Mexican environment officials freed by Indians
Copyright 2000, Reuters
September 18, 2000
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Four Mexican environmental officials held for a week by disgruntled Indians in a jungle village in southern Chiapas state have been freed, the official Notimex news agency reported Saturday.
Notimex said three of the four officials were released late Friday while the fourth was released before dawn Saturday after being held virtual prisoners in the Lacandon jungle community of Frontera Corozal.
The Lacandon Indian village is about 90 miles southeast of the ancient Maya center Palenque.
The officials, working in reforestation, conservation and production programs in the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas, were take hostage in the village on Sept. 2.
Environment ministry officials said the villagers were upset because they had received information that international organizations were providing economic resources for conservation in the zone, and the village had not seen any money.
A key condition for the release of the four was the resignation of Victor Hugo Hernandez, one of those freed, and his agreement never to return to the community, Notimex said.
In recent years, displaced members of other indigenous groups have settled in the Lacandon jungle to farm, some of them forced to flee because of violence related to the 6-year-old Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas.
They have brought agriculture practices that the original Lacandon residents and the government say are rapidly destroying the forest.
The government has proposed relocating several such communities occupying protected zones, a proposal many of them strongly oppose.