During his visit to the X’oyep refugee camp on August 11, Chiapas gubernatorial candidate Pablo Salazar said, “In nine days there will be an election and we will win. There will be a new government of reconciliation and peace, and the first thing it will do is establish contact with the displaced communities in order to achieve reconciliation.”

The internally displaced persons in Chiapas represent one of the most complicated situations that Salazar, now governor-elect, will have to face upon his inauguration on December 8, 2000. In the conflict zones (highlands, Lacandon Jungle and northern region), there are currently groups of displaced persons from diverse sectors of the population (members of civil organizations, PRD supporters, Zapatista supporters, PRI supporters, Catholics, and Evangelicals. The phenomenon of the displaced persons has accelerated in the state since the armed uprising in 1994. According to CIEPAC (“Displaced Population in Chiapas, in 1999”), there are 21,059 displaced persons in Chiapas. In the county of Chenalho alone there are 9,125 (ibid.).

Some of the displaced live in communities that have lent them land to work (northern region). Others have formed encampments where a great number of families inhabit a small parcel of land. They don’t have access to their cornfields. Instead they receive humanitarian help from institutions such as the International Red Cross and Caritas of the Catholic Church. In the case of those displaced members of Las Abejas, they have spent more than three years in the X’oyep, Tzajalchen and Acteal camps in the county of Chenalho.

At the beginning of 1997 there was an increase in violence in that county in which several PRI and Zapatistas supporters were killed. In September of that year, hundreds of members of Las Abejas (the Bees) began to leave their home communities where, according to their testimony, groups affiliated with the PRI demanded that they contribute to finance the purchase of weapons. Not wanting to do so, they were threatened. So they left their places of origin to come together in the refugee camps. Their representatives recall, “When we arrived in the X’oyep camp, it was the rainy season. We cooked and lived outdoors, in the rain.” After the Acteal massacre, in December of the same year, the number of displaced grew and so did the presence of the army, with 21 military camps in the county (id.)

Those from Yibeljoj, another community in Chenalho, described their life in the X’oyep camp. “The houses are no good. We are suffering greatly. We sleep on the ground.” “We sleep in houses with plastic roofs; before there were planks of wood.” “Before there was firewood but now it is all gone. The women and children grow sick worrying about their needs…We are the ones who are feeling the suffering, and we can no longer stand it.”

” We Live Displaced…”

The displaced of Las Abejas have participated in several demonstrations to bring their needs to light and to demand the creation of the conditions necessary for their return. On August 10 of this year, hundreds of indigenous staged a march to ask the government to take action against the paramilitary groups and to fulfill its commitment to pay indemnification to the displaced.

Now many of them are taking part in the Jubilee 2000 Pilgrimage to plead, together with other indigenous from Chiapas, that the conditions necessary for return to their homes be created. The 250 Tzotzil, Ch’ol, Tzeltal and Tojolabal pilgrims, representing the principle ethnic groups in Chiapas, are marching under this theme: “We were born walking…We are pilgrims…We live displaced…The road belongs to us…To it we offer our steps.”

The participants were brought together by Las Abejas and the organization Xi’Nich’  for a mobilization that has as its objective the improvement of living conditions and the strengthening of spirit to “continue fighting for a just and dignified peace for the Indian peoples.” They began the march on October 14 from Acteal and plan to arrive at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City on December 12, traveling a distance of almost 1,300 kilometers (about 800 miles).

However, in X’oyep, 96 families originally from the village of Yibeljoj decided that they could not wait for a return negotiated with the authorities and with minimal guarantees of security. No longer able to bear the difficulties they have faced in the camp, they decided to relocate on their own, creating another camp with better access to water and wood. On October 17, they carried their belongings some ten kilometers along a path muddied by the seasonal rain. They headed to a place near their original community. They didn’t dare return to the community itself “because the paramilitaries are there. Also we are afraid of the soldiers on the roads.” So, they say, “We continue to be displaced persons.”

Lack of security

Security is a high priority in movements such as this relocation or a possible return. The International Red Cross (IRC) did not participate in accompanying the families of Yibeljoj because, in its view, there were neither the necessary conditions nor the security nor the materials that would permit this group of families to improve their situation. Pierre Ferrand, head of the sub-delegation of the IRC, observed, “We respect the decision of the displaced, but we did not accompany the relocation of the displaced persons from X’oyep, because this was not the result of any negotiation between the parties or with the government. Likewise there was no dialogue with the inhabitants of Yibeljoj, with whom they might have built a minimum of security.”

The displaced themselves confirm this lack of security conditions, but at the same time they note other factors. “We are afraid here, but we left out of necessity. We didn’t leave because we wanted to.” Several NGOs (non-governmental organizations), although recognizing the risks that persist because of the tension in the region and the presence of paramilitary groups, decided to accompany them. In addition, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) sent observers to accompany the relocation.

In an interview in the newspaper Cuarto Poder, the mayor of Chenalho, Antonio Perez Arias, stated that there already exist sufficient guarantees for the return of the displaced persons of Las Abejas. In July of this year, Arias and PRI supporters from several communities of the county signed public declarations that seek to guarantee the physical security of the displaced who come back to work on their land or who return to live in their houses. Nevertheless, representatives from Las Abejas considered them insufficient. “We don’t trust these statements because …when we entered our community to harvest corn, you could hear shots.”

Awaiting the response of the government

Besides security, the displaced persons of Yibeljoj are finding that other needs have arisen in their new spot. “We are in just the same situation as we were in 1997” (when they originally fled), one of the representatives said. “The main things we were lacking were water and wood. Now with the river and trees here (in the new camp), that has been resolved, but only partially.” The families in the new camp are sleeping in small houses made of sticks and plastic. Other families don’t even have houses. “We’re dismantling our houses in X’oyep to bring the materials here. But there are people in X’oyep that have lived in a house with three, four, even five families. Here, each has his own lot. So there isn’t enough sheet roofing for everyone. Some are offering others a place to sleep.”

For this reason, the displaced persons are demanding that they be paid compensation for the robbery and destruction of their belongings in 1997. “When we left (Yibeljoj in ’97), we left corn, chairs, tables, corn mills and all the items from the kitchen.” In the case of Yibeljoj, the houses of Las Abejas still exist. But for the displaced persons from other communities whose houses were burned after they were displaced, compensation will represent a way of avoiding, upon their eventual return, the bad living conditions that those displaced from Yibeljoj presently face.

The displaced groups from Chenalho and elsewhere in the state represent a situation of great suffering. It cries out for a response from the new government, whose greatest challenge is to establish security in the region, fulfill existing commitments to pay compensation to the displaced, and help in the reconstruction of the social fabric.

Meanwhile, the displaced continue to wait. “First we will wait to see the government of Pablo Salazar, who said in X’oyep that if he wins, he would disarm the paramilitary groups. That’s what he said. If he fulfills his pledge, we will return.”