Copyright © 1998 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

San Juan de la Libertad, Mex. -- Before being ambushed by 500 Mexican military and police releasing gas bombs and mortars, Mayan villagerss issued this plea to the world:

"Our municipality is at this moment experiencing a situation of terror and persecution. We are urgently requesting intervention by organizations and the international Red Cross."

And the world went silent.

Nine villagers and one police officer were killed as the Mexican military stormed the village, previously named El Bosque, in the most recent genocidal attempt to extinguish autonomous villages.

"Zedillo: Quit killing your people!" That was the message of Maria Garcia, Tarascan Indian, and Indigenous womens organizer. She heard the news as she returned from Hermosillo, Mex. and a gathering of O'odham, Yaqui and Mayo women seeking to create a health clinic with preventive medicine in Sonora, Mex.

"They are trying to exterminate the Indigenous people," said Ms. Garcia, owner of Cafe Cultural in Tucson, Ariz., an Indigenous resistance organizing center.

Ms. Garcia is among 100 invited participants in a Tri-national Friendship Delegation, including American Indians, scheduled to be in Chiapas July 2-9.

Jose Matus, cofounder of the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, urged the people of the world to apply pressure on their own governments to initiate trade and economic sanctions to halt human rights violations.

"This is what I do not understand: Why the people in the United States are not doing anything," said Mr. Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader and director of the Arizona Border Rights Project.

O'odham in Mexico Governor Joe Garcia said, "The government of Mexico will not stop until it has eliminated the people and taken their land."

As villagers fled the Mexican terror, Mexican police left a freshly painted skull next to a hut bearing these words: "Long Live Public Security!"

Ms. Garcia said, "When the people of the world know what is happening, and they do nothing to stop it, they become responsible."