January 11, 1999: The National Attorney General's office announces that two more government officials have been arrested for their involvement in the Acteal massacre. The two are Absolan Gordillo Díaz, a former top official with the body coordinating the Chiapas state security forces, and Roberto Arcos Jiménez, a former agent with the District Attorney's office of the State Attorney General. In a prepared statement, Arcos Jiménez blames army officials and federal and state judicial authorities for hiding actions by armed groups in the municipality of Chenalhó in the months before the massacre.

January 11, 1999: With accompaniment by officials from the Mexican Red Cross and the government's National Human Rights Commission, refugees in Chenalhó begin to harvest coffee. The previous year's coffee crop was stolen, harvested and sold by paramilitaries.

January 13, 1999: The Mexican Army carries out a drug raid in Aldama, municipality of Chenalhó. Community members denounce the operation, stating that the government is using the fight against drug-trafficking as a pretext for occupying the community. Chiapas Senator Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia later states that the operation is part of an attempt to justify the repositioning of the army in the state, and to link the Zapatistas with drugs. The army commander in charge of the operation states afterward that the marijuana seized and burned in Aldama was not planted by EZLN supporters.

January 22-26, 1999: The Pope arrives in Mexico for his fourth visit to the country. In an interview taken during his flight from Europe, the pontiff states that the Mexican government and the EZLN must return to dialogue in order to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Chiapas. He also maintains that the real solution to the problems in Chiapas is to recognize that indigenous people have the right to own the land because they were the first inhabitants of Mexico.

February 18 -- March 23, 1999: Thirty Zapatista political prisoners from the organization La Voz de Cerro Hueco (the Voice of Cerro Hueco) initiate a hunger strike inside of prisons in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and in San Cristóbal. The EZLN sympathizers protest their incarceration, and demand that the state government clear them of the fabricated crimes with which they are charged. After 33 days, the prisoners end their strike after agreements are made with state government officials that seek to insure that their due process rights will not be violated and prison conditions will be improved.

February 20, 1999: The San Cristóbal office of Alianza Cívica, an independent election monitoring group, is broken into during the night. Computer equipment is stolen. Curiously the perpetrators take one computer but only the CPU of the other, leaving such valuables as the monitor of the latter and two printers. The robbery comes only days after Alianza Cívica of Chiapas has announced it will help to carry out the EZLN's National Consultation on Indigenous Rights and Culture.

February 24, 1999: Amidst criticism from members of all opposition parties, Governor Roberto Albores Guillén's Amnesty Law is passed by the PRI majority in the Chiapas state congress. The proposal as passed by state congress differs slightly from the original, with the period to give up arms extended to 120 days, and adding that organizations "with structures, training or discipline similar to the military" will be excluded from the amnesty deal along with the EZLN. With approval from the state, the proposal may now continue on to the national senate, where, if approved, it will become law.

March 9, 1999: Amnesty International releases their report "Mexico: the Shadow of Impunity." The report finds systematic human rights violations throughout the country, and especially in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. Accompanying the report, AI General Secretary Pierre Sané harshly criticizes the Mexican government for failing to make advances in its human rights situation by bringing to justice those responsible for recent massacres in Acteal, El Charco, and El Bosque. Sané also recognizes that the army and "government-sustained paramilitary groups" were involved in those massacres.

March 19, 1999: Former Captain Jesus Valles becomes the first member of the Mexican military to be granted political asylum in the United States. Valles was stationed in Chiapas during the Zapatista uprising of January, 1994. After refusing his Commander's order to summarily execute all suspected rebels he was transferred to Puebla but deserted and fled to the US shortly there after upon warnings that he would likely be disappeared for his actions. In her ruling, immigration judge, Bertha Zuniga states that "there is reason to believe that the Mexican government has killed innocent civilians and engaged in repressive military action" in Chiapas and that Valles' fears are well-founded because of his "refusal to obey orders to kill captured EZLN rebels and engage in such repressive action."

March 21, 1999: Two and half million Mexicans in the country, as well as nearly 25,000 Mexicans living abroad, vote in the EZLN's National Consultation on Indigenous Rights and Culture. Over five-thousand Zapatista delegates, half of them men and half women, travel throughout the republic to speak with Mexicans from all walks of life and to receive their votes. Approximately 95 percent of the participants agree that indigenous peoples and their rights should be legally recognized, and that this recognition should occur through the congressional initiative proposed by the Commission for Peace and Reconciliation (COCOPA).

March 22, 1999: Mexico City federal judge, Olga Sanchez, rules in favor of the 12 foreigners expelled under Article 33 following a joint police-military operation that attempted to dismantle the autonomous municipality of Ricardo Flores Magón, in the town of Taniperla on April 12, 1998. Sanchez states that the Mexican authorities who carried out the expulsions acted unconstitutionally because they failed to adequately justify how the foreigners were involved in the political affairs of the country and thereby legally deportable for their actions. Although the ruling marks a victory for the international human rights mission in Chiapas, Sanchez additionally rules that the Mexican government may reinitiate its investigation in order to provide a legal foundation for the expulsions until which time the 12 may not return to Mexico.

