11/12/02	Report accuses Mexican police and military of rights abuses -- Mexican police and military personnel systematically use arbitrary arrests of civilians in an effort to dissuade the detainees from carrying out their protests against social ills, a report by a local human rights organization charges. (EFE)
7/19/02	12 Who 'Disappeared' in Mexico: -- Decades after hundreds of Mexican men and women were kidnapped, tortured and killed by secret government forces, newly declassified documents have begun moving this country toward a reckoning with the darkest chapters of the past.(New York Times)
7/10/02	Harsh Spotlight Shines on Mexico's Army -- As newly declassified archives begin to illuminate what happened to hundreds of leftists who disappeared during a "dirty war" waged by the government in the 1970's, a harsh spotlight is turning on Mexico's army. (New York Times)
2/19/02	Mexico president praises military -- After opening Mexico's army to unprecedented scrutiny, President Vicente Fox on Tuesday praised the military's loyalty and indicated that civilian leaders were mainly to blame for past abuses. (Associated Press)
2/4/02	The Pentagon plans to create a military force with Mexico and Canada -- The U.S. Pentagon has held conversations with the Canadian and Mexican armies to discuss a terrestrial, aerial and maritime continental defense dubbed American commando. The project, which would be an essential part of the security perimeter or the safe zone and pushed the U.S. military towards its Canadian and Mexican counterparts, was discussed in a meeting that took place last week in Washington with high ranking military chiefs. (La Jornada)
12/27/01	Mexican army says no to outside oversight -- A senior Mexican army officer has dismissed the need for a human rights ombudsman, despite mounting reports detailing atrocities committed by officers and soldiers over the past three decades. (Reuters)
12/14/01	Human rights chief opposes military role in law enforcement -- The increasing presence of the military in areas of law enforcement will not solve the country's safety problems, a top human rights official said. National Human Rights Commission President Jose Luis Soberanes said the military should only take over the role of the police in exceptional cases, such as in the fight against narco-trafficking. (The News Mexico)
11/11/01	Fox takes steps to end army's rights abuses -- Nearly a year after President Vicente Fox took office promising to clean up Mexico's human rights record, he is taking his first steps to address the military's long history of impunity and rights abuses. (Washington Post)
10/19/01	Chiapas governor calls for tighter border security -- At the same time President Vicente Fox is touting Mexico's unconditional support for the war against terrorism, the governor of Chiapas is continuing his months-long campaign of asking the federal government to provide more surveillance of the nation's southern border. (The News Mexico)
10/7/01	As the Smoke Clears, New Attitude on Security Alliance Emerges in Mexico Diplomacy: Attacks on U.S. have stimulated support for the concept of treating terrorism as a common threat. -- The attacks set off a fierce debate within the Mexican political elite on how the country should respond to the U.S. call for a global campaign against terrorism. (Los Angeles Times)
10/6/01	Drawing a line between terrorists and guerrillas -- With government officials and legislators set on revamping the nation's security policy after the events of Sept. 11, the line between guerrilla groups and terrorist organization has yet to be clearly defined. (The News)
10/3/01	Fox to visit Bush to express support -- President Vicente Fox of Mexico will visit President Bush in Washington next week to show his nation's support for the U.S. war on terror. (Associated Press)
10/2/01	Don't forget Latin America -- Things have not been going well in Latin America for some time. The events of Sept. 11 are making the situation worse. The No. 1 problem is the economy. (Christian Science Monitor)
9/29/01	Mexico President vows to support U.S. 'all the way' -- Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Friday that Mexico was prepared to go "all the way" to help the United States hunt down those responsible for Sept.11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. (Reuters)
