And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
This message is forwarded to you as a service of Zapatistas Online.
Comments and volunteers are welcome. Write [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 10:00:26 -0400
From: irlandesa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Police/Military Persecuting Zapatistas
Sender: irlandesa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 1-NAP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, chiapas-i <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
chiapas-l <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
oficina de contacto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
enlace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, harry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
________________________
Translated by irlandesa
La Jornada
Wednesday, June 9, 1999.
Police-Military Persecution Against EZLN Sympathizers
Crimes being Fabricated in Order to Detain Them, NGO Warns
Jesus Ramirez Cuevas
Special for La Jornada
Taniperla, Chiapas
June 8.
With the police-military operations being carried out in the canadas of
Ocosingo, a persecution campaign has been unleashed against indigenous who
sympathize with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). In the
last five days, three zapatista campesinos have been detained in the
communities of El Censo and Pavorreal. In two weeks, eight zapatistas from
Ocosingo, Altamirano and Chilon have ended up in jail.
In El Censo (Ricardo Flores Magon Autonomous Municipality) Miguel Hernandez
Santiz was violently detained. On Wednesday, June 2, "Public Security and
judicial police entered my house at three in the morning, destroyed my
things, beat me and insulted me. Absolutely rudely they told me I was a
zapatista, and that was why they were going to take me. My mama was
crying, and they grabbed her and smacked her to make her quiet," Miguel
related, in the Ocosingo municipal jail, where he remains without knowing
what he is accused of.
His cousin, Joaquin Hernandez Sanchez, was detained in Ocosingo the
following day, accused of battery and robbery with violence, crimes which
another person with the same name committed against residents of Ampliacion
Taniperla, where paramilitary groups are operating.
On Monday, June 7, in another police-military operation in Pavorreal
(Francisco Gomez Autonomous Municipality), Jose Santiz Gomez, a rebel
sympathizer, was detained. He is imprisoned in Ocosingo, accused of
battery, but he says he is innocent. Although he can pay bail, the judge
has not let him know that he has that right, reported the Fray Lorenzo de
la Nada Human Rights Center. Another zapatista from Pavorreal has been
imprisoned since April: Jeronimo Gomez Santiz, accused of illegal
deprivation of liberty, incidents for which he has no responsibility, as
the Center noted.
It has been confirmed that two other zapatistas from La Laguna, of the 17
de Noviembre Autonomous Municipality, are being held in the same jail,
detained in Altamirano on May 25, allegedly responsible for stealing cows
from a PRI campesino of the same community. The campesino "never had
cattle, and now he's getting a salary from the government in order to
divide the community," denounced relatives of the accused. To them can be
added the leader of the Xi'Nich indigenous organization, Manuel Perez
Constantino, and campesino Jesus Hernandez Gutierrez, detained on the first
of June in El Limonal, municipality of Chilon, accused of heading a
zapatista checkpoint there.
"There is a campaign against EZLN sympathizers in Las Canadas." These six
cases "demonstrate that indigenous are being incarcerated for the simple
fact of being zapatistas, they are fabricating the crimes and denying them
their human rights during the detention and the incarceration," the Fray
Lorenzo Center of Ocosingo points out.
By the Roads of the Perla River
Taniperla is one of the indigenous communities that has been converted into
a barracks. Before reaching here, one must cross 70 kilometers of dirt
roads from Ocosingo and pass through three military checkpoints, one close
to Nueva Estrella, another in Monte Libano, and the third in Taniperla,
where the memory of April 10, 1998 is still fresh, when more than one
thousand soldiers and police officers took over the town, the seat of the
Ricardo Flores Magon Autonomous Municipality. The majority of the
zapatista indigenous took refuge in the mountains for several months, but,
little by little, they have been returning to their houses. Some were not
able to do so, because they were being threatened by the paramilitaries who
control the town.
A group of soldiers meet the cars and take down the passengers' names,
although there is no sign noting that it is an Army control point. A
Public Security police officer searches the interior of the vehicle. For a
year now, the soldiers and police have been illegally setting up barracks
in the community's primary school.
Zapatista sympathizers living in Taniperla agreed to speak briefly with La
Jornada, protected by the night from being identified by the PRI
paramilitaries operating here, or by the soldiers patrolling the houses.
They had been in refuge in the mountains for several months, but the
majority have now returned to the town.
In the darkness of the street, Abelardo, an old zapatista campesino,
denounced that in El Censo, "three Public Security trucks came during the
dawn of June 2 and detained Miguel Hernandez Santiz. There was a group of
paramilitary PRI's from Taniperla along with them. They took two CB radios
he had, and accused him of being a zapatista."
Don Abelardo smokes his cigarette sporadically, so that the light will not
betray his presence. He says that the soldiers are going about on the
streets bothering the women. "Every afternoon, six Public Security trucks
patrol El Censo, and they interrogate campesinos on the road to Taniperla.
During the patrols, the state police are with paramilitaries, headed by
Pedro Chulin Jimenez. They search the campesinos' knapsacks and ask them
if they are zapatistas..."
The interview with the indigenous is interrupted by the sudden arrival of
three soldiers on duty who, after shining a flashlight and counting the
people gathered at a corner, ask, in order to cover themselves: "Do you
know where beer is sold? We were told it was over here."
--
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
