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CHIAPAS, MEXICO - On Tuesday, November 21, our CPT delegation arrived in the mountainous area of Chenalho County in northern Chiapas. After a two hour trip through mountain farms and gardens, growing a variety of plants not found in the United States, we came to a community even more interesting and exotic.

It was a village of displaced people, Christians like ourselves who are trying to live the Word of God in their lives by renouncing violence, yet standing for justice for everyone. Three years ago, forty-five of these unarmed Christians, calling themselves the Bees, were massacred by civilians who were armed and trained by the government. These groups, called paramilitaries, are still terrorizing the area. The government has given secret assurances to the paramilitary groups that they would be free from prosecution.

This kind of warfare against the poor is called "low-intensity warfare". It has been taught and propagated throughout Latin America by the United States military for 40 years, specifically through the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. It is the opposite of Christ's teachings and his Kingdom

The the Bees, or Abejas, have earned the respect and support of Christians everywhere, and all people who careabout justice. One delegation member, Sherry Schmidt said, "I am honored to stand beside the Abejas. They live without arms, relying on God's Word that he will provide for them in the face of a never-ending supply of arms in the hands of people willing to use them."

Our delegation participated in a three hour prayerful observance of the monthly anniversary of the death of the forty-five martyrs of Acteal, with their friends and family members on Wednesday, November 22. Our hope is that these delegations will continue until the Bees and all the people in this region receive a measure of justice from the Mexican government, specifically a recognition of its complicity in building paramilitary groups, a reconciliation of the society split and wounded by the pervasive low-intensity warfare, and a just compensation for families and communities who have lost so much.

We also hope our witness to the truth of this situation will wake up American Christians to support our brothers and sisters here by prayer (which the Bees continually ask for), by petitioning the Mexican government to do justice, and by pressure on the United States government to close the School of the Americas, that symbol of an evil empire that destroys the Kingdom of God.

Delegation members included Chih-Chun Yuan (Taipei, Taiwan), Duane and Sherry Schmidt (Paoli, IN), Jerry Stein (Nazareth, TX), and delegation leader Matt Guynn.