U.S. church group attacked in Mexico's Chiapas

CNN
April 27,1998

U.S. church group attacked in Mexico's Chiapas

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, April 26 (Reuters) - Pro-government Indians attacked a bus carrying a U.S. church group delivering aid to refugees in Mexico's troubled southern state of Chiapas, members of the group said on Sunday.

A mob of Indians shouting "foreigners get out" threw rocks and sticks through windows of the bus on Saturday as it carried members of Pastors for Peace away from Taniperlas, a village where tensions run high between Indians who support Zapatista rebels and those who favor the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

No one was injured, according to the Rev. Lucius Walker, head of the New York-based ecumenical group.

"Some threatened to burn the bus we were on. When it began moving to take us away from the village, they began throwing rocks and broke several windows," Walker told Reuters.

"At first police surrounded us -- they said it was for our protection -- then later they pulled out and left us surrounded by angry PRI supporters," Walker said. "We decided to leave the town immediately."

Mexico on Sunday confirmed reports it had expelled American Michael Louis Stolzus for allegedly taking part in efforts to set up an autonomous rebel municipality in Taniperlas. But it denied reports that it had also expelled a French citizen and two Spaniards for allegedly meddling in the conflict.

Mexico has expelled a number of foreigners in recent months, a move criticized by human rights groups that say the country is preventing foreigners from acting as rights observers.

The Pastors for Peace group was in Chiapas to deliver seven metric tons of food and medical aid to thousands of refugees who have fled nearby villages for fear of violence between both sides.

Pro-PRI paramilitaries slaughtered 45 unarmed Indians, mostly women and children, on Dec. 22 because of their alleged support for the rebels who first took up arms in 1994. A tenuous cease-fire has held since then.

Some 400 Indians have fled Taniperlas, 450 miles (700 km) southeast of Mexico City, after hundreds of police and army troops took over the village earlier this month to prevent pro-rebel Indians from setting up an autonomous rebel municipality. Several activists were arrested.

An estimated 125 women who support the Zapatistas are believed to be hiding in their homes in Taniperlas, afraid they will be targets of security forces or local PRI activists, Walker said.