CHIAPAS, MEXICO

Rain clouds hang over San Cristobal de las Casas, a colonial tourist city in the poorest region of Chiapas, one of the poorest Mexican states. A majority of the population Mayan and they do not own stores, hotels, cafes and boutiques. San Cristobal is the starting point for a 16-day trip, heading south from Chiapas through Guatemala, ending up in Honduras. With my colleague Annie Bird (from the Guatemala City office), we will visit human rights and development projects that we -- Rights Action -- are funding.

Since 1994, much of Chiapas has been in upheaval. As many as 70,000 Mexican soldiers have occupied the state in an attempt, they say, to put down the Zapatista rebel army (EZLN), a small Mayan-dominated movement for land, human rights and justice. Here, Mayan people --and the poor in general-- are struggling to end historical exploitation, discrimination and repression. Same old story.

The poverty of many was worsened in September 1998 when torrential rains fell for 10 days on the southwest corner of the state, causing mudslides and flooding. 1500 people were killed; hundreds of thousands affected, losing homes, crops, animals, jobs, etc. But for the attention on Central America soon after, due to Hurricane Mitch (see below), this would have been declared an international tragedy and emergency.

Political prisoners

Since 1994, the Army, in conjunction with state police forces and paramilitaries (armed civilian groups) linked to the PRI party -Partido Revolucionario Institucional-, have carried out a campaign of repression. Hundreds have been killed or disappeared. As many as 30,000 people (poor, mainly Mayan) have been forcibly evicted from their communities. These 'combined forces' have burnt homes and fields, stolen belongings and crops, even begun to replant their fields. The majority of the displaced live in makeshift refugee camps.

Two-hundred fifty indigenous community leaders and community human rights activists have been illegally detained and dumped in jails on trumped up charges. Few lawyers are brave (or crazy?) and committed enough to defend these political prisoners. Miguel Angel de los Santos is one such lawyer, defending the rights of political prisoners, while handling other cases against the Army and government, including killings, torture, land evictions, etc. The Voice of Cerro Hueco (La Voz de Cerro Hueco *) was founded by two former political prisoners (Mayan men) and Miguel Angel, who got them out of jail. Cerro Hueco is the name of the jail where most prisoners are held.

Initially there were only a few prisoners. Today, there are over 100; Miguel and La Voz have freed close to 150 more. As the numbers pile up, more and more --released prisoners-- approach La Voz, wanting to help. Few can read or write fluently. Spanish is their second language. All are poor, living in remote villages.

La Voz is happy to have them aboard. In a private house in San Cristobal, we attended a 3-day training course with the Network of Community Human Rights Defenders (Red de Defensores Comunitarios por Los Derechos Humanos *). This is not an event that can be held in a known public place. Established by Miguel, the Network is comprised of 14 men and boys, each of whom was elected by his community to attend. Many are former political prisoners; all are committed to setting up Legal Defense Offices (*) in their home communities.

The course consists of seven 3-day sessions spread over 6 months, giving the participants time to return home to provide for their families and start working on particular cases. They study constitutional and human rights law, how to defend the rights of an illegally detained person, and how to bring charges against an individual or the state.

Midway through day two, Miguel rushed back from a phone call, putting on his raincoat. 69 campesinos (landless farmers) were detained by the Army and brought to San Cristobal. In a remote village, there had been a confrontation between PRI-linked groups and opposition farmers. Many were beaten; two men were shot by PRI-members and are in hospital.

Walking out the door with the cofounders of La Voz (already trained to attend to cases), Miguel smiled wryly: "The government is collaborating with our work - they have given us a perfect example of an illegal detention. When I return, we will discuss and analyze this case." In San Cristobal, we visit the cramped offices of Enlace Civil (*) that provides food, medicine and shelter to some of the 30,000 refugees and displaced victims of the September 1998 floods. Enlace

also provides human rights 'accompaniment' when the refugee camps and other "non-PRI" communities are under siege by the Army, state police or paramilitares. Trusted by the refugees and people living in "non-PRI" communities, Enlace often receives desperate calls, like the one advising them of the 69 detentions.

Enlace also designs and implements productive development projects, enabling isolated communities and sectors of the population to achieve a degree of food and economic self-sufficiency.

After three days around San Cristobal, we take a bus southwest through Comitan, to Tapachula the southern most city of Mexico, located on the hot Pacific coast. At 9 pm, our bus was stopped and searched at 4 military road blocks near Frontera Comalapa where, two days ago, the Army detained the 69 men, women and children. We learned later that 49 had been released at midnight in San Cristobal - five hours from their home, with no money or lodging. A typical tactic. 2 are in the hospital, shot by the PRI-linked paramilitares. 16 were released the next morning. And 4 were sent to Cerro Hueco, charged with "illegal occupation, robbery, illegal possession of weapons, blocking roads, and damages to the national patrimony!"

Temporary shelters, permanent resting places

We arrive in Tapachula after midnight. At 7:30 am, we arrived by taxi to the Belen Shelter (Casa del Migrante - Albergue Belen *) that can sleep 80 people. Migrants, mostly from Central America, stay here - some for a few days, some for weeks or months depending on their legal and financial situations which are usually precarious and dreadful. Here, they receive food, shelter, clothing, medical treatment and legal assistance if necessary. What they most receive are security, respect and trust -- elemental human needs.

Padre Flor, a 55-year-old Italian priest from the Scalabriano Brothers religious order, is director. With a gray beard hanging to his belly, he walks shoeless, a white robe drawn at the waist. A large cross sticks from his belt. The Belen Shelter has an outdoor chapel that receives the migrants and local population on Sundays. The migrants -mostly campesinos (landless farmers)- carefully maintain the vegetable gardens, fruit trees and fishponds that provide for the Shelter.

Padre Flor ushers us to a cool corner of the Shelter. "After hurricane Mitch, hundreds of people were coming here every day - desperate men and women who had lost everything, the little they had, trying to go north, trying to find work anywhere." For over an hour, Padre Flor talked of the dreams, aspirations, needs and sufferings of migrants. Never had I received such a clear explanation of what life is for the many, perhaps millions of migrants of the Americas.

Governments, police forces, politicians and the press often refer to migrants as 'illegal aliens.' "Few people put themselves in the shoes of the migrants, to understand why they undertake such difficult and dangerous trips al norte. Everyone here has been on the road north. Though unlikely to succeed, their desperation is palpable, their needs are many: fleeing poverty, hurricanes, repression, etc."

Padre Flor told us of a Guatemalan woman who recently showed up, looking for her daughter, a 16 year-old girl who had headed north. He had the sad duty of informing her that her daughter was probably at the morgue, her body having washed in from the sea. "The coyotes probably abandoned her there." At the morgue, the distraught mother positively identified her daughter and then experienced an anxiety fit because her daughter had no clothes. Not believing Padre Flor's explanation that her clothes were probably ripped off by the sea, he arranged to have an autopsy done. It was confirmed that the girl was a virgin, giving the mother a small peace of mind, as she took her home to be buried.

In northern Mexico, people do what they have to do to enter the US. In Central America, people do what they have to do to enter Mexico. In Nicaragua, people do what they have to do to enter Costa Rica. And so on. Some migrants are 'lucky' enough to find their way to Shelter Belen. "I hate this word 'aliens' - it is dehumanizing. These are not devious people, entering other countries to rob, or to take jobs away. They are like you and me, with families and needs - huge needs. They are humans, they have rights."

Honduras
Chiapas, Mexico
Guatemala