Mexican Army Says Chiapas Bishop Has Rebel Ties

AFIB EDITOR'S NOTE: Though a crude fabrication, that a high- ranking army officer would charge Bishop Ruiz with having "rebel ties," is a significant -- and dangerous -- escalation of psychological operations against opponents of the PRIista state. Coupled with continuing incursions into autonomous Zapatista communities, the state is purposely increasing regional tensions so as to provoke a response and corresponding repression. A carefully-considered policy of disinformation is a hallmark of counterinsurgency strategies employed world-wide by "internal security" specialists, and is one of the many indelible signatures of US "low- intensity" warfare theory. The display of "captured" arms and "incriminating" documents fit the general pattern: remember the infamous 1981 CIA-State Department "White Paper" alleging "Cuban-Nicaraguan" arms smuggling into El Salvador? Or more recently, allegations that Colombian guerrilla armies such as the FARC or ELN are "narco- guerrillas"? Psychological operations such as those employed against Bishop Ruiz are means to an end: discredit critics, sow confusion, thereby "softening" opposition to "firmer" methods of restoring "order" and "peace".

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MEXICAN ARMY SAYS CHIAPAS BISHOP HAS REBEL TIES

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10:35 p.m. Jan 09, 1998 Eastern

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A Mexican army general on Friday accused a bishop known as a defender of indigenous rights of having links to Zapatista guerrillas in Chiapas state.

But Gen. Jose Gomez Salazar, commander of Mexico's 7th Military Region, which covers the troubled southern state, offered no details about the accusation against Bishop Samuel Ruiz, head of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas and a member of a peace body mediating between the government and the Zapatista rebels.

``It's clear, it is obvious that (Bishop Ruiz) is involved,'' Gomez told reporters in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez.

In a first reaction to the military's charge, Auxiliary Bishop Raul Vera, due to take over from Ruiz when he retires this year, defended his superior's activities.

``We don't know what dark interests are behind these stories,'' he told reporters in the colonial town of San Cristobal, some 50 miles (85 km) from Tuxtla Gutierrez.

``The work of Samuel Ruiz in Chiapas is purely pastoral, and he receives orders and instructions from no one,'' he said, rejecting accusations that he was linked to the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).

The EZLN staged a violent uprising against the Mexican state in January 1994 to win greater support for indigenous rights.

Gomez, taking journalists around an exhibition of weapons, equipment and documents discovered by the army at a Zapatista camp on Jan. 1, said Ruiz's ties to the EZLN were self-evident.

``If you look at it there, I think it is obvious,'' he said, showing a handwritten document signed ``Caminante'' and directed to a counterpart named Merino.

Gomez said Ruiz was the author of the manuscript but gave no supporting evidence.

``Here you can see it in the documents perfectly,'' he said.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement issued at military headquarters here that the equipment haul included two volumes of Ruiz's book ``For the Good of Jesus Christ, Brothers'' in the Tojobal Indian dialect, as well as arms, munitions, explosives and other documents found in the Indian community of Yalchipic.

It said there was no doubt the equipment belonged to the EZLN.

The official news agency, Notimex, quoted Gomez as saying the document would be passed on to the appropriate authorities for their consideration.

Ruiz was meeting on Friday with Chiapas' new governor, Roberto Albores Guillen, but did not emerge from the diocese buildings to talk to journalists.

The accusations came 18 days after the massacre of 45 Indians at the hands of paramilitary guerrillas. The murders of the Zapatista supporters shocked Mexico and led to the resignation of Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet and Chiapas Gov. Cesar Ruiz Ferro.

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