military checkpoint
The military checkpoint drawn by Luis is representative of the drawings on the seal that did their peers. As we can see consists of several elements, a checkpoint, houses, two or three soldiers with weapons, checking cars while another is sitting. In all representations the headquarters is on the roadside. All the items are repeated in the drawings in various ways. Luis explained that: "In the military checkpoint there are houses, basketball court and is one of the soldiers."
- What do the soldiers?
"They check cars and killed."
The so-called "military checkpoint" on the part of children, is a military landing strip, barracks where the soldiers live, and review checkpoint. Some military checkpoint is illegal businesses that sell alcohol and drugs, some houses that rent rooms for tourists who come to walk to the waterfall and houses of prostitution run by people outside the community.
- "The gauchos live there, then wash, bathe, play cards" Rolando 11.
- "Every night I play music, they get good bowling (drunk). My dad turned off the light so you do not know that we are awake and want to bother " Pati 9.
- "When I go to my sisters and the soldiers are bathing, we cry to see them, invite us to swim with them ... we run" Leticia 12.
- "They bring their women are their wives, but each week change" Rosa 12.
Just as in their testimonies, children's drawings have many details, which shows that these children are not only observers, but very perceptive, are able to write about events that may not live but by what they hear and observe create their own lively stories, sensations and feelings, an example of this is when the army entered the community in 1995:
- "When the soldiers arrived, we had to go to the mountain, my mom said we were there up like a week, I was tut alal (baby) yet, so I was scared and cried a lot, was in February was very cold " Cristina 11.
- "When I arrived it was very windy, planes flew softly, softly, bringing tanks, machine guns, firing into the air, we all ran, the PRI were locked in their homes, we had to flee to the mountains, we wanted to kill" Julian 12.
- "When we returned from the mountain, they say that my grandparents cried, the soldiers burned everything, they made the catch on lots of my guys because they knew we were Zapatistas and there are in our land" Juan Manuel 11.
- "My uncle chased the dogs, black dogs that the soldiers let loose every night, we could not leave our house, or light candles or make noise " Miguel 11.
- "Before the arrival of the gauchos (soldiers), my grandfather said that quietly walked down the mountain, there was no road, then yes, the road was needed to remove the bags of coffee but no troops were needed" Beto 11.
These statements appear experiences of children, memories that describe moods and climates interspersed with performances from the adults around them. This is an example of oral transmission of their culture, which encourages resistance and that is adding to the collective consciousness.
Although many children catch and military trucks are part of the landscape of their community, are a benchmark of aggression that can not adjust.
- "I was very young, but I remember to go to the cornfield had to walk a lot by a long white ground, finite ... and the soldiers were already there, pointing their weapons " Rolando 11.
- "Every month we change the troops, get a load of trucks full of soldiers, when they pass my brother Milo gets scared and hiding in the wood " Joshua 9.
- "The trucks are great with their weapons, we suggest when we're playing, we threw on the road or aim them with sticks" Beto 11.
Another significant event for children on the actions of the soldiers in their community is that they give away candy to win their trust:
- "Sometimes, the soldiers fanned us candy when we are passing, we want friends, but how they are arriving without asking permission? " Pedro 11.
- "Once my brother picked up the sweet soil scolding my dad told him not to eat any of the soldiers who were going to poison " Julian 12.
- "A Evaristo did not give him poison, but drug later became chitterlings" Miguel 11.
- "On TV we saw how the children came to a tank to receive candy and died with the bomb" [1] Joshua 9.
giving away sweets to soldiers is the first approach to seek the federal army with smaller populations and that of children not only for information but favors:
- "There are little kids to give them candy in exchange for bringing their sisters in the afternoons to falter because" Jorge 11.
- "When they arrived, molested the girls, many became pregnant, still PRI raping girls, their parents sell them to the soldiers" Josefina 13.
For children and especially for girls, the military checkpoint in addition to representing symbolic violence is physical violence by introducing new values, ideas, ways that break with the culture of communities and their regulatory systems, such as drinking in public highway smoking marijuana and selling drugs, walk with prostitutes, playing music all night, allowing the trafficking of animals and precious woods like mahogany, which goes against the sustainable community development.
Although federal troops had to follow certain rules in the common pool resources, such as the waterfall, waterhole, the church or the center of town. The catch, looks like a space alien and the Ejido, where Community rules have no place and only respected military orders, despite being pointed towards the community cemetery.
PARAMILITARY MYTH OR REALITY?
paramilitary tactics may have been one of the most effective in Chiapas because no attacks used not only military but psychological terror in the population generates broken the social and family ties are essential to maintain community life. The formation of paramilitary groups, is encouraged by the Mexican Army and local power groups, clandestinely. As a matter of some people, are invited to paramilitary groups (Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement, Peace and Justice or Chinchulines), children and adult men without land, excluding agricultural process and the decisions of the commons [2], sometimes through political parties independently. Either through government programs are organized to protect their projects, with the premise of civil defense, for which it provides arms, training, drugs and a high salary.
The paramilitaries are a reality that brings up many myths about the relative closeness of the community to the border with Guatemala, people often tell stories of the kaibiles [3] who came in pursuit of Guatemalan refugees and are now advisers federal army and the "paramilitaries in Chiapas." This situation generates a lot of similarities in their modes of attack: eating raw meat, make noises like animals, behead their victims or mutilation.
The testimony of children about the paramilitaries denote very afraid, even more than they can have you on federal soldiers. For children all paramilitaries are called "chinchulines" although the paramilitary group that attacks in the area is not to Chinchulines but the Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement (MIRA), whose political wing is the OPDIC. (Organization for the indigenous peasant defense)
- "The chinchulines killed my father, we started hearing noises jamalchitam (wild boar), my dad told me to take care of my mom that we left, we heard gunshots and then laughs, screams. Seemed they were fine bowling (drunk) " Mary 11 years.
