In a political landscape about to be overtaken by the EZLN's national referendum on Indigenous Rights and Culture on March 21 and the political races for governorships and the presidency in 2000, Chiapas political prisoners are in a struggle to gain their freedom before they are brushed off the agenda.

In that spirit, beginning on February 16, 1999, the Chiapas political prisoners' organization the Voice of Cerro Hueco begins a 5 day political mobilization in the state capital of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez.

The organization seeks the support of both Mexican and International civil society in its' struggle to free its members, overwhelmingly indigenous men jailed for their support for Zapatista Army of National Liberation and other groups which are independent of the government.

In conjunction with this effort to push for the liberation of over 100 prisoners of conscience, Global Exchange is releasing this brief update on the situation.

A timeline of events since last April is also available separately.

Global Exchange
Chiapas

February, 1999

The last 10 months have been filled with new developments in the situation of prisoners of conscience in Chiapas. Joint military-police operations, ordered by the state governor in order to "dismantle" autonomous municipalities living under alternative governmental structures, have consistently involved mass arrests as well as jailings. Since the first operation last April in Ricardo Flores Magon (Taniperla), others have occurred in Tierra y Libertad (Amparo Aguatinta), Nicolás Ruiz, and San Juan de la Libertad (in the official municipality of El Bosque). As a result of this campaign, as well as smaller government operations since March 1998, the number of political prisoners being held in the maximum-security state prison of Cerro Hueco and in other prisons in Chiapas and Tabasco has nearly tripled.

[Note: The imprisonment of indigenous leaders is one of the many strategies of low intensity warfare that the Mexican Government has been using to weaken the EZLN support bases since the uprising in 1994. The number of political prisoners grew rapidly in Chiapas during the peace negotiations at San Andres Larrainzar in 1996. By arresting community leaders, the government aimed to strengthen its negotiating position vis a vis the EZLN by undermining the social and political fabric of the autonomous communities. The release of political prisoners remains one of the EZLN's five outstanding demands for returning to the negotiating table.]

The political prisoner organization, The Voice of Cerro Hueco (also known as the Voice), now reports over 100 members, with 51 in Cerro Hueco state prison in Tuxtla Gutierrez, 24 imprisoned in Yajalon, and 6 in San Cristobal de las Casas. In addition to Yajalon, Voice members are also imprisoned in two other municipal capitals of the Northern Zone, with at least five members in Salto de Agua, and more in Pichucalco. Finally, 2 members are imprisoned in the state of Tabasco just across the northern Chiapas border in Tacotalpa.

The operations that have swelled the ranks of the Voice of Cerro Hueco and have brought some significant changes along with them. Previous to last spring, the prisoners who comprised the Voice were accused of non-political crimes, ranging from theft to murder. However, many of the new prisoners have been charged with such clearly political crimes as "rebellion" and "usurping public functions."

The operations have also resulted in bringing the first non-indigenous members to the Voice -- those detained in the community of Taniperla -- as well as the first woman who was detained in Nicolas Ruiz. The first female member made bail shortly after being jailed and joining the Voice.

[The two non-indigenous members of the Voice arrested in Taniperla have refused bail on the grounds that this would declare their acceptance of the false charges against them. They have pledged to remain in prison until all the indigenous human rights promoters falsely arrested at Taniperla are released.]

Dismantling the Opposition

The operations to dismantle autonomous municipalities in which so many indigenous people have been jailed have shown significant legal and human rights violations. In both the Taniperla and El Bosque cases, for example, official municipal authorities who had supposedly charged the arrested individuals with their crimes later announced publicly that they never made such accusations. In addition, some local PRI leaders in Taniperla reported being pressured by state authorities to sign false claims against autonomous activists.

State Governor, Roberto Albores Guillen has justified the operations as efforts to restore law and order in communities that have illegally set up municipal outside the law. Nevertheless, the dismantling operations have been extended to other political groups which oppose the ruling party in Chiapas. In the case of Nicolas Ruiz, for example, state and federal authorities carried out an operation to dismantle an official municipality governed by the opposition. In what amounted to a coup d'etat at the municipal level, over 1000 soldiers and police invaded the municipal capital and took control, arresting the officially-elected PRD leaders and leaving PRI authorities in their place.

Nicolas Ruiz is just one example of the PRI authorities jailing the opposition leadership of official municipalities. In Ixtapa, the government also imprisoned local PRD leaders, including the Municipal president Guillermo Hernandez, accusing him of killing four PRI-supporters in 1996.

Support the Taniperla Prisoners

The Taniperla case has received much attention from international human rights organizations including Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as well as from national instances such as Mexico's National Human Rights Network, "All Rights for Everyone".

The independent Mexican Human Rights Network began a campaign in May to liberate 16 of the political prisoners in Cerro Hueco. Finally, the government National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has issued recommendations that the Chiapas state government review the living conditions of the prisoners and the cases of the persons detained at Taniperla as well as those detained after Acteal.

The Taniperla case has also received significant attention from the press, including sympathetic coverage by important Mexican media such as the agenda-setting weekly political magazine Proceso.

Thus far, of the 15 Taniperla prisoners who began serving time in Cerro Hueco last April, six have been released. Among those still imprisoned are the artists who painted the mural at Taniperla, which was destroyed by the government during the operation on April 11th. (The mural has since been reproduced on walls in Spain, San Francisco, and Mexico City.)

Intimidation

On May 30, 1998, external representative of the Voice of Cerro Hueco Abelardo Mendez Arcos was kidnapped and held by members of the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia ('Peace and Justice'). He was arriving in the town of Yajalon (located in the Northern Zone) when two heavily armed uniformed men intercepted him, claiming to be municipal police. He was later taken to a private house where he received death threats and was told that "being a Zapatista in Mexico is a crime."

In addition to the kidnapping of Mendez, other acts of intimidation against the political prisoners movement continue on the outside. Spouses and families of Voice members continue to be harassed in their home communities.

The Struggle for Political Space

Méndez, a Chol Indian and the first president of The Voice of Cerro Hueco, continues to fight for political prisoners despite these actions. A former prisoner himself, Mendez recently returned from a 9-week tour in Spain to promote The Voice and continues to be optimistic about the organization's development. As Mendez states, "The movement will grow ideologically, but we hope that our organization will not grow in number, because we don't want to see anyone else imprisoned for their political beliefs".

Entering 1999, the Voice must redouble its efforts to gain political space in the face of the upcoming elections in 2000. In promising cases such as that of Taniperla, supporters are in a struggle to create political pressure to win freedom for the prisoners before their situation is eclipsed by races for the presidency, state governors, and the national Senate and Congress.

The fight to keep political prisoners on the agenda will become more difficult in the coming months, but with the help of international solidarity, including a continuing campaign by Amnesty International to encourage justice for the Taniperla prisoners, the Voice of Cerro Hueco remains hopeful. According to Mendez, recently back from a 9-week tour in Spain this fall, "The Voice will get stronger because we think that the truths that we tell will plant a seed with people, a seed that will eventually bear fruit."