The Mexican Army and police forces continue to increase their presence and mobilization in the Lacandon Jungle. To show the ascending process of violence in the last 18 months, we present here a chronology elaborated by Enlace Civil that presents a summary of the letters received from Autonomous Municipalities and the Network of Community Defenders for Human Rights, during the first months of the government of Vicente Fox and of the governor of the state, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía (2001 and 2002 year to date). The chronology is taken from Enlace Civil’s website where each of the letters and protests can be consulted (www.enlacecivil.org.mx).

We can make the following analysis and conclusions from the chronology:

1)      The Zapatista resistance has strengthened locally because of the Autonomous Municipalities that have been growing and continuing to organize, and are now the object of paramilitary attacks.

2)      The Autonomous Municipalities and even PRI communities are located in strategic areas for the Plan Puebla Panama whose accompanying mega-projects threaten the area with eviction of the indigenous population (highways, infrastructure, Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, extraction of gas and oil, and hydroelectric dams among others).

3)      Paramilitary groups have not been deactivated – they continue active and operating. This is the consequence of the lack of political will on the part of the federal and state governments to apply justice, instead permitting impunity.

4)      This critical situation reflects the supposed politics of “reconciliation” on the part of the state government that tolerates, permits and negotiates with paramilitary groups, and has also surreptitiously liberated paramilitary prisoners from the jails.

5)      The Autonomous Municipalities that have been victims of this agression are at least the following 17: Olga Isabel, 17 de Noviembre, Primero de Enero, Che Guevara, Vicente Guerrero, Miguel Hidalgo, Lucio Cabañas, San Pedro Polhó, San Juan de la Libertad, Roberto Barrios, El Trabajo, Tierra y Libertad, San Pedro Michoacán, Oventic, San Manuel, Ricardo Flores Magón and  Francisco Gómez.

6)      The kind of violent actions taken against the Autonomous Municipalities are: assassination of Zapatistas (at least five have been recorded between the municipalities of Francisco Gómez, Flores Magón, Olga Isabel and 17 de Noviembre); harassment and intimidation; threats and violations of human rights; patrols and fly-bys on the part of the Army and federal and state police; many threats; evictions, detentions, disappearances and kidnappings; displacement of families to the mountains; increase in military and police personnel along with repositioning of their encampments; beatings, torture and physical abuse; sexual assault; evidences of alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution brought into communities by the Mexican Army and state and federal police; destruction of coffee plantations; burning of houses and belongings; expulsion of families; breaking of agreements; division through governmental programs; intended and threatened evictions; cutting of electricity by CFE; intimidation, harassment, threats and violence against members of the Network of Community Defenders for Human Rights; planting of marijuana by PRI communities and municipal authorities and by paramilitaries with the support of the Mexican Army and police to justify their operations.

7)      Among the paramilitary groups that are cited is Paz y Justicia, los Aguilares, in the community of San Antonio Escobar, in Chenalhó, OPDIC, among others.

8)      The Autonomous Municipalities indicate that the following are responsible for these acts of violence: paramilitaries, Attorney General’s office (PGR), State Public Security Police, Federal Preventive Police, and the Mexican Army, the federal government, state government and PRI municipal authorities, among others.

9)      Through protests, sit-ins, marches and letters to the press, the Autonomous Municipalities have demanded the following: respect for the Autonomous Municipalities, national and international solidarity presence in the communities, prohibition of drugs (sowing, trafficking and sale), liberation of those kept prisoner, detained or kidnapped, demilitarization, application of justice to paramilitary groups, a halt to the creation of highways and roads with counter-insurgent goals, and the carrying out of the San Andres Accords, among others.

10)    Which of the demands has been granted? None.

Tojolobal Jungle Zone

2002-08-05: The Autonomous Municipality of Tierra y Libertad makes it known that they have decided to recuperate the lands of La Paz which were invaded by Mr. Romeo Esponda Espinosa with the support of the government.

2002-07-13: The Municipality of Tierra y Libertad says that the government claims to be concerned about the situation in the communities regarding land, but that really it is not known how the government will take action. Through their actions the government will show what they really want.

2002-07-07: The Autonomous Municipality of Tierra y Libertad denounces the situation that the Zapatista support bases are experiencing, as they are being threatened with eviction from the lands where they are living, holding the municipal, state and federal governments responsible for any aggression that compañeros suffer.

