[Onthebarricades] Mexico-Oaxaca-Chiapas: human rights protests, Dec-Jan 07/08

[Andy]

*  CHIAPAS:  Survivors accuse state at Acteal massacre remembrance
*  MEXICO:  Acteal suspect re-arrested
*  OAXACA:  Protest march against kidnapping of activist
*  UK/MEXICO:  Protesters blockade Mexican embassy in solidarity action

http://www.ww4report.com/node/4854

Survivors accuse Mexican state at Acteal massacre commemoration
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sun, 12/23/2007 - 03:50.

Survivors and their supporters gathered in the mountain hamlet of Acteal in 
southern Mexico's conflicted Chiapas state Dec. 22 to mark the tenth 
anniversary of the massacre of 45 unarmed Tzotzil Maya peasants by a 
paramilitary group linked to the ruling political machine. Las Abejas (The 
Bees), the Maya Catholic pacifist group targeted in the attack, said in a 
statement: "The massacre plan was designed by ex-president Ernesto Zedillo; 
by the ex-general Enrique Cervantes, ex-secretary of National Defense; [and] 
by Julio César Ruiz Ferro, ex-governor of Chiapas." The statement charged 
that "the Mexican state" was responsible for the massacre through both 
"action and omission."

The massacre victims consisted of 21 women (four of them pregnant), 15 
minors and nine men. 87 Tzotzil linked to the Institutional Revolutionary 
Party (PRI) have been arrested in the massacre, and 24 convicted (18 
sentenced). Most of the rest remain in jail awaiting trial. At the time of 
the massacre, the PRI ruled Mexico, Chiapas and the local municipality, 
Chenalhó. Las Abejas and local human rights groups say the massacre's 
"intellectual authors" remain at large. (La Jornada, Dec. 22)

The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, based in the local 
highland city of San Cristóbal, said in a statement that Mexico's 
then-president Ernesto Zedillo had a "direct responsibility in the 
massacre." The group's attorney, Itzel Silva Monroy, protested on local 
W-Radio that no figures linked to the army or the state have been brought to 
justice for the "crime against humanity."

"We are speaking of people like the ex-president of the republic, Ernesto 
Zedillo; the secretary of National Defense at the time, Enrique Cervantes; 
or the general Mario Renán Castillo, who was in charge of the Chiapas 
military region," said the attorney. (El Universal, Dec. 22)

As survivors demand justice, a campaign of revisionism has been launched to 
portray the massacre as a "confrontation" between PRI supporters and rebels 
of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). A Dec. 22 blurb on Compass 
Direct News, which monitors global persecution of Christians:

On the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 45 civilians in Mexico's Chiapas 
state, a new study on the December 22, 1997 killings in Acteal village 
points toward the innocence of 32 evangelicals and other peasants serving 
prison terms. The detailed study by historian Héctor Aguilar Camín, 
published in the last three monthly issues of Mexico's Nexos magazine, 
concludes that "there are tens of innocent people in prison who had nothing 
directly to do with the fact" of the massacre in the hamlet north of San 
Cristóbal de las Casas. For the past decade, the debate about how 21 women 
(four pregnant), 18 children and six elderly men were killed has revolved 
around whether the tragedy was a "massacre" by numerous "paramilitary" 
villagers or resulted from a "confrontation" between a handful of 
neighboring peasants and Zapatista National Liberation Army rebels. In this 
month's Nexos, Aguilar Camín argues that there was both a confrontation and 
a massacre. New evidence, he suggests, shows there was some overlap between 
the confrontation and the massacre, but that they were largely separate 
incidents. "Time has added testimony and evidence that requires adding 
pieces to the portrait," Aguilar Camín writes.

