On Tuesday March 10, 1998 I left San Cristóbal de las Casas, at approximately 2 PM, accompanied by Helen Kapolnek from Germany, Claudia Meier from Switzerland, and Mexican citizen Gustavo Hernández Martínez. The four of us formed a Human Rights observation brigade organized by El Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas. We were joined by a Swiss journalist, Michael Hegglin, who was working on a documentary piece on the involvement of international activists and human rights observers in Chiapas state.

Our brigade was sent to the Zapatista autonomous community of Ejido San Jeronimo Tulija, in the municipality of Chilon. The week beginning February 28th to March 4th, San Jeronimo was invaded by members of the Federal Army, State police forces, and federal police forces, but held off from entering the actual village by approximately 1,500 inhabitants (mostly women and children) of San Jeronimo and neighboring ejidos, some of whom were hit with bayonets and spayed with gas. We were sent to observe the current situation in the aftermath of this confrontation, to take testimonies of human rights violations and maintain an observation presence with a view to preventing further violent confrontation from occurring.

We arrived in San Jeronimo Tulija at approximately 2:30 PM. Migration officials who were waiting in the community immediately demanded our papers and passports. We told them that we were human rights observers from the CDHFBC and showed them our credentials. We were filmed by military personnel and individually photographed by immigration officials. All of us were then transported to the immigration office in Palenque, despite the fact that one of our group members was a Mexican citizen and another, the Swiss journalist, had an FM3 visa permitting him to work in Mexico as a journalist.

At the immigration office we were individually interrogated and given a citation to present ourselves at the immigration office in San Cristóbal within 48 hours. It was never explained to us why we were being given a citation, nor which of Mexico's laws we had broken.

At the immigration office in San Cristóbal de las Casas we were interrogated again twice on consecutive days. After the second interrogation we were taken to Tuxtla Guttierez on the pretext that some officials there needed to speak to us--we were told that we would be returning to San Cristóbal within a couple hours. In Tuxtla, instead of being taken to the immigration building, we arrived at the airport. There we were denied access to a telephone and put on a government plane to Mexico City. Again they promised that we would be returned to San Cristóbal later that day.

On arrival in Mexico City airport I was greeted by Margy Horan from the U.S. embassy, who informed me that the order for my deportation had been changed to "voluntary departure." Immigration never fulfilled the promise to return us to Chiapas, it was never explained how we were violating Mexican law, I was denied access to a telephone until I had signed the papers stating my voluntary departure, and released in Mexico City without my belongings or money.