May 23 - 25:
Team members continued to care for Rick Polhamus (still recovering
from two major operations.)

May 26 - 28:
On the 26th, Rick returned home to complete his recovery.
The team travelled to three communities in the municipality (county) of
Chenalho: Polho, Acteal and X'oyep (Show-YEP).

Polho is one of a number of communities in Chiapas that have declared
themselves "autonomies", i.e. they reject the official government party
authorities who are often either appointed or ushered into office through
fraudulent elections. The autonomous communities elect their own indigenous
city councils and and implement a way of community life in keeping with the
Zapatista's demands for social justice.

The Abejas communities are communities of Christian Mayan pacifists who are
supportive of the Zapatista's demands,
but steadfastly commited to nonviolence in their quest for social change.
All three communities are home to many hundreds of people displacd by civil
unrest in Chiapas. During this visit, the team heard requests for more
international observers in the immediate future. The communities are fearful
because one paramilitary person accused of participating in the masssacre of
Las Abejas in 1997 was arrested on May 21, and political supporters of the
accused have threatened the lives of Las Abejas.

May 28 - 29:
The whole group hiked to X'oyep where they participated a "Festival of
Children." That evening, delegation members met with the refugee
representatives from the communities which now constitute X'oyep. They
heard the personal testimonies of those driven from their homes by
paramilitaries.

May 30:
CPTers were invited to join Acteal residents in prayer and fasting for
peace later that week, in response to the renewed threats.

May 31:
The delegation returned to X'oyep to follow up on the Holy Week
activities 6 weeks before. At that time, CPTers and Bees had planted corn
on a near-by military base with the purpose of returning the land to its
original life-giving purpose. On the 31st, approximately seventy X'oyep
residents and 10 CPTers and delegation members walked to the base to weed
and water the plants, now two feet high. At one point along the way, two of
Las Abejas told soldiers who had been hanging their helmets and backpacks on
sacred Mayan crosses that they were no longer to do so.