A-Infos (en) [AFIB] U.S. Journalist Threatened in Mexico

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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|| * -- ALERT   -- *  --   May 8, 1998  --  * --  ALERT  -- * ||
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                           U R G E N T
                            A L E R T 
                              _____
 
                * NUEVO AMANECER PRESS - EUROPA *
                    Calle San Jorge 25-27, 2-I
                      50001 Zaragoza, SPAIN
                     Tel: 34 - 976 39 00 47
                    E-mail: dwood@encomix.es
                    - Thursday, 7 May 1998 -
 
                              -----
_________________________________________________________________
 
               U.S JOURNALIST THREATENED IN MEXICO
_________________________________________________________________
 
     PRESS RELEASE
     May 6th, 1998
 
     As an investigative journalist and United States citizen who
legally resides in Spain, I am writing concerning accusations
made against me by a member of the Mexican Congress which I
consider to be an attack on the freedom of expression and a
threat to my personal safety.
 
     Yesterday, the Mexican government-run news agency "Notimex"
released a dispatch which dealt with declarations made by members
of the ruling party in Mexico, the PRI (Partido Revolucionario
Institucional), in the Congressional Commission on Indigenous
Affairs. The congressmen made public a list of 163 foreigners
that they consider to be "international destabilizers" involved
in the conflict in the state of Chiapas. My name is included on
that list.
 
     Notimex states that "these persons register in Mexican
embassies accredited in other nations distinct from their
[countries of] origin, to try and "mislead the migration services
and pass unnoticed". One of the examples cited is "Darrin James
Wood, who entered [Mexico] from Madrid". The only reason I
entered Mexico from Madrid is that I have been a legal resident
in Spain for years now with up to date working papers as a
journalist. If I wanted to "mislead the migration services and
pass unnoticed" I wouldn't have gone to the Mexican Embassy in
Madrid in February of this year to get a migration document as a
human rights observer and give embassy officials my photograph,
address, telephone number, place of work and itinerary for my
stay in Mexico as the official representative of the Spanish
Human Rights Association which took part in an international
Human Rights commission to Chiapas at that time. 
 
     The following is a translation of part of the Notimex
dispatch: 
 
     "According to the legislators, "it is known that these
foreigners come to Chiapas after being in some of the other
guerrilla movements in Central America, and, obviously, they play
a protagonist role of orientation in what is the guerrilla
movement in Chiapas.
     It is thought, they added, that "fundamentally these groups
come with the idea of destabilizing the Army, our institutions,
the government, and to exploit our natural resources."
     The Secretary of the Indigenous Affairs Commission in
Congress, Enrique Ku Herrera, emphasized that "not only these
people should be investigated. It is known that nearly three
thousand foreigners have entered the country and have had some
kind of relation with the state of Chiapas."
     "Many come in groups with humanitarian aid, others as
observers, but there are also many that are openly proselytizing
in favor of the guerrilla movement and the EZLN."
     According to Ku Herrera, they have been following how these
destabilizing groups apply their strategy in indigenous regions
of Brasil, Colombia and part of Ecuador where there are great
reserves of natural resources.
     They promote, he added, processes of insurgency, guerrilla
rebellion, as in Chiapas, "as part of an international network of
international organizations that, more than anything, are looking
to take over our natural resources.
     The strategy in Chiapas, he assured, is getting clearer all
the time: it has the intention of gaining a national and
international base to generate an open conflict against the
government and it hides itself behind a movement that has nothing
to do with the indigenous."
 
     The accusations made against me are absolutely ridiculous. I
have not now, nor have I ever been, involved in any guerrilla
movement in Central America. I have never even visited a Central
American country. I also find it rather absurd that I am somehow
directing or "orienting" the indigenous rebellion in Chiapas from
my apartment in Spain.
 
     The only reason I am accused of such activities is because
of my work as a journalist investigating U.S. military aid and
support to the Mexican Army. The results of my investigations
into Mexican graduates of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas
(SOA) were first published in the Mexican newsweekly PROCESO on
March 6th, 1995. I have not stopped my investigations since then
and the results have been published both in Mexico and the United
States. 
     
     In November of last year I published, through Nuevo Amanecer
Press, an investigation concerning Mexican Special Forces
receiving training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A later version
of the article, which included an analysis of the use of
Paramilitary groups in U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, was
published in the Sunday supplement of the Mexican newspaper LA
JORNADA on January 11th, 1998, shortly after the brutal massacre
of 45 indigenous men, women and children in the village of
Acteal. I have also continued to point out the participation of
SOA graduates involved in human rights abuses in Mexico. In fact,
I am responsible for the identifications of all of the Mexican
School of the Americas graduates involved in Chiapas, as well as
other cases in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Jalisco.
 
     In recent weeks there has been a renewed interest in the
Mexican press concerning these subjects. In fact, just two weeks
before I was accused of being an "International Destablizer" by
members of the Mexican ruling party, the PRI, I pointed out in an
interview with PROCESO the presence of an instructor of the
School of the Americas in Mexican territory. Several more
articles based on my research appeared in print in Mexico on May
3rd and May 4th. On May 5th my name appeared on the list I cited
before. Hardly a coincidence. 
 
     Another part of this situation that worries me is that
information regarding where and how I entered Mexico could only
have been released by the Mexican Interior Ministry, headed by
Francisco Labastida Ochoa. In the late 1980's, Labastida Ochoa
was the governor of the state of Sinaloa. At the same time in
Sinaloa, the military commander was general Rodolfo Reta Trigos,
who in 1966 was at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas
receiving courses in "Military Intelligence" and "Counter
Intelligence".  As the military commander of Sinaloa, general
Reta Trigos legalized the "white guards" in the state, the armed
goons of the landowners.
 
     I find the accusations made against me by the Mexican ruling
party to be extremely dangerous for my work as a journalist who
plans to continue visiting and writing about Mexico. In February,
before my last visit, I received three threats against me. One of
the least pleasant was "We know your face. We are going to fuck
you over alive" ("Conocemos tu cara. Te vamos a chingar
vivamente"). Given the subjects that I write about in my work and
the latest attacks against me for allegedly being involved in
"the guerrilla movement in Chiapas", I fear for my safety the
next time I visit Mexico.
 
     I am asking for the solidarity of my fellow journalists
worldwide and for the U.S. State Department and Congress to
investigate the charges made against me.
 
Sincerely,
 
Darrin Wood
Director, Nuevo Amanecer Press - Europa
 
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