March 29, 1999: In a highly publicized act in Ocosingo, 14 alleged Zapatista guerrillas turn in their arms to the state governor Roberto Albores, in the presence of military personnel and members of the state cabinet. A representative of the alleged Zapatistas states that the group is deserting because living conditions had worsened with the activities of the EZLN and that they have been manipulated by individuals seeking power.

The EZLN later denies that the individuals were ever part of the organization, reporting that the men are members of the paramilitary group MIRA (the Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement) from the community of La Trinidad. Critics point out that in contrast to the normal piecemeal appearance of the Zapatistas, the 14 are photographed wearing matching pressed uniforms and new matching pasamontañas. State PRD and PT officials denounce the act as pre-fabricated by Albores to promote his new amnesty law.

April 7, 1999: State security forces move into San Andrés Larrainzar (capital of the autonomous municipality of San Andrés Sakamch'en de Los Pobres), the location where the Zedillo administration and the EZLN signed agreements in 1996.The police take over the municipal capital building from the autonomous authorities in order to install the PRI mayor elected by a minority in October 1998.

April 8, 1999: Three thousand Zapatistas from throughout the autonomous municipality of San Andrés Sakamch'en retake control of San Andrés.The unarmed demonstrators push police out of the community and occupy the municipal capital building once again.The supporters continue to occupy the city while autonomous authorities reestablish themselves.

Two days later, thousands more indigenous EZLN supporters from all over the state converge in San Andrés to commemorate the assassination of Emilio Zapata. In Chenalhó, State Governor Roberto Albores announces that the arrest warrants issued for the autonomous authorities involved in taking back San Andrés have been canceled, and that the 200 police occupying the capital have been ordered to withdraw.

April 16, 1999: In the old Zapatista headquarters of Guadalupe Tepeyac, abandoned after the February 1995 military offensive, 9 more alleged members of the EZLN turn in their arms to government and army representatives and return to "institutional life." As in the previous alleged desertions, the act is widely criticized as being staged by the Governor.

April 23, 1999: State Governor Roberto Albores introduces his remunicipalization initiative into the state congress. The initiative is designed to create new municipalities with new municipal boundaries as well as leadership. As described in the San Andrés Accords, the process of remunicipalization is to include participation by indigenous communities, the state government, political parties from the state congress and the EZLN. In contrast, Albores' proposal is unilateral. Additionally, the proposed new municipalities are located in the regions where Zapatista autonomous municipalities are already functioning, with the municipal capitals changed to PRI supporting communities.

May 7-10, 1999: The second Encuentro between the EZLN and Civil Society takes place in La Realidad. Over 2,000 people attend, with the focus of the weekends events on follow-up activities for the National Consultation. Subcomandante Marcos reads the opening address, his first public appearance in months.

May 9, 1999: Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, Chiapas Senator and ex-member of the COCOPA, resigns from the PRI. Long considered part of the party's democratic current, Salazar explains that he is leaving the party because of the harassment he has received from the state PRI apparatus. Salazar states he will unite with the PRD-PAN coalition that hopes to run a united opposition candidate for governor of Chiapas in the 2000 elections.

May 16, 1999: Immigration authorities issue Danish artist Jens Galschiot a departure order obligating him to leave the country within three days. Galschiot had installed his sculpture the "Column of Infamy" in the community of Acteal days earlier, as a reminder to the authorities responsible for the suffering of the victims of the massacre on December 22, 1997.

May 18, 1999: Global Exchange releases a report entitled Foreigners of Conscience: The Mexican Government's Campaign Against International Human Rights Observers. The report challenges the legality of the expulsion of foreign nationals carrying out human rights observation and humanitarian aid work, arguing that these activities are upheld by both Mexican and international law.

June 5, 1999: 300 Zapatistas Flee and Take Refuge in Mountains. More than one thousand soldiers and state and federal police carried out an operation today in an indigenous community, 50 kilometers from Ocosingo. Soldiers and Public Security, state judicial and federal police occupied the town center. Hours before the incursion, members of the security forces had thrown two tear gas grenades in order to disperse the indigenous who were protesting over their presence at the entrance to the ejido. General F. Rivas headed the joint operation.

June 27, 1999: Diodoro Carrasco had been in the Interior Ministry for only ten days when a new offensive began in Chiapas by the local and federal security forces, with the Army at the lead. In only fifteen days state security forces carried out operations in ten municipalities that cover 21 thousand square kilometers. The campaign of aggression - that has been directed especially at the municipalities of Ocosingo, Las Margaritas and Chilon - Army mobilizations have used air and land forces to harass the civil population.

July 19, 1999: Perpetrators of Acteal Massacre Sentenced. Jacinto Juarez Rosas, Second District Court Judge in Tuxtla-Gutierrez, sentenced 20 members of an armed group to 35 years in prison. The group carried out the December 22, 1997 massacre of 45 people in Acteal, municipality of Chenalho. The defense immediately filed and appeal and the circuit court judge will be responsible for ratifying or changing it.