2002-07-05: The Municipality of Tierra y Libertad protests that agreements made by a group of people in Ejido San Rafael have not been implemented.

2002-06-28: Families from the community of Zacualpan in the Municipality of Socoltenango protest the cutting of their electrical energy by the CFE in coordination with the Ejido authorities on the pretext that they have not paid for their electricity, and to force them off their lands.

2002-06-26: The Autonomous Municipality of General Emiliano Zapata makes formal protest against the counter-insurgency campaign that Fox’s government is carrying out, utilizing militants from ARIC through projects that are little more than alms from the federal and state governments.

2002-06-09: The Autonomous Municipality of San Pedro de Michoacán protests the eviction intent suffered by the inhabitants of various landholdings in this municipality.

2002-06-09: The new ejido population center Emiliano Zapata protests against María del Socorro Reyna Camacho and the federal and state governments for trying to evict the Zapatist support bases that are located in various holdings.

 2002-02-27: The community of la Realidad Trinidad denounces the falsification of documents (names, signatures and fingerprints) by the PRI members of this community that are acting on the part of SEDESOL (Ministry of Social Development).

2002-02-27: The Autonomous Municipality denounces Javier Hernández of Rancho San Marcos, Guillermo Santiz Santiz of la Realidad Trinidad and Antonio Jiménez of Carmen Villaflores, who during the month of February were receiving training in the offices of SEDESOL in Guadalupe Tepeyac and Río Euseba from Hugo Chandomin. Now Guillermo Santiz Santiz is falsifying documents with names, signatures and fingerprints to turn into these SEDESOL offices.

2002-02-11: The Autonomous Muncipality of Tierra y Libertad formally protests the government’s use of sistematic programs to wear down the people who are fighting for their rights, and continuing to not respect the autonomy of the indigenous people. The eviction of a family in the community of La Trinidad is also denounced.

2001-10-02: The Network of Community Defenders denounces that in Frontera Comalapa, Zapatista support bases are being evicted from coffee fields and are suffering aggressions and threats.

2001-08-13: The Autonomous Municipality of Tierra y Libertad formally protests the detention of two compañeros for invented crimes and demands their prompt release.

2001-07-31: The Autonomous Municipality of San Pedro de Michoacán removes itself from movements carried out by MOCRI and solicits the liberation of 6 compañeros detained by public security forces, along with the presentation of those that have been disappeared.

2001-05-30: The Autonomous Municipality of San Pedro de Michoacán holds the federal, state and municipal governments responsible for possible confrontations that could occur due to the highway that is being planned through the communities of Santo Tomás and Río Corozal, for the benefit of military encampments. They reject the construction of the highway.

2001-03-23: The federal government has announced the removal of four military outposts in the communities of Guadalupe Tepeyac and Río Euseba, and it is a lie.

2001-05-21: The government is provoking the Zapatista communities and does not respect its lands as it enters with large machinery to open roads and destroy coffee plantations.

2001-02-10: In the community of Guadalupe Tepeyac the military continues to bring prostitution, alcoholism and drug addiction as they have for the past six years that they have occupied this community.

2001-01-08: Two people have disappeared, one of them a minor and public security forces are being blamed.

Tzeltal Jungle Zone

2002-08-26: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces the violent acts of August 19 at the crossroads of Quexil, provoked by government officials and armed groups, where Zapatista supporters were injured.

2002-08-26: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces that the paramilitary group known as OPDIC is organizing for new action against Zapatista controls that are at the crossroads of Quexil, along with installing a paramilitary roadblock near the military post “La Peninsula” to detail Zapatista support bases.

2002-08-26: The Autonomous Municipality Ricardo Flores Magón formally protests the assassination of two compañeros who were autonomous authorities: Jacinto Hernández Gutiérrez and Lorenzo Martínez Espinosa. It is not known where the body of the latter is, and who has taken it away.

2002-08-19: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces that 22 trucks carrying paramilitaries were detained in the Zapatista roadblock of Quexil, provoking a confrontation where there were 14 people injured.

2002-08-18: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón raises its voice to clarify that false information has been coming out in some media that serves to feed into lies that serve as pretexts for the bad government – so that the federal army, public security forces and Judicial Police can enter into our communities that are in resistance.

