Giordano: Massacre in Chiapas
November 13, 2006
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Reporting from Chiapas, Al Giordano documents another massacre against indigenous civilians: committed early Monday
morning in the town of Viejo Velasco Suarez, near the ancient Maya ruins of Yaxchilan.
There, presumed paramilitaries assassinated 11 civilians: six women, two men, an eight year old girl, and an infant.
In this report, he documents that Mexican government officials were warned of the threat prior to the massacre, and did
nothing.
Giordano reports:
"The details of the massacre, in a very isolated area, far from urban and media centers, are still sketchy, but the
warning signs that violence on this scale was brewing in the region have been known by state and federal officials all
along. They were specifically warned by human rights organizations last July and August, but in lieu of taking positive
action, their police and other agencies merely aggravated the problems since then.
"...The Frayba Center demanded that government authorities take measures to 'guarantee the personal security and
integrity of the families' of the four threatened indigenous communities, that they respect the 1984 agreement and
others that granted them their lands, and that international treaties guaranteeing such protections for indigenous
peoples be respected.
"A few weeks later, representatives of that organization, together with a delegation of North Americans from Global
Exchange, as well as the NGOs Maderas del Pueblo ("Hardwoods of the People") and Xi' Nich, went on a fact-finding
mission to the afflicted communities. Global Exchange issued a detailed seven page report, which explains much of the
background history of the conflict and, also, interestingly, the difficulties and obstacles presented to their attempts
to visit the communities.
"...Instead of taking action to correct the wrongs, the state and federal governments set in motion the events - and
gave signals that would be received as impunity by the opponents of these communities that have violently threatened
them - that brought about, today, the massacre of eleven indigenous civilians."
Narco News tonight also publishes .jpg scans of the handwritten testimony from family members of the assassinated,
making them available to the national and international public and media so that the true facts of this tragedy come to
light.
Read the complete report at The Narco News Bulletin:
From somewhere in a country called América,
David Briones
Webmaster
The Narco News Bulletin