{"id":7833,"date":"2013-03-26T09:30:59","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/?p=7833"},"modified":"2013-03-26T09:30:59","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T15:30:59","slug":"el-caso-de-alberto-patishtan-la-masacre-de-simojovel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/?p=7833","title":{"rendered":"<!--:es-->El caso de Alberto Patisht\u00e1n: La masacre de Simojovel<!--:--><!--:en-->The Alberto Patisht\u00e1n Case: The Simojovel Massacre<!--:-->"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--:es--><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Caso Alberto Patisht\u00e1n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Masacre de Simojovel<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Cr\u00f3nica de una matanza de polic\u00edas (casi) olvidada<\/p>\n<p>Siete uniformados fueron emboscados y asesinados el 12 de junio de 2000<\/p>\n<p>Se acus\u00f3 al EPR, a paramilitares y a zapatistas<\/p>\n<p>Una semana despu\u00e9s se detuvo al profesor Alberto Patisht\u00e1n<\/p>\n<p>El ind\u00edgena Salvador L\u00f3pez fue culpado tambi\u00e9n por la PGJE<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-text\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jornada.unam.mx\/2013\/03\/23\/fotos\/002n1pol-2.jpg\" alt=\"Foto\" \/><\/p>\n<div>Un anciano camina por las calles del municipio El Bosque, en Chiapas,  de donde es originario el profesor Alberto Patisht\u00e1n G\u00f3mezFoto Moys\u00e9s Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Santiago<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Hermann Bellinghausen<\/div>\n<div>Enviado<\/div>\n<div>Peri\u00f3dico La Jornada<br \/>\nS\u00e1bado 23 de marzo de 2013, p. 2<\/div>\n<p>San Crist\u00f3bal de las Casas, Chis. 22 de marzo.<\/p>\n<p>La notoriedad alcanzada por la lucha de Alberto Patisht\u00e1n G\u00f3mez para  conseguir su libertad ha impedido que el crimen que dio origen a su  personal desgracia de 12 a\u00f1os en prisi\u00f3n (y 48 m\u00e1s que le faltan, seg\u00fan  su sentencia) fuera olvidado, lo cual de seguro contrar\u00eda a muchas  autoridades, al menos estatales, desde 2000 hasta el presente, tras  cuatro gobernadores de, literalmente, todos los partidos. \u00bfQu\u00e9 sucedi\u00f3  la ma\u00f1ana del 12 de junio de 2000 en el paraje Las Lagunas de Las Limas,  Simojovel? \u00bfCu\u00e1l pudo ser el m\u00f3vil de los perpetradores? \u00bfQu\u00e9 estaba  sucediendo ah\u00ed por esos d\u00edas?<\/p>\n<p>El asesinato de siete polic\u00edas \u2013el comandante estatal Francisco P\u00e9rez  Morales, cinco agentes bajo sus \u00f3rdenes y el comandante municipal de El  Bosque, Alejandro P\u00e9rez Cruz\u2013, representaba un hecho de enorme  gravedad. Hoy tal vez nos hemos acostumbrado a noticias de ese calibre,  pero en ese entonces, incluso para el Chiapas militarizado y  paramilitarizado, resultaba extraordinario. Ocup\u00f3 por supuesto todos los  titulares period\u00edsticos del d\u00eda siguiente.<\/p>\n<p>En tres semanas m\u00e1s se celebrar\u00edan los comicios en los que el PRI  habr\u00eda de perder la Presidencia, y en agosto la gubernatura. El  presidente Ernesto Zedillo, hist\u00f3rica y personalmente involucrado con el  desarrollo de la guerra contra los ind\u00edgenas de Chiapas, en general, y  de los de El Bosque, en particular, se dispon\u00eda a visitar la entidad el  martes 13 para inaugurar una carretera en la selva Lacandona, pero  suspendi\u00f3 la gira. El candidato pri\u00edsta a gobernador, Sami David, hizo  lo propio. El Ej\u00e9rcito federal envi\u00f3 centenares de efectivos, ocup\u00f3 el  lugar de la emboscada, la cabecera municipal, los caminos, e incursion\u00f3  enseguida en las comunidades zapatistas. Sin embargo, la primera  hip\u00f3tesis de la Secretar\u00eda de la Defensa Nacional fue que pod\u00eda tratarse  de <q>una c\u00e9lula del Ej\u00e9rcito Popular Revolucionario (EPR)<\/q> (<em>La Jornada<\/em> 13\/06\/2000), algo que sorprendi\u00f3 pues ni entonces, ni nunca, \u00e9ste tuvo presencia en la zona.<\/p>\n<p>M\u00e1s cre\u00edble pareci\u00f3 la hip\u00f3tesis, el mismo d\u00eda, de la Central  Independiente de Obreros Agr\u00edcolas y Campesinos (CIOAC), esa s\u00ed con  presencia hist\u00f3rica en la regi\u00f3n: pudieron ser <q>paramilitares del Mira<\/q> (aunque visto en perspectiva, el grupo paramilitar en El Bosque, temible y letal, era conocido como <em>Los Pl\u00e1tanos<\/em> por el nombre de la comunidad donde se asentaban, junto con polic\u00edas  judiciales, desde donde hab\u00edan salido el 10 de junio de 1998 para  participar en la masacre de zapatistas en Uni\u00f3n Progreso; en Los  Pl\u00e1tanos, este reportero presenci\u00f3, meses antes de la emboscada, una <q>quema medi\u00e1tica<\/q> de plant\u00edos de mariguana con la pretensi\u00f3n, a la postre fallida, de culpar al EZLN).