Dear friends,
You will be aware of the general situation in Chiapas, Mexico. An estimated
third of the Mexican army has been occupying the province for over a year,
and killings, threats, arbitrary arrests and disappearances continue. In
the last couple of weeks the military and paramilitary presence in Chiapas
has been further ramped up. The EZLN is now saying that the army has
Subcommandante Marcos surrounded, and seems to be preparing for an attack.
We are asking you to take a look at the following facts, and fax
(preferably) the Mexican government and the Canadian government, asking the
former to peacefully withdraw its forces, and the latter to urge the
Mexican government to do so. A letter written by the Food for Chiapas
Campaign, of Toronto, is attached, if you wish to use or modify it.
The situation is especially urgent. Please act soon.
On Thursday Aug. 12, around 100 soldiers of the Mexican Federal Army were
posted in the community of Amador Hernandez, situated in the municipality
of Ocosingo. This area borders on the biological reserve Montes Azules,
and is close to the community Aguascalientes de la Realidad where the
Encuentro Nacional was held in defence of traditional culture.
On Friday the 13th the federal army brought in more than four hundred
additional troops armed with high-powered weapons. The community of Amador
Hernandez watched the troops untimely arrival by parachute, hellicoptors,
and some by land. The military have surrounded the community with camps
and barbed wire.
On Sunday Aug. 15, the peaceful protest by the community opposed to this
military occupation of their town was broken-up with blows and tear gas.
The Government says this is to protect a company building the Transelvatic
Highway. For the people of Amador Hernandez, this is part of a strategy
to surround and isolate the command center of the Zapatista Army.
On August 22nd at dawn, Federal Army troops, Public Security Police and
paramilitary from the PRI, have cut the road to La Realidad near the
communities of El Momon, San Jose, El Eden, Ojo de Agua, Santa Ana.
Trenches were caved, trees were cut, large stones were placed. The
paramilitary are preventing anybody from passing. It is expected at any
moment that the community of La Realidad will be attacked
On August 23, people marched in the streets of the city of San Cristobal
de las Casas. There is a confrontation in the civic plaza because the
governor of the state of Chiapas and the mayor of San Cristobal organised a
meeting to secure support from the police for the state and municipal
government.
On August 25 troops of the Federal Mexican Army and Chiapas State Police
attacked the community of San José la Esperanza, located between the towns
of Rizo de Oro and Aguascalientes de la Realidad. Three people were
arbitrarily detained, beaten, bound: Enrique López Cruz, Estanislao López
Gómez and Carmelino Méndez López. Injured by bullet wounds were Hermelindo
Vázquez López and Francisco Vásquez Vásquez, and women of the community
were beaten by the military. The same day, people returning from a
demonstration were also attacked and beaten by paramilitaries.
According to an article which appeared in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada
on August 15th, as of that time in the northeastern part of the Selva
Lacandona, there were approximately 10,000 soldiers, in about fifty
encampments, keeping about thirty communities in a virtual state of siege -
as well as maintaining absolute control of the highways with fifteen
checkpoints. The present incursion marks the first time that the army has
entered communities located within the Monte Azules Reserve. The Reserve
had in effect become a safe haven for the Zapatista civilian supporters who
had fled after being attacked or displaced by members of paramilitary
groups or because of their generalized fear of the Mexican army.
Please write to the Mexican government to express your alarm with regard to
the worsening situation in Chiapas, politely requesting an immediate
withdrawal of the troops that are stationed in Amador Hernandez. Please ask
for this action to be followed by the prompt and systematic withdrawal of
the Mexican Army from all of the indigenous communities of Chiapas.
Please send a copy of your letter to the multi-party Peace and Agreement
Commission (COCOPA) of the Mexican Congress, with a brief covering note
expressing your concern that this new move on the part of the Mexican Army
may constitute a violation of the Law on Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace
(La Ley para el Dialogo, la Conciliation y la Paz, which was passed by the
Mexican Congress in March 1995 and which established the basis for the
negotiations between the Mexican government and the EZLN - negotiations
which though stalled are still officially in existence and which in a sense
define the legal existence of the EZLN as one of parties to a truce).
