A Cherag's
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Entry cj-0002 - Jan. 8, 1998
This letter was posted on the SITO
mail list:
Vivid Report from Road
Trip to Chiapas, Jan 7
This report was prepared
in order to elaborate on the attempt by the Human Bean Company to engage
in fair trade with the indigenous peoples of Chiapas
and the events and consequences
of doing so.
by Kerry Appel, Director
January 6, 1998
The drive to Chiapas was
more than difficult. We had left Denver on
December 15th, stopped in
Guadalajara to videotape a friends wedding, and
arrived at the state of
Oaxaca on December 22, 1997. We had experienced
many breakdowns in my 1971
Volkswagen bus nicknamed the "Relampago Rojo" or"Red Lightning" and now
we had to deal with the hurricane damaged roads inOaxaca. Almost
every bridge was destroyed and we had to take detours around all of them
as well as around the long stretches of highway that
were washed out.
**** December 22, 1997,
Acteal, Chiapas, a Tzotzil Indian village where the
coffee for the Human Bean
Company is grown, "...as women and children fled
down the steep mountain
path towards the valley, armed men shot them from
behind...Some who reached
the underbrush by the river below were discovered
by the assassins when the
babies cries gave them away...The assassins cut
open the stomach of a young
pregnant woman, tore her unborn baby out and
cut it up. A baby
less that one year old survived because her mother
covered her with her own
body and received all the bullets. One baby was
shot in the head at close
range...It was not possible to identify the
bodies torn to pieces by
machetes. The Red Cross found many of the bodies
hacked in pieces and thrown
in the underbrush in an attempt to hide the
immensity of the crime..."
"...The massacre went on
for almost five hours on that black December 22,
1997 while dozens of armed
civil guards stood on the road above and did
nothing...there are still
three people missing from the group of 300
refugees that were attacked
by men in black, with red masks...A physician
in one hospital in San Cristobal
de las Casas said he had never seen such
big bullet holes. "They
looked as though something had exploded inside the
body". "Anti-personnel"
bullets were found at the scene that do explode on
impact. The guns have
been identified as M-16s, used exclusively by the
Mexican Army." (The
text in quotes above was written by Maria ---------.
Her last name is blacked
out to protect her from the Mexican government)
Note: Don´t those
M-16s come from the United States? Aren´t they supposed to
be used to fight drug trafficking?
We made it through Oaxaca
in spite of the breakdowns and the damaged roads and arrived in Chiapas
on December 23rd where the motor on the Relampago Rojo gave up the ghost.
It died in a little Tzotzil village only 15 miles from our destination
of San Cristobal de las Casas. It was nighttime and
we had little choice but
to make a deal with a Tzotzil mechanic to replace
the engine. We left
the bus there and continued the next day, Christmas
Eve, into San Cristobal
where we heard the news. Forty five of our coffee
producers had been massacred
and as many as 5,000 were refugees in the
Tzotzil community of Polho.
I spent Christmas Eve and
Christmas sick in bed. My symptoms were those of a fever but I believe
it was also due to grief and despair.
At this point I´m going
to say that I´m going to skip most of the
statistical details of some
reports. There are plenty of reports filled
with statistics. I´m
also not going to fill this report with references
and sources. You can
either believe me or not. The governments and the
mainstream media try to
control the flow of all information that you
receive. I don´t
care about them nor do I care for them. They are
involved in the process
of this low-intensity war that is being waged
against the indigenous peoples
in Chiapas for their own profit motives
(NAFTA, etc.)
**** December 25th, Christmas,
Acteal. "When the procession arrived at the
small hamlet of Acteal in
the highlands of Chiapas at 8:00 in the morning,
Maya men were digging the
first of two 50 foot long graves...The men dug as
other Mayas carried the
coffins on their backs from the trucks on the road
down the steep, rough, mountain
path , through coffee trees to the area
that was cleared and carefully
smoothed to receive the dead with dignity.
They dug as 15 small, white
coffins were carefully placed side by side
before Don Samuel (Bishop
Samuel Ruiz who was there to bless the bodies).
They dug as 21 more coffins
were carried down and placed beside those of
the children, and then 9
more coffins holding the men were placed beside
those of the women..."
"The men dug as the bishop
left. They were digging at 12:30 when I climbed
the steep, mountain path
to my truck and left with a truck full of Mexican
and foreign supporters of
the Mayan struggle for Peace and Justice with
Dignity for all the poor
of the world."
"We left the men digging.
We left the survivors to their grief. We left
the "People of Corn" to
bury their dead according to the ancient Mayan
traditions. We left
them to return their dead to the sacred ground, the
same ground that soaked
up their blood three days earlier." (Maria
--------)
I talked to the president
of the indigenous coffee producers of Chenalho
which is the municipality
where the massacre occurred. I was told that
there was no coffee available
for me to buy. The same Mexican government
backed paramilitary groups
that had committed the massacre with the
assistance of the Mexican
government were now stealing the coffee of the
dead and the refugees to
sell it and buy more guns to use against the
people. The Mexican
Public Security Police were protecting the murderers
and the thieves.
