The Chiapas Monitor


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By Means of Ridiculous Accusations, the Mexican Government Harasses Foreign Citizens.
January 6th, 2000
An American Citizen, Andrew Terry Apple, is fighting a legal battle against the Mexican Ministry of Inner Affairs (The Unholy Inquisition) that is attempting to expel him from Mexico for three years. The Government says he desserves that punishment because he entered with a turistic visa and is selling some things and because he has a website informing about Chiapas. (Ridiculous accusations). Fortunately, Mr. Apple has hired a lawyer do defend him.
27 more foreign citizens -mainly Americans, Germans, and Italians- are being pushed by the Mexican Government to leave the country because they went to a party(!!). It's truth the party was organised by the guerrilla, but that doesn't make them terrorists. Presidente Zedillo and his friend Diódoro Carrasco (The Unholy Inquisitor) are acting on the edge of madness. They are abusing of their power to harm and prosecute foreign citizens. They are promoting hate and xenophobia. It seems they have forgotten they regime would be lost were it not because of the foreign economic help Zedillo got in 1995. But while they are prosecuting inocent foreign citizens, they scream the Mexican Government is very tolerant. The exact word for this is hypocrisy. And Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and the other guys are ready to clap Zedillo and groan he's the very best man on Earth, and that they are rally satisfied with his performance.

Tension Rises Again
Bochil, Chiapas. January 10th, 2000
Most of the inhabbitants of this town demand an auditorship to the "City" Hall. They want an official to be removed because of -they claim- corruption and nepotism. Misteriously, the State Government controlled by the PRI refuses strongly to make it. Tension is growing, and oppositionist parties fear another massacre like that of Acteal two years ago.

Priests and Nuns Suffer "Accident" when going to Acteal
January 11th, 2000
They were going to Acteal, the same place where on December 1997 dozens of men, women and children got massacred in a church when praying for peace. The priests and nuns fell to a ravine. The State Government says it was an "Accident", but it has zero credibility anyway.

The Murderers go Free
January 13th, 2000
On December 22th, 1997, 45 men, women and children were murdered at a church in Acteal, a small village, when they were praying for peace. They had left their lands because of armed pressure from other indians members of the PRI. "They're members of the PRI", an indian said on the murderers. The research found evidence against Jacinto Arias, Major of Chenalhó and other 88 indians, all of which are members of the PRI. They were condemned to 35 years of imprisonment.
Now, two years after the massacre, another judge, appointed by the Governor, set Arias and other 23 free, and issued an order to another court to "Revise" the processes of the other accussed. This means they'll also go free. Another example of the "Justice" the PRI gives to the people, and how much it is concerned with preventing further massacres.

Acteal
Acteal. December 22th, 1997
Their blood is still screaming for justice.

Simpathizers of the EZLN Jailed
January 17th, 2000
Manuel Gutiérrez and Antonio Arias (Not to be confused with Jacinto Arias), simpathizers of the EZLN living in Chenalhó, got formally jailed today accused of the murder of three members of the PRI in 1997.

Another Human Rights Activist Deported
January 25th, 2000
The Supreme Court of "Justice" of Mexico denied today legal protection to the American citizen Tedford Pierce Lewis, human rights activist and member of Global Exchange. Last year, the Mexican Goverment gave Lewis permission to observe the human rights situation in Mexico for only five days to make sure he would "observe" only a small part of the violaton of human rights prevailing in some areas of the country.
When the five days passed, Lewis asked for permission to observe the human rights situation for a year. But the Government feared he could "observe" something dangerous, so it denied him permission. Lewis asked the Supreme Court for protection, but it refused to protect him because all of its judges have been appointed by the Presidente and ratified by the Senate, governed by the PRI. "It is impossible to extend for so much time a permission for activities of human rights observation", says Raúl Solórzano, attorney of the Mexican National Immigration Institute, which has been serving as a "Great Wall" to prevent the entry or staying of foreign observators.

Two Killed and Seven Injured in Land Fight.
Suchiapa. February 1st, 2000
Two men got killed and seven more got injured in Suchiapa, Chiapas- 12.5 Mi of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in a land fight for 1116.892 acres. The murderers ran away. Another example of the state of illegallity prevailing in thet state because of Zedillo's ineptitude.
Update:
February 2nd, 2000
Today it was informed there were actually 3 murdered and 9 wounded in Suchiapa.