<\/p>\n<p>La polic\u00eda federal habl\u00f3 inicialmente de narcotraficantes; no era  ning\u00fan secreto el trasiego de mariguana procedente de Huitiup\u00e1n.<\/p>\n<p>La masacre fue un lunes. El s\u00e1bado previo los zapatistas hab\u00edan  conmemorado el segundo aniversario de la ocurrida en Uni\u00f3n Progreso y  Chavajeval y el encarcelamiento de las autoridades aut\u00f3nomas de San Juan  de la Libertad. Diego Cadenas, entonces joven abogado del Frayba,  declar\u00f3 a <em>La Jornada<\/em> el d\u00eda de la emboscada que ese 10 de  junio, cuando viajaba a Uni\u00f3n Progreso para participar en los actos  religiosos por el segundo aniversario de la masacre de 1998, en los  retenes militares de Puerto Cat\u00e9 y San Andr\u00e9s Larr\u00e1inzar los militares  le dijeron que estaban <q>suspendidas las garant\u00ed\u00adas individuales<\/q>. No era s\u00ed.<\/p>\n<p>Dos d\u00edas despu\u00e9s, un comando de entre 10 y 15 individuos, con  parapetos construidos y armas de alto poder, embosc\u00f3 eficazmente la <em>pick up<\/em> verde oscuro en que se trasladaban, procedentes de Simojovel, ocho  polic\u00edas y el chofer oficial del ayuntamiento de El Bosque, menor de  edad e hijo del alcalde Manuel G\u00f3mez Ruiz. Gravemente heridos, el joven  Rosemberg G\u00f3mez P\u00e9rez, quien conduc\u00eda el veh\u00edculo con los dos  comandantes en la cabina, y el agente de Seguridad P\u00fablica Belisario  G\u00f3mez P\u00e9rez en la g\u00f3ndola con sus compa\u00f1eros de corporaci\u00f3n, habr\u00edan  sido dados por muertos por los atacantes, y al sobrevivir devendr\u00edan los  \u00fanicos testigos presenciales.<\/p>\n<p><em>La Jornada<\/em> informaba tambi\u00e9n que en lo que iba de 2000, esta era <q>la octava emboscada<\/q>;  los ataques ya hab\u00edan dejado 20 muertos y un n\u00famero igual de  lesionados. Los polic\u00edas ca\u00eddos en Las Lagunas fueron Francisco Escobar  S\u00e1nchez, Rodolfo G\u00f3mez Dom\u00ednguez, Guadalupe Margarito Rodr\u00ed\u00adguez F\u00e9lix,  Arbey V\u00e1zquez G\u00f3mez y Francisco P\u00e9rez Mendoza. Dos de ellos todav\u00eda hoy  son recordados por sendas cruces de cemento en la curva donde fueron  acribillados. Se contaron 85 impactos de AK-47 y R-15.<\/p>\n<p>El EZLN se deslinda e investiga<\/p>\n<p>Al d\u00eda siguiente de la emboscada, el Comit\u00e9 Clandestino  Revolucionario Ind\u00edgena, Comandancia General del EZLN se pronunci\u00f3 con  un breve comunicado: \u201cDe acuerdo con los datos, el ataque fue realizado  con t\u00e1cticas de narcotraficantes, paramilitares o militares. El uso del  llamado \u2018tiro de gracia\u2019 es recurrente en estos grupos armados. El  ataque se realiz\u00f3 en una zona saturada de tropas gubernamentales  (Ej\u00e9rcito y polic\u00eda), en la que es muy dif\u00edcil que se pueda movilizar un  grupo armado sin ser detectado y sin la complicidad de las autoridades.  El grupo atacante contaba con informaci\u00f3n privilegiada sobre los  movimientos y n\u00famero de personas emboscadas. Dicha informaci\u00f3n s\u00f3lo  podr\u00eda ser obtenida por gente del gobierno o cercana a \u00e9l\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>La comandancia rebelde se\u00f1alaba: \u201cEl EZLN est\u00e1 investigando para  esclarecer la identidad y motivos del grupo atacante. Todo apunta a que  fueron del gobierno (o con el auspicio gubernamental) las personas que  realizaron la agresi\u00f3n, ya que as\u00ed tendr\u00edan el pretexto para aumentar la  militarizaci\u00f3n en Chiapas, y para justificar el ataque a comunidades  zapatistas o al EZLN. Es de notar que este hecho refuerza el clima de  inestabilidad con el que amenaza el candidato oficial si no gana.<\/p>\n<p><q>Franca provocaci\u00f3n o no, el hecho violento es ya un argumento para  aumentar la presencia militar en todo el estado, incluso en zonas muy  alejadas del lugar de la agresi\u00f3n<\/q>, a\u00f1ade el comunicado (13\/6\/2000), detallando que <q>en  las \u00faltimas horas se han reforzado a\u00fan m\u00e1s los cuarteles federales de  Guadalupe Tepeyac, en Las Margaritas; Cuxulj\u00e1, en Ocosingo; Cat\u00e9, en El  Bosque, y las cabeceras municipales de Simojovel y El Bosque. As\u00ed mismo  se ha incrementado el n\u00famero de aeronaves artilladas y de sus  sobrevuelos en las zonas Altos, selva y norte<\/q>. Y finalmente, <q>el EZLN se deslinda de este acto y hace un llamado a la opini\u00f3n p\u00fablica para que no se deje enga\u00f1ar<\/q>.