We went to Chenlho and were
stopped by these same Public Security Police at a roadblock. When
they came to the window of my bus (I had a new engine
now and the Relampago Rojo
was alive again) they saw that I was videotaping
them and they hid their
faces in shame and waved me on. We continued to
Polho, the site where the
refugees from the death squads were. Since the
national and international
press was there the Mexican Army and the
Judicial Police and the
Public Security Police were using the opportunity
to act as if they were protecting
the refugees but when the press wasn´t
looking they roamed the
refugee camps intimidating the survivors with guns
and dogs. When a woman
from the civil society questioned there actions
they struck her with the
butt of a gun.
Though the Mexican government
could afford the presence of thousands of
soldiers for the press in
order to look as if they were trying to protect
the people, they couldn´t
afford to give the refugees potable water, food
of medicine. Yesterday
a baby died there of pneumonia without any medicine
while thousands of soldiers
and police stood around with machine guns and
huge banners that claimed
that they were doing "social labor".
We went on to Acteal where
there was a mass going on for the dead. On the
way to Acteal we passed
the coffee processing plant where our coffee for
the Human Bean Company is
processed. It was occupied by the Mexican Army.
In Acteal we stood in solidarity
with the survivors and we walked around
the site of the massacre.
There were still shoes on the ground that had
come of the feet of the
people as they were being murdered. There was a
small cave at the head of
the ravine where the massacre took place. This
opening to this cave was
only about one and a half feet high. I was told
that some women and children
had crawled into this cave in terror to escape the slaughter but that members
of the paramilitary group had crawled in
the cave after them and
killed them. We walked through a tiny, rough
church which was little
more than a shack and counted 22 bullet holes in
the walls.
This is the "drug war".
This is what the arms and weapons that the United
States is supplying to allegedly
"fight drugs" is being used for. The only
crime of the dead and the
refugees and indigenous people who are being
occupied by 60,000 Mexican
Federal Army troops is that they won´t give up their customs and
their culture at the orders of the United States and
Mexican governments.
For nearly four years I have
been traveling regularly to Chiapas. I have
been in the sites where
this dirty war is being carried out. I have seen
the suffering of the indigenous
people there. I have learned from the
dignity and the hope and
the determination of the members of the Zapatista
National Liberation Army
as they struggle for indigenous rights and
culture, justice, democracy
and dignity. I have admired them as I have
watched this small group
of poor Mayan people hold up the efforts of the US
and Mexican governments
to exterminate them as indigenous peoples. Tens of thousands of members
of international civil society have done what they can
to be in solidarity with
the goals and objectives of this small group of
rebels with dignity.
I have watched and documented as the indigenous
peoples of Chiapas spoke
the truth and always kept their word while the
Mexican and US governments
have waged a campaign of lies and deceit and
murder. And I have
watched an read the mainstream media of the US and
Mexico as they play their
roles in this destruction of indigenous peoples
with their omissions of
the truth and their broadcasting and printing of
the lies of the governments
and the corporations.
I recall now the statements
that have been made to me by members of the press and the United States
government.
Rick Salazar, Channel 4 (at
that time in 1994), Denver, Colorado, "I don´t
think that our producers
would be interested in your footage of Chiapas
Kerry. We have a business
relationship with a Mexican government TV
station and we wouldn´t
want to jeopardize our business relationship."
Kerry, "Are you telling me
that the truth of what you show us is influenced
by your business relationships?"
Rick, "I´m afraid so."
Henry Solano, US District
Attorney, State of Colorado, (When I asked him if it was true that the
US had required Mexico to change their Constitution to end the indigenous
land system so that US corporations could buy their
land), "Yes, that´s
true Kerry. We´re going to take their land but
they´re not making
it productive and someone has to make it productive.
But they´ll be better
of in the long run because we´ll build factories and
give them jobs."
What he is referring to is
the "Mega-Project of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec" for one thing. The
United States, Europe and Japan have devised a plan to
move the indigenous people
and peasants off their land in the south of
Mexico in order to build
ports and railroads across the isthmus, kind of
like a Panama Canal.
The US has already made deals with the Mexican
government for the oil,
uranium, wood, fishing, railroads, ports,
hydro-electricity and the
other resources that are currently on Indian land
and had Mexico change their
laws to allow these deals to be "legal". In
order for international
public opinion to not be negative toward the
corporations they decided
to make the Indians "partners". The Indians
would give up their land
and rights to the resources and the corporations
would give them jobs in
return.
He doesn´t understand
that indigenous people don´t necessarily want to
trade their land and culture
for a job in a factory. Besides, nobody asked
them their opinion.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell,
American Indian US Senator from Colorado, "As you know Kerry, I am indigenous
myself and I´m doing all that I can for the indigenous peoples of
Chiapas."
When I tried to find out
what he was doing his aide told me that Ben was
testifying on committees
and panels that dealt with the issue. When I
pressed him for a list of
these committees and panels he admitted that
there were none and that
Ben wasn´t actually doing anything that he knew of for the indigenous
peoples of Chiapas.