2002-08-17: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez denounces the rumors of a confrontation between clandestine woodcutters and the Zapatista roadblock that is in the community known as El Salvador. They hold these people responsible for anything that happens.

2002-08-11: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón cites the actions of the paramilitary group in the community of San Antonio Escobar, that continue to commit unjust acts and provoke sympathies against the Zapatista support bases of the autonomous territory.

2002-08-05: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón clarifies the facts surrounding the violent acts that paramilitaries of San Antonio Escobar provoked in the community of La Culebra, thus denying a series of false accusations against them that have been made public in the media in the past few days.

2002-07-31: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the violent acts that men, women and children of their communities suffer at the hands of paramilitaries.

2002-07-29: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces the harassing presence of the judicial police that are following three compañeros seeking to detain them. They furthermore denounce the fly-overs and patrols that the federal Army is carrying out in this zone.

2002-07-13: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the danger of the formation and strengthening of a new paramilitary group in this territory, leaving the population in danger.

2002-07-16: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel formally protests to make public the aggressions that indigenous communities and compañeros continue to suffer while they live, work and resist with dignity.

2002-07-16: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces the aggressions and death threats made by the organization known as ORCAO, which have escalated to include the disappearance of a compañeros. They blame the governments for permitting these acts of violence.

2002-06-25: The Network of Community Defenders for Human Rights in the Jungle Zone denounces the military actions in the Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón.

2002-06-06: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez denounces the provocations that the Zapatista support bases suffer in the Ejido San Miguel, at the hands of militant Independent ARIC.

2002-05-21: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces the provocation due to the presence of public security police and of the federal Army, along with the lies that divide us and cause confrontations between brothers, fear and discomfort in our communities.

2002-05-13: The authorities of the community of El Salvador denounce that a group pertaining to the organization CREPDDIC, known as CNC, along with OFAO, entered with arms, sticks and machetes threatening the community.

2002-05-10: The communities of the Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón give notice that when their deadline is up; they have decided to retake the municipal agency that has been operating in the community for seven years.

2002-05-07: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez denounces provocations made by paramilitary groups, blaming these groups for any regrettable problem that could arise, given that even the government has not been able to detain them.

2002-05-05: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel formally protests the lies that have been fabricated against the community, that have only served to divide them, provoking intervention from the Mexican Army and the Federal Preventive Police, thus allowing them to control highways.

2002-05-03: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the harassment by pubic security forces and they give a deadline for the PRD to remove the lock put on the doors of the autonomous agency.

2002-04-22: Authorities of the municipality of Francisco Gómez denounce the acts that took place in the community of El Salvador, where a group of people of the CNC from the municipality of Ocosingo had provoked problems with the Zapatista support bases.

2002-04-19: The community of San Jerónimo Tulijá denounces the cutting of their electricity by the CFE, who has not respected the agreement that was made years ago with the interim government of Javier López Moreno. To date their demands have not received an answer.

2002-04-17: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Villa denounces the aggressions, robberies and threats of land ownership made by CNPI, along with the destruction that they have carried out in the community of Peña Limonar.

2002-04-03: The Network of Community Defenders denounces along with the communities of Laguna el Paraíso, Laguna Suspiro, Nuevo San Pedro, 6 de Octubre, and Nueva Cintalapa of the Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón that are in Montes Azules and Lacandon Jungle, the recent harassment by the federal and state governments, the police forces as Mexican Army.

2002-03-25: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the threats that the government has made through soldiers, paramilitaries and projects that rob dreams and lands. The communities of Ricardo Flores Magón say once again that they will not permit the eviction or relocation of their communities.

2002-03-24: The Authorities of the Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez denounce that people belonging to the organization known as ORCAO harassed Zapatista support bases of this community. They hold this organization responsible for what could happen in the support bases.

2002-03-04: The Network of Community Defenders for Human Rights of the San Jerónimo Tulijá Zone denounces harassment by public security forces against Francisco Cruz Pérez, human rights defender.

2002-02-23: The Autonomous Municipality Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the new intent by the bad government to evict indigenous communities of the Integral Biosphere Reserve of Montes Azules (REBIMA) and of the so-called Lacandon Zone. They also denounce the ploys that the government is constructing to continue their war against the communities in resistance, now with the pretext of these “reserved” zones. The indigenous communities of Ricardo Flores Magón repeat that they will not permit eviction or relocation: they will defend their lands as territories of their indigenous people.

