San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, August 27th, 1999.

To the Commission of Peace and Reconciliation
To the National and International Communities of the worlds.

We write to you to proclaim our position with respect to the most recent military and police escalations that state and federal authorities have under taken against the communities, resistance movements, and members and organizations of the Mexican civil society.

Not withstanding official statements that insist on denying the state of war against the indigenous peoples in the state of Chiapas, here, these people and their communities suffer systematic and daily aggression from the military, the Agency of Public Security, Federal Police, paramilitary groups, agents of the Ministry of the Public, and officials and politicians of the government that its attempt to divide and provoke confrontations between civilians.

Proof of this state of war are the actions which, since the month of June, have been unfolding in diverse regions of the state of Chiapas:

From June 4 to 6, new military encampments were installed in Rosario Rio Blanco and the Mexican Army was mobilized in the region of Guadalupe Tepeyac.

June 6: Arbitrary detention in the community of El Censo. Order for apprehension on grounds of assault and robbery of the wrong person. Arrival of six thousand troops in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, with the excuse of reforesting the region. The Army reinforced 15 military encampments and roadblocks on the border region of the Panamerican highway, which extends from Chancala-Palenque to Benemérito de las Americas. New military camps were installed one kilometer from Cintalapa with others in Crucero Palestina, Crucero Frontera Corozal, Boca Lacantún and Palestina.

On June 10, comrade José Hidalgo disappears in circumstances that, to the present, have been difficult to explain.

On July 14, 105 members of the FOCI, composed of people from different communities of the Frontera and Sierra regions, arrive at El Portal to help in the reconnection of water pipes. After having completed the reconnections, an agent of the Ministry of the Public, Public Security and a "journalist" presented himself. On their return, the members of the FOCI were ambushed in the street by members of the local PRI political party armed with stones, truncheons, machetes and firearms. Dispersed by this aggression 15 FOCI members were detained by the Public Security. Later, a helicopter arrived with police dressed in black and transported 6 of the prisoners to Tuxtla Gutierrez. The members of the FOCI who had been attacked all agree that the Agency of Public Security did nothing to stop the aggression of the local PRI members. Salamón González received four bullet wounds in the attack. The six detainees taken to Tuxtla were taken to San Cristóbal where they were joined by 14 other prisoners who had been moved from Comalapa.

On July 16 and 17, 16 of the 20 prisoners were released in San Cristóbal. The four remaining detainees were consigned on July 17 to CERESO #5, accused of "disturbing the peace." Their names are Genaro Gutierrez, Luis Zunum, Elfego Zunum and Ramiro de Leon. In El Portal, the members of the local PRI party blocked all access to the community with rope, rocks, branches etc., preventing passage.

July 21: Eight policemen of the Agency of Public Security detained 3 campesinos from community Viejo Velasco Suárez, in the municipality of Ocosingo. These men, Pedro López Hernández, Jesús López Hidalgo and Pedro Gómez Aguilar were stopped, kidnapped and sent to a police torture chamber.

July 23: The police release Pedro López [Hernández,] and on the same day he disappears. López, a sympathizer of the EZLN is disappeared in Velasco Suárez. Furthermore, the permanent state of siege of the communities which were occupied by the Army under the guise of reforestation affecting the women in the rivers, to the farmers and their children in the fields is denounced.

July 25: The detainees of Velasco Suárez are released. There are obliged to sign a statement in which they promise to pay 30,000 Mexican pesos [approximately $US 3,000.00] or abandon their community.

End of July: New roadblocks are installed in the municipality of Las Margaritas. Another roadblock is installed, manned by both members of the Agency of Public Security and sympathetic members of the PRI in the community of El Edén, in the municipality of Las Margaritas.

4th of August: Noé Castañón León, president of both the Commission of Remunicipalización and the Chiapas State Supreme Court of Justice, proclaimed that, at the end of the year, at least 22 new municipalities will be added to the 111 which currently exist in the state of Chiapas. Almost all of these new communities are to be located within Zapatista territory. He added that the creation of the municipalities of Taniperlas, Amparo Aguatinta, San Quintín, El Limar, Patihuitz, El Censo and San Jerónimo Tulijá are under consideration.

