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Chiapas: Massacre in Acteal By Crystal EchohawkCrystal Echohawk is a member of the Pawnee Nation and works for the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico. In September 1996, Ms. Echohawk was asked to join the North American Indian Delegation to the United Nation's Working Group on the Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva. In December of 1996, she traveled to La Realidad, Chiapas. Her article, "Chiapas: Massacre in Acteal" appeared in the Spring 1998 issue of Abya Yala News, a journal of the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center. |
The Nightmare and Hope for Tomorrow "Acteal is the symbol of a war of extermination, the true government response to the just demands of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. But Acteal is also the symbol of the struggle of two efforts: that of the government which seeks to make impunity and forgetfulness triumph; and that of civil society which demands true justice and refuses to forget the worst crime of the last thirty years. The struggle for memory and justice is the struggle for true peace." -- Communique from the clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee, January 12, 1998. These words from a recent Zapatista communique sum up the situation in Chiapas since the December 22, 1997 massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in the village of Acteal. What is clear from these few lines and recent evidence is that the massacre at Acteal was not an isolated incident, nor was it the product of inter-community conflict as the Mexican government would like us to believe. It was a carefully planned act executed by the hired gunmen of local PRI bosses, and in complicity with state and federal authorities. Despite all its rhetoric, the Mexican government cannot hide the truth that Acteal was part of a larger framework of violence and terror created by more than 60,000 Mexican troops in Chiapas, and by government sponsored paramilitary groups who have acted with impunity for more than three years. Since 1994, the intent of the Mexican government's campaign has been to repress indigenous peoples and their rights and hopes for a new Mexico. Despite the silence of the mainstream media outside of Mexico, the blood of the indigenous has not stopped flowing, nor has the terror and military strangle hold on the communities in Chiapas ceased. The Mexican government's low-intensity war has already claimed the lives of more than fifteen hundred people since 1994. Thirty-three Zapatista communities have born the brunt of at least forty-four armed and illegal incursions by federal troops since December 22nd. In all of these cases, soldiers ransacked homes looking for weapons, interrogated and even tortured some residents in their search for Zapatista leadership and insurgents. On January 12th, Sata Security police opened fire on protesters in Ocosingo, killing a 25-year-old indigenous woman and wounding her baby. In addition, three Zapatista sympathizers were found hung weeks later. For all the government rhetoric regarding the efforts to bring the guilty of Acteal to justice, one must ask why the federal army insists upon terrorizing indigenous communities under the pretext of looking for weapons, when the pro-government paramilitary groups and the Mexican military remain free and are allowed to conduct the business of dirty low-intensity war as usual. The answer is clear--while the Mexican government talks peace it makes war. It makes war because it can not and will not implement the San Andres Agreements on indigenous rights and culture. These unfulfilled peace accords, signed by both the Zapatistas and the Federal government in 1996, pose a tremendous threat and contradiction to the current reality of power and economic globalization in Mexico under the PRI. The implementation of the San Andres Agreements, the product of the dialogue and consensus of representatives of the fifty-six different indigenous nations in Mexico and the Zapatistas, would give the more than 12 million indigenous peoples in Mexico the right to self-determination and autonomy. It would represent a historic and unprecedented step towards redefining the relationship of the Mexican state to Indian peoples, and would give Indian peoples the right to implement their own forms of self-governance. Such rights would inevitably lead to broader participation of Indians peoples in the policies that affect their communities. The agreements would also give Indian peoples the right to control their lands and the resources within them, as well as the right to retain and nurture their diverse cultures, histories and languages. Finally, it would open the door to broader and more profound changes within the nation as a whole and allow for the possibility of a new Mexico, in partnership with the indigenous and all Mexican people. The San Andres Agreements were designed to end the continued oppression, marginalization and exploitation of Indigenous peoples that colonization brought to the Americas. Yet it is clear that the Mexican government has too much to lose by acknowledging the legitimacy of the Zapatistas demands for a life of dignity in Mexico ñland, housing, health care, autonomy, democracy, liberty, justice and peace. First would be an admission that neoliberal economic policies, codified in NAFTA, have not helped the extreme levels of poverty and misery suffered by the majority in Mexico. Secondly, the Mexican government would jeopardize its ability and access to strategic natural resources within rich Indigenous lands, such as those in Chiapas. For example, Chiapan oil accounts for 81.2% of Mexico's crude exports, 68.6% of its petroleum derivatives and 90.6% of its petrochemicals. Chiapas also produces 55% of Mexico's hydroelectricity and contains 20% of its bio-diversity in the Lancandon jungle. Finally, to justly meet the demands of the Indigenous peoples would not mean making minor adjustments and reforms to the Mexican state, rather it would be admitting that what is needed is a radical transformation to the corrupt structures of power in Mexico that have been dominated by the more than seventy year old PRI dictatorship. It would mean allowing for not only the Zapatistas, but all of Mexican civil society to have the right to transform the government into something that would govern by obeying the needs and consensus of the Mexican people, rather than continue to be mediator of elite global business interests and an instrument of repression. Unfortunately, Mexico acts with reassurances of its trade partners, the United States and Canada. The only thing standing in the way of Mexico's unacceptable policy towards Indigenous peoples is civil society both in Mexico and globally. Civil society through both its political will and actions can put an end to this genocidal war. The Indigenous people are clear that the solution will come from nowhere else, nor can they do it alone. "Neither peace nor justice will come from the government. They will come from civil society, from its initiatives, from its mobilizations. To her, to you, we speak today." 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