Jul 22, 1995 | Mexico, Tepetixla
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – July 22, 1995
TEPETIXLA, Mexico (AP) _ A massacre of civilians by soldiers two decades ago set off one of Mexico’s rare modern rebellions, pitting a strong-arm governor against a guerrilla leader in this rugged western state.
Now history threatens to repeat itself.
Many worry that last month’s massacre of 17 peasants by police working for Gov. Ruben Figueroa Alcocer could spark another revolt in impoverished Guerrero state.
“It was after just such a massacre that Lucio Cabanas armed himself and went to the mountains,” said Cirilo Placido, a leader of the Guerrerense Council of 500 Years in Resistance, an Indian rights group with thousands of members statewide.
Jan 3, 1994 | Mexico, Zapatistas
By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – January 03 1994
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) – Armed Indian peasants battled army soldiers Sunday on the second day of an uprising in one of Mexico’s poorest states. The Indians took over three towns near the Guatemalan border, and dozens were reported dead.
The worst fighting occurred in Ocosingo, after government troops were attacked by rebels. The Chiapasstate governor’s office in a statement late Sunday said 57 people – 30 soldiers and police, 24 rebels and three civilians – had been killed in Sunday’s fighting. At least eight died in fighting Saturday.
The rebels claimed they were from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a previously unknown group named for the Mexican hero Emiliano Zapata. They said they were protesting abuses by the authorities against Lacandon Indians in the region and unspecified foreign economic domination.
