Las Abejas (the Bees) Continue to Fly: Promoting Peace in Times of War

On December 22 of last year, 45 displaced indigenous persons were massacred by a paramilitary group in Acteal in the county of Chenalho. News of this brutal massacre spread around the world and provoked a great deal of indignation both in Mexico and internationally. “How could those innocent and unarmed Indians be slaughtered, in the very act of praying and fasting for peace?”

The victims were members of Sociedad Civil Las Abejas (The Bees Civil Society), an organization that struggles for a just and dignified peace using nonviolent means.

Who are the members of this organization? Why did they make such a clear choice for nonviolent means of struggle? Were they innocent and defenseless? Did they know the consequences of this kind of struggle?

Here we present a profile of Las Abejas and their peaceful struggle through the testimony of the Catholic catechists of the group who also serve as its spokespersons.

History

The history of Las Abejas began in 1992 when there was a land conflict in the community of Tzanembolom in the county of Chenalho. An inherited parcel was to be divided between a brother and two sisters. The brother did not want to share the inheritance with his sisters because they were women. He wanted them to renounce their rights of inheritance to the land. As is the custom, the community held an assembly and decided that the land should be divided in three equal parts. The brother was not in agreement, and he promised part of the property to some friends, including some from other communities. This group began to threaten the rest of the community with violence. In response, the residents of Tzanembolom took the initiative of visiting neighboring communities to propose the formation of an organization that would enable them to defend themselves in case of attack. On December 9, 1992, 22 representatives met in Tzajalchen to form the organization Las Abejas.

After the meeting three persons were attacked and shot. One of them died and two were seriously wounded. Instead of arresting the suspected attackers (the dissatisfied brother and his friends), the authorities arrested, without warrant, five persons who had participated in the meeting, accusing them of being responsible for the violence in the area. The prisoners were taken to San Cristobal de las Casas.

Las Abejas organized a pilgrimage to San Cristobal and set up a vigil in the cathedral plaza. “For six days we marched from there to the jail, with prayers, drums, and Indian music. Later indigenous brothers and sisters from Simojovel, San Andres, Chalchihuitan and Pantelho joined us.”

Finally the state attorney general’s office felt obliged to free the detained for lack of evidence.

Las Abejas

Las Abejas explain their name in this way: “We came together in 1992 because we are a multitude and we want to build our house like the honeycomb where we all work collectively and we all enjoy the same thing, producing honey for everyone. So we are like the bees in one hive. We don’t allow divisions, and we all march together with our queen, which is the reign of God, although we knew from the beginning that the work would be slow but sure.” There is another interpretation of the symbolism of the bee: “It is a very small animal that stings. Our struggle is a struggle of peaceful stings.”

After this initial success, Las Abejas continued to organize. Now it has groups in 25 communities in Chenalho with a total of 4,000 members, the large majority of them Catholic. During its five-year history, Las Abejas has strengthened other organizations in the region, such as health, human rights, alternative marketing, women’s, and musical groups. As part of their struggle, Las Abejas practices “civil resistance.” Members do not pay their electrical bills nor land taxes. They decided not to accept aid from the government until the government fulfills the San Andres Accords and there is a just and dignified peace in Chiapas. “We also don’t obey the county and state governments because we did not elect them and they are not just.”

Las Abejas and the Zapatistas

After the Zapatista uprising in 1994, Las Abejas participated in the Peace Belts (protection offered by civil society during the talks between the EZLN and the Mexican government.) However Las Abejas did not become Zapatistas. Instead they decided to remain a civil movement. “Just as the body has two eyes, two hands, two legs, the society has to have two legs. The EZLN is one and we as civilians are the other. We are not EZLN because we don’t follow its orders. We are committed to peaceful struggle and not with weapons.”

The Zapatistas accept the path of Las Abejas because “For them [the EZLN] the participation of civil society is very important.” Las Abejas decided to participate in the FZLN (Zapatista Front for National Liberation) as Sociedad Civil Las Abejas. The Zapatistas and Las Abejas have the same goals, but “our way is different. We believe in the Word of God. We know how to read the Bible. We must love our enemy; we cannot kill. Above all, we are all poor peasants, brothers and sisters.” In times of conflict Las Abejas always seeks dialogue. “We have the same language, so we can talk together to resolve our conflicts.” They are well aware of the risks they run, because as they say, “We are the cushion between the government and the Zapatistas…, if this cushion tears, it is easier for the government to attack our brothers in the EZLN.”

The violence that does not end

During the violence unleashed in Chenalho in the last months of 1997, Las Abejas members painted on their houses: “civil society, neutral zone.” For them “neutral” means that they do not want to be part of the violence between the PRI supporters and the Zapatistas. They did that because, “We do not want problems, we do not carry arms, we want dialogue. We know other means of struggle. But the PRI supporters did not respect that. They burned our houses and stole our harvest.”

The majority of the members of Las Abejas had to flee their homes and communities as a result of the threats, harassment and attacks of the paramilitary groups. Now they live in refugee camps in Acteal, X’oyep, Tzajalchen and San Cristobal. In these camps they reject the humanitarian aid that comes from the government. “First we want them to punish those responsible for the massacre,” they say.

Martyrdom in Acteal

All of the victims of the Acteal massacre were from Las Abejas. The survivors believe that they were chosen because it was known “…that we do not have arms to defend ourselves. In previous attacks of PRI members against Zapatistas, some PRI members were also killed.” The victims knew that they were going to be attacked because they had received a warning the day before. “But we decided to trust in God, and we began to pray in the church. Now we know that they are martyrs. We are going to build a sanctuary for them in Acteal. We know that God received the 45 and that God is preparing to receive us also. Because the struggle continues. We are not afraid to die. We are ready to die, but not to kill. If God permits us some more days here, all right. If not, that is all right also.”

