PARAMILITARIES INCREASE PRESENCE IN ZAPATISTA TERRITORY

reported today by the Mexico Solidarity Network

Paramilitary groups affiliated with the Organization for Defense of
Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Opddic) are increasingly threatening
peace and stability in Zapatista territories, particularly in the Selva
regions around Ocosingo. On March 7, a group of 200 paramilitaries,
including Pedro Chulin and Carlos Moreno, leaders of Opddic, gathered in the
central square of Ocosingo. Carlos Vazquez, a journalist with
Promedios, and Luna Giron, a human rights defender, were beaten by the
paramilitaries as they tried to videotape the demonstration. The following
day, the Junta de Buen Gobierno in Morelia denounced the attack, the
latest in a series of increasingly violent actions by Opddic:

"The strategy of Opddic is to invade lands that we recovered since the 1994
Zapatista uprising. Mr. Pedro Chulin, leader of this organization, is
promoting this problem so that indigenous will confront indigenous. Chulin
has contacts with the state government and is supported by the army.
Opddic is a paramilitary group supported by the government. They are
the same.

"Recently they have been attacking the autonomous municipality Olga
Isabel, where they claim the Zapatista organization is not functioning,
it doesn't have any power, that it's like a fly they can step on.
We are trying to resolve these agrarian problems, but it's clear that
we're not going to give up our lands, because these lands were
recovered, and to recover them we shed our blood. We are not going to give
them up, even in the face of threats. If they try to take the lands, we
are prepared to defend them in any part of our municipalities.

"Before 1994, these lands were did not belong to them. They were the
lands of ranchers who abandoned them during the Zapatista uprising of
1994, and we, the Zapatistas, recovered them. Now they are assisted by
the Office of Agrarian Reform and they want the titles for the lands
formalized, so they will remain in their hands. They want to convert the
lands into ejidos. Without conducting any sort of investigation, the
Office of Agrarian Reform prepared the paperwork, payment and even the
necessary plans.

"We know and are certain of what we are saying. We can assure they
are armed. We know they have cut down corn fields and stolen corn. We
have a videotape of them stealing bags of corn and fleeing into the
mountains. They have armed guards in high places. They are itching for a
confrontation.

"Some of them live within the autonomous municipalities, and others
come from outside communities. Some are former Zapatistas who joined
them. We know that they are organizing. They meet every third day.
They are deciding how to carry out future actions. There have been
beatings, prisoners, detainees, threats of kidnapping against our local
authorities, and the government does nothing.

"We demand punishment for Pedro Chulin and that he stop bothering us.
And we ask that our brothers and sisters in Mexico and throughout the
world distribute this information."

The Mexico Solidarity Network calls on the federal and state
governments to:
- Immediately end support for Opddic.
- Prosecute Opddic leaders, including Pedro Chulin and Carlos Moreno,
for armed aggressions against Zapatista communities.
- Disband Opddic, which is threatening the peace and stability in
Zapatista regions of Chiapas.