Beginning in 1995 with the appearance of paramilitary groups like Peace and Justice and Los Chinchulines in the northern region of Chiapas, thousands of Chol Indians abandoned their homes as a result of violence and death threats. At the end of 1997, there were more than 4,200 displaced persons in that region. Over the last year, new paramilitary groups began to appear in other areas such as the Chiapas highlands, generating a significant increase in the number of displaced. Between May and December, approximately 6,000 Tsotsiles and Tseltales fled their communities in the county of Chenalho in the highlands. After the Acteal massacre in December 1997, 4,000 more fled their homes in the face of paramilitary threats. It is estimated that currently the number of displaced in Chiapas is approximately 15,000.

In the northern region, the majority of the displaced are in the counties of Tila and Sabanilla. In the highlands there are 14 displaced communities in the area around Polho, headquarters of the autonomous Zapatista county government of Chenalho. The largest refugee camp is in Polho itself. There are other camps in Acteal and X’oyep and three camps in San Cristobal de las Casas.

The majority of the displaced in the highlands belong to Las Abejas (the Bees, the group that was the target of the Acteal massacre) or are Zapatista sympathizers. In the northern region, many are members or supporters of the center-left opposition PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution).

According to them, the problem often starts when members of the PRI (the ruling Party of the Institutional Revolution) forcefully demand that members of other parties or organizations join their group. They impose mandatory contributions of from 30 to 300 pesos a week and that money is used to buy arms. They give an ultimatum: “cooperate, flee or die.”

Not all the displaced belong to the same side in the conflict. Recently some Chol families who belong to Peace and Justice were expelled from their homes in the county of Tila and hundreds of PRI members were displaced in Ocosingo, Chilon, Altamirano and Chenalho by Zapatistas or Zapatista sympathizers.

However, and even though there are not official figures, a basic knowledge or a quick visit to these areas reveals that the number of displaced who are ruling party supporters is a definite minority.

A life of sadness

One factor shared in common by the displaced is their suffering. When they flee their communities, they leave all their belongings. And when they arrive at their places of refuge, they find a hopeless existence: common sicknesses become more debilitating; clothing, shelter and food are precarious and insufficient; they have no economically productive activities; at times there is no water; and rarely are there any schools.

One grave example of what it means to be displaced is X’oyep, a camp of about 1,000 persons who are members of Las Abejas . They arrived at X’oyep on foot, most of them having walked all night in the mud and rain. One child was born during the journey.

Each of the 32 families who lived in X’oyep took some of the refugees into their home, even though there was not sufficient space. The women, who between them had two mills and a few comales (pan used for cooking), have to make tortillas day and night so that there is enough for everyone. The cramped quarters and the lack of water, combined with the frigid winter temperatures in the highlands, produce sickness. Approximately 80% of the children and 60% of the adults suffer from fever. Flu, respiratory ailments, dysentery, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, and typhus multiply, and there is a high risk of cholera. On a daily basis the four community health workers attend to hundreds of sick. However without sufficient medicine, their efforts are inadequate. In one two-week period, there were six deaths caused by curable diseases. As one woman said, “There is always sadness [here]. We want to return to our homes.”

To make the situation worse, the violence in the county of Chenalho caused the loss of 90% of the coffee crop. Speaking through tears of pain and sadness, Maria, a displaced person from Quextic now staying in San Cristobal, told us, “My coffee field was left behind…the fruit was so pretty.”

At the end of January, 115 displaced persons from the community of Canolal, members of Las Abejas , arrived on the outskirts of San Cristobal to take refuge in a camp where there were already 100 displaced from Quextic. Now 239 people live together in dormitories, sharing one kitchen. They don’t have money or work or hope. Some of their houses were burned by their aggressors, and their livestock, crops, and belongings were stolen. They are not accustomed to the cold at the altitude of San Cristobal, and sickness proliferates. Maria, who lost her daughter in the Acteal massacre and today takes care of her three orphan grandchildren, reflected, “It seems like we are not Christians. It seems that we are animals.”

The controversy around humanitarian aid

Because of a lack of trust, the majority of the refugees do not accept aid from the federal government. For example, the representatives of X’oyep protested that the materials for latrines given by the government were broken and in deplorable condition. In addition a woman showed us candy that the government had sent for the children.that had mold and worms on it.

Out of the same fear, the communities reject the aid that comes from the Mexican Army. On January 2 soldiers arrived in X’oyep to offer food but the community refused to accept it. The next day, the troops returned with reinforcements. This time they tried to enter the community, but the people mobilized in an organized manner to impede their entry. According to the testimony of the residents, the soldiers lifted up the dresses of five women, beat some of the men, and walked on the feet of people without shoes. A helicopter arrived. Because the soldiers were wearing gas masks, the people thought that they were going to launch tear gas. In spite of the danger, the unarmed community, with women and children in the forefront, did not permit the helicopter to land nor the soldiers to enter.

The troops did not go far away. For several weeks after that, a group of about 15 soldiers wearing an armband that said “Social Work” worked on widening the road to X’oyep. One kilometer outside of X’oyep there is a military post where cooked food and medical attention is offered. On average four people go each day. Sometimes nobody goes. One woman from X’oyep told us that the only thing that the Army is good for is to intimidate the people. “We were afraid of their weapons…and we don’t want to live with the Army. It would be better if they just left. We don’t want them to stay, because they did not come to solve the problem.”

In Chiapas there is a long history of co-optation and dependency through which the federal government gives assistance at certain times, asking in exchange the unconditional support of the people. Several groups of the displaced, for example Las Abejas , refuse this official aid because they say that if they accept it, the government will demand that they be silent and not make any complaints. In addition, several persons commented to us that if they accept the aid, the government will use that fact as propaganda.

On the other hand, humanitarian aid arrives from other sources such as churches, Mexican and international non-governmental organizations, and the Mexican Red Cross. The problem is that that aid is often inadequate or inappropriate. According to officials of the autonomous county of Polho, for example, in January the displaced received medicines from the Mexican Red Cross that were out-dated. They commented, “If they couldn’t kill us with bullets, now they want to kill our women and children with medicine that is useless or dangerous.”

No escape from the threats

The displaced refugees in San Cristobal say that they continue to be threatened by the PRI paramilitaries who come around their refugee camp and intimidate them, saying things like, “We are going to finish off [ Las Abejas ] once and for all.” The displaced have repeatedly expressed their fear at having seen in the streets the very persons whose threats caused them to flee their communities in the first place: “They walk around happy as can be.”

The situation is complicated by the family ties that cross political divisions. Sometimes the displaced have members of their own family who are making threats. Vicente, from Quextic, has a brother-in-law who is with the PRI who “goes around with his AK-47” and who participated in the Acteal massacre in which Vicentés pregnant cousin was killed.

Uncertain future

In Sabanilla, the displaced have engaged in a series of meetings with the state Secretary of Government. As a result, in February some of the displaced in the northern region returned to their places of origin.

However, many more are awaiting the punishment of those who are guilty and a more secure environment before they return. They ask, for example, that the paramilitary groups be disarmed.

Meanwhile the physical and mental consequences are increasingly worrisome. The displaced express profound emotions of sorrow and suffering. “I don’t know where I am going to die,” were the words of one young man. And in spite of all that, these people continue to resist, defending life and showing what it means to live with dignity.