Heavy jail sentences imposed on two alleged Zapatista rebels are a declaration of war by the government, human rights leaders and defense attorneys said yesterday.
The Thursday convictions are politically motivated and an attempt to halt peace negotiations in the strife-torn southern state of Chiapas, one of the prisioners, Javier Elorriaga, 35, claimed.
He and Sebastian Entzin, 18, were seized in a round-up of 20 suspected guerrillas of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on Feb. 9 last year and on Thursday they became the first to be convicted.
Elorriaga received 13 years for terrorism, rebellion and conspiracy, and Entzin, a Tzetzal indian, was given six years for rebellion and conspiracy.
The conviction of Elorriaga appears to contradict recent statements by Federal Attorney General Antonio Lozano Gracia that the EZLN is not a terrorist group and has raised questions about how the government views the rebels.
Defense attorneys filed an immediate appeal and said they may call former Gobernacion Secretary Esteban Moctezuma to testify that he used journalist Elorriaga as a go-between to rely messages between President Zedillo and Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos.
Enrique Flota, attorney for the convicted men, said yesterday: ``These sentences are a message of war from the government to the EZLN. This is not only a judgement on Elorriaga and Entzin but on the entire EZLN. The authorities are saying it is effectively a terrorist organization.''
The defense team has also called for the political trial of Judge Juan Manuel Alcantara, based in Tuxtla Gutierrez, state capital of Chiapas, and of Lozano Gracia.
David Fernandez, head of the Agustin Pro Juarez independent human rights group, said both law enforcers had consistently shown that the judiciary was subservient to the political interests of the state.
He claimed that the trials had been littered with irregularities. The prosecution case centered on the testimony of Salvador Morales Garibay, though to be a EZLN deserter, whose current whereabouts are unkonwn.
In a phone conversation from his cell in Cerro Hueco prison, Chiapas, Elorriaga said yesterday: ``Our sentences are a message that Lozano Gracia and the judge are trying to boycott the process of peace. But this case is far from over. The government still has scores of outstanding arrest warrants against the EZLN leadership.''
His wife, Gloria Benavides, a former member of a politico-military group of the 1970s, was also arrested on Feb. 9, 1995, and accused of beign EZLN's Comandante Elisa. She was cleared of all charges last year.
Although outraged by the sentence handed down to her husband, she said yesterday: ``I don't believe that armed revolution is the only way to make the rule of law prevail in Mexico. The participation of civil society and its peaceful actions is what stopped the war in Chiapas.'' Senator Heberto Castillo, senior member of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and former chairman of the Chiapas Peace Comission (COCOPA) described the judgement as ``a barbarity and a stupidity of the justice system.''
Juan Guerra, also of the PRD and the peace comission, said the convictions threaten to upset the Chiapas peace negotiations.
So far the government and rebels have only reached one agreement on indigenous rights since peace talks began last year. A full accord could take more than two years.
Mexico City Times, May 4, 1996 Front Page Jailings 'Point To War Against Chiapas Rebels' Peace Talks Under Threat, Claims Man Imprisoned For Terrorism