The community, made up of a total of 160 persons is semi-abandoned. The women and the children are in refuge in the mountains, without any blankets or food. Neither do they have coats or potable water. In Union Progreso, the men of the community reported to two members of the civil caravan for observation what had happened on the morning of June 10 in which the army and the police made an incursion into the town.
The Tzotzile men of the town explain that normally the army passes in convoy on the nearby road to the community in the direction of the prista town of Los Platanos. But on June 10 at 5.30 in the morning, the mixed convoy stopped in front of the town. 23 vehicles of Public Security penetrated into the community, while another 24 stayed on the road.
3 kilometres before entering the town, hundreds of militaries descended from their vehicles and spread out in the valley completely surrounding this small indigenous town of approximately 160 inhabitants. In continuation, Public Security entered up to the interior of the community. In that moment, 7 young ones between 16 and 27 years of age who were on their way to the fields, on seeing the military incursion started to run towards the mountain. The soldiers shot at them. The men of the town explain that they heard close to 50 shots bursting from high powered weapons.
The men and women of the town attempted to abandon the settlement, but the police impeded the exit of the men and only the woman could leave with the children, until where at this time they are in refuge in the middle of the vegetation, about an hour and a half walk from their town, without roof, without food and without covers to pass the cold humid nights of Los Altos. The children are sick with diarrhoea, the women with headache and fear.
In Union Progresso, all the men were forced to lie down at the lower mouth of the road, while the police cut the cartridge belts from their bodies. They were kept in that position during more than an hour, while the police sacked one at a time all the houses of the community, robbing all the electrical equipment, money- 7000 pesos from a store and 30,000 pesos of merchandise from the co-operative. The little stores "they destroyed while eating and throwing everything". The observers found packages of crackers thrown about and open, the bags of sugar burst open, the refreshments uncorked and half way drunk
After having them for an hour on the ground, the men were afterwards forced to board a Torton truck. They were kept there crowded together for 5 hours, until approximately 1:00 in the afternoon.
The townspeople recognised that a priista (with ski mask) from Los Platanos went with the police pointing out the people and the houses.
The soldiers took down one of the men from the truck and they put him in the store, while they threatened him saying: "We are doing this because you killed someone in Los Platanos, now it is all of your turns to lose". Those who gave the orders were the soldiers. They started to interrogate: "Where are the weapons?" "Where are the Zapatistas hiding?" They put a cap and a ski mask on him and took pictures of him. After they let him go together with the rest of the men of the town. Before that, the men were all photographed one by one and in group by the militaries. They were threatened: "We are going to kill all of you". Some were hit. The driver of the three ton truck of the town had on his person in his pocket a bullet shell that he had found in Bochil with which he had made part of a key ring. The police gave him a "big blow" asking him where the gun cartridge was and where he had the arms.
The operation searched the entire community and did not find anything. But they took all the property of value and all the birth certificates and personal documentation of the inhabitants of Union Progresso.
The things which they could not take, like the refrigerators, they broke. In their trucks they carried the motors, the de-pulpers of coffee, guitars, machetes, clothes, VCRs, televisions.
They opened the cages of the rabbit farm of the town, for which reason 150 animals were lost. They let the horses go. They ate the animals of the town: chickens, rabbits, hens, guajolotes (?).
A blue helicopter of Public Security descended on the hill and the inhabitants of Union Progreso suspect that in it were taken the 7 boys alive or dead.
When the operation was finished, the men went to search the zone of fire and did not find the 7 young ones but they did find blood and remainders of human brain.
The names of the disappeared are:
Adolfo Gomez Diaz, 20 years old Bartolo Lopez Mendez, 23 years old Lorenzo Lopez Mendez, 18 years old Andres Gomez Gomez, 27 years old Antonio Gomez Gomez, 21 years old Sebastian Gomez Gomez, 16 years old Mario Sanchez Ruiz, 24 years old [Web master note: These people were later executed and their bodies returned only after they had been allowed to decompose to disguise this]
The community demands the apparition of these 7 youths. One of them is a father of family and leaves 3 orphaned children. Three are brothers and their mother is left without any child.
The displaced women ask for the presence of civil society in Union Progresso to testify concerning the state in which the community is found and to accompany their return.
Translated from Spanish by PC93: ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SPANISH IN MEXICO BY ENLACE CIVIL, A.C. OF SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS. NAP requests that donations for the communities be sent to ENLACE CIVIL, A. C. ENLACE CIVIL, A.C. CAlle Ignacio Allende 4 Chiapas-Mexico tel/fax 52-967-82104 e-mail: enlacecivil@laneta.apc.org web page in Spanish: http://laneta.apc.org/enlacecivil