Chiapas: calling your attention to the war that is not a war

Twenty days before the presidential elections in the Mexican Republic, the campaign of the candidate of the official party refuses to take off, and the escalation in violence in southeastern Mexico anticipates the climax of the War, where the very well oiled machinery has already been kicked into gear, aiming for the vote of fear, the destruction of the support bases and the annihilation of the command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

This account of four events occurring in Chiapas since June 9 attempts to shed light on the war strategy ordered by the government of Ernesto Zedillo to finish off “the historic incident” which he promises will not be inherited by his presidential successor:

-June 12: An armed group ambushes elements of Public Security, leaving seven dead and two wounded in the municipality of El Bosque.

-June 12: Inhabitants of Unión Progreso, in the municipality of El Bosque, denounce the threat of a military invasion with the pretext of looking for three supposed leaders of the EZLN. Officials at a military checkpoint declare to a human rights lawyer that in Chiapas there is a suspension of individual guarantees and they report to be in maximum alert because of the upcoming elections.

-June 11: The Attorney General of Justice of the State (PGJE) reports the discovery of 3 bodies, shot at close range, in the rural road of the community Rivera de Piedra Parada, in the municipality of Ocozocuatla, located 30 kilometers southwest of the capital of Chiapas.

-June 8: The offensive begins with a brutal action by elements of the Judicial Police in San Cristobal de Las Casas, who assaulted the organizers of the concert for Peace in Oventic, when they raided the hotel where they were staying, supposedly looking for drugs.

Monday, June 12, between nine and ten in the morning, a group of heavily armed men ambushed municipal and Public Security police, killing seven of them, and leaving 2 seriously wounded, among them the son of the mayor, in the stretch of highway Las Lagunas, close to the community Las Limas, part of the municipality El Bosque.
The state Attorney of Justice, Eduardo Montoya Liévano, reported that the events occurred between nine and ten in the morning this Monday, in the stretch Las Lagunas, near the community of Las Limas, when the police were realizing “an operation to detect bandits who assault, rob and cattle rustle.” The official information affirmed that the police were on board an official vehicle driven by the son of the mayor, Manuel Gómez Ruiz, when they were ambushed at the height of the community of Las Lagunas, located 110 kilometers to the north of Tuxtla Gutiérrez the capital of the state.
At the scene of the crime, the bodies of the Public Security commander Francisco Pérez Morales, and the policemen Francisco Escobar Sánchez, Rodolfo Gómez Domínguez, Guadalupe Margarito Rodríguez Félix, Arbey Vázquez Gómez and Francisco Pérez Mendoza, as well as the municipal Public Security Agent Alejandro Pérez Cruz, were found. The two seriously wounded men who survived the ambush are the state policeman Belisario Gómez Pérez and the son of the mayor of the municipality Rosenberg Gómez Ruiz, who was driving.
A press release from the Attorney General of the Republic(PGR) informed that they will take over the investigation of the case, citing evidence that it could be related to one of the armed groups that is investigated by the Specialized Unit for the Attention of Crimes Committed by Probable Groups of Armed Civilians.
24 hours after the violent events, the Attorney of Justice of the State of Chiapas still has no suspects or arrests. However, in the zone that was the head of the Zapatista autonomous municipality San Juan Libertad (dismantled by the orders of the governor Roberto Albores), a massive mobilization of military and police forces has been detected.
The specialized unit, with the support of the state delegation of the PGR, and of the Bases of Mixed Operations, which is made up of the Mexican Army, and the state and federal police forces, will continue with the operations of investigation and search for suspects, added the office. Approximately 5 thousand elements comb the highly Zapatista zone.

It should be mentioned that since Monday afternoon, extra-official versions of the Secretary of National Defense noted that the ambush could have been perpetrated by cells of the Popular Revolutionary Army(EPR); also, in a rare act, minutes after the attorney made the events public- according to the correspondent of the newspaper Jornada- the commander of the Seventh Military Region, General Abraham Campos López, arrived hastily at the attorney’s office. Though the General refused to provide any information about the events, hundreds of soldiers were transferred directly from the Seventh Military Region to the municipality of El Bosque.

It must be remembered that last Friday was the two year anniversary of the military-police operation that dismantled the autonomous Zapatista municipality of El Bosque, in the communities of Unión y Progreso, Chavajeval and the municipal head, El Bosque. Ordered by the governor of the State Roberto Albores, 8 EZLN supporters were killed in the operation. This is the eighth ambush of the year 2000, which have resulted in a total of 21 dead and more than 14 wounded, the majority of them Zapatista support bases.