9/11/01	Mixed operations bases beefed up in Chiapas -- In response to the wave of assaults and ambushes against members of the Public Security Police in Chiapas -- which has resulted in two deaths in the last 15 days, as well as dozens of civilians wounded and injuries to two state police officers -- the Mixed Operations Bases (BOM) presence in the area has been reinforced. (CNI Online)
8/28/01	Defense Sec. General Ricardo Vega Garcia spoke before congress on Monday -- Defense Secretary General Ricardo Vega Garcia on Monday spoke before members of the lower house National Defense Committee, becoming the first defense secretary in the nation's history to appear before a committee at Congress. (The News)
8/17/01	Government accused of militarization in Chiapas -- Human rights organizations on Thursday charged the military had not diminished its presence in Chiapas since President Vicente Fox assumed office, saying the Army was continuing a campaign of low-intensity warfare against Zapatista rebels and the state's indigenous population. (The News Mexico)
8/17/01	Growing military harassment in Chiapas -- NGOs declared yesterday that after the approval in Federal Congress of the constitutional reforms on indigenous rights and culture last April, there has been an increase of harassment activities by the military and paramilitaries in communities in Chiapas. In the last four months there have been at least 104 military actions. (La Jornada)
8/17/01	NGOs accuse Fox of reactivating the war in Chiapas -- The militarization in Chiapas has increased in the last few months because the current Fox cabinet, instead of generating peace conditions, are reactivating the low-intensity war and "returning to the strict old Zedillo times" claims the non-government organization Global Exchange, a human rights organization, and The Center of Economic and Politic Investigation for Community Action (Ciepac).
8/17/01	Civil organizations report military reinstatement in Chiapas -- Militarization in Chiapas increased immediately following the approval of constitutional reforms in regards to indigenous matters. Since April there has been at least 104 recorded military operations in 16 municipalities and there has been reinstatement of some military bases. (El Universal)
8/16/01	Adoption of controversial Indigenous Rights Law and military mobilizations: Tension and fears in Chiapas -- This year, events in the state of Chiapas and Mexico have called into doubt the Federal Government's will to construct peace in the country. Neither the Executive nor the Legislative branches of the Government, represented by the Commission for Concordance and Peace (COCOPA), have complied with their responsibility to approve the Law of Indigenous Rights and Culture, the product of the Accords signed in San Andrés between the EZLN and the COCOPA. This refusal by the Government has caused uncertainty that political and democratic channels will solve the problems that generate the armed conflict. (Press Release)
8/14/01	Autonomous counsel criticize the arrival of hundreds of soldiers at San Cayetano barracks -- The autonomous municipal counsel of San Andrés Sakamch'en criticized the increase of military movement in the San Cayetano barracks, two kilometers from the Aguascalientes at Oventic. "This causes tensions in our communities, because it is feared that Mr. Vicente Fox is preparing a military attack against the EZLN and their support bases." (La Jornada)
4/25/00	Bury My Heart at Acteal -- Every December, Native American rights activists remember and mourn the massacre carried out by the US Army at Wounded Knee. Just over a hundred years later, a Mexican paramilitary group decided to carry out a reenactment of the massacre using live ammunition.
4/21/00	Counterinsurgency and Ethnocide in Chiapas -- The virtual military recolonization of the Selva Lacandona is part of the counterinsurgency strategy put into practice by the government of Ernesto Zedillo against the EZLN peoples, communities, support bases and insurgents.
4/17/00	Payán Velver: Army is Encircling EZLN In Order to Seek Their Surrender -- Contrary to government claims, militarization and paramilitary group activities--which are "the armed wing of the PRI, and which could provoke violent confrontations among the indigenous"--are making advances in Chiapas, stated Mario Saucedo, speaking for the group of legislators, academics, artists and citizens who made a trip through the conflict zone this weekend.