2002-02-23: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces and demands the immediate release of five compañeros that were detained January 16 and 17, charged with rumors and false charges or robbery and assassination. Due to these false accusations, the violence of the detentions, irregularities in the judicial process and the negativity of the state government to free them – we consider these compañeros political prisoners of Pablo Salazar’s government.

2002-02-21: The Network of Community Defenders for Human Rights denounces the continued detention of Manuel Cruz Méndez, Antonio Gómez Luna, Andrés Gómez Luna, Miguel Ángel Gómez Luna, and Mariano Cruz Hernández as a flagrant violation of the Political Constitution of the United Status of Mexico (CPEUM) and of the international law on arbitrary detention and torture.

2002-02-07: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the unjust detention of five compañeros charged on false rumors of robbery and assassination.

2002-01-23: The detention of three people in the Ejido Cuauhtémoc in the municipality of Ocosingo by a group of PRI members is denounced, as is the harassment of a member of the Network of Defenders and the possible torture of one of the detained.

2002-01-21: In the community of Las Tazas, we denounce that TELMEX has entered in a helicopter, violating the San Andrés Accords by installing private lines that do not benefit the people.

2002-01-15: A confrontation is provoked by members of ORCAO against Zapatista support bases of the Ejido Chamizal in the Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez.

2002-01-11: The military harassment against Zapatista support bases continues, in the Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón.

2001-12-29: harassment, air operations and military movements in the indigenous communities that live in the triangle of the Montes Azules reserves that pertain to this municipality continue.

2001-12-04: PRI members solicit intervention of public security forces in Taniperla in the municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón.

2001-12-04: Agrarian Agency tries to violate the internal rulings of the community of Arroyo Granizo, in the municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón.

2001-11-11: The Autonomous Municipality of San Manuel denounces military harassment against their communities.

2001-10-28: A member of Zapatista support base of Francisco Gómez dies.  He was wounded by paramilitaries in July, 2001.

2001-10-17: Harassment by military and public security forces against communities of the valley of Santo Domingo, in the municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón.

2001-10-14: From the Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez: in the community of San Manuel a group of PRI members burned a house and destroyed others as they wanted to take lands that were not theirs.

2001-10-08: The Network of Community Defenders denounces that in the Ejido of Santo Domingo and Arroyo Granizo, the authorities were tried by the state prosecutor and sentenced for having prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages.

2001-07-17: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the presence of the military in their communities and the increase of elements in the Cintalapa base. It is a lie that the government says there is no longer a military presence in the communities of Chiapas.

2001-07-17: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez denounces the aggressions on behalf of the militants of ARIC, and solicits the release of a sick person detained by them.

2001-06-24: The municipality of Francisco Gómez denounces the provocations by the municipal president of Ocosingo and of PRI members that are entering with livestock that destroy harvests.

2001-06-22: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the fly-overs and harassment by military and the increase of military elements at roadblocks.

2001-05-22: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez, Ejido Rómulo Calzada denounces conflicts with PRI members for the exploitation of the forest (traffic of precious woods) that is being carried out on ejido lands.

2001-05-17: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the continuous patrols and harassment by the federal Army and asks that operatives against the communities stop.

2001-04-23: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the continuous aggressions on the part of the Army toward community members and the patrols along the roads in San Jacinto Tzeltal y Nuevo Mariscal.

2001-03-23: The Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gómez denounces that the Army set up a military encampment in la Garrucha, 4 kms. from this community.

2001-02-16: The Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón denounces the harassment that they receive from the Army and the public security forces in roadblocks, fly-overs, patrols and increase of troops in the zone.

2001-08-18: Provocations by PRI members and constant harassments and threats, burning and destruction of homes.

2000-12-19: In the municipality of Francisco Gómez, the authorities denounce Fox’s lie regarding the Army occupation of their lands and the non-enforcement of the promise to remove the Army.

Here ends the chronology elaborated by Enlace Civil.  Facing the growing violence and tension in Chiapas, we the social and civil organizations of Chiapas make an urgent call to national and international solidarity to manifest their inconformity and to organize caravans of accompaniment and solidarity in the conflict regions.

Translated by Maria Elena Sanger, for CIEPAC, A.C.

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