<\/p>\n<p>La captura de Patisht\u00e1n<\/p>\n<p>No obstante, el gobierno estatal de Roberto Albores  Guill\u00e9n, a trav\u00e9s de su procurador Eduardo Montoya Li\u00e9vano, impuls\u00f3  enseguida la hip\u00f3tesis de que los atacantes pudieron ser zapatistas, en  presunta venganza por la masacre contra ellos ordenada por el propio  Albores Guill\u00e9n dos a\u00f1os atr\u00e1s, aunque tambien reconoce que pudieron ser  <q>asaltantes<\/q>. El convoy atacado, se dijo, patrullaba para <q>combatir gavilleros<\/q>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jornada.unam.mx\/2013\/03\/23\/fotos\/002n1pol-1_mini.jpg\" alt=\"Foto\" \/><\/p>\n<div>Alberto Patisht\u00e1n G\u00f3mez durante una revisi\u00f3n m\u00e9dica en el Hospital de  La Vida, en septiembre de 2012. El profesor ind\u00edgena se encuentra preso  en el penal n\u00famero 5 de San Crist\u00f3bal de las CasasFoto Moys\u00e9s Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Santiago<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>El senador Carlos Pay\u00e1n Velver, miembro de la Cocopa, propuso  que la instancia legislativa viajara a la entidad, pues la situaci\u00f3n era  <q>grave y cr\u00edtica<\/q>. El diputado Gilberto L\u00f3pez y Rivas, tambi\u00e9n de la Cocopa, se\u00f1al\u00f3 que aquello ten\u00eda visos de <q>una provocaci\u00f3n de los paramilitares que se fomentan desde el gobierno mismo del estado<\/q> (<em>La Jornada<\/em> 14\/6\/2000).<\/p>\n<p>En la misma fecha, V\u00edctor Manuel P\u00e9rez L\u00f3pez, dirigente de la CIOAC,  revel\u00f3 que el gobierno de Chiapas arm\u00f3 y financi\u00f3 en 1997 a <q>disidentes del Partido del Trabajo<\/q> para combatir al fugaz gobierno municipal de dicho partido y la CIOAC. <q>Cualquiera en la zona sabe qui\u00e9nes son<\/q>, dijo, y que <q>una vez cumplido el objetivo<\/q> de devolver al PRI la alcald\u00eda, estos <q>se dedicaron al asalto y el narcotr\u00e1fico<\/q>. Act\u00faan, a\u00f1adi\u00f3, <q>en completa impunidad, en pleno d\u00eda, aun cuando militares y polic\u00edas realizan patrullajes frecuentes<\/q>.<\/p>\n<p>Para entonces, en dos emboscadas previas, hab\u00edan sido asesinadas cuatro personas, seg\u00fan la CIOAC <q>bases zapatistas<\/q>.  El 13 de enero, en el camino a Chavajeval, fue asesinado Mart\u00edn S\u00e1nchez  Hern\u00e1ndez por encapuchados fuertemente armados, y luego, el primero de  febrero, Rodolfo G\u00f3mez Ruiz, Lorenzo P\u00e9rez Hern\u00e1ndez y Mart\u00edn G\u00f3mez.  Todos tzotziles.<\/p>\n<p>Diputados del PRD y el PAN acusaron de negligencia al secretario de  Gobierno Mario Lescieur Talavera, y dijeron que la emboscada servir\u00eda de  pretexto para el arribo de m\u00e1s elementos de la Polic\u00eda Federal  Preventiva. Los tanques, helic\u00f3pteros y artiller\u00eda del Ej\u00e9rcito federal  ya hab\u00edan llegado.<\/p>\n<p>El episodio se sal\u00eda de cauce. Urg\u00eda un control de da\u00f1os. El gobierno  crey\u00f3 lograrlo, as\u00ed que el presidente Zedillo pudo viajar el 19 de  junio a Marqu\u00e9s de Comillas para inaugurar su carretera. Ese mismo d\u00eda,  en la cabecera municipal de El Bosque, el Ej\u00e9rcito y la PFP capturaron,  sin mostrar orden de aprehensi\u00f3n, al maestro Alberto Patisht\u00e1n G\u00f3mez. Un  grupo de pobladores, identificados como miembros del PRI, <q>visiblemente conmocionados<\/q> (<em>La Jornada<\/em>, 20\/6\/2000), solicitaron la intervenci\u00f3n del Congreso estatal, sostuvieron que el detenido era inocente, <q>se deslindaron de los hechos violentos del 12 de junio<\/q>, y argumentaron no estar armados ni pertenecer a ning\u00fan grupo paramilitar. No les hicieron caso, antes bien los amenazaron.<\/p>\n<p>Patisht\u00e1n permaneci\u00f3 un mes ilegalmente <q>arraigado<\/q> en el hotel  Safari de Tuxtla Guti\u00e9rrez. Sus familiares, amigos y correligionarios  ocuparon la presidencia municipal y demandaron la liberaci\u00f3n del  profesor. Ni siquiera su propio partido los respald\u00f3. Y no s\u00f3lo eso. El  entonces diputado pri\u00edsta Ramiro Miceli Maza, compadre del alcalde, o  sea padrino de bautizo del joven Rosemberg, result\u00f3 pieza clave para  amedrentarlos e inculpar al maestro y l\u00edder comunitario, quien termin\u00f3  encarcelado en el penal de Cerro Hueco.