> Subject: Troops Swarm Over Massacre Site > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > By Caroline Brothers > > SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Troops and police > swarmed over the bloodstained camp in southern Mexico on Wednesday where 45 > defenseless refugees were massacred by paramilitaries in a five-hour orgy of > killing. > > The refugees, all Tzotzil Indians, were gunned down on Monday at their camp > near the village of Acteal, about 450 miles (750 km) southeast of Mexico City. > Twenty-one of the victims were women and 14 were children. > > Sickened by the slaughter of innocents just before Christmas, a local church > leader accused the Mexican government of ignoring warnings that paramilitaries > linked to President Ernesto Zedillo's party were preparing attacks in the > troubled state of Chiapas -- scene of an Indian uprising in 1994 against the > government. > > ``We are on the verge of a civil war and we don't understand why neither the > Federal nor the state governments are really doing anything to stop this,'' > Raul Vera, assistant bishop of the town of San Cristobal de las Casas, told > reporters late on Tuesday. > > The bodies of the 45 victims were still stacked up in a morgue in the Chiapas > state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez on Wednesday morning under heavy police guard. > Relatives and reporters were not allowed access. > > The handful of Indians who managed to escape from the slaughter were > recovering in local hospitals in San Cristobal -- the nearest major town to > Acteal. > > Orphaned by the murder of her parents, 4-year-old Lucia Vazquez Luna lay in a > hospital bed unable to walk after a bullet shattered her leg. > > Next to her stood her aunt Maria Vazquez Gomez, whose mother and brother died > in the slaughter. Trembling uncontrollably and sobbing, she cried: ``I'm all > alone, I'm all alone.'' > > Zedillo condemned the massacre and ordered federal investigators to Chiapas to > hunt down the killers and calm tension between Indians, Zapatistas and > paramilitaries backed by local landowners and politicians. > > The moves did little to calm local people, whose grief for the dead was mixed > with anger at the government for failing to guarantee their safety despite a > huge military presence in the state left over from the January 1994 uprising > by the Indian Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). > > Mexico's main left-wing opposition, the Party of the Democratic Revolution > (PRD), called for the resignation of Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet, a > hard-liner widely blamed for blocking attempts to get stalled peace > negotiations between the Zapatistas and the government back on track. > > Chuayffet denied any responsibility but Bishop Vera released a copy of a > letter he wrote to the minister on October 18 saying: > > ``We have information that paramilitary groups are multiplying ... former > soldiers and police are training civilians to fight their brothers, ruling > party congressmen are sponsoring the sale and the trafficking of weapons, > acting as protectors and coordinators of the various paramilitary groups.'' > > Vera said the government never responded to the letter. > > Federal Attorney-General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, whose office has taken over > the investigation of the massacre, said Tuesday night that his detectives were > questioning four people in connection with the crime but was not yet sure of > their role. > > About 25 men traveling in light trucks carried out the killings and > investigators were seeking to identify them, he added. > > But survivors of the massacre and local people said they knew who the killers > were -- paramilitaries backed by local branches of Zedillo's Institutional > Revolutionary Party (PRI). > > There was no immediate reaction to the mass murder from the jungle hideout of > Zapatista leader Subcommander Marcos. But Javier Elorriaga, a leader of the > Zapatista's civilian wing, accused the Chiapas state government of giving the > paramilitaries money for weapons, uniforms and communications equipment. > > ``You can't explain how these people can walk around Chiapas with impunity > with their arms and uniforms and the huge number of police and soldiers don't > touch them,'' he said in a radio interview. ``The Chiapas government protects > them.'' > > Both Chiapas state governor Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro and national PRI leader > Mariano Palacios Alcocer have denied any involvement with the paramilitaries. > ^REUTERS@ > >
