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Demonstration against the Chiapas massacre

I have just returned from the demonstration at the Mexican consulate in Philadelphia, January 9th (1998). About 75 people showed up from various groups. Several people spoke briefly about the issue. A young student from Mexico read the names of the murdered Mayan Indians aloud. I noticed several people had tears in their eyes as the names rolled beautifully on and on, with a pause after each name, greeted by a shout of "presente" from the crowd.

I brought 100 copies of the list of names, and gave them out to people. I suggested that they bring the names to their churches, synagogues, youth groups, and community centers; and hold vigils there during the next week or two. I told them one way of holding the vigil might be to light 45 candles, one for each murder victim, and call the name of each victim aloud. A man from the Maryknoll Missions was so impressed by this idea that he has decided to look at doing a vigil in a Catholic Church in the area, open to everyone to attend. Since the people were shot in, or fleeing from, the Catholic chapel in Chiapas, I feel this is an appropriate gesture.

I was impressed by the support the undercover cops showed us. They came up and introduced themselves to Mitch (who was very active in getting this to happen) and me, and informed us they were behind us in this, and hoped we would do something persuasive. They suggested that we do periodic vigils in front of the consulate until something did change.

Some of us left the street vigil early and went up to meet with the consul, or as it turned out, the deputy consul, since the consul is in Mexico. We handed her a letter we had already read outside to the folks there; and sat around a table to talk with her. In our group were three people very familiar with Chiapas: a young college student from there, and a man and a woman who had been working with the Indians in the area, and had come back, in one case only about three days ago. When the deputy consul suggested things were not as bad as they were being presented, the three were there to say, "We've been in Chiapas, and we know things are very, very bad." To be fair to the deputy consul, however, she did meet and talk with us. She could have just taken the letter and walked away.

Anyway, as I said before, out of this vigil has come the idea of many small vigils held in churches, synagogues, youth groups, community centers, etc., in which the murdered Mayan Indians are prayed for, and remembered. Below is a list of the 45 murder victims. I suggest you print it out and use it with your own group. We must not allow this atrocity to be forgotten.

Names of the people murdered in Chiapas:

Alonzo Vasquez Gomez Lorenzo Gomez Perez Maria Luna Mendez Veronica Perez Oyalte Rosa Vasquez Luna Sebastien Gomez Perez Veronica Vasquez Luna Daniel Gomez Perez Micaela Vasquez Luna Pablina Hernandez Vasquez Juana Vasquez Luna Roselia Gomez Hernandez Juana Luna Vazquez Graciela Gomez Hernandez Maria Jimenez Luna	Guadalupe Gomez Hernandez Susana Jimenez Luna Maria Ruiz Oyalte Miguel Jimenez Perez Catalina Vasquez Perez Marcela Luna Ruiz Catalina Luna Ruiz Alejandro Luna Ruiz Manuela Paciencia Moreno Jaime Luna Ruiz Margarita Gomez Paciencia Regina Luna Perez Rosa Gomez Perez Roselia Luna Perez Doida Ruiz Gomez	Ignacio Pukuj Luna Augustin Ruiz Gomez Micaela Pukuj Luna Rosa Perez Perez Victorio Vasquez Gomez Manuel Vasquez Perez Augustin Gomez Ruiz Juana Vasquez Perez Juana Perez Perez Josefa Vasquez Perez Juan Carlos Luna Perez Marcela Capote Vasquez Marcela Vasquez Vasquez Marcela Capote Ruiz Antonia Vasquez Vasquez
21 women (four of them pregnant) · 14 children · one infant, age 5 days · nine men

To read more:

• About the Lacandon Maya
• About the Zapatistas
• Chiapas95 mailing list