As of November 24, an estimated 4500-6000 indigenous people had fled their homes in Chenalho municipality, in the highland region of the south-eastern Mexican state of Chiapas, as a result of paramilitary violence that began the week before.
As many as 500 refugees, members of the Tzotzil Mayan group, were hiding in the mountains. A local leader said they lacked food and clothing and were in a "desperate" situation.
Around November 20, dozens of hooded armed men began attacking some 10 Chenalho communities, including Aurora Chica and Yaxjemel, which support either the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) or Las Abejas (the Bees), a local grassroots organisation.
On November 23, Chiapas state authorities said five people had been killed and 12 houses burned down; residents reported 10 deaths. The attackers also reportedly raped three women and destroyed vehicles and equipment. There was a new attack on November 25 in the community of Acteal, where hundreds of refugees from earlier violence were hiding.
A number of paramilitary groups are active in northern Chiapas. They include mostly local indigenous people who support the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Elements in the military and state police openly support the paramilitaries, sometimes accompanying them on raids. Police agents and army soldiers searched for weapons in the homes of Zapatista and Las Abejas supporters in Acteal the day before the paramilitary attack.
The situation has deteriorated since September 1996 when the EZLN broke off talks with the government meant to resolve issues that prompted the Zapatistas to begin their rebellion on January 1, 1994.
The EZLN is calling on "civil society" in Mexico and abroad to monitor the situation. On November 27, an EZLN commander met with a delegation, sent by the US-based Pastors for Peace and the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organisation, to try to ease tensions in northern Chiapas after an attack, apparently by paramilitaries, on two bishops on November 4 in Tila municipality.
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) national president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called a national mobilisation for peace in Chiapas on December 13 in Mexico City's main plaza. This will be the first major PRD demonstration in the capital district after PRD leader Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas Solorzano becomes mayor on December 5.
[From Weekly New UPdate on the Americas.]