Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Chiapas, Mexico - On Pentecost Sunday, June 11, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) confronted militarization at three locations in Chiapas, Mexico, fasting and praying that the power of the Holy Spirit would enable soldiers to envision a world in which weapons of warfare would be discarded. The Day of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, is the time when many Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, as recorded in scripture in Acts 2.

The CPT team was acting in concert with an ecumenical group that witnessed in front of a major Army base in the central Mexican city of Cuernavaca. That vigil was organized by the faith-based justice organization, SERPAJ, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), and local churches. It was inspired in part by a recent tour, sponsored by MCC and local Mennonite Churches, of Chiapas-based CPTers, MCCers, and members of the pacifist indigenous group Las Abejas.

In Sunday's action, one group of CPTers in Chiapas visited Mexican army "civic action" camps in the countryside near Majomut and Yabteclum, in the highland county of Chenalho. Other team members traveled to Rancho Nuevo, a permanent army training facility located a short distance outside the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas.

In the countryside, the CPTers walked into the camps with candles and flowers. They read scripture, sang, and prayed for forgiveness for complicity in the evils of warfare. A few high-ranking members of the army accepted the CPTers' invitation to join them, and reacted with some dismay as the litany proceeded to challenge them to examine their role in the conflict.

The "civic action" camps - more than 15 in the small county of Chenalho alone - provide social services to the indigenous population, such as free food, medical and dental care, and haircuts. However, most local people reject these services, seeing them as a thin disguise for an army presence that makes their lives less, not more, secure. Almost a third of Mexico's entire army is thought to be present in the state of Chiapas.

At Rancho Nuevo, CPTers requested entry onto the base to pray for peace and the entry of the Holy Spirit, but were denied access by a military guard. The group instead held a vigil on the opposite side of the busy highway, beneath a directional sign proclaiming "military installation." They offered red and white flowers and candles, sang, prayed, and broke tortillas in a eucharistic meal. At the conclusion of the liturgy, team members handed out fliers explaining the idea of non-violence and urging the soldiers to imagine a life outside of the army.

In Cuernavaca, the ecumenical group - made up mostly of Mexican citizens - decried the state of warfare in Chiapas. Those attending the vigil, about 150 people, sang and prayed and challenged soldiers with fliers that emphasized that the greater democratization of which Mexico boasts as the summer's elections near cannot be realized in a climate of militarization.