U.S JOURNALIST THREATENED IN MEXICO
NUEVO AMANECER PRESS - EUROPA
***PRESS RELEASE***
May 6th, 1998
As an investigative journalist and United States citizen who legally
resides in Spain, I am writing concerning accusations made against me by a
member of the Mexican Congress which I consider to be an attack on the
freedom of expression and a threat to my personal safety.
Yesterday, the Mexican government-run news agency "Notimex" released a
dispatch which dealt with declarations made by members of the ruling party
in Mexico, the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional), in the
Congressional Commission on Indigenous Affairs. The congressmen made public
a list of 163 foreigners that they consider to be "international
destabilizers" involved the conflict in the state of Chiapas. My name is
included on that list.
Notimex states that "these persons register in Mexican embassies
accredited in other nations distinct from their [countries of] origin, to
try and "mislead the migration services and pass unnoticed". One of the
examples cited is "Darrin James Wood, who entered [Mexico] from Madrid".
The only reason I entered Mexico from Madrid is that I have been a legal
resident in Spain for years now with up to date working papers as a
journalist. If I wanted to "mislead the migration services and pass
unnoticed" I wouldn't have gone to the Mexican Embassy in Madrid in
February of this year to get a migration document as a human rights
observer and give embassy officials my photograph, address, telephone
number, place of work and itinerary for my stay in Mexico as the official
representative of the Spanish Human Rights Association which took part in
an international Human Rights commission to Chiapas at that time.
The following is a translation of part of the Notimex dispatch:
"According the the legislators, "it is known that these foreigners come to Chiapas after being in some of the other guerrilla movements in Central America, and, obviously, they play a protagonist role of orientation in what is the guerrilla movement in Chiapas. It is thought, they added, that "fundamentally these groups come with the idea of destabilizing the Army, our institutions, the government, and to exploit our natural resources." The Secretary of the Indigenous Affairs Commission in Congress, Enrique Ku Herrera, emphasized that "not only these people should be investigated. It is known that nearly three thousand foreigners have entered the country and have had some kind of relation with the state of Chiapas." "Many come in groups with humanitarian aid, others as observers, but there are also many that are openly proselytizing in favor of the guerrilla movement and the EZLN." According to Ku Herrera, they have been following how these destabilizing groups apply their strategy in indigenous regions of Brasil, Colombia and part of Ecuador where there are great reserves of natural resources. They promote, he added, processes of insurgency, guerrilla rebellion, as in Chiapas, "as part of an international network of international organizations that, more than anything, are looking to take over our natural resources. The strategy in Chiapas, he assured, is getting clearer all the time: it has the intention of gaining a national and international base to generate an open conflict against the government and it hides itself behind a movement that has nothing to do with the indigenous."The accusations made against me are absolutely ridiculous. I have not now, nor have I ever been, involved in any guerrilla movement in Central America. I have never even visited a Central American country. I also find it rather absurd that I am somehow directing or "orienting" the indigenous rebellion in Chiapas from my apartment in Spain. The only reason I am accused of such activities is because of my work as a journalist investigating U.S. military aid and support to the Mexican Army. The results of my investigations into Mexican graduates of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA) were first published in the Mexican newsweekly PROCESO on March 6th, 1995. I have not stopped my investigations since then and the results have been published both in Mexico and the United States [including in CAQ (CovertAction Quarterly]. In November of last year I published, through Nuevo Amanecer Press, an investigation concerning Mexican Special Forces receiving training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A later version of the article, which included an analysis of the use of Paramilitary groups in U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, was published in the Sunday supplement of the Mexican newspaper LA JORNADA on January 11th, 1998, shortly after the brutal massacre of 45 indigenous men, women and children in the village of Acteal. I have also continued to point out the participation of SOA graduates involved in human rights abuses in Mexico. In fact, I am responsible for the identifications of all of the Mexican School of the Americas graduates involved in Chiapas, as well as other cases in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Jalisco. In recent weeks there has been a renewed interest in the Mexican press concerning these subjects. In fact, just two weeks before I was accused of being an "International Destablizer" by members of the Mexican ruling party, the PRI, I pointed out in an interview with PROCESO the presence of an instructor of the School of the Americas in Mexican territory. Several more articles based on my research appeared in print in Mexico on May 3rd and May 4th. On May 5th my name appeared on the list I cited before. Hardly a coincidence. Another part of this situation that worries me is that information regarding where and how I entered Mexico could only have been released by the Mexican Interior Ministry, headed by Francisco Labastida Ochoa. In the late 1980's, Labastida Ochoa was the governor of the state of Sinaloa. At the same time in Sinaloa, the military commander was general Rodolfo Reta Trigos, who in 1966 was at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas receiving courses in "Military Intelligence" and "Counter Intelligence". As the military commander of Sinaloa, general Reta Trigos legalized the "white guards" in the state, the armed goons of the landowners. I find the accusations made against me by the Mexican ruling party to be extremely dangerous for my work as a journalist who plans to continue visiting and writing about Mexico. In February, before my last visit, I received three threats against me. One of the least pleasant was "We know your face. We are going to fuck you over alive" ("Conocemos tu cara. Te vamos a chingar vivamente"). Given the subjects that I write about in my work and the latest attacks against me for allegedly being involved in "the guerrilla movement in Chiapas", I fear for my safety the next time I visit Mexico. I am asking for the solidarity of my fellow journalists worldwide and for the U.S. State Department and Congress to investigate the charges made against me. Sincerely, Darrin Wood
Director, Nuevo Amanecer Press - Europa Address :
Calle San Jorge 25-27, 2-I
50001 Zaragoza, SPAIN
tel : 34 - 976 39 00 47 ___________________________________________________
NUEVO AMANECER PRESS- N.A.P.
_________________________________
Non Profit news agency.Translating and distributing information in support of the work in defense of human rights.
Registered as a Non Profit Corporation in USA.
Advisory team: Mexico. General Director:Roger Maldonado-Mexico
Darrin Wood- Director NAP-Spain office
Susana Saravia (formerly Anibarro) Coordinator Mexico/USA office
our address: amanecer@aa.net Our web page in spanish: http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm
*Working for Justice, so Peace may come.*|
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