CHIAPAS:

ZAPATISTAS FACE DEATH THREATS, EVICTIONS, PARAMILITARIES AND ELITE TROOPS:

Some days ago the Zapatistas announced that they had to suspend part of their planned tour of Mexico because of events in their own Mexican state. Since then press releases carried on Chiapas Indymedia have made these matters plainer. The first event that they report is that death threats have been made against the 'Autonomous Authorities of San Andres Sakamchen de los Pobres', one of the independent Zapatista communities in Chiapas. This threat is believed to originate from paramilitaries in the hire of interests who object to some of the development projects initiated by the autonomous municipality. To read more about these events see http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=150196 .

The Zapatistas have also released details of the 'order of battle' of new Mexican Army units recently deployed in their territory in support of a government sponsored campaign of evictions of peasants settled on both recuperated and traditional lands in Chiapas. The Zapatista press release notes that "Troop quantity has been reduced to be replaced with 'quality' military forces, effecting the disbanding of conventional military units on indigenous territory and substituting them with high level elite special forces." . They also go on to note the communities threatened by the land seizures protected by these military forces, and they detail the numerous other abuses committed by the Mexican government in connection with this recent campaign. See the above link for details on this counterinsurgency campaign and the Zapatista response to it.