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Published Friday, February 27, 1998, in the Miami Herald
               Rights groups aiding rebels, Mexico says

               By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
               Herald Staff Writer

               MEXICO CITY -- U.S. and European human rights groups
               are allegedly helping Zapatista guerrillas set up rebel
               radio stations as a step toward creating a
               ''liberated'' zone in the southern state of Chiapas,
               according to an internal Mexican government document
               seen by The Herald.

               But three of the leading groups cited by the report as
               participating in the plan -- Enlace Civil (Civic
               Liaison), a Chiapas-based umbrella group for human
               rights organizations, New York-based Pastors for Peace
               and California-based Humanitarian Law Project -- deny
               the allegation.

               The controversy over the role of foreign human rights
               groups, coming shortly after the deportation of three
               American human rights workers, is raising fears among
               international observers that Mexico may succumb to a
               wave of xenophobia. Government officials deny that
               their accusations are feeding anti-foreign sentiment,
               and say Mexico will continue admitting foreign human
               rights groups as long as they don't engage in
               pro-Zapatista

               Allegations denied

               Hansen, a former director of Pastors for Peace, says he
               was in Chiapas on a humanitarian mission to deliver
               food, medicine, 11 video cameras and video-editing
               equipment to the Indian community of Morelia. He denies
               supporting the Zapatistas.

               Reached Thursday at his home in Chicago, Hansen
               described the allegation that he was involved in a
               Zapatista radio project as ''ludicrous.'' He added,
               ''My understanding is that there is some other group in
               the United States that is working on a radio station,
               but I don't know who it is.''

               Hansen said his donation of video cameras was part of a
               $30,000 project sponsored by a U.S.-Mexican trust fund
               partly funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and
               Mexico's Culture Ministry, to have Indian communities
               produce a documentary on their culture and traditions.

               In San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Enlace Civil
               Executive Director Mercedes Osuna said, ''We know
               absolutely nothing about any [pro-Zapatista] radio
               stations.''

               Reached at his office in New York, the Rev. Lucius
               Walker, executive director of Pastors for Peace, said
               his group ''has never helped anybody in the world set
               up a radio station, for any reason.''

               Media controversy

               The government report comes amid controversy in the
               Mexican media over the role of foreign human rights
               workers in Chiapas.

               Government officials say 28 foreign human rights groups
               are active in Chiapas. It says nearly 4,500 Americans,
               Canadians and Western Europeans have spent time over
               the past two years in jungle areas where Zapatistas are
               active, most of them to help the rebel cause.

               Human rights groups have long been active in Chiapas, a
               poverty-ridden state where Indians have been victims of
               government repression for centuries. Most restrict
               their activities to monitoring human rights violations,
               but some are known to actively support pro-Zapatista
               civic groups.

               Reporters interviewing Zapatista leader Subcommander
               Marcos have often run into Mexican and foreign human
               rights activists at the rebel camps. In mid-1997, the
               government began asking that human rights observers
               enter the country with visas accrediting them as such.

               The presence of large numbers of foreign human rights
               activists in Chiapas became an issue in recent weeks,
               after Mexican journalists visiting rebel areas in
               Chiapas began complaining that they were being
               interrogated at highway crossroads by Americans.

               Shortly afterward, the government began deporting
               American activists who were in Chiapas on tourist
               visas.

               Critics' claims

               Government critics say the public controversy over the
               foreign observers has been largely orchestrated by the
               government to deflect attention from the scandal over
               the participation of ruling party officials in the
               Acteal massacre in December. Several local officials
               have been arrested in the investigation into the
               incident.

               Officials say the Zapatistas, who are currently circled
               by the Mexican army in a de facto truce, are laying the
               groundwork for their planned radio network by training
               Indians to produce radio programs in their native
               languages, and by assembling equipment from foreign
               donors.

               A peace plan signed by Zapatista and government
               representatives in 1996 called for creation of radio
               stations in Indian communities. The Zapatistas say the
               agreement allows Indian communities to set up the
               stations without government licenses, but government
               negotiators dispute that interpretation.

               ''The media project is just part of a much wider
               Zapatista plan,'' said a Mexican official with access
               to intelligence reports. ''The ultimate plan is to
               create autonomous communities, so-called liberated
               zones that would provide their own education, health
               and information services in tune with their political
               beliefs.''

               Rick Sandoval of the Herald foreign staff contributed
               to this report.
___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard Boa         Agencia Informativa Pulsar
bgirard@pulsar.org.ec    http://comunica.org/pulsar
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