Mexican Police Kill Green Activist
4/14/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Mexican Police kill green activist
Source: http://www.traverse.com/TCCinfo/TepoztlanUpdate4_96.html
"TEPOZTLAN: EIGHT MONTHS LATTER...THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES"
ALBERTO RUZ BUENFIL Huehuecoyotl, Santo Domingo Ocotitlan,
Tepoztlan, Morelos. MEXICO. April 14th. 1996.
The ecological struggle of a small village in the mountains and
valleys of the Ajusco-Chichinautzin natural reserve in the state
of Morelos, Mexico, is soon reaching its eight month of fierce and
exemplary resistance. The local social movement confronting and
trying to stop the blind machinery of transnational development
supported by corrupted government officers was only a few days ago
almost reaching a point of stagnation.
The policies favored by State governor, General Jorge Carrillo
Olea and his political advisers,of letting time pass by without
giving any resolution to the just demands of the Tepoztecan
villagers, dividing the population, buying some of the local
leaders and threatening the life and freedom of others, choking
the municipal economy and using the state of Morelos resources to
pay for an abnoxious media campaign against the freely and
democratically elected "Ayuntamiento Libre, Constitucional y
Popular of Tepoztlan" seemed to be a successful estrategy as it
has turned out in other parts of the country.
After eight months, the first enthusiasm was beginning to dim and
a certain numbness and apathy was starting to win and destroy the
spirit of many Tepoztecans. Tourism, the main source of local
economy, diminished on an 75%, and construction, one of the main
sources of jobs, became practically inexistent. The people's
elected authorities were also put against the wall, on one side by
a government trying constantly by all means to disauthorize
them, and on the other side by several thousands of citizens
asking them for a prompt solution to their demands & problems.
Nevertheless, the fire of this popular revolt was never
extinguished. A small group of convinced environmentalists and
fighters for democracy kept the embers red under the grey shadows
of doubt, division, fear & insecurity.Members from the CUT
(Consejo de Unidad Tepozteca), and the Ayuntamiento Libre, led by
charismatic ecologist Lazaro Rodriguez Casta eda, continued the
fight within the legal terms against the powerful KS group which
insisted in building a Golf Course, several five stars hotels &
restaurants and 800 residential villas in communal protected lands
from the Tepoztecan Municipality.
Governor Carrillo Olea, first beneficiary from the construction of
the megaproject, abusing from his powers offered the KS national &
international investors to "deal and convince by any means
necessary" the proud Tepoztecans, or to force them to yield by the
use of force.
The game seemed to have reached until the morning of April 10th,
the stage of stalemate. But on that day, something occurred that
is changing dramatically, as it happened on the same day in 1919,
the course of contemporary history in Morelos..and in Mexico.
On April 10th. 1996, the President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo
attempted to conmemorate the 77 anniversay of the murdering of
revolutionary general Emiliano Zapata Salazar in the state of
Morelos, and his host, general Jorge Carrillo Olea, dreading that
his image could be challenged by the just protests of the
Tepoztecans, gave orders to his various repressive groups,
granaderos, judiciales and members from his "Policia Preventiva"
to stop the villagers before they could reach the town of
Tlaltizapan where the event was to take place.
On that morning, ignoring Carrillo Olea's program, nearly 800
Tepoztecans, especially children, women and elders,left their
village in dozens of buses, vans and private cars, the girls
dressed as "adelitas" from the 1910's revolution and the boys
disguised as original "zapatistas" with their fake mustaches,
cardboard machetes and plywood rifles. The women took with them
crowns of flowers to leave as offerings in the various sites where
the legendary peasants leader Emiliano Zapata had widen in his
white horse 77 years before in his way to Chinameca, the hacienda
were president Venustiano Carranza had him ambushed and murdered
in 1919.
After peacefully leaving their flowers at the feet of the statue
of Zapata in the city of Cuautla, the caravan of Tepoztecans took
a secondary road to Villa de Ayala, when suddenly, in a desertic
place called San Rafael they found a roadblock made up by several
hundred uniformed, armed policemen and many other undercover ones
(the numbers go from 200 to 500 in total) who said they had orders
not to let them pass and reach Tlaltizapan.
Some villagers descended from the buses and began arguing with the
forces of "law & order", defending their constitutional rights of
free transit & expression, and at a certain point of the
discussion, the chief of Police, Juan Manuel Ari o gave orders to
his ambushed forces to disperse & shoot the protesters. The
infuriated uniformed cops began then to viciously beat, insult &
threaten the children, women and elders, bullets went on flying in
all directions, and after a few minutes, several people were lying
wounded on the ground, and dozens of Tepoztecans were reduced &
thrown as heaps in the back of various police vans.
For more than four hours, the road was blocked and the access to
ambulances, families of the villagers & journalists forbidden.