<\/p>\n<p>Tambi\u00e9n aquel 19 de junio, al pronunciarse respecto a los inminentes comicios del 3 de julio de 2000, el <em>subcomandante Marcos<\/em> escribi\u00f3: \u201cMientras tanto, ac\u00e1 estamos temblando. Y no porque el  \u2018croquetas\u2019 Albores haya contratado al Alazraki para que le \u2018levante\u2019 su  imagen (probablemente Albores ya busca chamba en la promoci\u00f3n de  alimento para perros), ni por los seiscientos mil d\u00f3lares que le va a  pagar (con dinero destinado originalmente a \u2018resolver las condiciones de  pobreza y marginaci\u00f3n de los ind\u00edgenas chiapanecos\u2019, Zedillo <em>dixit<\/em>).  Tampoco por los ladridos del \u2018cachorro\u2019 Montoya Li\u00e9vano (m\u00e1s que ahora  est\u00e1 nervioso porque ya se est\u00e1 descubriendo que fueron sus \u2018muchachos\u2019  \u2013es decir, sus paramilitares\u2013 los responsables del ataque a la Seguridad  P\u00fablica en El Bosque, el pasado 12 de junio). No, estamos temblando  porque estamos empapados por la lluvia. Y es que, entre helic\u00f3pteros y  tormentas, no encuentra uno buen techo\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Ahora contra los zapatistas<\/p>\n<p>El 10 de julio siguiente, pasados los comicios federales,  un mes despu\u00e9s de la emboscada, la polic\u00eda estatal detuvo en Bochil a  dos bases de apoyo del EZLN residentes de Uni\u00f3n Progreso, acus\u00e1ndolos de  participar en el crimen. Ello, aunque la Procuradur\u00eda General de la  Rep\u00fablica sosten\u00eda que los atacantes hab\u00edan sido un grupo de pri\u00edstas  disidentes, entre ellos Patisht\u00e1n; estos cruzaban acusaciones con el  alcalde Manuel G\u00f3mez P\u00e9rez, a quien impugnaban desde meses atr\u00e1s por su  escandalosa corrupci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n<p>La Procuradur\u00eda General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE) ten\u00eda sus propias l\u00edneas de investigaci\u00f3n. <q>Recurriendo  a la polic\u00eda destacada en Los Pl\u00e1tanos, que sabe de eso, las  autoridades sembraron magras evidencias de delito en dos ind\u00edgenas de  Uni\u00f3n Progreso<\/q> (<em>La Jornada<\/em>, 15\/7\/2000). Uno de ellos, Salvador L\u00f3pez Gonz\u00e1lez, torturado e interrogado sin traductor, firm\u00f3 una declaraci\u00f3n inculpatoria <em>ad hoc<\/em> y fue encarcelado. En prisi\u00f3n se encontr\u00f3 con su coacusado: Patisht\u00e1n.  Sin conocerse siquiera, ambos cargaron con todo el peso de la emboscada.<\/p>\n<p><em>La Jornada<\/em> inform\u00f3 desde Uni\u00f3n Progreso: \u201cEl destacamento  policiaco que detuvo a los zapatistas ha tenido a la vista, durante  largo tiempo, los cultivos de mariguana que hay en Los Pl\u00e1tanos. La  violencia interna en esa poblaci\u00f3n, controlada por un conocido grupo  paramilitar, ha servido siempre de pretexto para acusar y atacar a los  vecinos zapatistas. Seg\u00fan el representante de Uni\u00f3n Progreso, \u2018nos  acusan de lo que ellos hacen\u2019. El Ej\u00e9rcito federal ha ingresado a Los  Pl\u00e1tanos para destruir estos plant\u00edos, los \u00fanicos detectados en la  regi\u00f3n. Al menos en dos ocasiones, aunque sin detenidos\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Salvador y su hermano Manuel <q>fueron agarrados<\/q> el 10 de julio; sus familiares declararon: <q>Los de Seguridad P\u00fablica (SP) los golpearon, descalzaron y desnudaron, y dejaron inconciente a Salvador<\/q>. Con los detenidos se encontraban un ni\u00f1o (<q>que lloraba mucho<\/q>) y un adolescente, quienes <q>vinieron a avisar que a los compa\u00f1eros se los hab\u00edan llevado<\/q>.<\/p>\n<p>Como los captores no eran de Bochil sino de El Bosque, <q>alquilaron la c\u00e1rcel un rato<\/q>. Enseguida los detenidos fueron remitidos a Cerro Hueco. <q>Los de la SP les pusieron un pu\u00f1ito de mariguana y un pu\u00f1ito de bala<\/q> y les robaron 28 cajas de refrescos. Manuel ser\u00eda pronto liberado.<\/p>\n<p>Exactamente un mes atr\u00e1s, el 10 de junio, horas antes de la matanza  de polic\u00edas, la SP acantonada en Los Pl\u00e1tanos intercept\u00f3 una camioneta  de Uni\u00f3n Progreso. El chofer era el mismo Salvador. <q>Lo interrogaron sobre una lista de nombres. Desde entonces quer\u00edan culpar a los compa\u00f1eros<\/q>, declar\u00f3 un representante de su comunidad: <q>No sabemos cu\u00e1ntos est\u00e1n en la lista. A lo mejor estamos acusados todos<\/q>.  (Curiosamente, casi con las mismas palabras hab\u00edan expresado su  respectivo temor los correligionarios de Patisht\u00e1n cuando \u00e9ste fue  detenido).<\/p>\n<p>Con dos chivos expiatorios tan dis\u00edmbolos como Alberto y Salvador, el caso comenzaba a ser <q>resuelto<\/q>, o al menos olvidado por los medios nacionales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--:--><!--:en--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The  Alberto Patisht\u00e1n Case<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">____________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Simojovel Massacre<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Chronicle of an (almost) forgotten police massacre<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Patish-Moyses.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7834\" title=\"Patish Moyses\" src=\"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Patish-Moyses-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>** Seven uniformed (police) were ambushed and killed on June 12, 2000<\/p>\n<p>** The EPR, paramilitaries and Zapatistas were accused<\/p>\n<p>** A week later, Alberto Patisht\u00e1n, a teacher, was detained<\/p>\n<p>** The PGJE also blamed an indigenous man, Salvador L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n<p>By: Hermann Bellinghausen<\/p>\n<p>San Crist\u00f3bal de las Casas, Chiapas, March 22, 2013<\/p>\n<p>The notoriety gained by Alberto Patisht\u00e1n G\u00f3mez\u2019 struggle to attain his freedom has prevented the crime that led to his personal misfortune of spending 12 years in prison (and with 48 more still to serve, according to his sentence) from being forgotten, which is certainly contrary to the wishes of many authorities, at least the state ones, from 2000 to the present, including four governors, literally from every party. What happened on the morning of June 12, 2000 in Las Lagunas de Las Limas, Simojovel? What could be the motive of the perpetrators? What was going on there in those days?<\/p>\n<p>The murder of seven police \u2013the state commander Francisco P\u00e9rez Morales, five officers under his command, and the El Bosque municipal commander, Alejandro P\u00e9rez Cruz &#8211; represented an act of enormous gravity. Today perhaps we have become accustomed to that level of news, but back then, even for the militarized and para-militarized Chiapas, it was extraordinary. It of course occupied all the newspaper headlines the next day.<\/p>\n<p>Three weeks later, the elections would be held in which the PRI would lose the Presidency, and in August the governorship. President Ernesto Zedillo, historically and personally involved with the development of the war against the indigenous of Chiapas, in general, and of those from El Bosque, in particular, was ready to visit the state on Tuesday, the 13th, to inaugurate a highway in the Lacand\u00f3n Jungle, but suspended his tour. The PRI candidate for governor, Sami David, did the same. The federal Army sent hundreds of soldiers, occupied the place of the ambush, the municipal headquarters, the roads, and immediately entered the Zapatista communities. Nevertheless, the first hypothesis of the Secretary of National Defence was that it could be dealing with \u201ca cell of the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR, its initials in Spanish)\u201d (La Jornada 13\/06\/2000), something that surprised people because not then, nor ever, did it have a presence in the zone.<\/p>\n<p>That same day, the hypothesis of the Independent Centre of Farmworkers and Campesinos (CIOAC) seemed more credible, due to their historic presence in the region: they could be \u201cparamilitaries from the Mira\u201d (although with hindsight, the paramilitary group in El Bosque, terrifying and lethal, was known as Los Pl\u00e1tanos from the name of the community where they had settled, together with judicial police: it was from here that they went out on June 10, 1998, to participate in the massacre of  Zapatistas in Uni\u00f3n Progreso. This reporter was present in Los Pl\u00e1tanos, months before the ambush, at a \u201cburning for the media\u201d of marijuana plants with the aim, which failed in the end, of blaming the EZLN).<\/p>\n<p>The federal police initially talked about drug traffickers. The movement of marijuana coming from Huitiup\u00e1n was no secret.