Tomorrow: León Torture Training on KCSB FM 91.9

I'll be on the "No Alibis" program on KCSB FM 91.9 in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, July 8, at 8:30am PST/11:30am EST talking about the US/UK-based private contractors who led a police training which in León which included torture sessions. You can stream the show live at http://www.kcsb.org/?page_id=9 .

The story, which originally broke on Narco News, has since been picked up by Por Esto!, Mexico's third-largest daily newspaper with 70,000 readers, and will be published tomorrow in Sendero Del Peje. Democracy Now! mentioned the story today four minutes into its broadcast.

Company that Led Training in Torture Techniques for Mexican Police Is Risks Incorporated of Miami, Florida

Trainer Gerardo “Jerry” Arrechea is a high-ranking member of the Comandos F4, an armed Cuban terrorist organization

The foreign company captured on video training police in León, Mexico, in torture techniques is Risks Incorporated of Miami, Florida, and Great Britain, Narco News has learned. The Mexican daily El Universal identified the leaders of the torture workshop as “Jerry Wilson” of Great Britain and Cuban-Mexican Gerardo Arrechea on July 3, but officials refused to identify the company for which they worked.

Risks Incorporated has a Miami telephone number, which could explain why Mexican officials stated that the company they contracted to lead the torture training was a "US private security company." Both individuals, according to information obtained and confirmed by Narco News, are Risks Incorporated employees.

Andrew “Jerry”/“Orlando” Wilson

The man identified as Jerry Wilson, who appears in one of the torture videos dragging a León Special Tactics Group (GET in its Spanish initials) agent through his own vomit, also appears in a Risks Incorporated promotional video available on its website. He wears the same clothing and sunglasses in both the Risks Incorporated promotional video and the leaked León torture training video. In the promotional video at 2 minutes and 56 seconds, Wilson is shown filming a training of police officers dressed in the same uniform the León GET agents use in the leaked training video. Furthermore, the very first still shot in the promotional video shows the exact same terrain and foliage that appears in the leaked torture video, and León police pick-up trucks appear in both videos.

The English-speaking man identified as Jerry Wilson in the León torture training videos	The same man from the León video in a Risks Inc. promotional video

Risks Incorporated's website does not list a “Jerry Wilson” on its “Our Personnel” page. However, the British man known as “Jerry Wilson” may be Risks Incorporated's “Orlando,” who is listed as the company's “Chief Specialist Tactical Instructor & Operator.” A January 17, 2006, version of Risks Incorporated's website archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine lists an Andrew Wilson as the company's “Chief Consultant.” Andrew Wilson's detailed biography on the January 17, 2006, archive is almost identical to Orlando's biography on Risks Incorporated's current website. Risks Incorporated's website (both archived and current versions) states that Andrew “Orlando” Wilson served in the British army from 1988-93, including 22 months on an operational tour in Northern Ireland which gave him “an excellent grounding in anti-terrorist operations.” Both Orlando and Andrew Wilson's biographies say he served in his unit's Reconnaissance Platoon and “undertook training with specialist units such as the RM Mountain and Artic [sic] Warfare Cadre and US Army's Special Forces.” Wilson's archived biography states that he has worked in Mexico, but this information was removed from Orlando's biography. Orlando's biography says that he has experience in “specialist security / tactical / para-military training for private individuals and specialist tactical police units and government agencies” and “the types of complications that can occur when dealing with international law enforcement agencies and the problem of organized crime.”

By August 30, 2006, Risks Incorporated had removed all staff biographies from its website. When the company's "Our Team" page reappeared as "Our Personnel" on May 31, 2007, "Andrew Wilson's" almost identical biography reappeared under the name “Orlando.” The exact same photo on Andrew Wilson's biography page which identified the solider in the photo as “Andrew Wilson, Chief Consultant” reappeared as “Orlando in South Georgia 1992, 1 WFR, Recce Plt.”