Only at night, when the public appearance and official
commemoration led by president Zedillo and general Carrillo Olea
in Tlaltizapan had finished, the wounded were taken & dispersed in
various hospitals of the state and more than 40 Tepoztecans were
taken to jail to be interrogated & processed for supposed
"aggressions against the police forces".
It was a misfortune to general Carrillo Olea's plans and attempts
to show a "clean state" to president Zedillo that among the
Tepoztecans there were two foreign journalists, a French and a
Spaniard, and a local CUT member with an amateur video camera that
were able to film and document what really went on in San Rafael.
And as a result of their evidences and declarations, next day, the
front page of national newspaper La Jornada showed the picture and
the story of the Tepoztecans being ambushed a few miles away from
the place where Emiliano Zapata was murdered exactly 77 years
before.
It was also a misfortune to general Carrillo Olea's attempts to
show how it had been the "armed" Tepoztecans who were the
aggressors to his "poor unarmed officers", that their weapons were
cardboard and plywood children toys and that among the victims of
his police brutality there were several people seriously wounded
by bullets & beatings and a 65 years elder, Marcos Olmedo
Gutierrez, member from the PRD, first declared dissapeared, whom a
few hours latter was found dead with a bullet in his neck and
obvious signs of torture in his body.
From than moment on, the political scene in Morelos changed
drastically. President Zedillo was compeled to ask the
intervention of the National Commission of Human Rights, and their
verdict was conclusive: the fault was on the police, not on the
Tepoztecans.
Two days latter, on Saturday April 13th, the first page of most
national & local newspapers had coverings of the story and its new
consequences: the megaproject of KS and its Golf Course was
definitively cancelled, the police chief Juan Manuel Ari o, six
high officers and 60 cops were put in jail accused of abuse of
power, damages & lesions, robbery of personal belongings,
destruction of vehicles and murdering of Marcos Olmedo.
After one day of public exposure of a grey coffin covered by his
political party's yellow banner, Marcos Olmedo's rests, surrounded
by his widow, children & grandchildren, and by dozens of fellow
members & companions from the PRD. were placed in the main plaza
of Tepoztlan. And thus, the villagers's spirit of struggle was
rekindled.
Hundreds of people, Tepoztecans and supporters from all over the
country, demanded then and demand now the official cancellation of
the Golf Course project, the recognition of their own elected
authorities, the liberation of four political prisoners kept in
jail since January by Carrillo Olea's personal orders, and an
immediate end to the persecution of their leaders, and, specially,
a political trial against the governor himself.
Yesterday, the body of Marcos Olmedo, who became an instantaneous
symbol and martyr of the Tepoztecan's ecological struggle, was
buried in the graveyard of the small town of Santo Domingo, one
mile away from our own ecovillage of Huehuecoyotl. He was our
neighbor, and as a gesture of solidarity, members from our
community and recognized intellectuals such as author Carlos
Monsivais, historian Antonio Garcia de Leon and green activist
Armando Mojica from Espacio Verde were present at his burial. To
escort Marcos to his last residence, back to Mother Earth.
For Marcos the struggle has finished. And as an elder woman was
saying to his afflicted grand daughter: "Now he is happy because
he si finally stopped suffering. He is now in the arms of the
Lord." His cortege in the dusty alleys of Santo Domingo Ocotitlan
was led by a local music band playing political tunes, and
followed by several hundreds of us, local and national unknown
fighters for a better future for the coming generations.
When Marco's coffin was descending into the earth, one of his
friends, tears choking in is gorge, read a poem dedicated to him,
and then ended his reading saying: "Marcos, your seeds are right
now germinating in the hearts of many of us. You are not leaving
us, you are giving us the strength to continue: MARCOS
VIVE, LA LUCHA SIGUE!. ZAPATA TAMBIEN VIVE, LA LUCHA SIGUE Y
SIGUE.." (Marcos is alive. The struggle continues. And Zapata is
also alive, the struggle continues and continues..!)
Alberto Ruz Buenfil is a member from an ecovillage, Huehuecoyotl,
located in the community of Santo Domingo Ocotitlan, Tepoztlan,
Morelos. He is also linked to GUARDIANES DE LA TIERRA, a national
green network who is hosting the first Bioregional Gathering of
the Americas this year, from the 17th November to the 24th,
precisely in the Municipio Libre de Tepoztlan.
We ask you to reproduce this communique and if you are interested
in the gathering, contact: Beatrice Briggs: Turtle Island Office.
4035 Ryan Road. Blue Mounds WI 53517. USA. Tel: (608= 767.39.31)
Fax (608= 767.39.32) and E-mail: [[Beabriggs@aol.com]] Por todas
nuestras infinitas relaciones O MTA KU OYASIM