- "I told Joseph, a little boy from Syria, which also killed his uncle chinchulines, went to the cornfield and never returned, they found headless in the plot" July 12.
- "They are not like the gauchos (soldiers), also have guns, but they do know the mountain, you know where to hide, hunt animals and so raw, eat them, so they can imitate the sounds of the jungle when kill "Pancho 11.
- "Once my mom found the a child's head on a stick, in our cornfield, I was so scared every night I dreamed I had to heal from fright. We never knew who this child, but my grandfather said were those of MIRA, the anti-zapatista who want to scare " Victoria 11 years.
- "The chinchulines, are treacherous, no head-kill, catch you in ambushes or kill children and women, my cousin was paramilitary and says he will kill all Zapatistas" Beto 9.
- "my aunt's son, also went with the anti-zapatista says there have money, and they can take drink" Gabriel 11.
paramilitaries, the children fed fantasies and terrors. Are people who behave like animals and do not respect anything or anyone. Group always kill, treacherously or cruelly, often drugged or drunk. Instilling fear in the population in two ways: physical, with the public removal of certain persons who are a moral reference in the Zapatista organization, and psychological, as it seeks to paralyze all somehow identify with the victims. To Escalona "Peace means that children may dream about monsters and return to a secure reality" for the indigenous children, however, there a boundary between the imaginary fears and the real danger.
Many children have never seen the paramilitaries, but most have heard said that when attacked or when they go screaming by the community, known stories or have been threatened by them.
However, despite what children express, orally, on the paramilitaries, in the drawings do not appear. The absence can lead to certain interpretations:
* That children do not know how to draw, to take indigenous characteristics like them or not have a face.
* That in some cases, family closeness with them is painful.
* Or simply that prefer to disappear from their drawings as a defense of the imagination.
[1] The last witness of Joshua is an event that happened in Iraq when U.S. troops gave away candy to Iraqi children, a car bomb exploded, the indigenous children could watch it on television and brought to reality.
[2] López y Rivas, Gilberto 2003, "Chiapas" no. 15 Counterinsurgency in Chiapas and paramilitary activities in the government of Vicente Fox
p 97-119 [3] paramilitary mercenaries trained in Guatemala and the Guatemalan jungle, which are advisory panels in guerrilla exercises and jungle survival (Idem , 101)
The paramilitaries are a reality that brings up many myths about the relative closeness of the community to the border with Guatemala, people often tell stories of the kaibiles [3] who came in pursuit of Guatemalan refugees and are now advisers federal army and the "paramilitaries in Chiapas." This situation generates a lot of similarities in their modes of attack: eating raw meat, make noises like animals, behead their victims or mutilation.
The testimony of children about the paramilitaries denote very afraid, even more than they can have you on federal soldiers. For children all paramilitaries are called "chinchulines" although the paramilitary group that attacks in the area is not to Chinchulines but the Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement (MIRA), whose political wing is the OPDIC. (Organization for the indigenous peasant defense)
- "The chinchulines killed my father, we started hearing noises jamalchitam (wild boar), my dad told me to take care of my mom that we left, we heard gunshots and then laughs, screams. Seemed they were fine bowling (drunk) " Mary 11 years.
- "I told Joseph, a little boy from Syria, which also killed his uncle chinchulines, went to the cornfield and never returned, they found headless in the plot" July 12.
- "They are not like the gauchos (soldiers), also have guns, but they do know the mountain, you know where to hide, hunt animals and so raw, eat them, so they can imitate the sounds of the jungle when kill "Pancho 11.
- "Once my mom found the a child's head on a stick, in our cornfield, I was so scared every night I dreamed I had to heal from fright. We never knew who this child, but my grandfather said were those of MIRA, the anti-zapatista who want to scare " Victoria 11 years.
- "The chinchulines, are treacherous, no head-kill, catch you in ambushes or kill children and women, my cousin was paramilitary and says he will kill all Zapatistas" Beto 9.
- "my aunt's son, also went with the anti-zapatista says there have money, and they can take drink" Gabriel 11.
paramilitaries, the children fed fantasies and terrors. Are people who behave like animals and do not respect anything or anyone. Group always kill, treacherously or cruelly, often drugged or drunk. Instilling fear in the population in two ways: physical, with the public removal of certain persons who are a moral reference in the Zapatista organization, and psychological, as it seeks to paralyze all somehow identify with the victims. To Escalona "Peace means that children may dream about monsters and return to a secure reality" for the indigenous children, however, there a boundary between the imaginary fears and the real danger.
Many children have never seen the paramilitaries, but most have heard said that when attacked or when they go screaming by the community, known stories or have been threatened by them.
However, despite what children express, orally, on the paramilitaries, in the drawings do not appear. The absence can lead to certain interpretations:
* That children do not know how to draw, to take indigenous characteristics like them or not have a face.
* That in some cases, family closeness with them is painful.
* Or simply that prefer to disappear from their drawings as a defense of the imagination.
[1] The last witness of Joshua is an event that happened in Iraq when U.S. troops gave away candy to Iraqi children, a car bomb exploded, the indigenous children could watch it on television and brought to reality.
[2] López y Rivas, Gilberto 2003, "Chiapas" no. 15 Counterinsurgency in Chiapas and paramilitary activities in the government of Vicente Fox
p 97-119 [3] paramilitary mercenaries trained in Guatemala and the Guatemalan jungle, which are advisory panels in guerrilla exercises and jungle survival (Idem , 101)
