wfn.org | Fear and suspicion flare up after 3 die in Chiapas ambush

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Note #5907 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

23-May-2000
00204

	Fear and suspicion flare up after 3 die in Chiapas ambush

	Religious groups criticize government probe, demand justice

	by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- After months of relative quiet, a May 7 ambush in which
three people were killed and two were wounded has heightened tensions in
indigenous communities in Mexico's turbulent southern state of Chiapas.

	The dead fall on both sides of a sharply drawn political divide.

	The most recent casualties are Antonio Lopez Jimenez, 18, a member of a
pacifist community of Catholics called the "Abejas" who are sympathetic to
the land and social reforms sought by the armed revolutionary movement, the
Zapatistas, and Jose Luis Gomez Gomez, 17, and Carmen Gomez Guillen, 32,
both of whom are identified with the dominant political party in the
country, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

	The ambush was sprung by a heavily armed group wearing black clothing and
ski masks who stopped and robbed a vehicle on the highway between Pantelho
and Roblar. One of the survivors -- who is affiliated with the PRI --
identified one of the attackers as a Zapatista supporter.

	The investigation is not complete. Nor is it clear whether the motive was
robbery or political retribution. Another ambush reportedly took place
several days later in another region of Chiapas.

	"The community is feeling very molested, troubled ... not safe at all,
because of this," said the Rev. Manuel Perez Arias, a Presbyterian minister
in the Chiapas highlands. He said he fears that agitated people will turn to
vigilante justice if the government is slow to finish its investigation.

	"The evangelicals and non-Protestants and the majority of people in
Chenalho are thirsty for justice," Arias said. "We're tired of injustices
done by the Mexican government, especially the attorney general's office.
.. What the majority of people want is the impartial castigation of those
who are responsible, and freedom for the innocent people."

	Hurt and anger still divide the Abejas and evangelical communities, which
disagree about the guilt of several evangelical men, including some
Presbyterians, who are being held in jail as suspects in a 1997 massacre of
45 women, men and children who belonged to an Abejas community in Acteal.
The evangelical community claims that only a few of the alleged assailants
are guilty, although they were identified by Abejas who survived the
slaughter.

	That massacre is the greatest stumbling block in Presbyterian-Abeja
relations in the highlands, where leaders of both communities are committed
to a dialogue across the dangerous political divide. Vern Sterk, a mission
worker with the Reformed Church in America, said the decision to work
together on an indigenous-language translation of the Bible was the catalyst
that brought the two groups together.

	"The Presbyterian pastors and leaders have the same justice concerns ...
but when they saw the violence, they pulled out," Sterk said, referring to
the wider armed struggle to gain rights for Chiapas' indigenous people. "And
then some of the violence was turned against them."

	Sterk told the Presbyterian News Service that the reconciliation work is
"bringing forgiveness, and lowering the level of conflict amongst the
members of churches who've been hurt and who've had family members killed."
	
	In a press release issued on May 9, the Abejas insisted that "violent
robberies and murders continue to persist in the different municipalities in
the state of Chiapas." They said the state government created more
disagreements and confrontations in Chiapas by supporting certain groups and
exterminating others, without really investigating the facts.

	In Pantelho, the site of the ambush, "the government deployed a large
number of state police and Mexican army troops to the area, but have done
nothing to locate the assailants," said the Abejas, who also pointed out
that massive military and state police presence is of no use "when armed
civilian groups are allowed to roam freely on the highways of Chiapas,
killing with impunity." They say the truth of their words was proven by the
1997 massacre.

	The Abejas' statement also demanded that the government "cause no confusion
so that we may avoid further confrontations between brothers and sisters,
both at the state and national levels."

	Kryss Chupp of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams, who was in
Chiapas in February, said the Mexican government has been accused of
exploiting religious differences to divide indigenous communities, whose
ancestral land is being taken over by corporations and big planters.

	"The violence cannot be allowed to go on without consequences, or it will
just fuel more violence," Chupp said. "What goes un-investigated, unsolved
.. just deepens old wounds and increases mistrust. Every step forward for
making peace with neighbors goes three steps back."

	The presence of growing numbers of federal police in Chiapas also worries
the Presbyterian Church of Mexico's human rights office in San Cristobal,
which is called the Evangelical Defense Committee of the State of Chiapas.
Spokesperson Isidro Gomez Entzin said that police -- who often do not
understand indigenous culture -- can barge into communities and act in ways
that cause greater unrest.

	Entzin said beefing up the armed police force in Chiapas just before
Mexican elections may frighten some indigenous people and keep many from
going to the polls.

	In a press release, city officers in Chenalho blamed the Zapatistas for the
ambush and for provoking other unrest, and called for "prompt and expedient
justice." The release also disputed what it called a Zapatista claim that
the PRI and its allies are forming paramilitary groups.

	Perez Arias said pastors and church-goers in Chiapas are "praying for
calm." Sterk said the reconciliation under way between the indigenous groups
is proceeding despite the uneasiness.

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