<\/p>\n<p>The massacre was on a Monday. The previous Saturday the Zapatistas had commemorated the second anniversary of what happened in Uni\u00f3n Progreso and Chavajeval and the incarceration of the autonomous authorities of San Juan de la Libertad. Diego Cadenas, then a young lawyer with Frayba, stated to La Jornada on the day of the ambush that that on June 10, when he was traveling to Uni\u00f3n Progreso to participate in the religious acts for the second anniversary of the 1998 massacre, at the military checkpoints at Puerto Cat\u00e9 and San Andr\u00e9s Larr\u00e1inzar the soldiers told him that: \u201cindividual rights were suspended.\u201d This was not the case.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later, a commando force of between 10 and 15 individuals, with barricades constructed and high-powered weapons, efficiently ambushed the dark green pick up coming from Simojovel, in which eight police were traveling with the official driver of the municipality of El Bosque, the younger son of the Mayor Manuel G\u00f3mez Ruiz. Gravely injured, the young Rosemberg G\u00f3mez P\u00e9rez, who was driving the vehicle with the two commanders in the cabin, and Belisario G\u00f3mez P\u00e9rez, the Public Security agent who was in the back with his compa\u00f1eros from the (police) corporation, were left for dead by the attackers, and by surviving became the only eyewitnesses.<\/p>\n<p>La Jornada also reported that this was \u201cthe eighth ambush\u201d so far in the year 2000. The attacks had already left 20 dead and an equal number injured. The policemen killed in Las Lagunas were Francisco Escobar S\u00e1nchez, Rodolfo G\u00f3mez Dom\u00ednguez, Guadalupe Margarito Rodr\u00edguez F\u00e9lix, Arbey V\u00e1zquez G\u00f3mez and Francisco P\u00e9rez Mendoza. Two of them are still remembered today by cement crosses at the bend where they were riddled with bullets. 85 bullets from AK-47 and R-15 rifles were counted.<\/p>\n<p>The EZLN distances itself and investigates<\/p>\n<p>The day following the ambush, the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee, General Command of the EZLN declared in a brief communiqu\u00e9: \u201cAccording to information, the attack was carried out using the tactics of drug traffickers, paramilitaries or the military. The use of the so-called \u2018coup de gr\u00e2ce\u2019 is recurrent in these armed groups. The attack took place in an area saturated with government troops (Army and police), where it would have been very difficult to mobilize an armed group without being detected and without the complicity of the authorities. The attacking group had inside information about movements and the number of people ambushed. This information could only be obtained by people from the government or close to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rebel commanders pointed out: \u201cThe EZLN is investigating to clarify the identity and motive of the attacking group. Everything points to those who carried out the attack being from the government (or under governmental auspices), since this would give them a pretext for increasing the militarization of Chiapas, and for justifying an attack on Zapatista communities or the EZLN. It is noteworthy that this act reinforces the climate of instability, with which the official candidate threatens [the state] if he doesn\u2019t win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOpen provocation or not, the violent act is already an argument for increasing military presence throughout the state, even in zones very far away from the scene of the crime,\u201d the communiqu\u00e9 adds (13\/6\/2000), detailing that: \u201cin the last three hours, the federal barracks at Guadalupe Tepeyac, in Las Margaritas; Cuxulj\u00e1, in Ocosingo; Cat\u00e9, in El Bosque, and the municipal headquarters of Simojovel and El Bosque have been reinforced even more. Similarly, the number of armed aircraft and flyovers has increased in the Highlands (Altos), Jungle (selva) and Northern Zones.\u201d And finally, \u201cthe EZLN disclaims itself from [responsibility for] this act and calls on public opinion not to permit deceit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patisht\u00e1n\u2019s capture<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the state government of Roberto Albores Guill\u00e9n, through their prosecutor, Eduardo Montoya Li\u00e9vano, immediately fostered the hypothesis that the attackers could be Zapatistas, in alleged revenge for the massacre against them ordered by the very same Albores Guill\u00e9n two years before, although he also recognized that they could be \u201crobbers.