Later, Ben´s assistant,
Rita, asked me why I was picking on Ben. "He
hasn´t done anything
worse that the rest of the elected officials." (This
in regard to the US exploitation
of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas and
the rest of Mexico)
Finally Ben Campbell sent
me a letter telling me to stay out of Chiapas and leave it to the "proper
authorities to fix the problem of Mexico´s impunity in regard to
human rights violations at the proper time and in the proper manner".
I wonder when it will be
the "proper time and manner" for Ben Nighthorse
Campbell. The truth
is it will never be the proper time and manner for the
governments or the multi-national
corporations to be interested in justice.
It´s not their
job any more if it ever was. Maximum profit is the only
thing that has validity
to them. The blood of the 45 Tzotziles massacred on December 22, 1998 is
on their hands as well as on ours. It is the price
they have to pay for our
greed.
This is the racist and arrogant
philosophy of "Manifest Destiny".
Holger Jensen, International
editor for the Rocky Mountain News told my
friend Jeff that, "Kerry
is crazy. He can´t make a difference. Not one US
citizen would pay a dime
more for a hamburger to save a million Indians".
Now is the time for us to
tell them and to show them that they are wrong.
I don´t believe that
they are right that people don´t care about justice
for indigenous people .
I don´t believe that people would knowingly accept
the extermination of indigenous
peoples. But we are going to find out very
soon.
The US government and the
corporations are getting impatient to end this
rebellion of indigenous
peoples. They feel that they´ve been successful in
undermining international
support for the Mayan people and they´ve been
working hard for the last
two years to make it appear that the rebellion is
just a local conflict.
The Mexican army commanders have been traveling to Ft. Benning, Georgia
since 1994 to learn counter-insurgency tactics at the "School of the Americas"
also know as the "School of Assassins".
The tactics learned there
are now being used against the people of Chiapas. The massacre of
these 45 unarmed men, women and children is just the beginning a new level
of violence against the civil population.
It is critical for us to
make a stand now. This is the end of the second
millennium. This is
the beginning of "the next 500 years" for the
indigenous peoples in the
Americas. We have all been made to be
participants in "the new
Indian wars" by what we buy, or by what we watch on TV, or by what we say
or don´t say in regard to these massacres and
other human rights violations.
Everything about our current social and
economic and political systems
makes us participants in the dirty wars that the US and other governments
wage either by active participation based on the distorted information
presented to us or merely by ignorance of what is
going on and the consequent
silence as a result of that ignorance.
I have received a lot of
communications from people who are clients of the
Human Bean Company or from
people who have seen my documentaries. A lot of people have said
that they agree with my work toward fair trade or human rights. A
lot of people have said that they wish they could do something to help
the indigenous peoples of Chiapas. All of the communications that
I´ve received have been extremely critical of the US and Mexican
governments actions against the Zapatistas and the indigenous peoples of
Chiapas and Mexico.
You who read this know who
you are and how you feel about these issues. I am addressing myself
to you right now. By reading this message to this
point you have been presented
with a choice. That is unavoidable now.
Sorry. You an I can
either struggle for justice or be part of the
genocide.
I know that this affects
a lot of people deeply and the recent slaughter of
the 45 Mayan peoples by
the Mexican government´s proxy forces has made you even more aware
of the urgency of this situation. I imagine that some of
you might use that extra
dime that Holger Jensen says you won´t spend on a hamburger to make
a phone call to the local Mexican Consulate or to the US government to
strongly protest the continued violence with impunity in
Mexico. I imagine
that some of you might get together with others and talkabout the issues
and then talk to others and still others. I wouldn´t be
surprised if some of you
organized demonstrations and marches in the
streets. Personally,
I wouldn´t blame you if you committed acts of civil
disobedience or took over
and occupied the offices of elected officials or
of newspapers or television
stations. Or maybe someone will call Senator
Ben Nighthorse Campbell
and ask him what he is doing or what he is going todo.
As for me, I´m going
to keep doing what I have been doing and that is to
keep buying the coffee and
weavings from the indigenous people who are
under siege by soldiers
with tanks and guns that originate from my countryand I´m going to
continue making documentaries that show what it is that Isee and experience
while I´m here in Chiapas.
Right now I´m going
to send this message to you and leave the Cyber Cafeand then I´m
going to pick up a few bags of coffee that we were able tofind from some
Tzotzil-Tzeltal indigenous producers and then the Reampago Rojo will start
the long trip through the militarized country of Mexico to bring the coffee
back.
That reminds me of an incident
that occurred two days ago on the way to
visit friends in Oventic,
Chiapas. This is a Tzotzil community in
resistance, as they say
here, and the Mexican Army was creeping closer andcloser to Oventic with
their roadblocks and their machine guns and theirtanks. We drove
up in my bus and the army stopped us.
"Get out of the vehicle",
they said, "We´re going to search it for guns or
explosives!"
"First let me ask you if
that is constitutional." I said, "Do you have
probable cause to think
that we´re violating the law?"
"Constitutional?" he responded
looking irritated, "You´re in Mexico now you
know."
Kerry Appel
Chiapas, Mexico. January
6, 1998
kappel1@ix.netcom.com
http://www.netcom.com/~kappel1
Word count: 3,000
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