6th of August: Entrance of troops in the communities of Amador Hernández, municipality of Ocosingo. 500 troops parachuted into the community of Amador Herández, under the pretext of allowing a construction company, which works in the area, to carry out its job. During the operation the troops installed themselves within Ejido [collectively held farm communities] lands. They later fenced off the area, installed a military camp and prepared the ground for a heliport.

8th of August: Students of the National School of Anthropology and History [ENAH] were taken hostage on the highways of Chiapas. Various students who were returning from the Convention in Defense of the Cultural Heritage held in La Realidad were taken hostage by the army, police and paramilitary PRI sympathizers.

August 11: The organization Xi'Nich denounces the detention of two of its members when 24 soldiers entered the community of Mariscal, and on August 7, when 19 more soldiers entered the community of El Pedregal in the municipality of Ocosingo.

August 12: On at least two occasions, the government of Chiapas buys all the issues of La Jornada in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez with the goal of impeding the dissemination of information concerning the government's repressive political tactics in the region.

Since the 14th of August, with the unleashing of approximately 10,000 soldiers, the installation of new military camps and the increase of roadblocks, the Federal Army of Mexico intensified the militarization in the valleys and canyons of the Selva Lacandona [Lacandon Rainforest] and for the first time penetrated into the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve which is presumed to be where the EZLN general command is located. Approximately 30 communities in the region suffer a virtual state of siege. The inhabitants of the Ejido Amador Hernández, in the municipality of Ocosingo, were assaulted with a tear gas made in the United States. This liquid was used by members of the Mexican Federal Army causing wounds to indigenous men and women. Entry and exit to and from the community, even for its own inhabitants, has been obstructed. The Federal Mexican Army has taken possession of land bordering the community and has covered it with barbed wire. Fly-bys and landings of army helicopters and the obstruction of passage by police of the Agency of Public Security have kept the inhabitants of these communities in a state of terror.

18th of August: The majority of PRI members in the Congress of Chiapas name municipal councils in the 7 new territorial allotments, many of them in the conflict zone, despite rejection by the parties of the opposition. The councils, disregarding the Constitution of the State of Chiapas, will govern until December 31, 2001.

On Thursday, August 19, three members of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights, assigned to investigate the arbitrary detention of three people from the community of Viejo Velasco, were deprived of their liberty by members of the PRI party. One of these men, Pedro Gómez Aguilar, has remained "disappeared" since the 23rd of July to this day. During the course of two hours, the "PRIistas" detained the members of the Fray Bartolomé Center, threatening them and repeating the argument, of evidently xenophobic inspiration, that "you are foreigners who have come to take progress from us," despite the fact all of the detained are Mexican nationals. Similarly, the detainees were told that only the municipal authorities of Ocosingo could authorize transit in the region and that if they insisted on returning without such authorization they would have to pay the consequences. Finally, the prisoners were given half an hour to leave the community and, told that if they refused, the vehicle in which they were travelling would be set on fire and destroyed.

August 19: The Chiapas State Police established a "curfew" for the community of La Trinidad in the municipality of Ocosingo. Inhabitants are not permitted to enter or leave their homes between the hours of 8 P.M and 5A.M. Those who are apprehended violating the curfew are interrogated and are detained for up to an hour and a half.

August 20: The Attorney General of Chiapas initiates preliminary investigations against protestors from the UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico], accused of kidnapping two indigenous PRI members in Amador Hernández.

On August 21, a Mexican doctor and two foreigners were brutally beaten by a group of "PRIistas" who had obstructed them from passing the military roadblock opperating in the crossroads of Nuevo Momóm, in the municipality of Las Margaritas. The female doctor was sexually assalted by the band. To this day, no authority has responded to the denunciations that have been made.

August 21: In a special meeting with eight other officials and the trustee, Mariano Díaz Ochoa, the mayor of San Cristóbal, declared the actress Ofelia Medina persona non grata and gave her 72 hours to leave the city or "she will be run out of town."

August 21: Riot police and diverse groups of state and federal security forces install control posts at the entrance to Tuxtla Gutiérrez and on roads which lead to the Selva Lacandona under the pretense of retaining student protestors from UNAM.

