Enlace: #2 Denuncias of Military Harassment Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Originally published in Spanish by Enlace Civil A.C. Translated by irlandesa Thursday, April 29, 1999 16:57:31 -0500 DENUNCIATIONS OF MILITARY HARASSMENT IN NORTHERN ZONE ****************************************************** #1 Town of Rio Chancala, Municipality of Palenque, on April 26, 1999. M. National Human Rights Commission. San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Being 8:30 AM on the above-mentioned date, 4 persons from the following communities are introducing themselves: Angel Albino Corzo Section 2, Angel Albino Corzo Section 1, Boca Chancala, Sn. Martin Chamizal. Places which I am noting in order to hear and to receive notifications and authorizing that C. Nicolas Lopez Garcia will present himself at this body. Declaration: through this written statement I am coming to present a complaint concerning the intimidation of the residents of these above mentioned communities by the federal army, as can be seen from the following incidents I shall relate. FIRST - On Saturday, April 24 of this year, soldiers came to the community of Angel Albino Corzo, Section 1, at 5:30 PM, where they stayed and remained all night long at the edge [of the town], and on Sunday morning they went into the community and then they divided up into three groups in order to go out into the plots of lands. They returned at 2:00 PM, when they left to buy tortillas for the houses and they also asked the Zapatistas if anyone was planting marijuana, they surprised the residents with these questions. SECOND - The Soldiers come into the community of Angel Albino Corzo Section 2 almost everyday, but they never announce their arrival, but on March 18 this year they arrived, asking if anyone was planting marijuana and asking if there were zapatistas and who the EZLN leaders are, and the Residents told them they did not know them and they did not want to know anything of them. THIRD - On Sunday at 10:00 AM eight Soldiers arrived in the community of Boca Chancala, where they interrogated everyone whom they came across, while the others remained far away, observing the community from a long distance, they arrived at the community asking how many were working and they also asked the authorities, but the residents did not answer them out of fear. The above incidents intimidate the residents of the communities, and, on some occasions, violate the human rights protected by Article 16 of the Mexican political Constitution and by the DUDH. SINCERELY, Nicolas Lopez Garcia *********************************** #2 April 24, 1999. National Human Rights Commission, governmental and non-governmental. INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SECRETARY GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES WASHINGTON DC-20006 USA Senor Mignof 252, RUE SANT-JACQUES 75005 Paris-France SAN MARTIN CHAMIZAL, PALENQUE, CHIAPAS, April 24, 1999. The authorities here DENOUNCE to the state and federal government, and to the National Human Rights Commission, national and international, persons suspected of being White Guards and paramilitaries, since these persons have now infiltrated our communities without identifying themselves, and they have only been interested in interrogating the residents of the community, in the churches at the time of worship, intimidating the children and the ladies and the residents of the community, they ask how many organizations exist in the community, they ask what hours they meet, on what days the social groups meet and who are thier leaders, who the zapatistas are and what weapons they are carrying, where they live and which are their houses, what their leaders names are, they ask all of this and when they are sitting in the church they respond that they came to conduct a study of the communities, that they have come for the government, responding also whether there are many Catholics and that the Catholics are very political, and then they began making a sketch of the community, but while others were in a field with a long distance view and they were bathing, but since they did not show any identification concerning where they were from, they only said they came from Chiapas, and when they were in the Church they said a lady had sent them there so they could have a rest, but this is not true, these suspicious persons from the White Guards or paramilitaries brought with them a white colored van with Mexican license plate number 512 with the initials KGV, and they are tall, strong, carrying pistols, extremely provocatory of a confrontation. For this reason WE DENOUNCE these unknown persons, not knowing if they were sent by the Government in order to provoke a confrontation in the indigenous communities, but who nonetheless refused to identify themselves, since on April 15 and 21 of this year they presented themselves in our community, to provocatively carry out these previously noted interrogations, stating that on this occasion there were only 2 or 3 persons, but next time there will be hundreds of White Guard or paramilitary forces, for the purpose of surprising this community of the previously mentioned Ejido. We call on NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS to intervene as soon as possible with the Federal and State Governments, before human lives are lost as happened in the KILLING OF CAMPESINOS AT ACTEAL AND AGUAS BLANCAS, since the suspicious persons would not identify themselves because they are sent from the state government, given that the government itself knows that this community is peacefully organized and respectful and they are trying to provoke a confrontation, without the community finding out about these actions and everything staying hidden. RESPECTFULLY, THE EJIDAL AUTHORITIES OF THIS PLACE. ******************************************* ENLACE CIVIL A.C. 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