PEOPLES PRESS INTERNATIONAL (PPI) ppi.008-James Crombie: Local reports re/ May 1 Chiapas atrocity - - - Local reports re/ May 1 Chiapas atrocity forwarded by James Crombie - - - Republication permission granted for non-commercial and small-press use, under `fair use', with all sig & header info incorporated (in some form), please. - - - a public service of CADRE (Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance) http://cyberjournal.org Publisher's note: Thanks, James Crombie, for acting as investigative journalist on behalf of PPI! Just imagine, I ask you, what we'd see on our televisions if _Castro were deploying his army to destroy local communities and terrorize the inhabitants. We'd get tearful interviews with victims; there's be demonized images of Castro on our screens; there'd be calls to "Do something about the atrocities", etc. etc. But when the perpetrator is Mexico, acting with the collusion of the US military, we don't hear a peep. No, it's still _Cuba that the US brands a `human-rights violator'! To the world I say... "Wake up and smell the coffee!" rkm btw> Note that general-interest postings such as these will be re-directed to cj if they are sent to renaissance-network. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 To: •••@••.••• From: •••@••.••• (James Crombie) Subject: Re: PPI-024-Update from Chiapas: May 1 1998 A front-page article in La Jornada of May 2, datelined May 1, Amparo Agua Tinta, Chis., and signed by Elio Enríquez (Enriquez without accents), gives information both convergent with and divergent from the dispatch from PEOPLES PRESS INTERNATIONAL (PPI) distributed via cyberjournal. The article indicates that not only police but also soldiers participated in this event. It gives the number of police + soldiers as 1000 ("mil"), not 250. The 46 persons detained are described as natives ("indigenas"), and as including the members of the autonomous council and seven Guatemalan refugees. The local members of PRI, the governing party in Mexico, are described as being accused of having asked for and directed the operation -- and as having thanked the government and asked for the support of the Mexican Army and the police because they were afraid of being attacked (agredidos) by the Zapatistas. "Los priístas del lugar, quienes son acusados de solicitar y encabezar el operativo, agradecieron al gobierno y demandaron el apoyo del Ejército Mexicano y de la policía porque tienen temor a ser agredidos por los simpatizantes zapatistas." The houses of the PRI members had apparently been marked two weeks previous to the raid with "siglas" of the party. The pretext for the raid is described as being to free one of the Guatemalan refugees (not two, as in the PPI report), identified as Pedro Gómez Domingo. But the raid had apparently been planned for some time. Among the detained persons, whose liberation is demanded, is Mario Hernández León, an elder, who is said to have a broken foot and a broken shoulder. The article says that the police and soldiers have withdrawn from the locality, and that the members of the army (but not the police) remain camped at a distance of two kilometers, where they have been for some months. The address where I read the May 2 issue of La Jornada is http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/jornada/zapatista.html. Subsequently to May 2, go to http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/jornada/index.html and click on "Ejemplares Anteriores" to find the May 2 issue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 To: •••@••.••• From: •••@••.••• (James Crombie) Subject: Diario de Monterrey, Diario de Yucatan, May 2- Re: PPI-024-Update from Chiapas: May 1 1998 El Diario de Monterrey -- a northern city about as far away from Chiapas as one can get without leaving Mexico -- also gives this story front-page play. The article, unsigned, gives the number of police who participated in the "dragnet operation" ("redada") as "at least 500". They are described as having "dismantled" the "pro-Zapatista rebel municipality" of Tierra y Libertad. The Diario de Monterrey report makes no mention of the participation of the army in the operation, nor of the reports of some residents who claim they heard gunshots (mentioned in La Jornada). El Diario de Yucatan -- much closer to the scene -- also gives prominence to the story, giving the dateline AMPARO AGUA TINTA, Chis., 1 de mayo (El Universal). El Universal is a Mexico City newspaper... The article in El Diario de Yucatan describes the participants in the operations as "a thousand members of various police corps and the Mexican Army." According to this report, the operation lasted 5 hours and resulted in the detention of "47 natives <indigenas> connected with the civil structure of the EZLN and <sic!> seven Guatemalans." The "and" is probably an error, and should be read as "including." Here is the translation of the second-to-last paragraph of the article: "In a communiqué of the <Federal> Secretaria of Gobernacion we are informed that the purpose of the operation was to free the Guatemalan refugee Pedro Gómez Domingo, who was illegally held by the council in rebellion "Tierra y Libertad." A bulletin of the <Chiapas> State Procuradia de Justicia notes that, in addition to the liberation of Gomez, "approximately 71 tenants of the local commons <"ejidatarios"> of Amparo Agua Tinto had requested the intervention of the government in order to achieve the dissolution of the so-called autonomous council in rebellion, to which belong 28 tenants of the commons." The Spanish reads: "En un comunicado de la Secretaría de Gobernación se informó que la operación tuvo como finalidad liberar al refugiado guatemalteco Pedro Gómez Domingo, quien estaba legalmente retenido por el concejo en rebeldía "Tierra y Libertad". Un boletín de la Procuraduría de Justicia estatal señala que, además de la liberación de Gómez, unos 71 ejidatarios de Amparo Agua Tinta solicitaron también la intervención del gobierno del estado para lograr la desintegración del denominado concejo autónomo en rebeldía, al cual pertenecen 28 ejidatarios". 46 or 47? The last paragraph of the article in El Diario de Yucatan can be translated as follows: "The information provided by the Secretaria de Gobernacion reports only 46 persons being detained and makes no reference to the Guatemalans; the <Chiapas> state attorney general, Rodolfo Soto Monzon, relates the detention of 47 Chiapan natives and seven persons from the southern neighbour <Mexico's southern neighbour>. On page 12, we offer further information on this story." The Spanish text reads: "La información de la Secretaría de Gobernación sólo reporta 46 detenidos y no hace referencia alguna a los guatemaltecos; el procurador estatal, Rodolfo Soto Monzón, refirió la aprehensión de 47 indígenas chiapanecos y siete originarios del vecino del sur.- Ofrecemos en la página 12 más información sobre el tema." The subtitle of the article states: "One thousand soldiers and police detain 54 persons." With this sort of confusion, one or more persons could go permanently missing and it would be hard for outside observers to know... All for now, James Crombie ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Seeking an Effective Democratic Response to Globalization and Corporate Power" --- an international workshop for activist leaders June 25 <incl> July 2 - 1998 - Nova Scotia - Canada --- Restore democratic sovereignty Create a sane and livable world Bring corporate globalization under control. CITIZENS FOR A DEMOCRATIC RENAISSANCE (CADRE) mailto:•••@••.••• http:http://cyberjournal.org --- To subscribe to renaissance-network, send any message to: •••@••.••• --- To subscribe to cj, send any message to: •••@••.••• --- To review cj archives, send any message to: •••@••.•••
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