Gerardo “Jerry” Arrechea: World Stick-fighting Heavyweight Champion, Soap Opera Stunt Man, Cuban Terrorist, Mexican Torture Trainer

Mexican authorities and media identified the second man responsible for the León torture trainings as Gerardo Arrechea, a Cuban-Mexican martial arts champion and soap opera stunt man who runs the Free Fight Academy with trainings available in Mexico state, Puebla, Morelos, and Chiapas. Free Fight Academy's website, which was removed from the internet after the torture training video scandal broke, bragged that, amongst other achievements, Arrechea is a third-degree black belt in Doce Pares Eskrima (a martial art focused on fighting with sticks), 1996 Eskrima Filipino WEKAF champion of Mexico, and 1999 May Thai (kickboxing) Association champion of Mexico.

Risks Incorporated's website does not list a “Gerardo” on its staff biography page, but it does list a “Jerry,” which is an anglicized nickname for “Gerardo.” Jerry's Risks Incorporated biography states that he is located in Mexico City where he is the director of a martial arts academy in the Mexico City metropolitan area. It goes on to say that he has a fourth-degree black belt in Doce Pares Eskrima, and, like Arrechea, was the 1996 “Heavyweight Stickfighting Champion of Mexico” and the “1999 Thai Boxing Association of Mexico Heavy Weight Champion.”

While Risks Incorporated's current website does not give a last name for Jerry, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine's January 17, 2006, archive for Risks Incorporated's website does: Arrechea. The United States Muay Thai Association (USMTA) lists Jerry Arrechea as the coach of the Muay Thai Athletic Club of Mexico, located in Naucalpan, Mexico state, which is considered within the Mexico City metropolitan area. The USMTA site says that Arrechea's email address is jerryarrechea@hotmail.com.

However, Arrechea's colorful resume doesn't stop there. The Miami-based anti-Castro terrorist organization Comandos F4 lists a Jerry Arrechea with the email address jerryarrechea@hotmail.com as its Mexico contact. The same page lists Marine Captain Gerardo Arrechea as an “International Delegate” and a member of the Comandos F4 board of directors. The Comandos F4 have openly stated to US media that they are prepared to carry out armed attacks against the Cuban government.

Risks Incorporated: Torture Inc.

Together, Arrechea and Wilson make up part of the Risks Incorporated team. Risks Incorporated provides its clients “with cutting edge and real world tactical firearms training, counter insurgency / SWAT training, executive protection services, kidnap and ransom services that fulfill their requirements and fit in with their lifestyles.” It offers special courses only available to government agencies. According to Risks Incorporated's site, “Our specialist tactical police training courses are for agencies that have to deal with the threat of narco terroism [sic], counter insurgency and para-military groups. Risks Inc.'s tactical instructors are predominantly former military personnel with operational experience in counter insurgency and low intensity warfare in both urban and rural environments.... Students can expect to experience sleep deprivation and stress training.”

The company's Mexico page notes that it provides “special operations courses for tactical groups,” a description that almost alludes to the name of the León police force it was training, the Special Tactics Group. When Risks Incorporated posted a promotional video made from the León training, it described the course as a “Counter Terrorism / Counter Insurgency and Swat Training in Latin America.”

A March 2007 archive of Risks Incorporated's site also touts a course that includes what the company refers to as psychological torture. From the site: “This basic interrogation demonstration is from one of our specialist counter terrorism and executive protection / bodyguard training courses. Psychological torture is the main tactic used in professional interrogations, it works and leaves no physical marks. We do this interrogation technique and others on some courses to show how easy it is to break a hostage and we're being nice!”

In the event that evidence from Risks Incorporated's website is removed from the internet, Narco News is providing readers with access to Risks Incorporated's promotional video (available on Chiapas Indymedia) and screenshots (PDF) that are relevant to this article.

Additional reporting for this story was done by Bill Conroy. This article originally appeared in Narco News. Also available in Spanish.

León Torture Trainers Identified

The leaders of a torture training course provided to León municipal police's Special Tactics Group (GET in its Spanish initials) have been unofficially identified by León mayor Vicente Guerrero Reynoso as Britain Jerry Wilson and Cuban-Mexican Gerardo Arrechea. Mayor Guerrero Reynoso refused to identify the company through which they were contracted.

