Critics denounce government explanation for Mexican massacre

State politicians pressured to resign

In this story:

• Zapatistias fight for indigenous rights
• Did government heed warnings?
• Related stories and sites

December 27, 1997
Web posted at: 10:37 a.m. EST (1537 GMT)

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (CNN) -- Human rights workers and opposition politicians are outraged over the government's official explanation that Monday's massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in the southern state of Chiapas was the result of long-standing family feuds.

Sixteen men were charged Friday with multiple murder and other felonies, announced Jorge Madrazo, federal public prosecutor. Other men have been detained but not charged. However, those steps haven't dampened growing public anger.

"These conflicts can validly be characterized as within communities, even families, as part of constant rivalries over political and economic power," Madrazo's office said in an official statement.

CNN's Jim Clancy reports 2 min. 30 sec. VXtreme video
Journalist John Anderson suspects there are more arrests to come for the attack
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But there were a number of people in the old colonial capital of San Cristobal de las Casas, about 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Acteal, where the bloodbath occurred, who rejected that explanation.

"This whole story of a family feud is a supposition they are using to hide what is happening here," said Hugo Trujillo, a leader of the umbrella human rights group Coordinator of Nongovernmental Organizations for Peace. "I reject it totally."

Opposition party leaders, Roman Catholic clergy and civic groups are demanding the Chiapas state government resign. They claim Gov. Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro was warned that a massacre was taking place but failed to do anything. Some say his government even tried to cover it up.

Seven men, 20 women and 18 children, including one infant, died in the five-hour killing spree. Four of the women killed were pregnant. Almost all the victims were shot in the back.

Some survivors claim the killers were members of paramilitary forces aligned with Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Patria Jimenez Flores, federal deputy for the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), was scathing in her criticism.

"The government is calling it a confrontation between communities," she said. "It's not a confrontation, it's a massacre."

Other local accounts in the coffee-growing jungles said the government version of events oversimplified the violence.

"This is the logic of a low-intensity war, with the army and the government against the indigenous people" said Pablo Romo Cedano, coordinator of the Fray Bartolome Center for Human Rights.

Several survivors of the killings said they fled from about 25 masked men, who were dressed in blue and shot at the unarmed peasants for several hours with automatic weapons. Many of the victims reportedly were shot from behind.

Other witnesses described a well-organized group headed by former soldiers who prayed for success before setting out on their mission and returned jubilant after the killing spree.

Zapatistias fight for indigenous rights

At least seven paramilitary groups, with names like Peace and Justice, the Red Masks and the Indigenous Revolutionary Anti-Zapatista Movement (MIRA), are said to exist in Chiapas and to be army-trained.

They sprang up after a 1994 uprising by Zapatista rebels who declared war on the Mexican state. The charismatic Subcommmander Marcos led the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) into battle for indigenous land rights, education and social welfare.

Scores of sympathetic villages cast off traditional municipal control to declare themselves "autonomous communities." Dozens were in mountainous Chenalho. "This is not a family dispute. It's a strategy to weaken support for the EZLN," one human rights worker said.

Did government heed warnings?

The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico has played a key role in trying to mediate between the government and the Zapatisa rebels. And while Pope John Paul II condemned the massacre and called for prayers for the victims and their families, local Mexican church officials said the government should have heeded its warnings.

Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruiz and Auxiliary Bishop Raul Vera told reporters they had been warning Interior Secretary Emilio Chauyffet for months about tension in the region, the presence of paramilitary groups and the growing violence.

Chauyffet said Friday that many of those warnings turned out to be unfounded.

Chiapas State Secretary Homero Tovilla admitted that Roman Catholic priests called him to report gunfire in Acteal about 11:30 a.m. Monday. Tovilla claimed he called the local police station, but was told there was no evidence of violence.

The attorney general's office said local feuds had pitted members of the ruling PRI against members of the leftist PRD and Zapatista rebels.

But observers said that posed more questions than it answered, particularly in light of troop movements before the massacre.

Human rights activists said there was a huge troop buildup on Thursday, and the road to Acteal's Chenalho municipality was heaving with personnel carriers. The official version was that the military deployment was to protect the population, but the human rights workers said this would have been a rather excessive response to a family dispute.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Possible suspects questioned about Chiapas massacre - December 24, 1997
• Rebel leader blames government for Mexico massacre - December 24, 1997
• Dozens reported killed in massacre in southern Mexico - December 23, 1997
• At least 45 dead in southern Mexico massacre - December 23, 1997

Related sites:

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• The Mexican Government
• Understanding Chiapas
• Understanding The Chiapas Revolt In Mexico
• Chiapas Solidarity Page
• Additional resources - Mexican Anarchism

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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