AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN DE LA LIBERTAD

(PREVIOUSLY EL BOSQUE), CHIAPAS

DECEMBER 15, 1998

TO PUBLIC OPINION

TO THE INTERNATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS

TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY

TO ALL INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF MEXICO

At this moment we make an urgent appeal to the public to

energetically denounce the fact that paramilitary groups and state

police are right now (8 p.m.) entering to attack once again the

community of Union Progreso in this same municipality of San Juan de

la Libertad. The number of paramilitaries and state police is

uncertain because the darkness of night does not allow them to be

seen.

At this moment men, women, children, and elderly have already had

to leave their houses for fear of being massacred by paramilitaries

and state police. Because of this at these late hours of the night,

under rain, hundreds of children, women, men, and elderly are running

to the mountains. Therefore we request the intervention of the Fray

Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center and the other national and

international human rights groups, and the presence of the

communications media in order to testify to what the federal and state

governments are doing against our indigenous communities.

SINCERELY,

COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN

DE LA LIBERTAD, CHIAPAS

(three signatures)