3/17/00	The blocking of a military corridor causes threat of forced evacuation of 12 villages in the Lacondona Jungle -- To facilitate the entrance of the army to Las Casadas of Oscosingo, where it has been impossible for them to enter or settle, dozens of heavily armed Federal Prevention Police (PFP) arrived to La Candelaria and threatened the Tzeltales with forced evacuation if they did not voluntarily leave their settlements in the reservation of the Lacondona Jungle. Claiming that the inhabitants are provoking "severe ecological damage" to the Montes Azules biosphere, an internal commission of state and federal authorities issued the order to evacuate a dozen of the agrarian groups which were set up, after 1994, as bases of the Ejercito Zapatista Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) and located in Las Casadas in the Lacondona Jungle.
11/9/99	Subordination of the Mexican Military to the U.S. -- In 1995 the United States and Mexico began one of the periods of greatest rapprochement in military cooperation between the two countries. Since then, more than three thousand Mexican soldiers, members of elite forces within the Mexican military, have been trained in U.S. military academies. Besides that, there is the substantial amount of military aid the U.S. has given our country.
10/17/99	Mexico increases its spending on the military -- In various reports the World Bank has revealed that, contrary to the worldwide trend, during the last decade the Mexican government doubled its spending to maintain the country's military apparatus, at the same time adding 35 thousand enlistees to its ranks. However, during the same period, the government kept its spending on education and health at a virtual standstill.
8/27/99	Statement from Chiapas NGOs on the Recent Military Escalation -- "We write to you to proclaim our position with respect to the most recent military and police escalations that state and federal authorities have under taken against the communities, resistance movements, and members and organizations of the Mexican civil society."
8/23/99	Members of Army Using Children as Spies and Runners -- The Mexican Army is using children to spy on zapatistas and to attract indigenous women from the community. The minors "become servants" to the soldiers for the promise of money, and they are used as runners between army commanders and leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, some of them leaders of paramilitary groups.
8/20/99	The Army in Montes Azules -- Government officials maintain the army is currently reforesting part of the Montes Azules reserve. The action of the Army constitutes a threat to the viability of Montes Azules in the short and medium terms. There will be no long term for the reserve. This is the clearest signal that time is not on the side of the Montes Azules, one of the most important reserves in the country because of the biodiversity it protects.
8/17/99	Militarization and Oil in Chiapas -- In the last 5 and half years, a broad spectrum of reporting from national news syndicates has talked about important oil reserves in Chiapas, Mexico. In contrast to the small number of reports from Pemex and including certain North American geological exploration institutions that recognize that there is the presence of very small quantities of petroleum in the Maya Jungle, numerous sources and data indicate that gigantic oil reserves exist in this region.
7/20/99	Perpetrators of Acteal Massacre Sentenced -- On July 19, 1999, Jacinto Juarez Rosas, Second District Court Judge in Tuxtla, Gutierrez, Chiapas, sentenced 20 civilians to 35 years in prison for their involvement in the Acteal massacre, in which 21 women, 15 children and 9 men were executed from a Las Abejas community. While the sentence can be considered as a small advance in clarifying the facts and punishing those responsible for the egregious events, it is also true that many doubts remain regarding the political will of the federal government and the Attorney General's Office to completely explain this crime.
3/1/99	Meeting of 200 Paramilitaries Denounced -- Around 200 paramilitary supporters of the governing PRI party held a private meeting with Jorge Gamboa Solis, ex Coordinator General of Police, in a wooden house in the community of Los Chorros, 26 days before the murder of 45 tzotzil indians in the municipality of Chenalho.

