Close to one thousand troops from the Federal Judicial Police and the Federal Preventive Police were mobilized yesterday to Los Altos of Chiapas in order to disband paramilitary groups such as Development, Peace and Justice, Red Mask, Los Chinchulines and the Anti-Zapatista Indigenous Revolutionary Movement (MIRA). The purpose is to establish the conditions necessary for the inauguration of the Governor-elect, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchi'a, on December 8.
The federal troops who left Mexico City, including at least 15 Public Federal Ministry agents, departed between two and three in the afternoon from the hangars belonging to their agencies in the Mexico City international airport. They were in one helicopter and six planes, led by General Francisco Arellano, the commander of the PFP Federal Support Forces, en route to Tuxtla Gutie'rrez, where they were to meet with troops from Oaxaca, Tabasco and Guerrero.
The detachment will support the work of the Specialized Unit for Attention to Crimes Committed by Probably Armed Civilian Groups, an agency of the federal Department of Justice, in response to the increasing tension in the state due to threats by paramilitary organizations such as Development, Justice and Peace, which has announced that they intend to liberate 11 of their leaders of their leaders from jail, who had been arrested on October 27. They have also threatened to "destroy a few towns in their path," and to "smash the state" before Salazar Mendiguchi'a becomes governor.
A judicial source revealed that they plan to transfer at least 40 of the main members of paramilitary organizations who are currently being detained at the Cerro Hueco jail in Tuxtla Gutie'rrez to the federal penitentiary of Almoloya in Jua'rez. The detainees are facing charges for violations of the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law, organized crime, terrorism, criminal association, insurrection, seizure, damages to others' property, battery, provocation and supporting criminal activity.
The federal troops which left were equipped with high powered weapons and tear gas teams. Groups One and Two of the Quick Response Team of the Federal Judicial Police went, as did members of the Special Operations Group, which works in coordination with the Department of Government.
Also departing were troops belonging to the Federal Support Forces coordinating group of the PFP. In Chiapas they will also be supported by troops from the 39th Military Region, with headquarters in Ocosingo, under the command of Brigadier General Fermi'n Rivas Garci'a, and by the commander of the Seventh Military Region, with headquarters in Tuxtla Gutie'rrez, under the command of Division General Abraham Campos Lo'pez. Neither the PGR nor the PFP agreed to officially confirm the operation, which began in the agency hangars at nine in the morning, where the troops being detached to Chiapas gathered.
On October 28, 11 members of Development, Peace and Justice were arrested, charged with being responsible for the incidents which occurred on August 3 in El Parai'so ejido, in the municipality of Yajalo'n, Chiapas, where members of that paramilitary organization entered in to the Tierra y Libertad predio, in blue uniforms and equipped with M-1, AK-47 and R-15 weapons and 9 and 22 mm. rifles, in addition to molotov cocktails, causing damage and dislocating the indigenous they found there.
Those arrested were Mario Cruz Perez, leader of the attack group; Ricardo Hidalgo Lo'pez, Javier Hidalgo Lo'pez, Miguel Hidalgo Lo'pez, Alonso Entzi'n Pe'rez, Rossemberg or Chemberg Hidalgo Lo'pez, Diego Entzi'n Guzma'n, Orlando Me'ndez Lo'pez and Abraham Di'az Mendoza, as well as former PRI state deputy, Samuel Sa'nchez Sa'nchez and Marcos Albino Torres Lo'pez, two of the most powerful traditional leaders of the paramilitary organization.
According to judicial sources, one of the primary objectives of the "deterrence" operation is to safely transport the paramilitary leaders to the center of the country, in order to "disarm" the offensive which had been announced by Development Peace and Justice to get them out of the Cerro Hueco jail, and so they can continue their penal process in a federal prison.
According to figures from the Fray Bartolome' de las Casas Center - cited in their report The War in Chiapas: An Influential Role in History? - the formation of paramilitary groups in the state has been extended over the last three years to some 25 municipalities. They note that [the groups] have become an "uncontrollable" military force. The Fray Bartolome' de las Casas Human Rights Center also stated, in a report presented early this year to the UN, that paramilitarization has become "consolidated" in Chiapas, and it "is showing signs of rapid growth."
Meanwhile, the Mexican Academy of Human Rights carried out an investigation that yielded the figure of 15 armed civilian groups, ten of them fully identified as being paramilitary, which are currently operating in Chiapas, especially in the corridor which extends from the municipalities of Salto del Agua, Tila, Sabanilla, Tumbala', Yajalo'n, Chilo'n and San Cristo'bal to Venustiano Carranza and the border region, in the areas of Palenque, Ocosingo, Altamirano and Las Margaritas.
The ten groups which were identified as being paramilitary are: Development Peace and Justice; Los Chinchulines, who appeared in May of 1996, allegedly funded by former federal PRI Deputy Rafael Cevallos Cansino; MIRA, which became known in 1997 and whose creation is attributed to federal PRI Deputy Norberto Santi's Lo'pez; Red Mask, which appeared in 1994 and is also known to be PRI, and the San Bartolome' de los Llanos Alliance, founded in 1995.
In addition, Los Quintos appeared in 1998; Los Pu~ales, which began operating in 1997 under the control of businessman Fausto Go'mez Di'az and which is tied to local drug trafficking; Los Aguilares, known since 1994 as a shock group; the Campesino Workers Popular Organization, which belongs to the Labor Party, and Los Tomates, which has been active in the Bochil region since 1998.
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada ______________________ Translated by irlandesa