls between 11 and 13 years old are "sold or lent" because of hunger) are the effects of the war.

. . . more and more indigenous chiapanecas are "going with soldiers," who keep the prettiest ones for the officers.  Fathers and sons, according to testimony, encourage the women to prostitute themselves.   (Pérez, M., Informe Sipaz,  La Jornada,  2/9/98,  p. 15)

Nightclub owners in Ocosingo and Altamirano have in the last two years built up a prostitution network (which includes indigenous women) in the eight military camps located in the primary Zapatista corridor in the lacandona jungle.

Some one hundred women are brought in weekly to the Canyons of Jataté, in order to satisfy the 3000 soldiers stationed in the Zapatista communities of La Garrucha and Nueva Providencia.

The presence of the Mexican Army has provoked domestic violence, an increase in the consumption of alcohol and in psychosomatic illnesses, as well as the break-up of at least 20 indigenous marriages,  when the women agree to have sexual relations with the soldiers for 50 pesos.

"In the communities of San Quintín and Nueva Providencia, the ejidal authorities don't govern, the soldiers govern . . .what the military says, is what the community does.  There are many women who have left their husbands because they've fallen in with the soldiers, having relations.  The women have abandoned their men and their children, because now they're trading with the soldiers," noted a human rights promoter and catchiest.

. . . Here there are children playing with recently used condoms (as balloons), tattooed women strolling about town with soldiers in undershirts and shorts;  prostitutes bathing nude in the rivers ("showing off their wares," the campesinos say);  but, above all, private homes turned into brothels.

The owners of the brothels in Ocosingo and Altamirano make daily rounds in the camps at La Garrucha, Patihuitz, Puente Jataté, La Soledad, La Sultana and San Quintín, carrying the women in three-ton trucks, who stay there an average of eight to ten days in private homes converted into brothels, to satisfy the soldiers.

Parallel with that, 36 indigenous women from San Quintín and Nueva Providencia made a living from prostitution.  These are the only two communities where the Mexican Army forces live within the town, and they exert psychological pressure on the residents, transforming the social, cultural and political lives of the indigenous.

. . .Many young indigenous women have been willing to prostitute themselves for money:  the soldiers pay 50 pesos for married women, and 100 pesos for young girls who haven't lived with a man.

. . . prostitution has caused an increase in pregnancy among indigenous women, because of their fear of being harassed by members of the Army.   (Balboa, J.  La Jornada,  1/27/98,  p.4)

The women don't want to see guns now, and neither do they want to see the army, because they are afraid, and, also, they are surrounding the well where we go to get water," said the Tzotziles, who have demonstrated twice against the installation of the military camp in X'oyep.  They said that on those two occasions they were only met with scratches and blows from the soldiers who refused to leave X'oyep.  They also denounced that "some of them lift up the women's skirts and tell them that they will kiss them and they will fall in love."   (Gil Olmos, J.  La Jornada,  1/6/98,  p. 10)

Fidelia walks timidly a few meters away from the truckload of soldiers.  Stroking the barrel of his machine gun, from the top of a military vehicle, a helmeted soldier says audibly:  "she says she wants a soldier's son."

Sordidly, his companions enjoy the joke, which seems to be popular among the troops.  This correspondent heard it two other times.  Once, directed at a woman from the United States who had arrived in Polhó.  Another time, to a women from Mexico City.  In a high voice, a sergeant crooned in falsetto: "I want a soldier's son."

It forms part of a rude and lewd attitude on the part of the soldiers and police, who photograph anyone who passes by, and in a joking tone make clucking sounds.

What is called sexual harassment in civilized countries, and is a crime, serves here to keep up the troops'  morale.   (Bellinghausen, H.  La Jornada,  12/31/97,  p. 4)

The military envoy that came through La Realidad yesterday, stopped in the middle of the town.  From one of the vehicles, a soldier, with his arm, was occupied, for an entire minute, in insulting and making sexual allusions to a young girl, a Mexican citizen, a member of a civil peace camp, who was observing the military patrol.   (Bellinghausen, H.  La Jornada,  3/14/98,  p. 7)

"The people appreciate and admire the courage of the military, and everyone who wishes for a peaceful solution to the conflicts admire the character, the impartiality and the strength of each Mexican soldier.  The Armed Forces are the guarantors of national sovereignty, bastion of liberty and defenders of the institutions of the Republic.   (Ernesto Zedillo, President of the Republic,  2/19/98)

·        Extract from the document, "The Insupportable Lightness of the Law:  Impunity;  Three Months From Acteal," from "Popular Alternative Communication, Working Group," from 4/11/98

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