As we noted in our last report on the Christian media's coverage of the 
massacre, the responsible paramilitary group, known as Red Mask, was made up 
of Presbyterian converts. Las Abejas are sympathetic to the Zapatistas' 
demands for indigenous autonomy and land reform, but reject their use of 
arms and are not a part of their organizational base. The Zapatistas 
themselves have maintained a ceasefire since the immediate aftermath of 
their January 1994 uprising, but continue to control many communities in the 
highlands and rainforest of Chiapas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN23267947

Mexico rearrests main suspect in Chiapas massacre
Sun Dec 23, 2007 2:48pm EST

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MEXICO CITY, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Mexico has rearrested a man accused of 
ordering the killings of 45 Indians in the southern state of Chiapas, a 
massacre that shocked the country 10 years ago and which rights groups say 
remains unsolved.

Right-wing paramilitaries killed the Tzotzil Indians, including pregnant 
women and children, in the village of Acteal on Dec. 22, 1997.

Some witnesses say paramilitaries accused the Tzotzil of siding with the 
country's indigenous, armed Zapatista movement. Others say the murders were 
to avenge the killing of a Catholic leader by the Zapatistas.

The Chiapas state government said in a statement it had arrested on Saturday 
suspected paramilitary Antonio Santiz, who had previously been imprisoned, 
hours after it named a special prosecutor for the long-running Acteal 
investigation.

It was not clear why Santiz had previously been released.

"This person (Santiz) is considered to be ... the intellectual author of the 
massacre at Acteal," said Chiapas Justice Minister Amador Rodriguez late on 
Saturday.

Hundreds of people have been arrested since 1997 but only a few have been 
sentenced. Rights groups say those sentenced are innocent scapegoats and 
accuse successive governments of protecting the perpetrators.

(Reporting by Anahi Rama; Editing by Eric Beech)

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387365.html

Protest March against Kidnap of Activist in Oaxaca

Il Gattopardo | 09.12.2007 01:06 | Oaxaca Uprising | Gender | Repression | 
World
On Friday several hundred marched through the streets of Oaxaca to protest 
the kidnap last Sunday of Nancy Mota Figueroa, member of the Coordination of 
Women of Oaxaca (COMO, which is part of APPO). Nancy was kidnapped by 
suspected cops and released an hour later after being tortured.

 Here is Nancy's testimony of her ordeal:

On Sunday December 2, 2007, around 11:45 or 12:00, I found myself walking 
along the streets of Jazmines in Colonia Reforma, where the store "Pitico" 
is located.

At that point, a braking car was heard and when I turned my face. I felt two 
people lift me up and fling me into a truck. Immediately after, they 
blindfolded my eyes with a rag that was covered with a liquid. They began to 
ask me questions referring to what I knew "of the leaders of the APPO. Tell 
me what you know of Flavio Sosa, Zenen, Erangelio, Patricia Jimeinez y David 
Venegas." I did not answer. They continued insisting and I did not answer. 
Later they grabbed me by the hair and squeezed my hands behind my back and 
they forced me to put my head between my knees. They pulled back my hair to 
push two pistols against my head. They asked me if I thought I was a bad-ass 
or what and I didn't answer. Immediately afterwards they began to say that I 
talk to my family, that everything was going to go to shit. In this moment I 
told them that everything they wanted was with me that they not touch my 
family. They responded that for this there was only one big-mouth. I heard 
one of them say, "Shoot her already so that we can dump her." I heard them 
cock the gun.

I told them that if they shoot that they do it now because all of this is 
going to shit. They told me another time "You think you are a bad-ass or 
what?" When this was happening one guy began to touch me on the back. I got 
up and kicked him. They forced my arms back and punched me in the stomach. I 
don't know how long they had me, the truck was roaming about. When they 
decided that this was all, they told me that this is the first of many times 
they will wait for me because I know a lot of information, especially in 
respect to the APPO. They told me that they would wait for the moment to 
find me alone. At that point, they braked and said, "Stop your participation 
if you don't want this to happen to your brother or more than that. How you 
like to defend women, for the next time you are going to defend her with 
proof of rape." They grabbed me and shoved me out of the car and threw my 
cell phone at me. They left me behind the Hotel Fortin Plaza, where there is 
a vacant lot. When they kicked me out of the truck, I called a friend to 
tell her, but with the fear that they will harass my family. I thought what 
will happen if I don't make a denunciation at the moment? Now I do it 
convinced that we cannot keep silent. Similar things have happened to many 
friends, and they did not want to denounce it to protect their families but 
enough already with the harassment. The repression must stop against us.

