Copyright © 1998 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

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Indigenous Alliance
Condemns Slaughter in Chiapas
"President Clinton Inducted Into
Holiday Hall of Shame"

Jose Matus  &  Joe Garcia
1-800-682-4280  or  520-791-3008

Copyright © 1998 Matus/Garcia
All Rights Reserved

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TUCSON, Ariz. -- An Indigenous human rights alliance has inducted President Clinton into the "Holiday Hall of Shame" for failure to apply pressure on Mexico to uphold the human rights of Indigenous peoples.

The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, condemned the slaughter of 45 women, men and children in Chiapas, shot and hacked to death by machetes.

"This is just plain terrorism," said O'odham in Mexico Lt. Gov. Jose Garcia, among the co-founders of the recently formed human rights organization.

Jose Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader in South Tucson, urged President Clinton to join with other countries to apply economic sanctions against Mexico to ensure civil rights and human rights for Indigenous peoples.

"President Clinton has just closed his eyes and ears to what is going on in Mexico," said Matus, director of the Arizona Border Rights Project.

Matus said President Clinton should have applied pressure during NAFTA and U.S. loan negotiations to ensure human rights in Mexico.

"The United States has to put pressure on the Mexican government to do something. But, my take on it is, it won't," Matus said.

"No one really cares about human rights. We have suffered genocide, the takeover of our lands and been outcast in the community. That is our problem in Mexico," said Matus, whose tribe lives in Arizona and Mexico.

While Americans celebrated Christmas with their families, Indigenous people in the village of Acteal, Mexico, buried 21 women, nine men, 14 children and one infant in plain wood coffins. The farmers were shot to death Dec. 22. Pro- government forces of the PRI have been arrested for supplying the weapons.

Lt. Gov. Garcia said ranchers and the Mexican government seizes the land of Indigenous peoples, who most often do not have a title to the oil and gas rich land where they live and survive by raising corn and other crops.

Lt. Gov. Garcia said people in the United States, including Indian Nations and his own tribe, the O'odham Nation in Sells, Ariz., are comfortable and show no mercy to the less fortunate.

"They are so used to government aid -- another form of government control -- they forget about the O'odham and other tribes in Mexico," Lt. Gov. Garcia said.

Maria Garcia, spokeswoman for the northwestern tribes in Sonora, Mexico, said the savage violence was meant to provoke the Zapatista rebels. The owner of La Indita Restaurant in Tucson said weapons have been supplied by the United States to eliminate the Zapatistas who are fighting for Indigenous rights.

The victims of the Dec. 22 massacre were members of the Indigenous group Las Abejas -- the Bees -- who support the goals of the Zapatistas, but not the armed struggle.

Alliance member and news reporter Brenda Norrell said, "It is unconscionable that the United States government -- while pretending to be the human rights champion of the world -- ignores the slaughter of women, men and children."

"The United States pretends to be the big brother of the world's helpless. But in reality, it undermines human rights as it masterminds corporate greed," said Norrell, editor of the Fort McDowell Indian Community Newsletter in Arizona and columnist for the The Circle in Minneapolis.

Alliance members, including Tohono O'odham Mike Flores, were members of an Indigenous delegation to Chiapas in 1995. The alliance was formed in August on Tohono O'odham tribal land in San Xavier, Ariz.

In a written statement, the alliance said, "What would happen if 45 Indian women, men and children in Arizona, New Mexico or North Dakota were shot and hacked to death? Does it matter less that they are Indian people living in Mexico, our neighbors to the South?"