El Universal identified Arrechea as a black-belt karate instructor and head of the Free Fight Academy, which trains everyone from children to elite police forces and soldiers. The Academy offers a seminar in a defense combat tactics specially geared towards police and soldiers called Palo-Cuchillo-Mano. Free Fight Academy has locations in the states of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, and Chiapas. However, El Universal could not confirm Jerry Wilson's affiliation with the Academy. Leon city Police Chief Carlos Tornero had previously told press that the trainers were from a US private security firm.

Guanajuato's local newspaper Correo reports that several sources say León's Secretary of Public Security, Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, contracted Wilson and Arrechea to train the GET. The GET was created in 1995 after President Felipe Calderón's right-wing National Action Party (PAN in its Spanish initials) won control of the León government. León Mayor Guerrero Reynoso confirmed to La Jornada that during all four subsequent PAN administrations GET officers have received training similar to that shown in the leaked videos.

Arrechea and Wilson continued their regularly-scheduled training with León police on Tuesday, July 1, the day videos of their torture training program were leaked. However, after much pressure from state and federal public officials, Mayor Guerrero Reynoso reneged on his defiant commitment to continue the trainings and begrudgingly announced that he will suspend the trainings.

US Private Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

Mayor says torture training will continue and public officials will not be punished.

Exactly one day after George Bush signed the first year of the $1.6 billion Plan Mexico into law--giving Mexican military and police US training, armament, and resources--videos surfaced showing Mexican police undergoing torture training in León, Guanajuato. The torture training is directed by a British man from an unidentified US private security company.

The videos show the English-speaking contractor directing and participating in the torture of members of the Special Tactical Group (GET in its Spanish initials) of the León municipal police force during a 160-hour training over twelve days in April 2006. Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, the Secretary of Public Security in León, says the participants volunteered to be tortured as part of the training.

In one video, the unidentified contractor drags a GET officer through a puddle of his own vomit as punishment for failure to complete a training exercise:

Warning: these videos are graphic and depict torture of human beings



In a second video, GET officers squirt mineral water up the nose of another officer, a torture technique commonly utilized by Mexican police. The man's head is also shoved into a hole which supposedly contains rats and feces:



Leon city Police Chief Carlos Tornero told the AP that the English-speaking man in the videos is a contractor from a private US security firm. Tornero refused to elaborate on the man's identity, details about the US company, and who contracted the company.

The government's response has been to defend the program, attack the media for reporting on the videos, and deny the illegality of torture. León mayor Vicente Guerrero Reynoso said that the training would continue and no public official would be punished for involvement in the torture training. He demanded that the media "be more responsible." Guerrero is a member of President Felipe Calderón's right-wing National Action Party.

Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, Secretary of Public Security for León, said torture training for police is necessary: "It is essential to have a special group that responds to certain conditions. More and more we see the clear involvement, not only in León, but in the whole state, of organized crime, and there is a need to have these groups." Cabeza de Vaca seemed to be most preoccupied with how the videos became public. In response to a reporter's question about why the municipal government offers illegal training that violates human rights, he responded, "Well, while it is not prohibited...in the end I don't know how the video arrived [in the hands of the meda]. The trainer makes the recordings to observe and correct the teachings."

Mexico's national daily La Jornada was quick to point out that torture is in fact prohibited, contrary to the public security chief's assertions: "Torture is a crime in Guanajuato: in accordance with Article 264 of the state Penal Code, the public servant who 'intentionally exercises violence against a person, be it in order to obtain information or constituting an illicit investigation method,' faces a punishment of 2-10 years in prison."

The existence of a training led by a US defense contractor to teach Mexican police torture tactics in order to combat organized crime and the local government's adamant defense of the program is particularly disturbing considering the US government's recent approval of the $1.6 billion Plan Mexico, also known as the Merida Initiative. Plan Mexico is an aid package specifically designed to support President Felipe Calderón's deadly battle against organized crime. It will fund more US training for Mexican police and military, in addition to providing them with riot gear, spy equipment, and military aircraft. Plan Mexico allows funds for the deployment of up to fifty US defense contractors to Mexico.

This is not the first time US defense contractors have directed torture in foreign countries. During the 2003-2004 Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, US soldiers claimed that defense contractors who ran the prison directed them to torture inmates. Four former Abu Ghraib inmates recently filed lawsuits against CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and New York-based L-3 Communications Corp., formerly Titan Corp., for torturing them.