August 21: Governer Albores Guillén afirms that the students from UNAM and ENAH who are in the indigenous areas of the state are "on a suicide mission to destablize the state and will have to confront the justice forces of Chiapas."

August 21: The Caravan of the Civil Society of Chipas is taken hostage at four roadblocks on the roads to La Realidad and Gpe. Tepeyac. Under the control of Captain Victor Uribe they are insulted and threatened with beatings.

August 22: During two attempts to leave La Realidad, a group of national observers find the road to the heights of Nuevo Momón blocked.

22nd of August: The Caravan of the Civil Society of Chipas is detained for more than an hour in the Gpe. Tepeyac roadblock.

24th of August: During the morning, pirate taxi-drivers block the principal block of San Cristóbal and approximately one hundred indigenous supporters of the PRI, brought there by the mayor, march to support the government of Albores Guillén and chant "gringos and tourists out of Chiapas." The mayor, during a speech, insists that "once more I am inviting Ofelia Medina to leave San Cristóbal. If she is looking to make money, she should look somewhere else."

August 24: Returning to Mexico City, the students from ENAH who had been in Amador Hernández assert that, while passing through roadblocks in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, heavily armed members of the federal police boarded their bus, took their photographs and asked them for identification.

August 24: Marco Ugarte, a photographer with the American newswire AP who had been sent to cover the events unfolding in the Ejido Amador Hernández, is called to testify before the National Institute of Immigration. In San Quintín, two functionaries insult him and spit on him.

August 25: Through a communique, the EZLN reports that in the early morning hours, troops of the Federal Mexican Army and police from the Agency of Public Security of Chiapas, attacked the community of San José La Esperanza, located between the towns Rizo de Oro and Aguascalientes de La Realidad. Enrique López Cruz, Estanislao López Gómez and Carmelino Méndez López are arbitrarilly detained, beaten and tied. Hermelindo Vazquez Lopez and Francisco Vázquez Vázquez and women from the community were shot and beaten by the soldiers.

On Thursday, the 26th a group of PRIistas entered the encampment of the Civilians for Peace in the Ejido of Morelia with the intention of expelling the civil observers there. The observers were threatened with incarceration. The same night, the members of the PRI contingent took six members of the community prisoner without giving any reason and threatened to occupy their Autonomous Municipality.

The subsitute governor Roberto Albores Guillen has unleashed a strong xenophobic campaign. In an unprecedented manner, the xenophobia has touched Mexicans as well, as in the situations described above. This is also demonstrated in the attempt to expel the actress Ofelia Medina who has distinguished herself through her forceful struggle against human rights violations and in her development of projects which aim to improve the health of indigenous Mexican children. Similarly, the attitude of the National Institute of Immigration has become evident in the roadblocks on roads which lead towards the communities in question, where they have expelled foreigners through the so-called "office of definitive exit." Furthermore, it is disturbing that in this last week, agents of the INM have been passing through the hotels of San Cristóbal de las Casas, asking for the names and room-numbers of tourists with the intention of issuing them citations.

Members of the Mexican Federal Army have violated the Mexican Constitution in innumerable occasions including violating the right to free transit, freedom of speech, and Article 129 of the Constitution. They have also violated their own Code of Military Justice without receiving any sanction from the Executive, Legislative or Judicial authorities. Nor have these bodies launched corresponding trials for the perpatrators. On the contrary, these bodies of the government have become participants in the aforementioned unconstitutional acts, maintaining the indigenous communities in a climate of terror. At the same time, the state government is agitating militant indigenous communiites of the Institutional Party of the Revolution (PRI), in order to block national and international observers' access to areas where the most atrocious acts are taking place so as to prevent the presence of witnesses to the human rights violations.

These actions violate the principles of Articles 2 and 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as guarantees and other articles of the Constitution including Articles 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 22 and 129. The state and federal crimes are typified by violent assaults, illegal privation of liberty, fulfilled threats, premeditated homicide, abuse of authority, damages to private property and to the ecological heritage of the state, razing, attacks on communication networks, carrying arms and prohibited instruments, criminal association, organized delinquence, usurpation of functions, sexual abuse and attempted rape including some directly ordered by the military. These violations are covered under Article 324 of the Code of Military Justice, which penalizes violence towards prisoners.