• Human Rights Watch: 1999 World Report -- The Mexico section of the 1999 Report.

• The Untold Story of the Low Intensity War in Loxicha -- From January to July 1998, Global Exchange investigated human rights abuses in Loxicha, a region in the southeastern state of Oaxaca. Global Exchange has concluded that indigenous people in Loxicha, and throughout Oaxaca, have suffered numerous human rights violations at the hands of the Mexican Army, and that continued militarization of the region is causing worsened poverty.

• Psychological Warfare in an Urban Context -- In the latter part of July, 1998, a group of individuals met to put together this report to bring to light the series of threats, hostilities, and attacks against civil organizations in the state of Chiapas that have been taking place since January 1994.

• On The Offensive: Intensified Military Occupation in Chiapas Six Months Since the Massacre at Acteal -- An in-depth investigative report by Global Exchange.

• The Slippery Slope: U.S. Military Moves into Mexico. -- A revised edition of Brian Willson's detailed account of U.S. involvement in the militarization of Mexico and the shared "national security interests" which are used to justify the repression. Updated April, 1998.

• Mexico is Now the Country Which Sends the Greatest Number of Forces to United States Military Schools -- Between 1996 and 1999, 3200 members of Air Transportation groups of the Special Forces (GAFE) of the Mexican Army "will take two-week courses with the 7th Group of the Special Forces of the United States," in order to then return to Mexico to train "rapid response" units," noted Darrin Wood, European expert on Latin American military affairs.

• U.S. Admits Role In Chiapas Conflict -- Far from the eyes of the Mexican public, the United States government continues to play a crucial - and highly controversial - role in the Chiapas conflict.

• Ex-Military Officer Says To Have Seen Two Huey Helicopters in Chiapas -- A retired officer of the U.S. Air Force, affirmed this week that the Mexican Government has deployed Huey Helicopters in Chiapas, an accusation that government functionaries warned would be a clear violation of the agreed upon uses that Mexico signed when the equipment was granted to Mexico by the Clinton Administration.

• In Just Two Years, Some 3000 Mexican Soldiers Will Have Been Trained at 17 U.S. Military Bases -- As a result of the tightening of relations between the Pentagon and the Secretary of National Defense, which came about in a series of agreements announced in March of 1996, and in spite of the scandals regarding links with drug trafficking that have shaken the Army since last year, the majority of the students at U.S. military training centers are from the Mexican military.

• End US Military Aid to Mexico! -- The brutal December 22 massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in Chiapas including 14 children reminds us that Mexico is not immune to the kind of government sanctioned death squad violence that tore apart neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s. An emerging pattern of violence by para-military groups linked to the long ruling PRI party should also alert Americans to the need to immediately suspend the delivery of U.S. weapons and training to Mexico's armed forces.

• Ramsey Clark Denouces Militarization of Chiapas -- Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark confirmed that the Mexican Army is carrying out "a major occupation effort against its own people," which leads him to believe that "the people are being used for a major military manoeuver, as in the beginning of the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua." Originally published in La Jornada on 4/2/98 and translated by Global Exchange Chiapas Staff.

• Paramilitary Activities Ruin Coffee Harvest in Chenalhó -- Paramilitary violence targets key points in the crop cycle, causing economic devastation on indigenous communities. Originally published in La Jornada on 2/2/98 and translated by Global Exchange Chiapas Staff.

• The federal army is violating the constitution -- This is a translation of Bárbara Zamora's newspaper column published in La Jornada on 1/29/98 and translated by Global Exchange Chiapas Staff. The article describes various ways in which the Mexican Army is currently violating the Mexican Constitution.

• Zedillo: la guerra perdida -- This is a translation of Jaime Aviles' newspaper column EL TONTO DEL PUEBLO published in La Jornada on 1/10/98 and translated by Global Exchange Chiapas Staff. It is a very interesting analysis of the roots of the violence that is boiling over in Chiapas today.

• Chiapas Political Prisoners: The Race Against Time -- In a political landscape about to be overtaken by the EZLN's national referendum on Indigenous Rights and Culture on March 21, 1999 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.

• Interview with Roberto Albores Guillen, Governor of Chiapas, translated from the Mexican weekly Proceso, June 21, 1998.

• Political Prisoners in Chiapas -- A detailed review of the current state of affairs, and a call for international pressure on the Mexican government to release all political prisoners.

• Although 11 Political Prisoners Have Been Released, 37 Remain Unfairly Imprisoned in Chiapas -- English version.

• Once Presos Políticos Han Sido Liberados, Pero Aun 37 Permanecen Encarcelados en Chiapas -- En español.
  
  Prisoners liberated in February, 1998

• Interview with recently released political prisoners -- English version.
  Entrevista con los presos políticos recien liberados -- En español.

• Testimonies from the political prisoners -- Including interviews with Miguel Montejo Penate and Juan Montejo Penate, Voice of Cerro Hueco President and Secretary.

• Photos of El Bosque Massacre Victim -- Gruesome photos of the mutilated body of one of the victims of the El Bosque massacre. These powerful and explicit images may offend some people, so please be forewarned.

• Photo essay on the massacre at Acteal