¿Como sería la Iniciativa Mérida, también conocida como Plan México?

English version coming soon...

El gobierno de México rechazó la primera propuesta del Plan México porque venía con “condiciones” de derechos humanos, aunque no habrían servido para proteger los derechos humanos frente a tanto apoyo financiero al ejercito y la policía de México. Lo siguiente describe exactamente la nueva propuesta de la Cámara de Diputados de los EUA (no ha sido aprobada por el Senado, ni firmada por George Bush), sin condiciones desagradables a los gobernantes mexicanos.

Las únicas condiciones son:1) Establecer una comisión para recibir quejas de mal conducta de las policías y del ejército. Entonces van a utilizar los nuevos recursos para violar sus derechos humanos, para habría una oficina para recibir sus quejas. 2) Autoridades mexicanas tendrían que consultar a cada rato con ONGs de derechos humanos. Se ha visto en el Plan Colombia que las autoridades no hacen caso a las ONGs y otros órganos de derechos humanos. 3) Fiscales y jueces civiles tendrían que juzgar miembros de fuerzas del ejército y de la policía federal, en lugar de ser juzgados bajo sus propios mecanismos internos. 4) Que no se use en juicios, testimonios obtenidos bajo tortura.

Hasta que la secretaria de Estado de los Estados Unidos (Secretaría de Gobernación), Condoleezza Rice, quien ayuda a encubrir la tortura sistemática del gobierno estadounidense, certifique que el gobierno de México esta tomando medidas para poder cumplir con las condiciones, el congreso de EUA “solo” daría 85% de los fondos comprometidos a México.

Dinero: El gobierno de México no recibiría dinero en efectivo, pero el Congreso estadounidense ha decidido cuanto gastaría en la Iniciativa Mérida.

• 2008: hasta USD$470,000,000 en recursos para el gobierno mexicano.
• Hasta USD$350,000,000 para seguridad pública y el ejército.
• Incluye hasta USD$205,000,000 para las fuerzas armadas mexicanas.
• Hasta USD$120,000,000 para “mejorar el estado de derecho y fortalecer instituciones civiles” (incluye reformas jurídicas y entrenamiento para policía).
• USD$9,500,000 (no incluido en los $470 millones para México) para la Agencia estadounidense de Alcohol, Tabaco, y Armas de Fuego (ATF) para vigilar y prevenir el tráfico de armas estadounidenses a México.
• 2009: hasta $490 millones en recursos para el gobierno mexicano (ya se aprobó $400 millones en la Cámara de Diputados)
• Hasta USD$390,000,000 para seguridad pública y el ejército.
• Hasta USD$120,000,000 para las fuerzas armadas mexicanas. La Cámara ya aprobó $116,500,000 bajo “financiamiento para ejércitos extranjeros” para “fortalecer la colaboración entre el ejército estadounidense y el ejército mexicano”;
• Hasta USD$48 millones para combatir el tráfico de drogas;
• $3 millones para establecer un registro de policías.
• Hasta USD$100,000,000 para “mejorar el estado de derecho y fortalecer instituciones civiles” (incluye reformas jurídicas y entrenamiento para policía). La Cámara ya aprobó el mínimo de USD$73,500,000.
• USD$9,500,000 (no incluido en los $490 millones para México) para la Agencia estadounidense de Alcohol, Tabaco, y Armas de Fuego (ATF) para vigilar y prevenir el tráfico de armas estadounidenses a México.
• USD$1 millón (no incluido en los $490 millones) para la Oficina del Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos (OACDH) de las Naciones Unidas en México.
• 2010: USD$250 millones en recursos para el gobierno mexicano.
• Hasta USD$40,000,000 para seguridad pública y el ejército.
• Hasta USD$9,000,000 para las fuerzas armadas mexicanas.
• USD$110,000,000 para “mejorar el estado de derecho y fortalecer instituciones civiles” (incluye reformas jurídicas y entrenamiento para policía).
• USD$9,500,000 (no incluido en los $250 millones para el gobierno mexicano) para la Agencia estadounidense de Alcohol, Tabaco, y Armas de Fuego (ATF) para vigilar y prevenir el tráfico de armas estadounidenses a México.

