May 22, 2000

PFP Busy intimidating Chiapans, May 21

Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
_______________________
Translated by irlandesa

La Jornada
Sunday, May 31, 2000.

Hostility and Arrogance: Signs of the PFP in Chiapas

Travelling Through State Putting Laws and Citizens' Rights to Test
No Federal or State Officials Admit Having Sent Them to Conflict Zone

Hermann Bellinghausen, correspondent.
Los Altos, Chiapas.
May 20.

Travelling through Chiapas is putting laws and citizens' rights to the test, every day n a more hostile and extra-legal manner. In contrast to what official propaganda is saying, the entire indigenous territory of the state is living under military, police and paramilitary tension, aimed against independent organizations, communities in resistance and numerous visitors. Thus, while federal and state officials are trying to reach agreement as to who called for, or sent, the Federal Preventive Police here, and where they are, the force is operating almost invisibly in the area. And it shows.

Officially, according to a government bulletin from Tuxtla Gutie'rrez, the PFP will be posted in the Montes Azules reserve. Also officially, from the DF it is stated that the 400 members of that unit who have arrived in the state, have come to resolve a problem among PRIs, and they are distributed in Chenalho', Chalchihuita'n, Pantelho', with the exception of 25 agents whom the Department of Government brought back to the capital.

Governor Roberto Albores Guille'n, for one, categorically denied, on Tuesday, having requested the presence of the PFP in the state. He said that weapons are not needed in Chiapas for resolving problems. Government contradicted him.

The Senate candidate for the opposition alliance, Amadeo Espinosa Ramos, demanded "a formal complaint from the governor against the Department of Government," so as not to be left with a mere "washing of the hands." If not, his statement would just be "talk and demagoguery." Espinosa Ramos said that, if Albores words are true, "it equally proves that it is not the government of Chiapas that is making decisions concerning the state's problems."

The candidate for Senator recalled that Albores had been going around saying that "the chiapanecos make the state's decisions," but the presence of this police force "demonstrates one more time that fundamental decisions regarding chiapaneco policies are being drawn up and carried out by the Department of Government." This being so, "there is a violation of sovereignty," stated the legislative aspirant for all the opposition parties.

The Gray Helmets Burst Upon the Scene

Previously, the head of the Semarnap had denied requesting the intervention of the PFP, and, at this rate, if no one did so, one would have to conclude that the Federal Preventive Police sent themselves to Chiapas.

The indigenous of Polho' are saying that those forces are participating in the patrols along the highways and roads of Chenalho', although their uniforms and gray helmets are not seen among the soldiers and the Public Security police. They also point out the "fork" that leads to Pechiquil as being the spot where the different police forces, including the PFP, are encamped.

All along the Pan American highway, especially on the stretch from Tuxtla Gutie'rrez to Comita'n, the PFP is carrying out searches under the pretense of highway business. Federal Road Police patrol cars, assigned to the PFP now, are detaining drivers in order to carry out interrogations which have nothing to do with highway protection: "Where are you coming from? Where are you going? What are you doing in Chiapas? Are you Mexican? What kind of work do you do?"

Various drivers have complained about the hostility and arrogance of the Road Police, or, rather, the PFP.

Meanwhile, threats still persist against dozens of zapatista and independent communities in the Montes Azules biosphere reserve, impervious to state and federal retractions. There has, simultaneously, been a supporting propaganda campaign unleashed by ecology organizations, national and foreign, with proven interests in the reserve (and not just scientific, but especially commercial and concerning ownership of intellectual rights of biotic resources, and this while leaving out the indigenous). Fires that do not exist serve to justify the military pressure against the indigenous.

Takeovers, Roads and Highways

The federal Army - as well as Federal Preventive police, Federal Road police, Public Security police, State Judicial police, agents from the Department of Justice of the Republic and National Immigration Institute agents - have practically taken over the roads and highways in the conflict zone. Through different forms of checkpoints, Mexican and foreign citizens, indigenous and 'caxlanes,' men and women, are being intercepted, interrogated and held. There are repeated denunciations about harassment and ill treatment by the forces of order.

Invoking the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law - as well as migration and highway regulations - in an increasingly flexible and discretionary manner, soldiers and agents seem to be enforcing a new strategy of control in the face of the next state and federal elections, especially against those individuals they consider "suspicious," who could, in fact, be anyone.

In Vicente Guerrero, municipality of Las Margaritas, the federal Army has committed several abuses, such as confiscating documents and objects, threatening people and offensively searching belongings and papers (under the pretense of looking for "plastic explosives"), as well as the bodies themselves of those travelling this approach to the Selva Lacandona.

At military search points, identification cards are being prepared of individuals, with all kinds of personal data which have no relationship to the search for firearms and explosives. A true obsession with foreigners is causing soldiers and police to usurp immigration duties. As if immigration were not already carrying out interrogations, searches and exerting various pressures against any and all foreigners, along the roads of Los Altos (San Andre's, Chenalho', El Bosque), as well as in the Selva Lacandona (from Palenque at the Guatemala border, to the ca~adas of Ocosingo, Altamirano and Las Margaritas).

Citations by the INM office are frequent, and then there are the delays and complications whose purpose is to frighten off those whom they are not going to expel. "They are doing it in order to bother [people]," a tourist from the state of Spain recently said, who they were having come back over and over again, until he was, in effect, fed up.

Scholars of the area believe that there are currently more than 700 military positions, ranging from barracks, mixed operational bases, residential complexes and commercial centers, to camps and checkpoints, concentrated especially in the Tzotzil Los Altos, the Selva Lacandona and the much discussed Montes Azules. They have a new and formidable network of roads, which represent, for the campesinos, above all, the routes of militarization and war.

In a written denunciation, which the person involved sent to La Jornada, one episode, among many, is described. A few days ago, at the military checkpoint at Vicente Guerrero, this person was harassed and intimidated by federal Army persons. "They emptied out the contents of my backpack, and they asked questions about the use of belongings like clothing, a toothbrush and small amounts of medicine."

This person notes that he was interrogated and searched for more than an hour. He was intimidated by two Army officers, "who arrogantly and aggressively were telling me all my personal data, including my complete name, my birth date, the names of members of my family, as well as a chronology of the places where I have carried out activities related to my profession. They mentioned exact dates, places and lengths of stay since 1996."

And he added: "At the end of the search, they shouted 'now we'll see when you return,' and 'now we know who you are, don't hide.' This is part of a strategy of intimidation and terror against those people who are somehow having a presence in this area of Chiapas."