Please write to the Canadian government expressing your grave concern over
the deterioration in the situation in Chiapas. Please bring to the
attention of the Canadian government the July 27th report of the United
Nations Human Rights Committee, in which concern was expressed for the
increasingly active involvement of the Mexican Army in the states of
Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca.
American recipients of this note: please contact your own government with a
suitably-worded letter.
In Solidarity
Food for Chiapas Campaign
Toronto, Canada
[Sample letter follows]
The Prime Minister’s Office
Parliament Hill
Ottawa ON
August 26, 1999
To: The Right Honorable Jean Chretien, Prime Minister
The Honorable Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Honorable Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of International Trade
The Honorable David Kilgour, Secretary of State (Latin America)
Dear Sirs,
In light of recent hostilities visited upon the indigenous
inhabitants of
Chiapas by state police and the Mexican federal army, and the escalation of
military activity by the Mexican army in Chiapas including the occupation
and militarization of several indigenous towns and villages, we call upon
the Canadian Federal Government to exercise every power in its authority to
bring to a halt the warfare being waged by our partner in trade against its
own people. The situation is urgent, and it is happening right now.
As the attention of the Western world has been turned towards the
horrible devastation and loss of life in Turkey, the Mexican Government
appears to be taking full advantage of this media diversion to put more
troops into indigenous communities in Chiapas, establishing military bases
and harassing the local people. Civil rights observers are being expelled
from the territory, and the freedom of the local people and their
supporters to peacefully express their disapproval of the events gravely
affecting them is suppressed by the army’s guns. We hold that this is an
intolerable situation for which one of Canada’s closest trading partners —
the Mexican Government — is directly responsible.
As a signatory of the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is
understood that the Canadian government has considerable opportunity to
voice disapproval at the choice of the Mexican government to escalate
tensions and threaten human life. Their decision is particularly repugnant
when it is known that a peaceful settlement was already negotiated in San
Andrès in 1997 between the indigenous Maya peoples and the Mexican Federal
government. The San Andrès accords need only be ratified in the Mexican
legislature and enacted in order to bring a peaceful end to the conflict in
Chiapas. Instead, the Mexican parliament is choosing to destroy the gains
made towards peace.
For the Canadian government with its strongly influential voice to
maintain silence in the face of such a human rights disaster is the
equivalent of condoning the violent path chosen by our NAFTA partner.
Hence, we call upon the Canadian government to add its strong voice to the
chorus of condemnation against the actions of the Mexican government, and
demand a peaceful, fair, and dignified resolution for the indigenous
peoples of Chiapas.
ADDRESSES:
For Mexico:
Lic. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
Presidente de la Republica
FAX: 011 52 5 271 1764 or 011 52 5 515 4783
e-mail webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx
COCOPA
Paseo de la Reforma #10 piso 17
06018, Mexico, D.F., MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 5 140 3288
Please send copies of your letter to Pres. Zedillo to:
Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Periferico Sur 3469001
Col. San Jeronimo
Deleg. Magdalena Contrers, Mexico D.F., MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 5 631 2633
e-mail cndh@laneta.apc.org
Organizacion de las Naciones Unidas
FAX 011 52 5 255 0095
e-mail bruno.guandalini@un.org.mx
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO FAX OR E-MAIL, PLEASE SEND AN
IMMEDIATE LETTER TO:
Ambassador Ezequiel Padilla
Embassy of Mexico
35 O'Connor St., bureau 1500
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1A4
REQUESTING HIM TO FORWARD YOUR MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT ZEDILLO BY FAX.
Canada:
The Right Hon. Jean Chretien, Prime Minister
Tel 613-992-4211 Fax 613-941-6900 email pmo@pm.gc.ca pmo@pm.gc.ca
The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs
tel 613-995-0153 Fax 613-996-3443 email Axworthy.L@parl.gc.ca
The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of International Trade
Tel 613-995-8872 Fax 613-995-9926 email Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca
The Hon. David Kilgour, Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa)
Tel 613-995-8695 Fax 613-995-6465 email Kilgour.D@parl.gc.ca