Attentively,
Nancy Mota Figueroa

founder and member of the commission of press and propaganda for the August 
1 Coordinator of Oaxacan Women. Councilor with the APPO student sector.
For more visit:
 http://elenemigocomun.net/1372

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387599.html

Demonstrators Blockade Mexican Embassy in London
UK Chiapas Solidarity Network | 11.12.2007 16:19 | Social Struggles | 
Zapatista | London | World
Today Monday 10th December demonstrators blockaded both the Mexican Embassy 
and Mexican Consulate in London, in solidarity with the Zapatistas and in 
opposition to the attacks on their communities by the state and 
paramilitaries.

The waiting police were caught by surprise at the Embassy in St Georges 
Street. Wearing the symbolic Zapatista red bandanas, demonstrators took over 
the doorway and draped a huge banner STOP THE REPRESSION right across the 
front entrance, maintaining this position for several minutes. Then police 
moved in and manhandled the protestors over to the other side of the road, 
where the noisy protest continued. Deafening whistle blasts were 
interspersed with chants of "Zapata vive, la lucha sigue" (Zapata lives, the 
struggle continues).

"Mexican Government forces evicted two indigenous villages in the Lacandona 
jungle on 18th August. What's more the state is aiding paramilitary groups 
who are launching violent attacks on Zapatista villages," said Esther 
McDonald of the UK Zapatista Solidarity Network. "Today's demonstrations 
show that people all round the world are prepared to act in solidarity with 
the Zapatistas' struggle for autonomy. The one
thousand "communities in resistance" in Chiapas, with their autonomous 
health clinics and schools, are an inspiring example of people taking 
control over their own lives - but they are now under threat."

"We must act now to stop any possibility of another horrific massacre like 
Acteal when, on 22 December 1997, 45 people were massacred by paramilitaries 
with the connivance of Mexican state forces in the Chiapas Highlands," she 
emphasised.

The protestors delivered a letter for the Ambassador, detailing the human 
rights abuses carried out in recent weeks against at least 21 Zapatista 
communities. On 24th November 80 members of the paramilitary-type group 
OPDDICC invaded the village of Bolon Ajaw menacing the residents with guns 
and machetes and brutally beating a health worker unconscious.

After demonstrating at the Embassy for one and a half hours the protestors 
moved to the Mexican Consulate in nearby Halkin Street. The demonstrators 
were able to totally take over the entrance porch, once more completely 
closing off the entrance by draping banners right across it. The protestors 
controlled the entrance for around 15 minutes before the arrival of armed 
diplomatic police, who forced people to the other side of the road.

Among the 20-25 demonstrators were those who had travelled from York, 
Manchester, Dorset, Reading, Birmingham, Nottingham, Edinburgh and elsewhere 
to participate. The demonstration was organised by the UK Zapatista 
Solidarity Network and the new edition of the network's newsletter was 
distributed, detailing not only the repression in Chiapas but the positive 
work of the Zapatistas and solidarity groups in building drinking water 
systems, health clinics and schools.

The Zapatista movement made world headlines when it staged an armed uprising 
in the southern state of Chiapas on New Years Day 1994, the day the North 
American Free Trade Agreement came into effect. Following the rebellion many 
of the big local landowners fled. The Zapatistas took the land into communal 
control and have built their own autonomous communities, with their own 
health clinics, schools, justice system and grass-roots decision-making 
structures.