All of these events, which may appear isolated, we consider to correspond to a pattern of warfare which the government proposes to develop in order to "solve" the conflict in Chiapas. The indicators of this pattern can be seen in the following: the continuous escalation of militarization, the joining of judicial authorities and the public security of the state of Chiapas in military operations and the incitement to violence on the part of Governor Albores Guillen and other municipal authorities, all of which lead to a climate of internal conflict between elements of the civil population. There is also a legal offensive launched by the State Congress against the San Andrés Accords which were approved through the Law of Indigenous Rights and Culture and the unilateral constitution of the new municipalities. The pattern of warfare is further apparent in the irresponsible position of the Secretary of State who feigns ignorance with regard to the military offensive and who falsifies the meaning of the military operations, in the multiplication of military roadblocks, and in the increased brutality of the military's actions, all under the pretext of applying the Firearms Law.

These characteristics of the government's politics with respect to the conflict in Chiapas reveal the Federal Government's intention to abandon the negotiated peaceful solution and to create a new scenario in order to justify a military solution.

As such, the citizens and organization of the civil society who have signed below demand:

• The immediate cease of military actions and the demilitarization of the indigenous communities of the state of Chiapas.
• A political and judicial trial of the illegitimate governor, Roberto Albores Guillén.
• That the Secretary of State assumes its responsibilities and puts an end to the state authorities' intentions to cause civil strife.
• That the president of the Republic publicly commits himself to finding a peaceful solution through political and widely accepted actions.
• Respect for guarantees of the individual and for the human rights of the entire population.
• Fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords
• Respect for the indigenous communities' rights to self-determination in development programs, in accordance with the stipulations of the Convention 169 of the OIT and of the San Andrés Accords.
• An immediate cease of hostage taking and intimidation of members of civil and non-governmental organizations.
• Guarantees for the security of the work being carried out by civil, human rights organizations.
• Return of Mr. Pedro López Hernández, who disappeared on July 23, 1999, in the community of Viejo Velasco Suearez, in the municipality of Ocosingo.
• An immediate cease of the campaign against the students and observers in indigenous communities.
• An end to the paramilitary offensive in all regions of the state, principally in Nuevo Momón, in the municipality of Las Margaritas.
• We demand the withdrawal of troops from the Ejido Amador Hernández.
• We demand the withdrawal of troops from the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, given that the very authorities of Semarnap have signaled that they have finished their work.
• Definitive elimination of the paramilitary roadblocks in the state of Chiapas.

SIGNING ORGANIZATIONS:

RED CIVIL DE OBSERVACION (Junax, K'inal Antzetik, A.C., Coordinadora Regional de los Altos para la Consulta, Enlace Civil, A.C., Boletín Quincenal Resistencia, Jolom Mayaetik, A,.C., Colectivo Educación para la Paz, A.C., Alianza Cívica Chiapas, Casa de la Luna Creciente, FZLN San Cristóbal, Brigada Guadalupe Méndez, Brigada Batik Jcotoltik, Centro de Investigación y Acción de la Mujer A.C.), SOS Chiapas, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, el Barzón de los altos de Chiapas, Guayacan A.C., grupo de mujeres Colem, Bacosan, Cocidep, Colectivo Aprendamos A.C., Chiltak A.C., Coordinadora Regional de la Costa.-Soconusco por la Consulta Zapatista, Coordinadora Regional Norte-Selva por la Consulta Zapatista, Coordinadora Regional Fronteriza por la Consulta Zapatista, coordinadora Regional Marqués de Comillas por la Consulta Zapatista, Ciuspaz, Comunicaciòn Campera A. C., Parejo Scotol, Balamil Yach'il be, Sadec, Ciepac, Agrupación de Profesionales de Psicología del estado de Chiapas, Doctora M. Georgina Rivas Bocanegra, Doctor Gerardo González, CP. Francisco Ovando.

cc: Episcopal Commission for Peace in Chiapas
cc: Office of the President of the Republic
cc: Congress of the Union
cc: Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
cc: Mary Robinson (High Commissioner of the UN Commission on Human Rights)
cc: National leaders of the political parties PRD, PAN, PT, PVEM and PCD.
cc: Oppositional Alliance of the state of Chiapas.

translated by Noah Arthur Bardach