As our van rounded a bend in the dusty road, I saw a patrol of thiry or more soldiers blocking the road about 200 yards ahead. As we came closer, I saw that the soldiers wore camouglage-colored uniforms. Leaves of silvery-green material were sewn on top of the camouflage fabric. They shimmered in the morning breeze. The soldiers cariied what seemed to be giant sized automatic weapons and wore face paint of black and olive green. A terrifying sight. The woman next to me uttered an unprintable expletive out of fear. We were in a war zone!
We were ordered to stop and get out of the van. An officer approached and asked who we were and what we were doing on the road. Our identification was checked, our names written down and our handbags inspected, but we were allowed to continue on our visit through the canyon.
I was a member of the tri-national delegation to Chiapas, Mexico; one of 86 delegates from the United States, Mexico and Canada to visit Chiapas from July 2-9, 1998. Sponsored by the Mexico Solidarity Network, we had been invited to visit many Chiapas communities and discuss with them the effects of low-intensity warfare on civilian communities.
The delegation assembled in San Cristobal de las Casas. There, we divided into small groups, each with a driver and a coordinator. My group headed for the Aguascalientes of La Garrucha, located in a canyon leading into the Lacandon Jungle. La Garrucha is headquarters for the Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gomez.
Before leaving San Cristobal, we were given brief training on the two-part nature of "low-intensity warfare." One part consists of increased militarization and the formation of paramilitary groups. Part two consists of the psychological warfare; i.e, setting fires, military checkpoints and demands for identification, military flyovers, soldiers entering villages, military patrols driving through villages and other means of creting fear and tension. Our trip had just begun and already we had experienced the militarization and the psychological pressure of having our names written down on the Army's list at a military checkpoint.
We traveled with simple tourist cards, not the FM 3 visas required by the Mexican government for human rights observation. All of us were keenly aware of the U.S. citizens deported by Mexican immigration authorities in order to discourage witnesses to the Mexican government's low-intensity warfare against indigenous communities in Chiapas. After twenty delegates had their names recorded by immigration agents at the Chiapas airport, we asked a Mexican lawyer to seek the legal equivalent of a temporary restraining order to prevent our detention and expulsion by the Mexican Migra. The amparo, as it is called in Mexico, was filed on July 6.
We were stopped at another army checkpoint, this one part of the military camp adjacent to the community of La Garrucha. We were again allowed to pass and immediately saw the weatherbeaten sign welcoming us to Aguascalientes III - La Garrucha. We received permission to enter and stay in the community.
We also received permission to address the community after church services the next morning (Sunday). We introduced ourselves to the assembled villagers, told them the nature of our delegation and what we did in the United States. Many residents of the community speak only Tzeltal, so a community leader translated from Spanish. This was a rare opportunity to meet the village women, most of whom stay inside their houses unless there is a church service or a fiesta in the community.
After the introductions, members of the community came to shake our hands and thank us for visiting. This was very moving, especially for me, because La Garrucha had been the site of my discussion group during the First Intercontinental Gathering for Humanity and against Neoliberalism. I was returning to visit after two years.
We next met in the village library to chat with community representatives. They summed up their living conditions due to low-intensity warfare as follows: "the constant threat created by the military's presence interferes with our ability to produce food and lead normal lives." The military camp next to the village is built on land belonging to the ejido of La Garrucha. The military took it without compensating the community, thus decreasing the amount of land for growing crops. Those soldiers in camouflage patrol the fields where corn and beans are grown. They frighten the peasants who work the fields, just like they frightened us. The soldiers do not respect the land. They throw their plastic wrappers on the ground and the animals choke to death trying to eat them. Soldiers leave empty tin cans on the ground. The animals get cut on them and then bleed to death. The soldiers pollute the river by throwing garbage in it.
Several times each day, military patrols and convoys of soldiers drive along the road which runs through the middle of the community. Military planes and helicopters fly over the village day and night. Some of these flights are very low. The residents fear that the helicopters will land and occupy the village. An older woman who is a community leader told us that a helicopter flew so low one day that they thought it would try to land. The women went to the center of the village (where there is enough space to land) and held pointed sticks in the air to prevent the helicopter's descent. When the men are in the cornfields, the women must guard the community.
Residents of La Garrucha told us about several incidents calculated to sew fear in the hearts of the villagers. The worst of these was when a helicopter dropped a bag full of poisonous snakes on a cornfield where a campesino was working. A death threat from the skies!