July 27, 1999: The United Nations High Commission on Human Rights released its Report on Mexico based on conclusions of the Human Rights Committee after visiting Mexico in July. The Committee considered it a matter of the gravest concern that not all forms of torture are necessarily covered by law in all Mexican States, and that there is no independent body to investigate the substantial number of complaints regarding acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It was also a matter of concern that the acts of torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions which have taken place have not been investigated; that the persons responsible for those acts have not been brought to justice; and that the victims or their families have not received compensation.

August 6, 1999: Entrance of troops in the communities of Amador Hernández, municipality of Ocosingo. 500 troops parachuted into the community of Amador Hernández.

August 16, 1999: The Mexican Army attacked indigenous with tear gas in the Amador Hernandez ejido.

August 18, 1999: 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.

August 25, 1999: A confrontation between Zapatistas and Mexican soldiers in the southern state of Chiapas left nine people wounded. Forty people armed with sticks, machetes, rocks and knives skirmished with a patrol San Jose la Esperanza. Seven soldiers and police were wounded. The Zapatistas said in a statement that two rebel fighters were shot and wounded when Mexican soldiers and police attacked the community, located between the rebel stronghold of La Realidad and the hamlet of Rizo de Oro.

September 8, 1999: The Mexican government announced its first new initiative in years aimed at ending a simmering conflict with Zapatista rebels in the southern state of Chiapas. Interior Minister Diodoro Carrasco said the government had pledged to resume talks with the rebels, pass new legislation on Indian rights and investigate human rights abuses. He also announced an offer of amnesty to jailed rebels and sympathizers who have not been charged with violent crimes. The majority of opposition legislators thought it was highly unlikely that the EZLN return to the dialogue table without the repositioning of the Army and the fulfillment of the San Andres Accords.

September 15, 1999: Mexico's Supreme Court overturned the government's decision to deport Tom Hansen, former director of the Chicago-based Pastors for Peace. In 1998, nearly 150 foreigners were expelled illegally from Mexico after visiting rebel-controlled territory in Chiapas. This decision clears the way for other foreign activists to visit Mexico.

September 15, 1999: The government secretary announced that the 30 individuals arrested during the 1998 violent expulsions from the autonomous municipalities of Taniperla and Amparo Aguatinta would be released. The authorities dropped all charges against them, and Luis Menéndez was freed on the night of September 14. From the outset, the arrest and expulsion of the 12 foreigners, in addition to the jailing of 16 Mexicans who were arrested in Taniperla, were fraught with irregularities.

October 3, 1999: During the Guerrero State elections, Global Exchange and the Human Rights Center of the Mountain took part in observation work in the poverty stricken municipalities and counties. These municipality elections in the mountain region of Guerrero were carried out without an incredibly high incident of fraud. Almost all of the public officials in charge of overseeing the proper functioning of the voting booths were incompetent and unsure of their responsibilities. An incredibly low voter turnout symptomatic of growing voter apathy was reported throughout the mountain region where election observation occurred. It is also important to note that a significant amount of PRI political propaganda was seen, as well as distributed in almost every municipality during day of the elections.

October 23, 1999: The PRD State Political Council selected the independent senator Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía for the PRD candidate for governor of Chiapas in the 2000 elections by a majority vote (118 in favor with one abstention). The senator brings the backing of four of the six parties that make up the opposition alliance. Salazar Mendiguchía committed himself to promoting a union with the other opposition parties who have showed their support for "a governor who is a facilitator of peace, who does not intend to establish counterinsurgency measures in Chiapas."

October 26, 1999: The Mexico City based Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (PRODH) was subject to a dangerous attack and series of death threats issued against members of the organization. One staff member, Digna Ochoa, was kidnapped briefly. The perpetrators have repeatedly gained access to the PRODH's offices and, in at least one instance, a staff member's home.

November 8, 1999: Nine indigenous families, who had received death threats from presumed paramilitaries, were moved from Canolal, in the municipality of Chenalho, to Acteal. The operation involved police, state officials, members of the Mexican Red Cross, and human rights organizations.

November 16, 1999: Masked PRIistas attacked, threatened, and harassed Zapatista sympathizers in indigenous communities belonging to three Autonomous Municipalities in the Selva Lacandona. Representatives of rebel councils such as San Manuel, Ricardo Flores Magón and Francisco Gómez denounced that in areas such as San Juan Cancuc, masked PRI groups have been recognized who are identifying themselves as EZLN sympathizers, holding sit-ins and attacking residents.

November 26, 1999: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson visited Chiapas as part of a five-day fact-finding mission to Mexico. She met with Gov. Roberto Albores Guillen, state Supreme Court President Noe Castanon Leon and with survivors of the December 1997 massacre in Acteal. She noted problems from having soldiers serve in public security functions and failing to hold soldiers responsible in civilian courts for abuses against civilians. Among the abuses she noted were arbitrary detentions, disappearances, torture, violence against women and harassment, and tolerance of paramilitary groups.

December 16, 1999: Troops of the Mexican Army and agents of the Secretary of Government, the Attorney General of the Republic and of the state government confirmed the presence of armed rebel groups and training camps for subversives in the region of the Sierra Madre of Chiapas. They set up military-police bases to bring about the withdrawal or dismantling of the guerrillas.