[NYTr] Chiapas: paramilitary violence continues

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews)

World War 4 Report - Dec 9, 2007
http://www.ww4report.com

Chiapas: paramilitary violence continues

Land conflicts between communities loyal to the Zapatista rebel 
movement and the state's traditional political machine continue to 
generate violence in Chiapas, Mexico. The Zapatista Good Government 
Junta (JBG) Corazón del Arcoiris de la Esperanza announced that on 
Nov. 24, the community of Bolom Ajaw, Autonomous Municipality Olga 
Isabel, was attacked by members of the OPDDIC paramilitary group. The 
force of some 80 men armed with pistols, rifles, clubs and machetes 
arrived when the community's men were working in the fields, with 
only women, children and elders at home. They briefly held the 
community hostage, beating one ill resident unconscious with clubs. 
(La Jornada, Nov, 26)

Sebastián Espinoza Martínez, director of the "Paz y Justicia" peasant 
organization?named as a paramilitary group by rights 
obervers?threatened to organize roadblocks in Chiapas if Gov. Juan 
Sabines does not address the organization's land claims. (Noticias 
Palenque, Nov. 17)

Meanwhile, rights activists joined with members of the Emiliano 
Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ) from Venustiano Carranza village 
in a march on the state capital Tuxtla to protest the "restructuring 
and reforming of paramilitary groups and White Guards" in the region. 
(La Jornada, Nov. 20)

Mexico's Congressional Commission on Pacification (COCOPA), convened 
ten years ago to broker peace with the Zapatista National Liberation 
Army (EZLN), has announced that the long-moribund peace process must 
be revived, and that the Commission will be opening an office in San 
Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. (Real Jovel, Nov. 20) COCOPA 
president Martha Cecilia Díaz Gordillo said the question of 
constitutional reform must be re-opened, and that the issue of 
indigenous rights represents an "outstanding debt" of the Mexican 
state. (Proceso, Nov. 27)