URGENT

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico -- The parish priest of the
municipality where 45 pacifist Catholics were massacred December 22 was
apprehended in Mexico City and flown out of the country at 6:00 p.m.
today, according to the human rights center of the Catholic diocese of
this town.

French priest Michel Chanteau was the Pastor of Chenalho parish in the
Chiapas highlands for thirty years. Today's government action, on the
eve of an ecumenical gathering in this town to address the conflict in
Chenalho, follows a string of expulsions of foreigners in recent weeks.

A CPT delegation interviewed Pablo Romo of the Fray Bartolome de Las
Casas Human Rights Center yesterday, before there was any hint of
today's expulsion. He recalled the deportation of three priests in June
1995 from Chiapas' Northern Zone. Within months, the paramilitary group
Paz y Justicia ("Peace and Justice") appeared in the same municipalities
from which the priests had been expelled: Tumbala, Salto de Agua and
Yajalon.

Paramilitary activity in Chenalho municipality has displaced thousands
of Zapatista supporters and members of the nonviolent opposition group,
The Bees. All 45 dead in the December 22 Acteal massacre were Bees.
Most were already refugees there, having fled paramilitary sieges in
their home communities.

Since the Acteal massacre human rights groups have leveled two main
criticisms against the Mexican government: that it has used the
massacre as a pretext to tighten its control over self-governing
communities opposed to the PRI-party dominated government; and that it
has not taken sufficient actions against paramilitaries (or illegally
armed civilians) to enable the return of the displaced to their
communities.