Omen
According to information released by the newspaper La Jornada, the inhabitants of Unión Progreso, in the municipality of El Bosque, denounced to the lawyer Diego Cadenas of the Center of Human Rights Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas , that they feared a new invasion of the Mexican army and police, being that in recent days they have been patrolling the region looking for three campesinos, who are “accused” of being EZLN leaders. This information was also released this Monday, June 12, shortly before the ambush was made public.
The lawyer declared that this June 10, when he traveled to Union Progreso to participate in the religious acts organized to honor the second anniversary of the assassination of the 8 indigenous men, in the military checkpoints located in Puerto Caté and San Andrés Larráinzer, the officials at the checkpoints told him that in Chiapas “individual guarantees are suspended.” In response to the lawyer’s astonishment at military official’s admission, one of the officials insisted, “Here in Chiapas individual guarantees are not operating and you as a member of human rights should know that.” Then he commented, “We are in maximum alert because of the elections.”

Climate becomes stranger

The General Attorney of Justice of the State reported the discovery of three bodies shot at close range in the rural path of the community of Rivera de Piedra Parada, in the municipality of Ocozocuatla, located 30 kilometers to the southwest of the capital of Chiapas. The office reported that people linked to a criminal gang shot Ovidio Miceli Hidalgo, Ernesto López González and Miguel Ángel Ramírez Vázquez, with high caliber weapons, presumably for revenge. The assailants used 38 caliber guns to execute the three men, who were between 20 and 30 years of age.

On all fronts
The campaign of terror is not just directed at the Zapatista communities, but also at the civil support network. The espionage of non-governmental organizations in San Cristobal de Las Casas increases, as well as patrols and surveillance in the city. On Thursday, June 8, a group of federal agents belonging to the General Attorney of the Republic of San Cristobal de Las Casas verbally and physically assaulted organizers of the Concert for Peace, which was held in Oventic on Sunday, June 11.
This Tuesday, Herman Bellinghausen, correspondent of La Jornada, called to attention that the mobilizations and the actions of the Federal Army and the Federal Preventative Police have increased in an unusual manner in the Highlands and the distinctive regions of the Lacandon Jungle, in particular in the area surrounding the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve and around the Zapatista aguascalientes. “The hyperactivity of the military convoys, with great frequency, and always pointing their canons and their machine guns overwhelmed with bullets hanging to the left of the guns, summed up with the almost omnipresence of the PFP in their different corporations: the highway police and the Immigration police, as well as CISEN agents and the preventative and militarized police, as they should be called,” reported the correspondent.

*This is the official information and that generated in the national newspapers: La Jornada, El Universal, Reforma. It should be mentioned: the treatment by the national television was secondary, for example in Television Azteca the ambush was the last item to be aired and the information has been weighted in some media and national and international informative agencies, mentioning that the EZLN could be responsible for the ambush, ignoring information of the existence of 15 paramilitary groups active in the state with the consent of the government, the PRI and the Army.
In El Bosque La Ocopech: Popular Campesino Organization of Chiapas operates with high powered arms; and the group of young PRI-members Los Plátanos, who are trained by Public Security and the Mexican Army.

Focusing on the national situation, this week also generated or will generate events that could result in more repression or act as smoke screens:

Monday- 10 Patrol cars of the delegation Venustiano Carranza of Mexico City , practically surrounded the campaign committee of Vicente Fox, which they said was an error as they had received information of a suspicious Stratus vehicle like the vehicle of the candidates body guards. Fox has declared that he will not file any charges and that this event will not scare him.

- More than 12 days in the conflict in Aeroméxico, there has been no agreement. National Unions (electricians, telephone operators, university workers…) have threatened a national strike if there is no solution for the flight attendants’ union.

-The parents of students of the General Strike Council (CGH) made public their decision to blockade indefinitely the tower of the Rector’s office if the lawyer of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) does not respond to their demand to withdraw all criminal charges against the now freed students. CGH considers participating in the blockade.

-Academics of the UNAM, as well as members of the General Strike Council (CGH), alert about the possible reintervention of the PFP in the University City with the pretext of protecting the school during the vacation period, due to the agreement that the UNAM and the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) signed in order to proportion the use of the supercomputer during the elections to publicize the election results.

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)