Pero, aunque la ley de la Iniciativa prohíbe el pago en dinero en efectivo, a lo mejor algunas instituciones recibirían dinero, como son: ONGs de derechos humanos, colegios de abogados, y escuelas de derecho. También quieren aumentar programas de desarrollo de empresas pequeñas y el campo, asi programas para crear mas chamba.

El dinero pagará por recursos, armamentos, entrenamiento y el despliegue de agentes federales estadounidenses. Casi todo el equipo podría ser utilizado y compartido entre varias fuerzas militares y policíacas. Todo el equipo no conocido por las fuerzas o el gobierno de México viene con entrenamiento. La Iniciativa Mérida incluye, como equipo:

• Equipo de vigilancia y radar. La ley dice que por un año el gobierno estadounidense regalará equipo de vigilancia sin asegurarse de que sea usado legalmente o no.
• Equipo y entrenamiento de interdicción marítima y por tierra. Incluye:
• Helicópteros de transporte y la habilidad de operar durante la noche. A lo mejor serían 8 helicópteros tipo Bell 412. Son para desplegar fuerzas militares muy rápidamente.
• Llevan 1-2 personas de tripulación mas 13-14 soldados, 15 elementos en total
• Aviones de vigilancia, a lo mejor dos. Dos opciones mencionadas son:
• CASA CN-235-300 aviones con:
• Habilidad de utilizar equipo de visión nocturna;
• Dos computadoras para transmitir y recibir información de una base militar o centro de control;
• Lugares para 57 soldados con todo su equipo o 48 paracaidistas;
• Puede llevar 6 misiles anti-barcos, y quizás 2 torpedos tipo MK46 o misiles anti-barco tipo Exocet M-39.
• Cessna Caravan
• Puede tener tren de aterrizaje anfibio;
• Puede ser utilizado como centro de control para un avión no tripulado;
• Puede tener tres cámaras montadas debajo del avión;
• Puede tener una arma tipo GECAL Gatling, 0.50 calibre montada en la puerta;
• Puede tener sistemas para guerra electrónica. “Guerra electrónica” significa bloquear el uso de señales electrónicas (como radio, teléfono) del enemigo, mientras optimizar el uso de los sistemas por si mismo. También se vigilan comunicaciones electrónicas del enemigo. Significa la capacidad de “apagar” ciudades y comunidades;
• Lleva entre 9-14 pasajeros.
• Infraestructura y equipo de computación para vigilar y controlar ambas fronteras.
• Redes de comunicación segura.
• Tecnología de monitoreo “no intrusivo.” “No intrusivo” significa que la persona observada no detecta que está siendo vigilada. Ejemplos son: equipo de intervención telefónica, micrófonos parabólicos, programas para vigilar correo electrónico, etcétera.
• Ampliación de bases de datos de inteligencia y nuevo hardware y sistemas operativos para actualizar las redes de comunicación de las agencias de inteligencia.
• Equipo antimotines para la policía. Incluye chalecos y cascos.
• “Mejorar la habilidad de la Secretaria de la Seguridad Publica (SSP) de hacer detectores de mentiras” -- a lo mejor significa equipo mas sofisticado y entrenamiento, pero no se especifica.
• Equipo para investigadores criminales (detectives).
• Equipo para vigilar el tráfico de armas ilegales.

Incluye, como entrenamiento:

• Entrenamiento en todo el equipo regalado y en todos los sistemas nuevos.
• Entrenamiento de seguridad pública y policía para planear y realizar operativos anti-narcos.
• Entrenamiento de derechos humanos para policías, fiscales y guardias de prisiones.
• Para “mejorar la profesionalidad de la policía”:
• Entrenamiento sobre el uso de la fuerza;
• Educación y entrenamiento en derechos humanos;
• Entrenamiento para cuidar y documentar/registrar pruebas;
• Aumento de la habilidad de escoger candidatos/as para ser policía.
• Entrenamiento para investigadores criminales (detectives).
• Entrenamiento en usar perros para detectar explosivos (policía).
• Entrenamiento en restauración de números de serie.

