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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2005 
Activists Decry Militarization
 Wire services
Activists on Wednesday denounced the heavy presence of soldiers and paramilitaries in an Indian-populated region of northeastern Mexico "where there have been dozens of murders of residents and forced contraception plans are being carried out."
Leaders of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights, or Limedh, and of Codhhso, a body representing residents of the affected area, told a press conference in Mexico City that the militarization of the region coincides with "the struggle of the Indians to recover lands taken from them by landowners."
Limedh chairman Adrián Ramírez said that the people in a vast zone of La Huasteca, which comprises parts of the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz and Tamaulipas, are undergoing "continuing harassment ... by the soldiers, paramilitaries and gunmen on the payroll of the landowners."
Ramírez urged President Vicente Fox "to confine the soldiers to their barracks, as the Constitution orders, and to stop the activities of paramilitaries and hired guns."
Meanwhile, Codhhso representative Pedro Hernández said that the troops and paramilitaries harassed the indigenous people of La Huasteca on Sept. 15-16 as residents tried to celebrate Independence Day.
The activist said that some 1,200 army soldiers are operating throughout the La Huasteca area.
"The situation in the region is tense, especially if you take into account that from 1977 to now, 192 Indians have been murdered," he said.
Hernández added that the women in the zone are also being subjected to "a systematic plan of forced contraception ... (by) the authorities in charge of carrying out social development programs." |
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