Ricardo Carvajal - Mexico
interview with
Ricardo Carvajal
Human Rights activist - Chiapas,
Mexico
by Dan Kaplan
New Internationalist magazine,
June 1997
There is nothing to distinguish the small
wooden doorway from the other residences on this back street in
San Cristobal de las Casas. Ricardo Carvajal, a tall, broad-shouldered
man in his mid-thirties, answers and welcomes me into the courtyard
of his office. Carvajal is Director of Servicio Internacional
para la Paz (SIPAZ), a human-rights monitoring organization which
keeps a watchful eye on the volatile southern state of Chiapas,
reporting what it finds directly to the international community.
It was here in January 1994 that the Zapatista Liberation Front
staged their rebellion, protesting against the growing poverty
and repression of the region's indigenous majority.
Inside Ricardo Carvajal's small office
is a kitchen, a few woven throw rugs and some bookshelves. But
nothing to suggest SlPAZ's main job - providing unarmed support
and protection to people and communities in Chiapas who are threatened
with violence.
When I ask him how the daily lives of
indigenous people in Chiapas have changed since the 1994 rebellion
he pauses to compose his thoughts, switching smoothly from Spanish
to English when he wants to stress his point.
'The situation is actually much worse.
In late 1994 the army surrounded the Zapatistas. Then in February
1995, when they discovered the identities of Subcommandante Marcos
and other leaders, they moved in with a full frontal attack. People
were forced to flee for their lives. Back in the jungle their
villages were burned, their tools destroyed and their livestock
slaughtered. Now, two years later, the army is still there. There
are encampments along the rivers, each with 500 soldiers. The
soldiers use detergents and chemicals; they defecate in the river,
not far from many villages. They eat US supplied military rations
and throw the cans in the water. They've contaminated the rivers
and made the water supply unusable.
'And you know the river is central to
life in an indigenous village. Women wash clothes in it and get
water for drinking and preparing foods. People bathe in the river.
But now the women are afraid even to go near the river. And the
men are afraid to walk to their fields to tend their crops. Two
growing seasons have been lost. There is pervasive hunger. The
Catholic aid agency Cantas predicts an epidemic next year and
has appealed to the international community for three million
dollars in assistance.'
According to Carvajal, the Government
has yet to take the peace negotiations seriously. In fact there
are now twice as many Mexican soldiers in Chiapas as there were
a year ago. SIPAZ is concerned that the peace process will be
lost in the rhetoric of this year's political campaigning. 'The
Government still treats the people of Chiapas with disdain,' Carvajal
says. 'At the recent round-table discussions, even while talking
to them about rights, they treated them with racism. Indigenous
people are treated as inferiors. The Government has no intention
of resolving the issues; instead they use the talks to suppress
the people, both militarily and politically.' SIPAZ is a member
of a network of organizations called Estacion Norte. These groups
maintain a presence in the Northern Zone of Chiapas, the most
dangerous part of the state right now. Recently some members accompanied
a two-ton shipment of food and medicine to an isolated community
there. The shipment was stopped by 200 men with machetes and guns,
a private army hired by a local landlord. Ironically the gunmen
called themselves 'Peace and Justice'.
'They detained us for over three hours,'
Carvajal says with a hint of anger. 'They went through our belongings,
taking our documents and notes. They stole all the supplies, two
tons of food and medicine. The police were there the whole time,
just watching. After three hours they finally intervened to free
us. They made us leave immediately, without our cameras or recording
equipment.'
Carvajal describes another incident which
a SIPAZ team went to investigate. In May 1996 a paramilitary group
known as the Chinchulines initiated a campaign of terror in the
town of Bachajon. When the SIPAZ team arrived, including a journalist
working for Associated Press, there were 12 or 13 houses still
burning. Much of the town had been destroyed.
'A woman came running into the street,
screaming,' Carvajal recalls. 'She was screaming: "They've
killed him, they've killed my brother." It turned out her
brother was the leader of the Chinchulines. At that point a crowd
surrounded us, telling us to go away. They said: "We don't
want any human rights here. It only causes us more trouble."
In many places in Chiapas human rights is a bad word. People are
punished for talking to us.'
For Carvajal the struggle in Chiapas is
about both democracy and institutional corruption. 'There is an
incredible difference in money and power here. For a transition
to true democracy, this gap must be reconciled. But this gap is
not limited to Chiapas or just to indigenous people; it's a national
conflict. There are over 40 million Mexicans living below the
poverty level.'
Equally important, he believes, is the
need to allow political space for contending views. The Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) has governed the country for nearly
70 years and corruption is endemic. When asked what would be needed
for a resolution in Chiapas, he is straightforward: 'The PRI must
disappear,' he says, 'or at the very least, not control the entire
government. The level or power belonging to the people must be
raised for democracy to exist in Mexico.'
The fact that the Zapatistas succeeded
in forcing the Government to the discussion table is a sign of
hope for Mexico's poor. And there are clear signals that the pressure
will continue. In Chiapas today one slogan is widely heard: 'Never
again a Mexico without us.'
SIPAZ publishes a quarterly report and
disseminates first-hand information directly from Chiapas on its
Website (http://www.non-violence.org//sipaz). It also distributes
Urgent Action Alerts and updates on specific human-rights violations
in Chiapas via e-mail. Contact: forlatam@ipc.org for more information.
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