The Mexican governments
low intensity war
in Chiapas

These articles look at the strategy followed by the Mexican army in Chiapas, that of a low intensity war. Rather then engaging in open conflict with the Zapatistas they are arming and protecting paramilitaries and harassing the communities through raids, roadblocks and intimidation designed to prevent them working their fields. I also include a number of articles giving the Zapatista counter strategy to resist this.

• FZLN - We Shall Impose Peace With Justice and Dignity in Chiapas - May '00
• Government stratergy in Chiapas in 1998

Useful articles/communiques

• AMC RFM - The facts, all the facts
• Several AMCs - They have killed a companero of ours who was participating in the process of autonomy
• AMC RFM - Paramilitaries from the Amaytik Ranch killed two companero authorities - Aug 26
• AMC 17 Nov - Response to killing of Zapatista compa Jose' Lo'pez Santiz - Aug 02
• AMC RFM Violent incidents provoked by the paramilitaries from San Antonio Escobar - Aug 02
• AMC Olga Isabel - New road benefits rich, government & military - July 02
• AMC Amador Herendez - Same strategy, new techniques? - June
• Military harassment which we are continuing to suffer - June
• AMC PdeE - The federal army has increased their patrols - May
• Using the church bell to gather together and plan paramilitary actions - March 02
• Threats expressed by the PRI municipal government of these municipality - Dec 31
• The companero Pedro died from the blow he received from the paramilitaries - Oct 01
• Shadows and light -the assassination of Digna Ochoa y Pla'cido - Oct 01
• House burning in Roberto Barrios - Oct 01
• AMC SJL: We do not want soldiers passing through - Aug 13 2001
• Paramilitary action in Santa Fe El Duraznal - Dec 20
• Paramilitaries have again cut the wire fences - Nov '00
• Ernesto Che Guevara Autonomous Municipality in Rebellion denounces military helicopter overflights - Nov 00
• Police Operation in Chiapas To Disband Paramilitary Assault - Nov '00
• Paramilitaries attack Tierra y Libertad - August '00
• Army Base at Amador Herna'ndez Growing - Zapatista Sit-in Reaches 336 Days -July '00
• Residents beaten, detained - July '00
• We declare ourselves to be on an indefinite hunger strike - July '00
• Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Chiapas - July '00
•  Army raids zapatista school 'looking for marijuana' - June '00
• Naming names of PRIista terrorists in San Andres - July '00
• FZLN Presentation to the Encuentro against the War and Repression and for Democracy
• Paramilitaries /police incursion into Yibeljoj - May '00
• When one companero goes free, they put five more in - May '00
• We deny all the accusations of May 7 ambush - May '00
• Since 1997, Military Positions have increased to 300 - Apr '00
• New Military Blockade in Amador Herna'ndez - Apr '00
• Counterinsurgency and Ethnocide in Chiapas - Apr '00
• Army Construction Frenzy in Selva - Apr '00
• This Autonomous Municipality continues existing and working - Mar '00
• We are not going to permit relocation - Mar '00
• Three companeros disappeared or kidnaped
• Moscamed is low intensity chemical war - Mar '00
• Spraying with highly toxic chemical products - Mar '00
• Paramilitary attack - March '00
• Chinchulines attack residents - March '00
• Zapatista women march for an end to militarization - Mar '00
• Mexico Paid off Reporters Covering Chiapas - Mar '00
• Indigenous protest new Ocosingo Checkpoint - Feb '00
• Road conflict in Che Guevara municipality - Feb '00
• Assassination attempts and the coffee harvest - Jan '00
• Zapatista Air (Mail) Attack - Jan '00
• Tensions over troop buildup in Chiapas - Dec '99
• Marcos: The Machinery of Ethnocide - Nov '99
• The road blockade is continuing today - Nov '99
• Disrobing More Fake Zapatista Deserter - Nov '99
• Roofs Destroyed by Army Helicopters - Nov '99
• PRI's are Destroying Buildings - Nov '99
• Another attack on PRODH - Nov '99
• More army overflights at Francisco Gomez - Nov '99
• FZLN on the Assassination of Cosme Damian Sastre Sanchez - Oct '99
• Extremely low overflights above the communities - Oct '99
• Paramilitaries shoot family - Oct '99
• Peace and Justice fired on the displaced companeros - Sept '99
• EZLN Denounces Government's Military Strategy - Sept '99
• New movements by paramilitaries - Sept '99
• One More Step To Solve the Conflict in Chiapas (Mex. gov. letter to EZLN) - Sept 99
• Editorial - Virtues and Flaws of a Proposal - Sept '99
• Detailed report on shootings at San Jose - Aug '99
• More details and testimony from San Jose - Aug '99
• History of the conflict at Amador Hernandez - Aug '99
• Confronting a massive invasion by the Mexican Army - Aug '99
• PRI's assault Mexican and international observers - Aug '99
• Zapatista demo in Ocosingo - Aug '99
• Zapatista demo in Altamirano - Aug '99
• Report From the Brigade That Visited the Community of La Trinidad - July '99
• We cannot have any confidence at all in the UN - July '99
• Illegal Detentions, Threats and More Soldiers - July '99
• Threats to Burn Down Houses of El Portal Families - July '99
• Counterinsurgency Program in Las Canadas: Million Dollar Economic Program
• The repression unleashed against our rebel communities- June '99
• How the Theft of 20 Head of Cattle Ended Up in a Military Occupation - June '99
• Militarization of the Selva - June '99
• Zapatistas Expel Police from Community of Nazareth - June '99
• Army try to close encirclement of Zapatistas - June '99
• The army enters the camp at Polho - Apr '99
• Protest San Andres attack - Apr '99
• Military make incursions into Jolnixtie - Apr '99
• Mexican officer reveals 'take no prisoners' order - Apr '99
• One thousand Mexican soldiers graduated as "kaibiles" - Jan '99
• Forced displacement : The fingers which keep the wounds open - Nov '98
• FZLN denounce harassment - Nov '98
• Military harassment of Polho - Oct '98
• Troops stage mock attack on La Realidad - Oct '98
• The military has increased its pressure, harassment and threats - Oct '98
• Return to La Garrucha - July '98
• Statement by HRHC Mary Robinson - June '98
• New visa requirements jeopardise work of human rights defenders - May '98
• News from Utopia - State of law or state of impunity? - 1988
• Mexican Army in La Realidad - Oct '97
• Three Church Workers Wounded in Attack on Bishops Ruiz and Vera - Nov '97
• The developing low intensity war in Chiapas - Feb '97
• Strategies for Resisting Low-Intensity Conflict in Mexico - July '97
• To die in order to live - Sep '97

Print out and display the Solidarity with Chiapas poster

Acteal and after

• Who are the "paramilitaries"? - Dec '97
• The tragedy of the displaced - Dec '97
• On Acteal to civil society - Dec '97
• Details of the Acteal massacre - Dec '97
• Chiapas Massacre Exposes Low-Intensity War in Chiapas - Dec '97
• A tragic Christmas for us: Las Abejas on the Acteal massacre - Dec '97

Anti - Peace observer campaign

• The start of the campaign against international peace observers - Jan 96
• New visa requirements jeopardise work of human rights defenders - May '98
• Mexico threatens to expel GE 'Reality Tour' participants - Dec '99
• New wave of harassment against foreigners in Chiapas - Jan 2000
• Ted Lewis expelled as PRI panics at prospect of losing Presidential election - May '00
• Search and seizure on the road to La Realidad -May 2000

Related pages

• Mexico, the USA and imperialism