Daaaih Loong writes:
"San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, July18.
According to the reiterated denunciations of the autonomous
municipality El Trabajo as well as of the ejidal authorities of Roberto Barrios, the paramilitary threat grows dangerously and quickly in this community. There have been already death threats, looted houses, killed sheeps, assaults, false accusations and illegal "trials" practiced by members of Peace and Justice, in addition to physical and verbal aggressions against the
Zapatista bases of support and the foreign observers, sabotages against the regional clinic and the autonomous school, pressures to accept PROGRESA, and a general atmosphere of hostility . There has even been a confession from the paramilitaries.
In a document published today, the president of the ejidal commissariat of Roberto Barrios announced that a drunk Peace and Justice member had threatened three Zapatista campesinos a few nights ago: "He said that each member of his paramilitary group was being paid 30 thousand pesos, and that the only thing remaining was to kill them". Next morning, the threatened Zapatistas "found a machete in the door and a dead chicken, and a turkey was missing".
In successive letters sent to the press and the human rights
organisations, the ejidal authorities of this community in the northern selva, where the fifth Zapatista Aguascalientes is located, present a diary of fear. If the aggressions of Peace and Justice are added to the recent military movements in the area, it is possible to conclude that the situation in Roberto Barrios is very serious: Helicopter overflights, patrollings in thesurroundings, incursions of a military convoy in the neighboring community of Samaritan, detents at the crossroad of Chancala' Zapote and repressions
directed against Luis Echeverria Alvarez, another Zapatista community
of the independent municipality.
Threatening messages
On the night of July 8, the parcel of Mr. Antonio was invaded by
strangers, while the workers were outside. The sheep disappeared and their young
were
left behind and thus died of starvation. A shovel and a knife were also
missing, and a saddle and another harness as well as diverse domestic
utensils had been destroyed by machete blows. On a wooden table the
aggressors had clumsily writen insults and threats against Don Antonio.
For the ejidal authorities, "this is not an isolated fact, since as
reported
in previous denuncias, the community has suffered acts of this kind
before
and continues to suffer them." This gives the Zapatista ejidatarios
reason
to believe that a relation between all the events exists, "being the
product
of an organized group that carries out assaults on the daily life in
this
place".
On the night of July 9, a stranger tried to enter the house of one of
the
ejidal authorities, presumably to rob the money of the community. When
the
thief was detected he fled.
On Tuesday, July 10 in the evening, Don Antonio found the corpses of
his
stolen sheep, which, according to the denouncers, accentuates the
gravity of
the fact, since it demonstrates the extreme cruelty of "the attackers
against the person and not the economic interest of a true robbery".
On the same Tuesday, after an incident on the street between the driver
of
the community truck and the PROGRESA Assistant, the PRIista Ejido
Commissariat Francisco Go'mez Perez held a speech on the loudspeaker of
the
Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), accusing the conductor of having
attacked the PROGRESA employee. According to the denuncia, Go'mez Perez
"threatened to call the Public Security to evacuate the zapatista bases
of
support" and at the same time "invited" the people of the community to
register to PROGRESA in order to escape being "expelled".
The speaker "spoke very bad" of a catechist who recently received death
threats for publicly criticizing the Puebla-Panama Plan. Immediately
afterwards, the PRIi'sta comisariado linked with the paramilitary group
Peace
and Justice, issued threats against "the authorities who are Zapatista
bases
of support and their representative, saying that could seize them and
bring
them in jail any day". He also criticized the community "for allowing
the
presence of international observers" on their land.
On the night of July 11, three campesinos, EZLN bases of support "were
threatened in their houses by Salvador Go'mez Perez, who was seized".
The
aggressor, the brother of Francisco - the orator on the loudspeaker
"told
the Zapatistas that each member of his group (Peace and Justice) was
paid 30
thousands pesos" and that they were ready "to kill them".
On July 13, the ejidal PRI-authorities held a "trial" on the driver and
his
two assistants, and on Salvador Go'mez Perez, for his aggressions
against the
Zapatistas. The "trial" was presided over by Carlos Me'ndez Hernandez,
Germa'n
Mendoza Hernandez, "Peace and Justice leader", and Francisco Go'mez
Perez,
the comisariado of the PRIista part of the community and also presumed
leader of the paramilitary group. "The Zapatista authorities were not
invited, nor any of the EZLN bases of support".
According to the report of the autonomous in another denuncia dated
that
same day, the driver recognized that he had been drunk and didn't know
what
he had done. The PRI-authorities demanded a "fine" of 3 thousand pesos
from
him: "In the end he had to pay 1500 pesos, for fear. Salvador however
was
pardoned because his brother is the authority. The driver was not
pardoned,
because although he is no Zapatista, he sometimes helps the
autonomous".
The ejidal authority declared: "We are making the PRIistas responsible
for
any violent fact that gets to happen and we denounce that, as always,
PROGRE
SA is used to divide the communities, because they are forced to
register to
this program and to send their children to the official school."
On their part, the group of national and foreign observers in Roberto
Barrios, made another denunciation. On Thursday, July 12, while a group
of
international observers were cleaning up in the kitchen of the camp,
Mr.
Humberto Balcazar Mendoza, identified by the Zapatistas as
"paramilitary
leader and collaborator of the Migration" stopped in front of the
Aguascaliente to reprimand one of the girls. When he didn't obtain a
reply
he entered the civil camp area to attack the international observers,
"verbally as well as physically". In this situation, the involved asked
for
the help of the Indigenas who are taking care of the place. At this,
the
aggressor fled hastily.
According to what the the international observers wrote in the
denunciation
vouched for by the presidents of the commissariat and the Monitoring
Council
of the ejido Roberto Barrios, "this new aggression is framed within the
present situation of tension persisting in this community".
Following they enumerated diverse incidents confirming the hostility
untied
in recent days against the autonomous and the civil society. Among the
attacks directed against the peace camp, the mentioned document
indicates
that the present observers were attacked with stones and insulted
inside and
outside the mentioned camp, in addition to being objected to other
intimidating attitudes and actions, like the appearance of insulting
phrases
and xenophobic inscriptions on the rocks of the cascades, and the
robbery of
cameras, money, passports and other objects of value. The denuncia of
the
peace campers ends: "In view of the progressive increase of
psychological as
well as physical pressure and in aticipation of future aggressions, we
international observers gathered in the community of Roberto Barrios,
denounce and will denounce any type of aggression.""
