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Mexico (continued)



C. United States Involvement and Support Leading to Human Rights Violations

  • History of U. S. Military Interventions: MEXICO/1913/Naval/Americans evacuated during revolution. MEXICO/1914-18/Naval, troops/Series of interventions against nationalists. S. Brian Willson, "Who are the Real Terrorists?", citing several sources including William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Monroe, Maine: common Courage Press, 1995

    C1. American-provided Arms, Equipment, and Training

  • A delegation of Veterans for Peace recently returned from Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico, with observations and testimonies establishing that U.S.-supplied arms, equipment and training is being used by Mexican military and police forces and para-military groups to displace, kill, and terrorize Mexican civilians. Wilson M. Powell ; 5/7/98. Email Veterans for Peace
  • Between 1996 and 1999, 3200 members of Air Transportation groups of the Special Forces (GAFE) of the Mexican Army "will take two-week courses with the 7th Group of the Special Forces of the United States," in order to then return to Mexico to train "rapid response" units," noted Darrin Wood, European expert on Latin American military affairs. Citing information from the US newspaper, The Washington Post, he said Mexican officials will be accompanied in these courses by the same Green Berets who were in El Salvador in the 80's, during the confrontations with the insurgent guerrillas. Triunfo Elizalde II, "Mexico is Now the Country Which Sends the Greatest Number of Forces to United States Military Schools", La Jornada ( Spanish Language original), August 16, 1998. Translated from the Spanish by Nuevo Amenecer Press Email address

    C2. Mexicans trained to accomplish American objectives.

  • "The first step in developing the study plan at the school "is identifying the kind of instruction necessary for meeting the political objectrives of the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean," since, "given the high cost of direct intervention in nations" in the zone, the SOA "trains officials in those countries to meet their {US} objectives." In this way, he emphasizes, "the Mexican government has the dubious honor (sic) of being the primary collaborator on issues of United States security on the continent." Triunfo Elizalde, "The Special Groups": Yankee Collaborators, La Jornada ( Spanish Language original), August 15, 1998. Translated from the Spanish by Email address

    C3. Mexican Coursework at the School of the Americas includes Counter-insurgency.
  • Darrin Wood, European journalist specializing in Latin American military subjects, analyed the the courses taken over the last 36 years by Mexican military personnel, with a minimum rank of lieutenant, in the SOA. Triunfo Elizalde, "The Special Groups": Yankee Collaborators, La Jornada (Spanish Language original), August 15, 1998. Translated from the Spanish by Nuevo Amenecer Press Email address
    • He notes that between 1961 and 1970, a total of 75 officials were prepared: 11 in counterrevolution, one in counterinsurgency, six in military intelligence, six in guerrilla warfare, four in jungle operations and 47 in other disciplines.
    • Between 1971 and 1970 there was a marked increase in the number of trainees. 197 military personnel took courses: three in counter- revolution, two in urban counterinsurgency, three in domestic defense, four in military intelligence, six in guerrilla warfare, 60 in training, three in command, 26 in jungle operations and 90 in other techniques.
    • While between 1981 and 1990, 539 Mexican officers attended the SOA, who were instructed in: 19 in military intelligence, three in psychological operations, 27 in commando work, 210 in courses related to training, 12 in anti-drug operations and 268 in other specialties.
    • Regarding the first seven years of this decade, the journalist reveals 623 Mexican military personnel attended courses at the SOA, of which 121 received military intelligence instruction, 29 in psychological operations, 163 in "training;" 32 in educational administration; 56 in special Mexican training; 30 in commando work; 20 in civil-military operations; 70 in anti-drug operations, and 102 in other areas.
    • This means that during the last 37 years, in the School of the Americas alone, 1327 Mexican Army officers have taken the following courses: counterrevolution, 14; urban counter- intelligence, three; military intelligence, 150; guerrilla warfare, 12; jungle operations, 30; various disciplines, 460; courses related to training, 433; domestic defense, three; psychological operations, 32; educational administration, 32; special Mexican training, 56; civil-military operations, 20, and, in anti-drug areas, 82.


