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, 15 Sep 1999 11:00:59 -0700 Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: MCP Oinkers Collective <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mexico expulsions may have been illegal Mexico expulsions may have been illegal High court overturns deportation 09/15/99 By Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News MEXICO CITY - Nearly 150 foreigners kicked out of Mexico after visiting rebel-controlled territory in Chiapas state last year were probably expelled illegally in light of a court decision, human rights workers said Tuesday. Mexico's Supreme Court overturned the government's decision last year to deport Tom Hansen, former director of the Chicago-based Pastors for Peace. Mr. Hansen and other human rights workers said that clears the way for other foreign activists to visit Mexico and witness the historic changes that are taking place. The Institutional Revolutionary Party has dominated Mexico for 70 years, but the opposition is mounting strong campaigns for the presidential elections in July. The Supreme Court decision "clearly sets a precedent in favor of international human rights observers," said Jason Mark, a spokesman for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group that sponsors trips to Mexico and other countries. "Of course the precedent hasn't been tested. You have to see how it plays out on the ground," he said. Mexican officials had no immediate comment on the decision. Immigration officials last year stepped up their scrutiny of Americans and other foreigners visiting Chiapas, where leftist Zapatista rebels have been waging a low-level insurgency since 1994. An estimated 144 foreigners were kicked out in 1998. Authorities have said that the constitution prohibits visitors from meddling in the country's political affairs. But Mr. Hansen said authorities were wrong. "The Mexican constitution defines political activity very carefully as running for office, voting in an election or being a member of a political party," he said. By kicking out visitors who weren't engaged in any of those activities, the government was breaking the law, he said. Mr. Hansen, 45, was traveling with a group that was teaching Indians to use video cameras when immigration officials stopped him in the town of Altamirano on Feb. 18, 1998. Two immigration agents arrested him and turned him over to four heavily armed men in civilian clothes. "When I asked for their IDs they just laughed," Mr. Hansen said. "I was forced into a beat-up 20-year-old car with no plates. The thing that really convinced me that they were going to kill me was that they kept telling me they weren't going to kill me." He said he spent the next 24 hours in various cells, including a room that was covered with human excrement. "If they weren't trying to send me a message by doing all that, I don't know what they were doing," he said. As director of Pastors for Peace, Mr. Hansen organized trips aimed at giving technical and humanitarian aid to indigenous communities in Chiapas. He is currently the director of the Mexico Solidarity Network, a Chicago-based coalition of 75 organizations that he said is fighting for "democracy and economic justice on both sides of the border." He said he believes he is the first foreigner to have the Mexican Supreme Court overturn his deportation. His next step will be to return to Mexico. "If I get a visa," he said. 1999 The Dallas Morning News MCP Oinkers Collective "We're Hogs for You Baby, but That's about All!" 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/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