Electoral Identifications Stolen
February 1st, 2000
1000 Electoral Identifications got stolen today in Chiapas from a facility belonging to the Federal Elections Institute. Its local representative claims it's not important, but 1000 illegal votes can make the PRI win or the PRD lose in a typical small Chiapasan town, because voters cannot get more electoral identifications before July 2nd, 2000, when Chiapasans will vote for President, Governor, Senators, Federal and Local Congressmen and City Mayors.

EZLN Sympathizers Murdered by Members of the PRI
Chajalebal. February 2nd, 2000
Members of the PRI ambushed a group of indians sympathizers of the EZLN -the "Zapatista" guerrilla- murdering three of them and injuring another. The Local Department of Justice, controlled and integred by members of the PRI, claims it was armed robbery. Any lie is good enogh to cover political violence in Chiapas.

Another Popular Mini-Revolt in Chiapas
Yajalón, Chiapas. February 21st, 2000
Today, desperate peasants attacked the police station and the "City" Hall of Yajalón, a small town. They were looking for the "City" Mayor because he and his friends wanted to force them to sell to his friends and to himself all their cofee harvest at a very low price, lower than the current market price. Were this not enough, another "public servant", member of the PRI, Constantino Maldonado, established over them another "speciall" -illegal- toll tax on cofee transportation, which would impoverish them much more and would make their harvest more expensive and therefore less competitive. It was told Maldonado was not going to charge that illegal tax on the coffe he and his friends, rich landowners, were going to sell. The peasants, hungry, worried, and heavily indebted because of former President Carlos Salinas' economic cheat, couldn't stand passive any more took the few weapons they could, and entered violently the police station, where the Mayor had hid. They couldn't find him, so they murdered the Police Commander -3 stabs- and injured seven more. Both the Chiapasan and Federal Government are pushing the people beyond their tolerance limit: While giving food to children in Chiapas' areas directly controlled by the PRI, they're actually killing the rest of its inhabbitants by starvation. Chiapas is heating too much.

For a better understanding, read "Zedillo doesn't enforce Mexican Law".

Minister of 'Justice' and 'Commisionate for Peace' Spit on UN Report
February 19th, 2000
Jorge Madrazo, Minister of Justice, said to the media the report Asma Jahangir, Special Visitor for Summary Executions is "lack of objectivity in what respects the Acteal Case". "There's no impunity in Mexico! We have put dozens of people in jail!", roars Madrazo. He didn't say the main murderers have already been set free. Madrazo feels the UN and the world public opinion are idiots.
February 21st, 2000
Emilio Rabasa, "Commisionate for Peace in Chiapas" said the UN report is "Not objective, controversial and inordinate...because it omits the official governmental information". "We have put one hundred citizens in jail!", he roars to continue his defence of the governmental army-supported grip on Chiapas' neck: "The Government is not intransigent. We have kept an open, dialog-like attitude. The EZLN insist in the prolongation of the conflict that could be already solved... the commendation Miss Jahangir made on the demilitarization of Mexico has no congruence with reality, because the presence of the Army in Chiapas is legal... the Army is there to fight drug-trafficking and to constrain, not to repress...we aren't expecting signs of dialog, but a frank, direct, open answer. Despite the offerings of the Federal Government, the EZLN tends to deny (dialog)...". Rabasa sentences: "The intransigent attitude of the EZLN is exhausting the patience of society".
Too bad the victims of Acteal are no longer alive to hear his legal explanations and superb menaces.

Indian Kid Murdered
Chenalhó, Chiapas. February 24th, 2000
It's not the Wild Wild West, but it seems some think it is. Today, while the official propaganda from the Federal Government was displaying on TV images of indian children whose souls it has bought at the cost of some food and a few bucks thru the "Progresa" (Progress, imperative) program, an eight year-old indian child was murdered by a group of fanatic members of the PRI. Open TV newscasts were forbidden to inform it by the Unholy Inquisition -the Ministry of Inner Affairs, but even so the child is dead.
Allegedly, the Federal Army is in the region to protect its inhabbitants and to prevent violence -this is the official justification of its presence there. But this proves the contrary: The Army is there to support the murderers, the guardias blancas and pro-government individuals who have been organized in death squads by the ruling PRI. The Chiapas Attorney says, as usual "It was a family revenge!". Any lie is good enough to cover political violence in that troubled state.

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