Mucho entrenamiento de policía vendría de la “Academia internacional para la aplicación de la ley,” una escuela estadounidense en El Salvador. Es como la Escuela de las Américas para policías.

Otros cambios importantes:

• Aumento de la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera, a lo mejor para homologar las normas mexicanas con las gringas y asi poder compartir inteligencia de mejor manera. El gobierno estadounidense ya vigila y registra todas las transferencias electrónicas de dinero que va y viene del extranjero.
• En el sistema jurídico y derecho del Estado (ha sido llamado “el gringonización del sistema jurídico”):
• Aumento de la habilidad para enjuiciar sospechosos;
• Reforma del sistema de cárceles, incluye esfuerzos anti-maras y anti-crimen organizado;
• Programas contra el lavado de dinero;
• Programas de protección para testigos/victimas y restitución;
• Entrenamiento para promover juicios transparentes.
• Apoyo para la Procuraduria General de la República (PGR) incluye:
• Aumento de habilidades para analizar evidencia forense;
• Mejorar la recolección y análisis de datos;
• Mejorar la gestión y vigilancia de casos;
• Mejorar el funcionamiento de la inteligencia financiera;
• Mejorar la gestión de sistemas de datos;
• Reorganizar la gestión de recursos humanos y financieros.
• Establecer una oficina dentro de la PGR para recibir quejas de ciudadanos sobre la conducta de la policía.

Personal estadounidense en México:

• El dinero de la Iniciativa puede ser utilizado para mandar hasta 50 contratistas civiles a México. A lo mejor serian de empresas bélicas privadas como Blackwater, KBR o Halliburton.
• Se despliegan agentes de la ATF a México para vigilar y prevenir el tráfico de armas estadounidenses a México.

Para mas información sobre el Plan México, por favor lee Un abecedario del Plan México.

In Defense of Land and Territory: Zapatistas Take on Paramilitaries

On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) rose up in arms, reclaiming 618,000 acres of land in Chiapas, Mexico. While EZLN soldiers in the countryside expropriated plantations the Zapatistas and their ancestors had toiled for generations, others invaded Chiapas' major cities to burn the land titles kept in government buildings.

Over the next couple of years, the EZLN redistributed the reclaimed land to indigenous farmers regardless of political affiliation, under one condition: that they refuse to collaborate with the government and that they never, under any circumstance, sign government documents pertaining to land ownership.

By refusing to legalize their land, Zapatistas free indigenous people from every law that was designed to rob them of their territory and natural resources. Even the ejido system (government-recognized communally held land that could not be bought nor sold) that Emiliano Zapata fought and died for was a compromise between government control over indigenous territory and traditional Mayan practices of collectively working land that belonged to everyone.

President Carlos Salinas de Gotari reformed Article 27 of the Mexican constitution in 1992 in preparation for the North American Free Trade Agreement, allowing ejidos to be bought, sold, and used as loan collateral. This was the spark that led to the zapatistas' 1994 uprising, but it has also been the government's most effective tool for carving out pieces of Zapatista territory and bringing it back under government control.

Recuperated land

Following the EZLN's uprising and seizure of vast quantities of land, the Mexican government bought out the former owners of the recuperated land. It then offered free, no-strings-attached land titles to the Zapatistas and other indigenous peoples on the land in an attempt to bring the land back within the government's domain. After all, owner-less recuperated land cannot be bought, sold, or used as loan collateral, but thanks to President Salinas' constitutional reform, government-recognized ejidos can. Legalizing land, even if it means that zapatistas and their allies are its official owners, opens up the possibility that the extremely impoverished indigenous landowners will sell their land or use it as collateral for loans they cannot repay.

The EZLN saw through the government's strategy and encouraged occupants of recuperated lands to resist legalization. However, some non-Zapatistas who had promised the EZLN they wouldn't legalize, reneged and signed papers making them the legal owners of the recuperated lands on which they lived and worked. Wooed by politicians' empty promises of community development projects, some zapatistas left the movement to join other indigenous organizations and legalize their land.

In other cases, indigenous organizations have invaded Zapatista lands, and rather than communally working the land with the Zapatistas, they block Zapatistas' access to the land and its resources and work with the government to legalize it, excluding Zapatista families from the land titles. Local politicians encourage this behavior by offering to pay all expenses in the process of legalizing Zapatista lands.