    C4. School of the Americas Graduates conduct summary executions.
  • Lopez Ortiz, Juan. One of the most notable of the first 90 officials and military soldiers who arrived at the School of the Americas (SOA) between 1953 and 1960. Then a lieutenant, he studied weapons and infantry tactics. Years later, now a general, "he was in charge of fighting the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Ocosingo, in January 1994, where there was a summary execution of zapatista prisoners in the public market, according to Darrin Wood. Triunfo Elizalde II, "Mexico is Now the Country Which Sends the Greatest Number of Forces to United States Military Schools", La Jornada ( Spanish Language original), August 16, 1998. Translated from the Spanish by Nuevo Amenecer Press Email address
  • In 1971 there were four Mexican military persons in the SOA, and two of them were in Chiapas during the EZLN uprising. Triunfo Elizalde II, "Mexico is Now the Country Which Sends the Greatest Number of Forces to United States Military Schools", La Jornada ( Spanish Language original), August 16, 1998. Translated from the Spanish by Nuevo Amenecer Press Email address
    • Gaston Menchaca Arias attended the course on guerrilla warfare operations, from March 29 to June 4, 1971. Menchaca Arias was designated as Commander of the 31st Military Zone in Rancho Nuevo, Chiapas
    • Miguel Leyva Garcia, attended the course in commando and General Staff operations, from March 15 to December 13 of the same year. Leyva Garcia commanded the 83rd Infantry Battalion in the same 31st Military Zone, Rancho Nuevo, Chiapas.
    • In 1972, Harold H. Rambling studied guerrilla warfare operations, from February 28 to May 5, and Carmelo Teran Montero, military intelligence, from January 10 to April 28. "In the 90's they were concentrated in Chiapas to confront the zapatistas," Darrin Wood notes.

  • Notorious SOA Graduates from Mexico -- detail provided by School of the Americas Watch


    C5. School of the Americas and the Attack on Religion.
  • Rivas Pena, Jose Ruben. Received instruction in the United States, then years later carried out operations against the EZLN in Chiapas. After his participation in Chiapas, sent to Oaxaca as the new Commander of the 28th Military Zone....Journalist Carlos Marin, stated in the journal, Proceso, on January 3, 1998, about the Army's plan for Chiapas since 1994: create paramilitary bands, displace the population, destroy the EZLN support bases...In addition to mentioning General Jose Ruben Rivas Pena as author of an "historical, sociological, economics, political and religious analysis of the conflict" in Chiapas. In that document the former Commander of the 31st Military Zone states that "it has been since the arrival of the Bishop of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, that the traditional values had begun to be disturbed, for the purpose, at first, of dignifying them, taking them out of their ignorance, povery and margination (sic). Regrettably, this change in indigenous values was seen to be directly influenced by the theologians of liberation..." For Rivas Pena, "The Vatican is the primary indirect cause of the conflict in Chiapas, directly sponsoring the corrupt trend of liberation theology in Mexico, supported by their counterparts in Latin America, and by the majority of the national Catholic clergy, using socialist and political organizations, gangsters and groups against the government to carry it out...As one can see, it is not surprising that an SOA graduate would have such reactionary ideas concerning liberation theology," the specialist concludes. Triunfo Elizalde II, "Mexico is Now the Country Which Sends the Greatest Number of Forces to United States Military Schools", La Jornada ( Spanish Language original), August 16, 1998. Translated from the Spanish by Nuevo Amenecer Press Email address

    D. What can I do?

    1. Become informed.
    • "Wholesale killing, the suspension of justice, the tinder-dry makings of a full-scale revolution are piling up in a country we vacation in, buy goods and services from, invest in and exploit for cheap labor. It's on our southern border and we hardly, as a society, know it exists. Wilson M. Powell ; 5/7/98. Email Veterans for Peace

    • See excellent analysis of U. S. Policy on Mexico: Reconfiguring Mexico Policy. In Focus: Volume 4, Number 7, February 1999. Written by Eric L. Olson, Washington Office on Latin America. Editors: Martha Honey (Institute for Policy Studies) and Tom Barry (Interhemispheric Resource Center)


    2. Write our newspapers and ask them why they don't print the stories of Chiapas and Oaxaca and Guerrero. Why aren't they sounding the alarms, the way they do when a president dandles an intern? Wilson M. Powell ; 5/7/98. Email Veterans for Peace

    3. Write and ask your congressman what he thinks of military arms and equipment and training that we supply for "drug interdiction" being diverted to such base, "un-American" uses. For, don't they believe it is un-American to abrogate justice by wholesale false arrests, imprisonment without charge or conviction? Isn't it against our guarantees of free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, to support, however unwittingly, the use of military force to promote a political view, force into being an economic principle not acceptable to the people of the land? Wilson M. Powell ; 5/7/98. Email Veterans for Peace

    4. Above all else, GO THERE -and be seen by the oppressors.
    • We heard time and again from the Abejas who lost so many at Acteal, from their brothers and sisters all over those mountains and in those valleys, that the human rights observers were saving lives. They bring the light of informed public opinion to bear upon acts that would be secret. And by doing so, they hamper and restrict those who would commit them. Wilson M. Powell ; 5/7/98. Email Veterans for Peace

    • See account of trip to Chiapas by delegation from Howard County Friends of Latin America.


    5. CONTACT: Global Exchange, 2017 Mission Street, Room 303, San Francisco, California 94110

    Virtual Truth Commission: Telling the Truth for a Better America

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