Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
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CHIAPAS - On the same weekend a Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation arrived here, eight families were forced to flee their community in the Chiapas highlands, adding 45 to the state's estimated 17,000 displaced in the 5-year-old conflict between indigenous groups and the Federal government.

CPT learned of the new displacement during visits with church and human rights workers in San Cristobal de las Casas. Later, while in the town of Acteal, they had an opportunity to visit with a dozen members of the displaced families, just a few kilometers away the homes they fled in the village of Canolal on the night of November 6, 1999.

"The clothes I am wearing now are not mine but were given to me by people from here," said the oldest man in the group. Tears filled his eyes as he recounted having to leave with not much more than an old, worn pair of shoes.

A young man of about 25 explained the circumstances that led to the families flight. "Four months ago we joined the Bees. Ever since then we have been excluded and increasingly harassed by PRIists. Last week they posted a sign accusing us of what they themselves have done: forming a militia."

The PRI party has held a monopoly in Mexican politics for more than 70 years. It is widely understood locally and nationally as the chief source of opposition to indigenous rights as understood and asserted by the Bees, Zapatistas and other indigenous movements.

The Bees are a pacifist civil society group formed prior to the Zapatista uprising in Chenalho county. The majority of those internally displaced in Chiapas are Bees or Zapatista support bases from Chenalh . Acteal is the site of the paramilitary massacre of 21 women (four pregnant), 15 children and 9 men -- all Bees -- on December 22, 1997.

After promising to share the stories of the newly displaced, the seven-member delegation, accompanied by three CPT team members, trudged for an hour through ankle-deep mud to neighboring X'oyep, the largest encampment of displaced Bees. There they heard testimonies of threats, extortion, physical abuse and other politically-based forms of coercion against Bees by PRIist paramilitaries in various communities which led to the Bees displacement to X'oyep before and after the Acteal massacre. Non-governmental Organizations estimate that approximately 10,000 indigenous remain displaced in Chenalho.

A common desire to witness to hope while faced with ongoing displacements led to an agreement between Bees and CPTers to conduct a prayer service on the grounds of the Mexican Army base near the entrance to X'oyep. On three prior occasions, CPTers and Bees from X'oyep have entered the base at X'oyep in order to pray for peaceful change and a return of the displaced to their communities.

Within four hours of the CPTers arrival in X'oyep, over 100 Bees joined them in singing the Tzotzil verse of "We are Marching in the Light of God" while slip-sliding on gooey paths toward the base.

Scott Kerr, of Downer's Grove, IL, was near the front of the column. "When the soldiers saw this big group coming onto the base, they ran to their bunkers!"

As people gathered near the corn that had been planted during a September prayer service, CPT Team member Cliff Kindy, North Manchester, IN, and Karis Engle of Boynton Beach, FL, explained the nature of this prayer action to the officer in charge.

The service opened with English and Tzotzil readings of Psalm 82. In his call to prayer, Rob Hanson of Boise, ID, said, "Our battle is against the principalities and powers and against evil, not against individual soldiers."

Prayers uttered in both languages then rose through the drizzle past the top of the flagpole. Duane Ediger, Dallas, TX, provided English-Spanish translation, while a Bee translated between Tzotzil and Spanish.

After the prayers, Jacqueline DeCarlo of Washington, D.C. explained that "we are here today to express our sympathy and solidarity with those recently displaced, as well as those who left their houses, lands, crops and communities almost two years ago."

As a reminder to the soldiers of this prayer service and of the Bees desire that land now occupied by the Mexican Army be reclaimed for life-giving purposes, the CPT visitors left behind hung on a post a hand-woven bag used by indigenous people to gather crops. This symbolized the few belongings people are able to carry when they flee in fear.

"To be praying together here today gives us the hope that is hard to find because of what have lived through and are living through," said a middle aged resident of X'oyep at the end of the service.

Other participants included CPT Team members Mark Frey, N. Newton, KS, and Sara Reschly, Mount Pleasant, IA, and delegation members Nelson Martin, PA, and Leonard Nolt, Boise, ID.