Reuters
13-APR-99

MEXICO CITY, April 13 (Reuters) - Paramilitary groups like the one that massacred 45 Indian refugees in 1997 are growing in force in Mexico's violence-torn state of Chiapas, a congressional peace mediator alleged on Tuesday.

Chiapas, an impoverished and politically polarised state on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala, is home to the Zapatista guerrilla movement, in which local Indians support an armed rebel force hidden away in the jungle.

Since the Zapatistas launched their pro-Indian movement five years ago, right-wing paramilitary groups have sprung up to counter them.

The paramilitary groups support local landowners and officials. Just three days before Christmas in 1997, paramilitaries dressed in black massacred 45 unarmed refugees -- most of them women and children -- who supported the Zapatistas.

"There is a recruitment campaign that is very dangerous," Gilberto Lopez, a leftist legislator and president of the congressional mediating team called Cocopa, told Reuters.

"In same areas of Chiapas they are forming numerous training camps for paramilitary forces," he said.

More than 100 people were arrested following the 1997 massacre, including some local government officials. Survivors complained that they had reported paramilitary training before the attack but were ignored by authorities.

Cocopa is one of the four parties involved in the peace process, in addition to the Zapatistas, the government and the local Roman Catholic Church.

But peace talks broke down more than two years ago, leaving the Chiapas conflict to fester. Although the rebel uprising lasted but 10 days and killed 150 people, hundreds more people have died since then in related political violence.

Lopez of Cocopa said he would raise the paramilitary issue before the entire Chamber of Deputies (lower house of Congress).

"Tension in the conflict continues, but Cocopa has to exercise restraint in its statements," Lopez said. "The situation could lead to more confrontations."

The Zapatistas are seeking autonomy for indigenous people throughout Mexico, but the government claims they want Indians to virtually secede from the country.

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