The attack occurred in the municipality of Tila, as the Bishops passed through the community of El Crucero (rumored to be a base of operations for Paz y Justicia) after having given Mass in the community of Guadalupe Jolnapa, on the first day of what was to be a pastoral trip through the municipalities of Tila, Tumbala, Sabanilla, Salto de Agua, and Chilon. Although neither Bishop Ruiz nor Bishop Vera were wounded during the ambush, the Diocese of San Cristobal said that catechists Jose Pedro Perez Perez and Jose Vazquez Perez, as well as Manuel Perez Perez (the caretaker of the Temple of the Black Christ of Tila), were all struck by bullets fired from a distance of about 100 meters.
Then, just two days later, Bishop Ruiz's sister, Maria de la Luz Ruiz Garcia, was attacked inside the San Cristobal Cathedral by a young man with a hammer. The attacker--Bishop Ruiz's godson, Miguel Mendez Torporek--was detained on the evening of November 6th, after having nearly beaten Maria de la Luz to death. According to preliminary statements, Mendez had entered the Cathedral looking for Bishop Ruiz, intending to kill him; when told the Bishop was not in, he asked for Ruiz's sister and subsequently attacked her instead.
All four victims of the recent attacks are currently recuperating in Chiapas area hospitals.
This sudden surge in high-profile violence was seen by many observers as an escalation of the long-running campaign of violence against the CONAI and the Diocese of San Cristobal, which has left dozens killed or wounded at the hands of PRI-backed paramilitary groups in the last three years. Just last week, Paz y Justicia was making overt threats against the Diocese, warning them not to set foot in Tila. A pamphlet entitled "Diabolic Doctrine" was even distributed by the group to 50 communities in Tila, showing an image of Samuel Ruiz with text at the bottom reading: "It is difficult to believe that in these days the priests, catechists, and teachers dedicate themselves to preaching and teaching death, terrorism, and death among indigenous communities in order to destabilize the most humble....don't let yourselves be influenced by the venom of Mr. Samuel Ruiz".
The ambush of the Bishops' caravan was immediately condemned by both national and international individuals and organizations. While the Mexican government issued a weak condemnation of the events and promised a quick investigation, dozens of Non-Governmental Organizations, human rights groups, five winners of the Nobel Peace Prize (Rigoberta Menchu, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Arias, and Tenzin Gyatso), and members of the Commission on Concordance and Pacification announced their full backing for Bishops Ruiz and Vera. They blamed the incident primarily on government negligence and refusal to rein in paramilitary activity, and demanded a full crackdown on groups such as Paz y Justicia.
"We must point out", said the five Nobel Peace Prize winners in a letter directed to President Zedillo and Chiapas Governor Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, "that these failed assassination attempts are not isolated incidents, even though the government tries to dimish the signifance of such actions, but rather have occurred within a context of growing tolerated violence, which in some cases is backed by local authorities. The complicity of the federal government lies in its tactics, slowing down the real solutions to the problems caused by the war in Chiapas, and in the fact that the paramilitary groups have been operating for years now with absolute impunity".
"We raise our voices in favor of the full application of the law against the paramilitary groups which proliferate in the northern zone and other parts of Chiapas and the country", they continued, "and for the immediate implementation of the Accords of San Andres Larrainzar, exactly as they were signed on February 16th, 1996, and for the reinitiation of the peace dialogue between the government and the EZLN".
For its part, the EZLN lashed out immediately at the attackers, issuing an "energetic condemnation" of the nearly-fatal incident and reminding "public opinion" about the "dozens of assassinations carried out against indigenous people and the thousands of displaced families in the highlands and north of Chiapas, provoked by the paramilitary groups who are supported by the state and federal governments".
"The government of Ernesto Zedillo continues its war against the indigenous Zapatista peoples", continued the EZLN's communique, dated November 7th. "This was confirmed by the recent declarations of the so-called "Peace Commissioner" of the federal government, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, in which he reiterated that the governmental strategy for Chiapas is to adminstrate and feed the conflict such that it can be presented to public opinion as a war between indigenous peoples, as an internal division within the EZLN, a dispute between the EZLN and the Diocese of San Cristobal, or as a "loss of control" or a "radicalization" of the Zapatista leadership. All this we have heard before, always as a prelude to a military action against us.
"Once again, war looms over the nation....We know very well what follows after the threats against the mediation. We are ready".
Meanwhile, on the floor of the national Senate, PRD Senator Carlos Payan Velver spoke up on November 6th in order to demand a full investigation not only into the recent attacks against Bishop Ruiz, but into all paramilitary activity in the state of Chiapas.
"Let us not trick ourselves", said Payan, the founding director of the La Jornada newspaper and a new member of the COCOPA. "Those who tried to take the lives of the Bishops were also hoping to unleash a war". Payan proceeded to use the occasion of his first floor speech since being elected on July 6th to denounce, by name, the leadership and funding sources for Paz y Justicia.
He added that the attacks occurred within a context of the government's refusal to comply with the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture: "There will not be peace in Chiapas", he said, "unless it is achieved with justice and dignity. There will not be peace in Chiapas without the recognition of those Accords".
From *ZAPATISMO NEWS UPDATE*--November 19th, 1997 A service of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. Redistribution of the following articles is permitted and encouraged, as long the source is cited. More information regarding the FZLN and the Zapatista struggle in Mexico can be found at: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln (English) http://spin.com.mx/~floresu/FZLN (Spanish) This and previous news updates can also be found at: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/news.html Please send comments to: joshua@peak.org