The government has thrown its full support behind the carving up of recuperated land by arming, protecting, and collaborating with paramilitary organizations that invade autonomous lands and terrorize their inhabitants. The most infamous instance occurred in Acteal on December 22, 1997, when paramilitaries massacred 45 members of the pacifist Catholic organization Las Abejas. All but nine of the victims were women and children. The attack occurred while a police patrol stationed 200 meters (218 yards) away did nothing to intervene—on the contrary, the EZLN intercepted government radio communications that indicated the police were there to provide backup for the paramilitaries. When police finally did arrive on the scene after the violence had ended and the perpetrators had fled, they were under high-level orders to “pick up [the bodies] before the journalists get here.”

Paramilitary organizations

The international backlash that followed the massacre closed the book on classically defined paramilitaries in Chiapas. Paramilitary organizations like the Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement (MIRA) and Peace and Justice folded under international scrutiny. A more sophisticated, twenty-first century paramilitary organization rose from their ashes: the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC).

Founded in May 1998, just months after the Acteal massacre, the OPDDIC has a paramilitary heart and a civilian face. The Mexican government recognizes it as a registered NGO. Most of its members are unarmed—they provide the political legitimacy necessary for the organization to openly work with the government. Its founder and leader is Pedro Chulin Jimenez, former local congressman and ex-head of the paramilitary organization MIRA. MIRA was notorious for its armed invasions of Zapatista communities, forcing residents from their homes and preventing their return.

Presented as an alternative to the Zapatistas—as an organization that respects the law and works with the government instead of against it in order to win indigenous rights - the OPDDIC promotes the appropriation of more lands for indigenous campesinos. It offers to help indigenous people become the legal owners of their very own piece of land - land that was previously recuperated by the EZLN. To receive the OPDDIC's help, indigenous campesinos become members of the organization. The OPDDIC then works with the government to legalize the members’ land.

Leaked minutes from OPDDIC-government meetings show how OPDDIC leaders and government officials plan the legalization of recuperated lands with the intention of excluding and displacing Zapatistas who occupy and work the land in question. Once recuperated lands are legalized under the ownership of OPDDIC-affiliated campesinos, all other occupants whose names were intentionally left off the land titles have three options:

• Leave their organizations and join the OPDDIC.
  
• Pay the OPDDIC a monthly fee to remain on the land.
  
• Face constant harassment, hostilities, and violence perpetuated by OPDDIC members and police.
  

The government supports the OPDDIC's civilian side as well as its paramilitary side. OPDDIC members often cruise Zapatista territory in government vehicles driven by police officers. Ex-OPDDIC members have publicly testified to receiving weapons from the government on behalf of the organization. OPDDIC members enter and leave federal military bases, presumably for military training.

Terrorizing Zapatistas

The government also provides hands-on support to help the OPDDIC terrorize Zapatistas. On September 11, 2007, fifty to sixty OPDDIC members armed with machetes, clubs, and .22 caliber pistols attacked a group of nine Zapatistas alongside a highway near the hotly contested community of Bolon Ajaw. Six escaped, but the three who didn't were brutally beaten. During the beatings OPDDIC member Jeronimo Urbina Lopez shot Zapatista Miguel Jimenez Alvaro in the chin. OPDDIC members took the three seriously injured Zapatistas to the Agua Azul jail, where police took them into custody, wrote down the prisoners' names, and took their photos as OPDDIC members continued to threaten them, saying, “We're going to kill you,” and “...we're going to rape [your wives and daughters] and make them our women.”

Paramilitary violence and land invasions present the Zapatistas with a complex dilemma: they are designed to provoke a violent reaction, therefore justifying federal military intervention in the region to disarm the Zapatistas. Always the innovators, Zapatistas have found other ways to defend themselves.

When OPDDIC and police kidnapped the three Bolon Ajaw Zapatistas, Zapatista bases of support responded by felling trees onto roads and cutting the electricity to Agua Azul. This prevented the prisoners' transfer to a Palenque prison and shut down Agua Azul, a tourist hot-spot owned and operated by the OPDDIC. The government was forced to negotiate with the Zapatistas' Good Government Council and release the prisoners.

