HRC Report: PRI-linked Paramilitaries in Chiapas Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Originally published in Spanish by El Pais _______________________ Translated by irlandesa El Pais Tuesday, April 27, 1999. Jesuits Denounce that Paramilitaries Tied to the PRI are Encamped in Chiapas, An Important NGO Asks for Withdrawal of Amnesty Law EFE, Mexico Human rights defenders in Mexico yesterday rejected the Amnesty Law, promoted by the State Government of Chiapas, that would leave those crimes unpunished, which are being committed by paramilitary groups for those who support the official Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, directed by Jesuits and one of the principal Non-Governmental Organizations in Mexico, denounced the proliferation of paramilitary groups in municipalities governed by the PRI. In a report on at least 16 paramilitary groups that are operating in Chiapas, it states that they are receiving military training, weapons and money, according to information gathered from January 1998 to March 1999. The Center stated that a correlation exists between extremely impoverished municipalities governed by the PRI, and the existence in those municipalities of those paramilitary groups who are acting with impunity, and to whom the chiapaneco government of PRI Roberto Albores Guillen is offering pardon without investigation or punishment. "We are not against an Amnesty Law in Chiapas, but we are against Albores Guillen's (approved by the State Congress on February 24), which is trying to grant impunity and to reward those paramilitaries who have attacked the indigenous," stated the head of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, Edgar Cortez. According to the Center's investigations, the paramilitaries have AK-47 and R-15 rifles, UZI machine guns, military advisement for the use of these kinds of weapons, and the protection of federal and state authorities, who help them with the purchase of armaments from Central America. Withdrawal of the Army The NGO called on the President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, to withdraw the military force from Chiapas, in order to bring about the renewal of peace negotiations with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the breaking up of the paramilitaries. The Center's document will be delivered to the Commission of Concordance and Peace (Cocopa), made up of legislators from all the parties with a parliamentary representation - and which tries to coadvise in the peace process - to the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (PGR) and to the Mexican Federal Congress - in order to prevent the interim government in Chiapas from moving ahead with that amnesty. During 1998, the PGR captured one hundred paramilitaries who massacred 45 indigenous in the community of Acteal on December 22, 1997, but the large military presence has not served to break up other groups of this type, who continue to act in that Mexican state. ___________________________________________________ NUEVO AMANECER PRESS-N.A.P.To know about us visit: http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm (spanish) ******************* In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107,this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest.**We encourage you to reproduce this information giving credit to source, translation and NAP.** General Director:Roger Maldonado-Mexico Director Europe: Darrin Wood-Spain Advisor and Special Correspondent:Guillermo Michel-Mexico. Director of Social Communication NAP-MEXICO-USA: Rodrigo Bengochea-Mexico Advisory team: Members of Civil Society-Mexico NAP Coordinator and Assistant Director:Susana Saravia ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.11.99-23:34:41-14930