\u201d The convoy attacked, he said, was patrolling to \u201ccombat gangsters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Senator Carlos Pay\u00e1n Velver, a member of the Cocopa, proposed that the legislative commission travel to the state, because the situation was \u201cgrave and critical.\u201d Deputy Gilberto L\u00f3pez y Rivas, also a member of the Cocopa, pointed out that it had the appearance of \u201ca provocation from the paramilitaries who were set up by the state government itself\u201d (La Jornada 14\/6\/2000).<\/p>\n<p>On the same date, V\u00edctor Manuel P\u00e9rez L\u00f3pez, leader of the CIOAC, revealed that in 1997 the Chiapas government armed and financed \u201cdissidents of the Labour Party (Partido del Trabajo)\u201d to fight the short-lived municipal government of this [Labour] party and the CIOAC. \u201cEveryone in the zone knows who they are,\u201d he said, and: \u201conce the objective\u201d of returning the municipal presidency to the PRI had been fulfilled, they \u201cdedicated themselves to robbery and drug trafficking.\u201d They act, he added, \u201cwith complete impunity, in broad daylight, even when the military and police undertake frequent patrols.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By then, in two previous ambushes, four people had been murdered; according to the CIOAC, they were \u201cZapatista bases.\u201d On January 13, on the road to Chavajeval, heavily armed masked men murdered Mart\u00edn S\u00e1nchez Hern\u00e1ndez, and later, on February 1, Rodolfo G\u00f3mez Ruiz, Lorenzo P\u00e9rez Hern\u00e1ndez and Mart\u00edn G\u00f3mez, all of them Tzotziles.<\/p>\n<p>Deputies of the PRD and PAN accused the secretary of Government, Mario Lescieur Talavera, of negligence, and said that the ambush would be used as a pretext for the arrival of more members of the Federal Preventive Police. The tanks, helicopters and the federal Army\u2019s artillery had already arrived.<\/p>\n<p>The episode was ditched; damage control was urged. The government wanted to attain it, so that President Zedillo could travel to Marqu\u00e9s de Comillas on June 19 to inaugurate his highway. That same day, in the El Bosque municipal headquarters, the Army and the PFP captured the teacher Alberto Patisht\u00e1n G\u00f3mez, without showing an arrest warrant. A group of residents, identified as PRI members, \u201cvisibly emotional\u201d (La Jornada, 20\/6\/2000), requested the state Congress\u2019 intervention, maintaining that the detainee was innocent, \u201cthey distanced themselves from the violent acts of June 12\u201d and argued that they were not armed nor did they belong to any paramilitary group. No attention was paid to them, instead they were threatened.<\/p>\n<p>Patisht\u00e1n was kept for one month illegally \u201cunder house arrest\u201d in the Safari Hotel in Tuxtla Guti\u00e9rrez. His family, friends and co-religionists occupied the town hall and demanded the teacher\u2019s release. Not even their own party backed them up. And not only that, the then PRI deputy Ramiro Miceli Maza, friend of the mayor (municipal president), and godfather of the young Rosemberg, turned out to be key in intimidating and accusing the teacher and community leader, who ended up imprisoned in Cerro Hueco Prison.<\/p>\n<p>Also on June 19, when giving his opinion on the imminent elections of July 3, 2000, Subcomandante Marcos wrote: \u201cMeanwhile, we are trembling here. And it\u2019s not because \u2018Croquetas\u2019 Albores has contracted Alazraki so that \u2018he lifts up\u2019 his image (probably Albores already looks for money in the promotion of dog food), not for the six hundred thousand dollars that are going to be paid him (with money originally allocated to \u2018solve the conditions of poverty and marginalization of indigenous Chiapanecos,\u2019 Zedillo dixit). Neither is it because of the barks from the \u2018puppy\u2019 Montoya Li\u00e9vano (now he is more nervous because it is being discovered that his \u2018boys\u2019 \u2013in other words, his paramilitaries\u2013 were the ones responsible for the attack on the Public Security (police) in El Bosque, last June 12). No, we are trembling because we are soaked with rain. And it\u2019s the case that, between helicopters and storms, we can\u2019t find a good roof.