Las Abejas is not a weak and defenseless group, as some people say and as they were seen by the paramilitary killers. To the contrary: in a situation increasingly dominated by the logic of violence, Las Abejas has become a dangerous and threatening actor, “armed with the love of God,” that breaks with the philosophy of “an eye for an eye” and unmasks, with its peaceful attitude, the illegitimate violence of power that it confronts. “Some of us died, sowing the seed of peace for others. We know that the struggle continues in our children. And now the whole world knows us and understands us. In spite of what happened in Acteal, we believe in our struggle.”

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The Investigation of the Acteal Massacre

Achievements and Obstacles

Three months after the December 1997 Acteal massacre, which left 45 dead and 25 wounded, the investigation to identify those responsible is still in an initial stage.

The Attorney General reveals irregularities

The federal attorney general’s office, which assumed responsibility for the investigation, disclosed a number of irregularities and illegalities that began months before the massacre. According to state police officials stationed in Los Chorros near the massacre site, that police post protected armed civilian groups tied to the ruling PRI and helped them to obtain and transport high-caliber weapons. Police commander Felipe Vasquez Espinoza said that he had received orders “from above” to undertake these activities. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), which first visited the area in May of last year, had asked state authorities to take precautionary measures to protect those displaced by the violence. Along with other human rights groups, the CNDH believes that if such measures had been taken in time, the massacre could have been prevented.

A preliminary report of the attorney general’s office revealed that the bodies were collected on the early morning of December 23 without protecting the crime scene, without the involvement of experts in rural criminal investigation, without photographic documentation of the bodies, and without documenting where shell casings were found. All of these procedural irregularities took place in the presence of state police authorities and state attorney general officials.

Contradictory statements

Statements to the CNDH by state officials and high-level police officials revealed numerous contradictions and inconsistencies – to the point of accusing each other- in an effort to avoid direct responsibility. General Jorge Gamboa Solis, ex-coordinator of police, altered documents that might have contained information necessary to clarify events. The state Minister of Government, Homero Tovilla Cristiani, gave contradictory accounts regarding the time at which he ordered an investigation of the reports of violence in Acteal.

With regard to the collection of the bodies, there are three distinct versions which involve among others the ex-Assistant Secretary of Government, Uriel Jarquin Galvez, the Assistant Attorney General for Indigenous Justice, David Gomez Hernandez, and the state police commander in the area. As the CNDH coordinator for San Cristobal told SIPAZ, “These accounts agree on only one point: not one of them suggests that proper procedures were followed.”

Initial consequences

The federal attorney general’s office detained 90 people suspected of being tied to the multiple homicide, among them the local mayor, Jacinto Arias Cruz, and members of the state police. The federal Public Ministry has charged eleven members of the state police with crimes involving transporting and carrying firearms that are restricted to use by the Armed Forces and murder and aggravated assault committed by omission. Meanwhile, among the officials who have been removed from office are the federal Interior Minister and the state Governor and Secretary and Assistant Secretary of Government. At the end of March the new state Secretary of Government announced that the administrative procedure against 14 ex-state officials had been freed up to proceed.

With regard to the indemnification of the relatives of the victims, the authorities have had to face a variety of difficulties. The recipients have not all been identified, whether for lack of birth certificates, because they use names that are different than those on the civil registry, or because there is a variation in spelling. Moreover those who have been identified are rejecting the indemnification offered because “we don’t want some to receive funds and others not.”

For now, the state government has deposited a total of almost two million pesos (US$250,000) in a bank account so that it will earn interest until all of the recipients are identified and the severity of the injuries of the wounded are evaluated.

Discontent with the advances

In an interview with SIPAZ, the coordinator of CNDH in San Cristobal de las Casas, Luis Jimenez Bravo, expressed a common opinion: “The attorney general’s office began well, identifying those suspected of direct responsibility for the crimes. But they continue their investigation at their own pace. We hope that they will go up to the higher levels, that they will go after the intellectual authors.”

National and international non-governmental human rights organizations argue that there is probable responsibility, whether indirect or by omission, on the part of the ex-Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet and of the ex-Governor of Chiapas, Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro. They also suggest that there may be ultimate responsibility on the part of the Mexican Army and President Ernesto Zedillo as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Mexico, since the military had and still has knowledge of – and even informal ties with, according to numerous witnesses – the activities of the paramilitary groups in Chiapas.

A high cost for the government

The resignations and the arrests of recent months illustrate the high political cost of the massacre. The ex-Interior Minister was one of the most important PRI politicians and a likely candidate for the presidential elections of 2000. His replacement was a hard blow to the Zedillo administration.

Although these reactions of the Mexican government have been important, it must be remembered that after the massacre, the eyes of the world are once again fixed on Mexico and that the pressure has been very high. Beyond the consequences in terms of administrative changes and criminal charges, we have seen governmental actions at the state and federal level that appear to be attempts to divert this pressure. Examples include the campaign against foreigners, the State Accord for Reconciliation, and President Zedillo’s legislative proposal regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture. Doubts persist about whether the federal and state governments are going to make any significant change. At the end of March, an administrative hearing by the state Attorney General is still pending. High level officials still have not been charged. Neither have the paramilitary groups that continue to roam the region been disbanded.

However as the journalist Carlos Monsivais observed, “The massacre of Acteal has not disappeared; it is unerasable.” The official actions of the government will take place under the watchful eye of Mexican civil society and international opinion, which remain attentive to see that justice is done.