Chiapas: paramilitary resurgence seen

by Bill Weinberg on Sun, 02/25/2007 - 02:22.

The General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the rebels' local civil authorities the Good Government Juntas (JBG) warn of a resurgence of paramilitary groups in their jungle stronghold, the Lacandon Selva. Local human rights groups also report the ascent of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC), an armed group with links to the official military and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). (La Jornada, Feb. 20)

On Feb. 23, three members of the Zapatista support base, including a council member from the autonomous municipality of of Olga Isabel, were illegally detained by OPDDIC in what began as a dispute over access to a local spring. The group of some 20 OPDDIC militants beat the three Zapatistas and threatened to set them on fire before being taken to the settlement of San Jose Tenojib, where they were held in the settlement's makeshift jail. They were held for over ten hours before being released. (Morelia JBG communique, Feb. 23)

JBG Hacia la Esperanza, with its seat at the settlement of La Realidad, also issued a statement warning of threats from the Union of Ejidos de the Selva (UES) to expel some 30 Zapatista families from lands the rebels had recuperated in the uprising of 1994, now the autonomous municipality of San Pedro de Michoacan. These families had been expelled from the lands by settlers from Ejido Nuevo Momon before the rebellion. (La Jornada, Feb. 23)

The Chiapas government of Juan Sabines Guerrero has been officially questioned by Amnesty International in relation to the deadly November attack on the jungle settlement of Viejo Velasco, in which OPDDIC has been implicated. Amnesty also cited the questionable prosecution and "disappearance" of indigenous leaders in recent months. (La Lornada, Feb. 22)

The state government formally apologized Feb. 20 for the 1995 slaying of campesino leader Reyes Penagos, admitting an investigation had concluded he was killed by the Chiapas police. No police have been arrested in the case. (AP, Feb. 20)

Authorities in Oxchuc municipality accuse Zapatistas from autonomous municipality Moises-Gandhi of "kidnapping" a municipal police officer Feb. 11, demanding 10,000 pesos for his release. Oxchuc officials said money was intended to pay the fine for a local Zapatista who has been charged with fraud in relation to a land conflict. The supposed Zapatista, Mateo Gomez Lopez, was arrested Feb. 9 and remains in the Ocosingo jail until he can pay his fine. Zaptatista communities near Oxchuc have frequently detained local police who they say operate illegally in their autonomous territories. (NOTIMEX, FEB. 20)