The following is a summary of a longer document on this subject, which itself is a work in progress. The authors of the report did extensive research over a six month period. If you are interested in doing further research on the topic you may contact the authors directly:

A. Frumin: abfru@aol.com
K. Ramirez: ktramirez@hotmail.com

From January to July 1998, Global Exchange investigated human rights abuses in Loxicha, a region in the southeastern state of Oaxaca. Global Exchange has concluded that indigenous people in Loxicha, and throughout Oaxaca, have suffered numerous human rights violations at the hands of the Mexican Army, and that continued militarization of the region is causing worsened poverty.

Most of the information in this report has been collected from interviews with human rights groups, lawyers, journalists and former political prisoners in Oaxaca. Global Exchange researchers entered the area for one day in April 1998 with a delegation of Vietnam Veterans for Peace.

Loxicha is a mountainous region in southern Oaxaca that is home to some 35,000 Zapotec Indians living in 32 rural communities. The living conditions of the Zapotec fall far below the already low standards throughout Mexico. Eighty percent of the population is illiterate. Seven communities have electricity. The only medical clinic is in San Augustin, a city that is eight to twelve hours away from many villages.

Despite the poverty of this area, the Mexican Army has deployed 5,000 soldiers to the region. According to the Latin American Federation of Associations for the Detainees and the Disappeared, Loxicha is the most militarized and repressed zone in the country.

Access to Loxicha is severely limited and the area is considered so conflicted, the state governor will not guarantee the safety of any visiting groups.

In April 1998, a delegation of Vietnam Veterans for Peace, led by Global Exchange, was illegally detained for three hours by Mexican immigration, even though members of the group had the necessary FM-3 visas required by the government to visit the area.

The group's purpose was to gather information about American involvement--through weapons or training--in Mexican human rights violations. Throughout the visit, the group was followed by paramilitary groups and the Mexican integrated forces--a combination of the Mexican army, and the judicial and preventative police forces. They were asked to show their visas and passports on numerous occasions.

According to accounts by members of the delegation, interviews with the villagers were largely unsuccessful because most of the people were afraid to speak openly in front of the integrated forces.

In March 1997, a group of eighty relief workers representing eleven Mexican civil associations entered Loxicha to establish a permanent peace encampment outside the municipal palace in San Augustin. The group, called the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners of Loxicha, was quickly surrounded by roughly 100 members of the integrated forces, paramilitaries, and local landowners.

The violence began with rockthrowing and window breaking, according to eyewitnesses. The integrated forces then entered the building and looted supplies brought by the relief workers.

After 45 minutes, the integrated forces brandished firearms and threatened committee members with machetes. There were five serious injuries, including two bullet wounds, and most committee members received some minor injury. The committee vacated the area that day.

Another brigade sent to Loxicha in April 1997, was also forced out prematurely. There were no reports of violence.

Military build-up in Oaxaca began in August 1996, after simultaneous EPR uprisings throughout Mexico.

The EPR (Ejercito Popular Revolucionario) is a revolutionary military group that has called for a new political and economic order in Mexico. Though rumored to have been in existence since the early 1970's, the group officially announced itself on May 18, 1996,and has stated unequivocally that the only means to the ends laid out in its platform is through an armed guerrilla revolution.

The EPR believes that government corruption and the neo-liberal economic policy imposed by big business have left the Mexican people voiceless in the political process. The group has summarized its four main points as the following:

1. The institution of a new government representative of all sectors of society 2. The creation of a new constitution guaranteeing respect for basic human needs and human rights 3. The establishment of a true Popular Democratic Republic which will restore sovereignty and fundamental human rights 4. The reorganization of the economic structure to bring a solution to the urgent needs of the people

Some human rights groups contend that the EPR is a legitimate movement. But others argue that it is an instrument of the Mexican government, aimed at separating dissident factions in the south.

On August 28, 1996, the EPR launched simultaneous attacks in seven Mexican states, the most severe taking place in Oaxaca. The Mexican government responded immediately by installing a military outpost in El Manzanal, the entrance to Loxicha. Two weeks after, troops began to move into the region, detaining a total of 89 indigenous men, half of whom were teachers. To date there have been 89 detentions and ten assassinations.

In a wave of community raids that fall, the military tore through villages, detaining students, heads of families, farmers, and members of the municipal authorities. In addition, many homes were searched and robbed, and inhabitants were threatened with firearms. Community members say wealthy landowners with connections to the ruling PRI party often accompanied the military forces during these sweeps, identifying men to be detained for so-called links to the EPR.

Eyewitnesses of a raid carried out in November have described the presence of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the reports, there were ten men dressed in black with FBI insignias on the sweaters and caps. The men were tall, with distinguishable North American features and did not speak Spanish well.

In a Dec. 12, 1996 Noticias article, Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the bi-national center on human rights, called for an investigation of FBI presence in Loxicha and said he considered the FBI to be acting as an accesory to the Mexican military and police in the perpetration of human rights abuses.

Global Exchange has not been able to confirm these reports.

Most of the Zapotec men detained during these government raids were arrested without warrant in their homes. Many were beaten, threatened and humiliated in front of their families and then dragged into trucks and taken to prison.

During interrogations, they were physically tortured, subject to different forms of asphyxiation: either with a plastic bag pulled over the head or a wet, soiled cloth placed in front of the nose and mouth. Some received electric shocks to the testicles, nipples and other sensitive parts of the body. Physical torture was often accompanied by psychological torture. Prisoners were sometimes forced to listen to the abuse of fellow detainees.

The men were also forced to sign blank documents that later served as declarations of guilt. Although the majority of the men only spoke their native Zapotec, they were deprived an interpreter, a right guaranteed in the Mexican Constitution. Detainees were also offered money to denounce their fellow community members for links with the EPR.

Present

Although there currently are no reports of military raids in communities, the Zapotec people still live with government repression and control.

In a February 1998 article written by the Union of Towns against the Repression and Militarization of the Loxican Region, residents say, "When soldiers and police arrive to our communities they take what they like without asking, cut down fruit trees, kill the chickens, eat our food, rob our money, loot items of value and even rape our women."

Most men have fled the Loxicha region for fear of being detained without cause, or to look for work.

Indeed, the Loxichan economy has suffered as most residents have abandoned their coffee and corn fields in the mountains because they are afraid that being found in the hills will implicate them as guerrillas. Since the crops are not planted, the people lack the basic necessities to live. In addition, many Zapotecs are afraid to leave their communities and go to San Augustin to buy and sell goods at the market.

Further compounding the economic crisis, the communities of Loxicha have not recovered from the devastating effects of hurricanes Pauline and Rick which tore through the region in October 1997. Houses and infrastructure remain in ruin.

The drought caused by El Nino has further exacerbated the problems. Unlike the neighboring state of Chiapas, there are no international observers in Loxicha or Oaxaca, and the problems there are relatively unknown within the international community. Armed forces and paramilitary continue to act with impunity, and the people continue to live in fear.