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now against the Zapatistas<\/p>\n<p>The following July 10, after the federal elections, one month after the ambush, state police detained two EZLN support base residents of Uni\u00f3n Progreso in Bochil, accusing them of participating in the crime. They did this even though the Attorney General of the Republic maintained that the attackers had been a group of PRI dissidents, among them Patisht\u00e1n. These accusations crossed with Mayor Manuel G\u00f3mez P\u00e9rez, who they had been attacking for months because of his scandalous corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The State\u2019s Attorney General of Justice (PGJE, its initials in Spanish) had his own lines of investigation. \u201cResorting to the police posted in Los Pl\u00e1tanos, who know about this, the authorities planted weak evidence of a crime on two indigenous men from Uni\u00f3n Progreso\u201d (La Jornada, 15\/7\/2000). One of them, Salvador L\u00f3pez Gonz\u00e1lez, was tortured and interrogated without a translator, he signed an ad hoc confession and was incarcerated. In prison he met his co-accused: Patisht\u00e1n. Without even knowing each other, both were charged with all the weight of the ambush.<\/p>\n<p>La Jornada reported from Uni\u00f3n Progreso: \u201cThe police detachment that detained the Zapatistas has had the marijuana plants in Los Pl\u00e1tanos in sight for a long time. The internal violence in that population centre, controlled by a known paramilitary group, has always served as a pretext for accusing and attacking the neighbouring Zapatistas. According to the representative from Uni\u00f3n Progreso, \u2018they accuse us of what they themselves do.\u2019 The federal Army has entered Los Pl\u00e1tanos to destroy these crops, the only ones detected in the area, on at least on two occasions, although without detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salvador and his brother Manuel \u201cwere seized\u201d on July 10. Their families stated: \u201cThe Public Security (SP, its initials in Spanish) police beat them, took off their shoes and clothes, and left Salvador unconscious.\u201d With the detainees were a little boy (\u201cwho cried a lot\u201d) and a teenager, who \u201ccame to advise that they had taken the compa\u00f1eros away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the captors were not from Bochil, but rather from El Bosque, \u201cthey rented a jail for a while.\u201d The detainees were quickly sent to Cerro Hueco (state prison). \u201cThose from the SP put a handful of marijuana and a handful of bullets\u201d on them and they stole 28 boxes of soft drinks from them. Manuel would soon be released.<\/p>\n<p>Exactly one month before, on June 10, hours before the police killings, the SP quartered in Los Pl\u00e1tanos intercepted a truck from Uni\u00f3n Progreso. The driver was the same Salvador. \u201cThey interrogated him about a list of names. Since then they wanted to blame the compa\u00f1eros,\u201d a representative of his community declared: \u201cWe don\u2019t know how many are on the list. At best, we are all accused.\u201d (Curiously, Patisht\u00e1n\u2019s fellow believers had expressed their respective fear with almost the same words when he was detained).<\/p>\n<p>With two scapegoats as dissimilar as Alberto and Salvador, the case started to be \u201cresolved,\u201d or at least forgotten by the national media.<\/p>\n<p>Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada<\/p>\n<p>Saturday, March 23, 2013<\/p>\n<p>En espa\u00f1ol: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jornada.unam.mx\/2013\/03\/23\/politica\/002n1pol\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.jornada.unam.mx\/2013\/03\/23\/politica\/002n1pol<\/a><!--:--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caso Alberto Patisht\u00e1n Masacre de Simojovel Cr\u00f3nica de una matanza de polic\u00edas (casi) olvidada Siete uniformados fueron emboscados y asesinados el 12 de junio de 2000 Se acus\u00f3 al EPR, a paramilitares y a zapatistas Una semana despu\u00e9s se detuvo al profesor Alberto Patisht\u00e1n El ind\u00edgena Salvador L\u00f3pez fue culpado tambi\u00e9n por la PGJE Un [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,183],"tags":[917,37,27],"class_list":["post-7833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autor","category-blog","tag-chiapas","tag-presos-politicos","tag-solidaridad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}