April 12, 1998

CHIAPAS UPDATE April 12th, 1998

Summary of events of April 10th and 11th

On April 10th, members of the Zapatista support base communities in the Taniperlas Canyon hosted a party to celebrate the inauguration of the Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magon, made up of the majority of communities in the valley. Apparently campesinos sympathetic to the government from the ejidos of San Caralampio, San Jose, and Taniperlas made the trip to Ocosingo to denounce the new autonomous municipality and its representatives for a variety of crimes ranging from theft (cutting of fruit trees), to plundering, and the usurpation of governmental functions. After "investigating the accusations" Governor Roberto Albores Guillen approved an order for a massive multi-force operation to enter the community of Taniperlas.

At approximately 4:00 am on Saturday morning, 50 trucks bearing 450 officers of the State Police (Seguridad Publica), 300 Mexican Army, 10 Procurador General de la Republica, 15 Judicial Police, four Migration officials, and a Notary public to be a witness to the events.

They searched the village, destroyed the newly constructed auditorium, and defaced the brand new mural. During the operation, the seguridad State Judicial Police arrested six people from the community, three mexicans visiting in Taniperlas and 12 foreigners (2 Basques, 2 Belgians, 2 Canadians, 1 German, 1 Spaniard, and 3 from the United States. At about 6:00 am on Saturday, the mexican detainees were taken to the office of the State Judicial Police in San Cristobal. At the same time the 12 foreigners were transported to the office of the National Migration Institute(INM) in San Cristobal.

Current situation

At about 2:30 pm on Saturday, the governor gave a press conference congratulating himself and the invaders on the successful operation. He spoke about his government's commitment to thepeacxeful resolution of problems and his plans to present a new remunicipalization project in compliance with the signed but as yet unimplemented San Andres Accords. Word rapidly spread throughout San Cristobal of the goings on in Taniperlas. By early evening there was a crowd of people outside of both offices where people had been detained. There were reports of as many as 60 people, all Mexicans, outside the Migration office yelling slogans such as "you are not alone!!" Responses were heard from the people inside of, "And neither are you!!" The front gate of the migration office is covered with the word "Xenofobos." Three Diputados Federales of the lefty Partido Revolucionario Democratico attempted to gain entry to the office to make sure that everyone was being treated well and were denied entry by some of the two truckloads of State Police present in the compound.

The group of foreigners has apparently refused to make any statements without the presence of a lawyer. There were repeated efforts to interrogate them but they all refused to comment. At approximately 8:30 pm human rights attorney Miguel Angel de los Santos arrived with Father Pablo Romo of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center to see the detained foreigners. They were told that the INM refused to recognize them. One of the Spanish women apparently communicated with people outside the office that the Migra had said they would only recognize a lawyer from the governmental National Human Rights Comission. Both men left the office saying that they could not be expected to stand there watching as the INM officials violated their client's human rights.

On a lighter note, one of the detained foreigners reportedly proposed to his Mexican girlfriend through the window of the migration office.

People remained in a sort of vigil throughout the night to make sure that noone would be moved under cover of nioght, the people from the community to Cerro Hueco, the notorious prison outside of Tuxtla Gutierrez and the foreigners to Mexico City for deportation. There was no movement until 7:00 Sunday morning.

At 7:00 am the Migration officials began to move the detained foreigners out of the office. Some went reluctantly walking towards the bus but others had to be carried on to the transport. The process took a fairly long time and a number of questions were answered by the detainees. They say that they never made any statements and that according to mexican Migration law it is illegal to deport someone without a statement being made. They told onlookers that they were all fine, that there had been no incidents of physical violence, but that they had been threatened.

Sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 am all of the detainees were seen boarding an airplane in Tuxtla, bound for Mexico City. The witnesses, two professional photo-journalists, were both beaten by Seguridad Publica forces while attempting to do their jobs. One of them had her camera damaged, and the other was struck in the head repeatedly. Reports say that his head was literally split open.

At this moment, 6:00 pm on Sunday the 12th, rumor has it that at least some of them will be deported this evening.

In the other case, the nine mexican detainees remain in the office of the State Judicial Police in San Cristobal. They are reported to be in good health with no incidents of violence reported there either. There continues to be a crowd of supporters in front of the PJE opffice, communicating with the detainees through the window.

As soon as we hear more we will be in touch.

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