Emergency Human Rights Delegation to Chiapas
September 16-21, 1999
Update: 5/2/00; Forest Fires in Monte Azule Biosphere

Original Delegation Pages

9/21/99 press release
9/21/99 boletin de prensa
Traps in Amador Hernandez




Followup Stories

Fires are pretext 5/5/00
Another trip planned 5/4/00
Critical time 5/2/00
Forest fires 5/2/00
Wind of war 5/2/00
Paramilitary pincer 5/1/00
Rights Abuse rpt 4/25/00
Cocopa Pres. 4/25/00
Military Fortress 4/25/00
Paramilitaries gain 4/23/00
Army encirclement 4/23/00
Ethnocide charges 4/21/00
Legislators 4/20/00
Encircling EZLN 4/17/00
Amador blockade 4/15/00
Presentation to UN 4/14/00
IED/HLP to press 4/14/00
Caravan harrassed 4/12/00 Malnutrition 4/10/00
Army in the Selva 4/9/00
UN Realtor 4/8/00
Marcos letter 3/21/00
Las Abejas 3/19/00
Raul Vera 3/13/00
Sen Hayden 2/25/00
Sen Hayden 2/17/00 #2
Sen Hayden 2/17/00 #1
Moises Ghandi  2/13/00
UN- HR abuses 11/26/99
Radio interview 11/24/99

SOA protest 11/21/99
Amador   11/12/99
SOA - CIEPAC rpt 11/5/99
Marcos to Robinson 11/99
PRODH attack 10/28/99
Moises Ghandi 10/25/99
Acteal background 1999


Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center

 

Mexican Seeks to Save Chiapas Jungle from Farmers

MEXICO CITY, May 2 (Reuters)

Mexican officials are trying to convince 17 indigenous communities in the troubled state of Chiapas to leave their homes in an ecological reserve in order to save the land from forest fires, according to media reports on Tuesday.

Interior Minister Diodoro Carrasco said federal and local officials were "negotiating" with residents of the Montes Azules region -- one of Mexico's last remaining rain forests -- to stop slash-and-burn farming that can lead to forest fires, the daily La Jornada and other newspapers reported.

Mexican authorities are offering the Indians "relocation options and to guarantee the protection of the reserve," Carrasco was quoted as saying.

Opposition legislators have claimed that the government was sending police and army reinforcements into the area to increase its military presence around the jungle hide-outs of the Zapatista rebels, who staged an armed uprising on New Year's Day 1994, demanding improved indigenous rights.

Negotiations between the Zapatistas and the government broke down in 1996 over the implementation of a peace accord. The Mexican government has deployed thousands of troops in the area, and set up military checkpoints throughout the state.

Local human rights groups said police reinforcements and the army were harassing residents of the Montes Azules area.

But Carrasco said the aim of sending police into the region was to prevent the jungle from going up in smoke as the traditional period for burning down old crops to prepare land for planting began.

Copyright 2000 Reuters.