Cocopa Report on Paramilitary Groups in Chiapas


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Thu, 29 Apr 1999 23:34:07 +0000

Originally published in Spanish by France Presse/Diario de Yucatan

Translated by irlandesa

Paramilitary Groups in Chiapas Could Lead to a "Humanitarian Catastrophe" 
Cocopa Warns, ...They Call on Madrazo Cuellar to Stop Impunity

Mexico, April 28, 1999
France Presse

        Paramilitary groups operating in Chiapas enjoy an impunity that
"could lead to the armed conflict culminating in a human catastrophe of
great dimensions," noted a study released by the Commission of Concordance
and Peace (Cocopa) today.

These groups "have carried out killings and serious human rights violations
in Chiapas," and "various sources attribute the deaths of more than 1500
indigenous to them, as well as the displacement of more than 10,000
chiapanecos from their places of origin," it notes.

The study was sent by the President of the Cocopa, Gilberto Lopez y Rivas,
to the Attorney General of the Republic, Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, so that
action can be taken against the armed civilian groups.

Entitled "Report on Mexican Armed Forces:  Paramilitaries in Mexico," the
study indicates that the existence of armed civilian groups is a fact that
is recognized by the Mexican government.

Federal and state governments have noted that civilian organizations exist
in Chiapas who possess high powered arms, and who commit aggressions
varying from death threats to the massacre of indigenous.

"The paramilitaries have in common their criminal attitude towards
indigenous communities and social organizations.  They are characterized by
violence that is directed against unarmed civilians to whom they attribute
an opposition political affiliation or sympathy with the Zapatista Army of
National Liberation (EZLN)."

The study noted the names of the various paramilitary groups, among them
being Peace and Justice, which is calculated to have 1500 members and
"obtains financing of 4,600,000 pesos, agreed to with the state government
on July 4, 1997," and "the sentences" they impose can range from the
payment of fines or war taxes, expulsion, prison or death."

Other groups acting in the region also have high powered weapons, receive
military training, have uniforms, and, among their operations are included
kidnappings, assassinations, death threats and harassment of the residents
of the various towns, who are forced to displace.

"The worst scenario would be cooperation between the military and the
police to annihilate the rebels in Chiapas.  This scenario would assume the
application of a military tactic of counter-guerrilla warfare known as
'anvil and hammer,' which involves the Army and police forces adopting the
role of containment forces (the anvil), and would allow the paramilitary
groups to take on the role of shock forces (the hammer), against the EZLN
and their sympathizers," the report stated.

It has also been indicated that "evidence exists that would allow one to
deduce that there are ties between the Army and the paramilitary groups."

"The arrival of General Mario Renan Castillo in the state of Chiapas in
February 1995, as the Commander of the Seventh Military Region, contributes
to the explanation of the emergence of various PRI-affiliated paramilitary
groups," the study adds.

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