Other Campaign

The Other Campaign, initiated by the Zapatistas in 2005, has also rallied in defense of recuperated land. Responding to the Zapatistas' call for a global Campaign in Defense of Land and Territory, the Other Campaign led a successful international boycott against the coffee chain Cafe la Selva and the Union de Ejidos de la Selva (UES), the cooperative that produces its coffee.

The Other Campaign initiated the boycott because UES coffee producers took advantage of the enormous displacement caused by a 1995 military offensive and claimed land Zapatistas had fled as their own, making themselves the legal owners. When Zapatistas returned to their homes, they found that their land now belonged to UES members. UES members visited Zapatista homes armed with machetes, trying to scare them into fleeing once again. Thanks to the boycott and protests, UES members retreated from the affected community and Zapatistas reclaimed their homes.

The Chiapas-based Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations (CAPISE) has also joined the Campaign in Defense of Land and Territory. It sends brigades of national and international observers to threatened Zapatista communities to document threats and violence in the hopes that their presence and scrutiny will deter further violence and invasions. The brigades persist despite paramilitary threats—the OPDDIC has threatened to rape female brigadistas on numerous occasions.

The Zapatista uprising that inspired the world to action in 1994 was rooted in indigenous land rights. The land Zapatistas fought, bled, and died for is now under attack. The EZLN's strength has always been national and international solidarity, not its weapons. What remains to be seen is if the international community is strong enough and willing to defend the Zapatistas from the most sophisticated and complex attack to date.

A similar version of this article was published in issue #29 of Left Turn magazine.

APPO and PRIistas Clash in Zaachila, Oaxaca

by Eliza Ruiz Jaimes, translated by Kristin Bricker
Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, June 21, 2008

Supporters of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO in its Spanish initials) were hit with rocks thrown by a group of thugs hired by the municipal president of Zaachila, Noe Pérez Martínez, as well as municipal police, who used stones, firecrackers, and firearms.

With barricades, residents prevented the state governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO), from entering the community, where he was supposed to tour.

The protesters accused Natalio Pérez Tomás--father of the current municipal president--of having fired a weapon: "He fired directly at the crowd, fortunately he didn't hurt anyone." The tension between the groups was brought under control after assistant Secretary of State Joaquín Rodríguez Palacios' appeal to the APPO to control itself.

The governor had to cancel the signing of the State-Municipal agreement and the start of public works in the municipality. Various people were wounded during the violence, including Asrael Torres Carmona, 71 years old, who believes that the repressive force is concentrated in the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI in its Spanish initials).

In agreement with Jorge Aragón Martínez, the assistant secretary admitted that the PRIista group was the one who initiated the confrontation. According to him no police force intervened in the clashes, despite the fact that on Thursday dozens of members of the Police Unit for Special Operations (UPOE in its Spanish initials) roamed the streets and installed metal fences in an attempt to impede the demonstrators' passage.

In response, the main roads into downtown Zaachila were closed with burning logs, tires, and rearranged metal fences, grabbed by residents and members of David "El Alebrije" Venegas' collective, who was present during the protest against the governor.

The governor's event was scheduled for 12:00pm yesterday, but it couldn't happen due to the protests of the residents with Zapoteca roots. They met in and around the Municipal Palace in order to keep Ruiz Ortiz from appearing in the community.

The APPO supporters said the government was overconfident because Jorge "El Chucky" Franco Vargas, the current leader of the PRI, arrived to put down the protest against the new municipal leader of the PRI, "but here we aren't going to let in any repressors."

The bandanas returned to cover the faces of protest. The stones returned to be defensive weapons together with firecrackers and chants against URO. The demonstrators warned that the fact that they "tolerate" the government that Pérez Martínez represents doesn't mean that they forgive Ruiz Ortiz's actions in their community. "The struggle continues."

The people who were wounded with cuts and scrapes after the violence in la Villa are considering bringing charges. The residents' assembly will determine the next steps and the stance against the ruler. According to the APPO, Pérez Martínez doesn't represent them: "we will go before the State Congress to request the removal of that repressor," they warned.