Murder In Chiapas - May Be Distributed At Will

The following is a reprint of the handout I created for the demonstrations at the Mexican Consulates denouncing the December, 1997 murders in Chiapas. The murders continue to this day. With the help of the US, Mexico is committing genocide against its indigenous peoples, on land guaranteed by treaty. LB

Murder In Chiapas

The level of right-wing paramilitary violence in Chiapas, Mexico has dramatically escalated in the several months. The latest massacre, on December 22nd [1997], was only the latest, albeit by far the largest, incidence of paramilitary violence directed by right-wing paramilitary death squads against helpless Mayan civilians.

Prior to this incident, dozens of people had already been raped, large numbers gunned down, hundreds or even thousands of had been homes burned; and thousands - including those killed in the massacre - had already taken refuge in the mountains where they are starving and freezing.

A few weeks ago, there was also a right-wing assassination attempt on two Bishops in the Chiapas area. The attempt missed the bishops but killed people in their party; subsequently, the sister of one of the bishops was attacked with a hammer in the church office.

There is good reason to believe that the local military and PRI officials (the ruling political party of Mexico) are complicit in this violence.

Mexican Paramilitaries Massacre 45 Indians 04:05 p.m. Dec 23, 1997 Eastern By Jesus Ramirez

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Paramilitaries have gunned down 45 unarmed Indians, most of them women and children, in Mexico's troubled southern state of Chiapas, the Red Cross said Tuesday.

The attack was the worst single act of violence since the January 1994 uprising in the state of Zapatista Indian rebels against the government. Radio reports said most of the victims were Zapatista supporters.

The paramilitaries attacked the remote Chiapas mountain village of Acteal about 450 miles (750 km) southeast of Mexico City, just before midday on Monday, firing automatic weapons indiscriminately, survivors said.

Mauricio Rosas, president of the Red Cross in the nearby town of San Cristobal de Las Casas, told Reuters that the organization had confirmed the deaths of 45 people. Dozens more were injured.

"At 4 a.m. they let (Red Cross personnel) into Acteal and they took out 45 bodies, nine men, 21 women, 14 children and a baby,'' he said in a telephone interview. "This is truly a tragedy.''

"This is an absolute outrage, I don't know how many more dead there will be in this war,'' said Father Gonzalo Ituarte Icario, secretary of Mexico's National Commission for Mediation (CONAI) in Chiapas.

Greenpeace told President Ernesto Zedillo in a letter that "we are outraged by the blood spilled. We are outraged by the impunity of the paramilitary groups. We are outraged by the fear of recognizing the rights of indigenous groups.''

Presidential chief spokesman Fernando Lerdo de Tejada said the government ``completely and absolutely rejected this kind of violence.''

"The federal government will proceed to order a complete and thorough investigation of the events and those responsible will be punished,'' he told Reuters.

Chiapas hospitals were overwhelmed as doctors struggled to cope with the flood of injured.

Witnesses said the scene in the Salubridad clinic in the Chiapas hill town of San Cristobal de Las Casas -- the nearest main center to Acteal -- was "Dante-esque,'' with the blood of the dying everywhere and corridors filled with the cries of women and children.

"This is unspeakable, an armed attack against defenseless civilians, most of them refugees from the political violence unleashed in the municipality during the last two months,'' said Patricia Marina, of the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Centre for Human Rights in San Cristobal. "Now many children have been left without father or mother,'' she added.

Hospital director Francisco Millan Velasco told Reuters that at least 13 people had been brought in with bullet wounds, including a comatose 4-year-old girl whose skull was shattered by a dum-dum bullet and a boy with his jaw destroyed.

In Memoriam...

ALONZO VASQUEZ GOMEZ
LORENZO GOMEZ PEREZ
MARIA LUNA MENDEZ
VERONICA PEREZ OYALTE
ROSA VASQUEZ LUNA
SEBASTIEN GOMEZ PEREZ
VERONICA VASQUEZ LUNA
DANIEL GOMEZ PEREZ
MICAELA VASQUEZ LUNA
PABLINA HERNANDEZ VASQUEZ
JUANA VASQUEZ LUNA
ROSELIA GOMEZ HERNANDEZ
JUANA LUNA VAZQUEZ
GRACIELA GOMEZ HERNANDEZ
MARIA JIMENEZ LUNA
GUADALUPE GOMEZ HERNANDEZ
SUSANA JIMEMEZ LUNA
MARIA RUIZ OYALTE
MIGUEL JIMEMEZ PEREZ
CATALINA VASQUEZ PEREZ
MARCELA LUNA RUIZ
CATALINA LUNA RUIZ
ALEJANDRO LUNA RUIZ
MANUELA PACIENCIA MORENO
JAIME LUNA RUIZ
MARGARITA GOMEZ PACIENCIA
REGINA LUNA PEREZ
ROSA GOMEZ PEREZ
ROSELIA LUNA PEREZ
DOIDA RUIZ GOMEZ
IGNACIO PUKUJ LUNA
AUGUSTIN RUIZ GOMEZ
MICAELA PUKUJ LUNA
ROSA PEREZ PEREZ
VICTORIO VASQUEZ GOMEZ
MANUEL VASQUEZ PEREZ
AUGUSTIN GOMEZ RUIZ
JUANA VASQUEZ PEREZ
JUANA PEREZ PEREZ
JOSEFA VASQUEZ PEREZ
JUAN CARLOS LUNA PEREZ
MARCELA CAPOTE VASQUEZ
MARCELA VASQUEZ VASQUEZ
MARCELA CAPOTE RUIZ
ANTONIA VASQUEZ VASQUEZ

TWENTY-ONE (21) WOMEN
(FOUR (4) OF THEM PREGNANT)
FOURTEEN (14) CHILDREN
ONE (1) INFANT AGED 5 DAYS-OLD
NINE (9) MEN

Compliled by Lane Baldwin
May Be Distributed At Will