April 20, 1998
Sixteen people were arrested the weekend of April 11, 1998, in connection with the inauguration of the new Zapatista autonomous municipality, Ricardo Flores Magon. In the early morning of April 11, troops stormed the town of Taniperlas, seat of the new municipality,also detaining 12 international human rights observers who were later deported.
The 16 are currently charged with the crimes of rebellion, property damage, evicting people from their land, and robbery with violence. The National Commission for Human Rights, an agency of the Mexican government, declared itself to be concerned about the arrests of the 16, and "doubtful" that the charges were valid.
"At 4:30 a.m., about 30 vehicles came into the community," Mexican human rights worker and former Global Exchange (GX) volunteer Luis Menendez Medina told GX observers from prison. "The community had told us what was about to happen, so the human rights observers fanned out along the houses of the community. We were there as witnesses. Soldiers came running into the community, heavily armed, pointing their guns everywhere, as if it was right out of a movie."
Reporters determined that the police who made the arrests were accompanied by 300 heavily armed soldiers, as well as over 500 civilian members of the PRI, who proceeded to destroy buildings in the town. The use of soldiers and civilians to make arrests violates Mexican law. Defense lawyer Miguel Angel de los Santos Cruz also noted that the police had failed to secure arrest warrants for the detainees, making the arrests illegal under Mexican law.
"The observers began to take pictures and asked the soldiers why they were in the community," said Menendez. "At that point, they detained us. They grabbed our cameras and tape recorders, ripped the film out of our cameras, and destroyed it. When I asked them what happened to our civil rights, they responded with insults. They told me to shut up, that they were the law here, and that they were the ones who gave orders.
"They never told us what we were being charged with. They kept us there in a small truck for a couple of hours, and confiscated our personal belongings. The wife of one of the men detained, Tomas Sanchez Gomez, brought him a small box full of five $200 peso bills. One of the guards seized it, took the money out, and returned the box to her. When we questioned him about the money, he told us that there was no money. There never had been any money.
"They took us to the state prosecutor's office in Ocosingo. They still did not tell us what we were charged with; nor did they let us talk to a lawyer. One of Tomas Sanchez's sons went to Ocosingo to bring him more money, this time $200 pesos, but the guards stole that as well. It shocked me that we were being robbed right there in the prosecutor's office.
"They then took us to Tuxtla Gutierrez, and to the prison of Cerro Hueco," said Menendez.
The arrest of the Taniperlas Sixteen, as well as violating Mexican law, shows how the Mexican and Chiapan governments use the judicial system to further their political aims. Arresting indigenous leaders and human rights observers constitutes a blow to the movement for autonomy. Indigenous Zapatista sympathizers had already founded 38 autonomous municipalities, systems of government which respect indigenous beliefs on political structures and law, and do not depend on the state or federal government for money. Imprisonment of indigenous leaders in such a fashion violates the 1995 Dialogue Laws, and constitutes a setback for the process for peace in the troubled state.
The 16 arrested last weekend join the 37 existing political prisoners in the jails of Chiapas. Many were arrested by a combination of police and paramilitary groups. Police have tortured a number of prisoners while in custody, beating them with the butts of their rifles. Most of the political prisoners are imprisoned in Cerro Hueco Prison, a grim high-security facility in Tuxtla Gutierrez. The prison, which has a capacity of 300, currently houses over 1,000 prisoners. Releasing Zapatista political prisoners constitutes one of the minimum conditions for resuming the stalled peace talks between the Zapatistas and the government.
"We ask you to support us," Jesus Gomez Gomez, an indigenous Chol and president of La Voz told GX observers in Cerro Hueco Prison on April 19, 1998. "We're prisoners of conscience. We've been unjustly accused of crimes because we're support bases of the Zapatistas."
Please write the governments of Chiapas and Mexico. We think it is important to:
- Convey your concern about violations of Mexican law which have occured in the cases of the Taniperalas Sixteen, and note the political nature of these cases. The prisoners arrested in Taniperlas are:
- Tomás Sánchez Gómez
- Nicolas López Vázquez
- Antonio López Vázquez
- Nicolas Mazariego Pérez
- Antonio López Vázquez
- Sebastián Chulin González
- Mateo González López
- Manuel Hernández Pérez
- Antonio Rodríguez Jimenez
- Fidelino Cruz Mendoza
- Andres Gutiérrez Hernández
- Cesar Nuñez Oliva
- Tomas Sánchez López
- Miguel Hernández Pérez
- Prof. Sergio Valdes Rublacara
- Human rights worker Luís Menéndez Medina
- Express your concern at the growing number of political prisoners in Chiapas. Currently, 51 indigenous people are in jail for sympathizing with the Zapatistas.
- Note that arbitrary arrests of Zapatista sympathizers in the autonomous areas violates the Dialogue Laws, passed by the Mexican Congress in 1995, and contradicts the government's stated desire to resume the peace process in Chiapas.
Please fax or write to:
Arely Madrid Tovilla
Secretaria de Gobierno
Palacio de Gobierno, 2 piso
Av. Central y Segunda Ote, Col. Centro
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas 29000
Fax: 011-52-961-32458
cc: Lic. Roberto Albores Guillen
Gobernador del Estado de Chiapas
Palacio de Gobierno
Av. Central y Primero Ote, Col. Centro
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas 29009
Mexico
Phone/Fax: 011-52-961-20917
cc: Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
Presidente de la Republica
Palacio Nacional
Mexico, D.F. 06067
Fax: 011-52-5-271-1764
E-mail: webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx
cc: Lic. Francisco Labastida Ochoa
Secretario de Gobernacion
Bucareli 99, 1. piso
Col. Juarez
Mexico, D.F. 06699
Mexico
Fax: 011- 52-5 546 5350