Another incident happened on the feast day of San Juan, a week before we arrived. While the entire community was cekebrating the day together, shots were heard from a house near the hill. The residents of the house were at the fiesta. Some men went to investigate and found bullet holes in the side of the thatched roof house. They also found fresh footprints leading from the house into the river near the military camp. The villagers speculate that some soldiers wanted to make it look like there was trouble in the community, fired the shots, and then went back through the river to the military camp.
Community leaders told us that sometimes civilians are detained at the army checkpoints, their hands and feet tied, guns placed next to them and then photographed.
Due to the constant military threat and the threat by the substitute governor of Chiapas to rid the state of the Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities, La Garrucha is on "Red Alert." This means that men from surrounding areas rotate in and out of La Garrucha to help its residents protect the Aguascalientes. The energy that these civilian communities must expend on guarding against military incursions is energy taken away from food production, education, health care and economic advancement; all priorities for villages still emerging from the effects of a feudal land system.
This year, peasant communities suffered a severe drought due to the effects of El Nin~o. The drought made it impossible to plant corn and beans until June, two months later than usual. Fires resulting from the drought destroyed many cornfields. Some villagers reported that soldiers were seen starting additional fires.
The effect of the drought, coupled with the fact that last year's crop was small because of military harassment, is that many communities are running out of food and have no cash to buy food on the open market. What crops they are able to grow this year will not be ready for harvesting until two or three months after last year's food supply runs out. They have reduced their food intake to the minimum necessary for survival. Hunger stalks these communities.
During September and October, they will be dependent on national and international civil society to donate food relief through organizations like Enlace Civil and the Catholic Church in San Cristobal. They want the International Red Cross to bring food relief to Chiapas, but President Zedillo will not permit the delivery of relief by the International Red Cross to civilian communities unless they are loyal to his ruling party.
The next day we visited the village of Patihuitz, just two or three miles down the road from La Garrucha. Before entering the village we saw a large military base, complete with landing strip, located on ten to fifteen acres of rolling hills. Militarily, this meant that La Garrucha was surrounded on both sides by a strong military presence. No wonder the community was on RED ALERT!
Community leaders in Patihuitz described much the same types of harassment and human rights abuse from low-intensity warfare as did their companeros in La Garrucha. The land taken by the Army for its military base and landing strip was communal land previously used for farming. No compensation was given to the community for that land. Patihuitz also suffers helicopter flyovers in the middle of the night. The hunger here is more severe because, in contrast to La Garrucha, it is traditional in Patihuitz for the for the women to work the cornfields with the men. Because of the Army's presence, the women are afraid to go to the fields and their food production is lost to the community.
We experienced the flyover of a military helicopter while we were in the village. In fact, it circled low over the place where we awaited a meeting with community leaders. It was watching us. In April of this year, helicopters circled over the community 3 or 4 times each day for 10 to 20 minutes each time. They also circled overhead at 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m, waking the terrified villagers. We also saw trucks full of soldiers drive through the middle of Patihuitz, just as they had in La Garrucha.
Villagers told us of the formation of new paramilitary groups by the MIRA (Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Movement). MIRA is recruiting and training youth from families in the canyon loyal to the ruling party. Recruits are paid and trained in paramilitary tactics. This could soon affect Patihuitz because there are many families loyal to the PRI in that community.
Before returning to San Cristobal, we visited the the village of San Antonio de las Delicias, high in the forested mountains above Ocosingo. We saw the ravages of drought and forest fires in the partially brown landscape. Residents there reported the same urgent conditions: impending hunger, lack of health care and military harassment.
Community representatives in all three villages asked us to report what we saw in those villages to people in the United States. What I saw was a military occupation that seeks to slowly starve its victims into complete submission. I urge anyone who is both able and interested to go and see for themselves the effects of low-intensity warfare on these indigenous civilian communities.
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 12:22:59 -0800 From: Mary Ann Tenuto <cezmat@igc.org> To Friends of Chiapas and Indigenous Peoples: This article appeared in the September edition of Chiapas Update, the newsletter of the Chiapas Support Committee. I thought I would share it with people. It is based on my July, 1998 trip to Chiapas, Mexico. Mary Ann For more information contact: Chiapas Support Committee P.O. Box 3421 Oakland, California 94609 (510) 654-9587