On Wednesday, April 7, 1999, fellow CPTer Lynn Stoltzfus and I learned a
little bit more about standing in the way of potential violence. We were
sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck outside a cooperative artisans'
shop in San Andres, Chiapas, at 6 p.m. Ten hours before, 300 Public
Security (police) officers had raided the autonomous (Zapatista) municipal
offices there and removed eleven officials. Now the women of the
cooperative were fearing for the safety of their merchandise, as looting
and ransacking had followed previous police raids elsewhere.
Lynn and I stayed with the truck while several of the artisans, together
with six Mexican nationals with whom we had traveled to San Andres, packed
up merchandise and materials inside the shop. Suddenly we found ourselves
facing a crowd of two or three dozen men, including seven or eight Public
Security officers and the newly appointed PRI (government party) mayor.
The officers raised their voices, challenging our presence and mocking us.
It seemed evident to us that the Public Security officers were trying to
incite the crowd. When I explained in a level voice that I don't speak
Spanish, they seemed all the more eager to make remarks. If the aim of the
men was to get a rise out of us, they were unsuccessful. Upon later
reflection, we realized that just being there on the truck may have
deflected violence in that situation. Lynn and I could absorb the
harassing words that might otherwise have been directed at the women in the
shop. If we hadn't been a distraction, the men might have rushed in..
When the women and others came out of the shop with bags of merchandise,
Lynn and I stepped between them and the men in the crowd. Tensions were
high. At one point everyone seemed to be shouting at once. What the new
mayor wanted was the key to the building. The women relinquished it, and we
were able to leave without any physical violence.
The events capped a day that began about 10:30 in the morning when CPT
received a phone call from a sister organization in San Cristobal,
recruiting people to go to San Andres in the wake of the police raid.
Autonomous governments have been inaugurated by the Zapatistas, with the
support of the population, in 38 municipalities in the state of Chiapas.
The state PRI government seemed determined to prove its ability to install
"law and order" by ousting the autonomous leaders from their offices. Such
raids had happened previously in other autonomous communities, sometimes
with a violent show of force and bloodshed.
We later learned that the next day 3000 indigenous people from the
surrounding communities had walked to San Andres and peacefully retaken the
municipal government offices.