Zedillo claims immunity from prosecution for Mexican massacre
2012-01-07
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Attorneys for former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo filed a motion in US District Court in Hartford claiming Zedillo has immunity from prosecution for his alleged role in an massacre that took place in 1997 in Chiapas state, according to Mexican and US news reports.
A Miami, Florida law firm filed suit on behalf of the 45 individuals who were shot to death in Acteal, Chiapas, naming six John and Jane Does as plaintiffs. The lawsuit, filed last October, requests unspecified damages and attorney fees.
Zedillo was president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000, around the time of the Chiapas conflict when Marxist guerrillas associated with the Ejercito Zapatista Liberacion Nacional launched an a six day assault in the far southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
Zedillo now teaches at Yale University.
The armed portion of the conflict was mediated by clergy and laymen from the Mexican Catholic Church, chief amongst them, Javier Sicilia, leader of Mexico's anti drug war peace movement.
The EZLN war inspired a number of other Marxist groups in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca states, responding to perceived injustices committed by Mexican government officials.
The war between EZLN guerrillas and their supporters and the Mexican government and their supporters went from hot to cold until December 1997 when a number of armed men attacked a church housing Christian pacifists and killed 45 individuals including women and children. The attack lasted for six hours according to reports.
It was later found the community, known as the time as Los Abesos, were active supporters of the EZLN, which is a fact likely to have contributed to the decision to attack the church.
The attack on Acteal was preceded by several years of conflict between indigenous Indians living in Chiapas who supported the ELZN and Mexican citizens. Eventually it was found that ELZN and their supporters violated terms of the ceasefire.
The 34 individuals said to be responsible for the shootings were convicted and sentenced to 26 years of prison. In 2009 a Mexican court released 20 of those convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct.
It is extremely unlikely Zedillo had any direct responsibility for the attack in Acteal or he knew in advance about the attack, inasmuch as he was president and commander in chief of the Mexican Army at the time of the attack.
The counterinsurgency strategy adopted and implemented by the Mexican Army at the time had been developed during Zedillo's predecessor's rule, Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The strategy called for the arming of prior and concurrent Mexican military service personnel to provide intelligence and policing capability in the region. The strategy was based in part on the experiences of the US in Greece and in the Philippines.