CPTnet
November 15, 2001
Chiapas Update: September 10-28, 2001

[Note from the Chiapas team: ³In this update our team had been
concurrently operating and keeping log entries in three different
communities, Colonia Puebla, Yaxgemel, and Sushtic. At times various team
members were also operating in San Cristobal."]

Monday, September 10, 2001
Puebla: Charles Spring and Keith Young talked to two of the government
primary school teachers of Puebla. The teachers said that they have about
300 primary students and 400 preschoolers. All the teachers speak Tzotzil as
their first language, and reading and writing in Tzotzil are taught at the
school.

Later that night Guynn, Frank Moore and Young attended a house blessing
prayer service in the house of Nicolas Arias Cruz, one of the recently
returned Abejas.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Puebla: Antonio Gomez Ariez, the Seventh-Day Adventist pastor in Puebla,
told his version of Puebla's history to Young, Moore, and Guynn. He pointed
to several small stores, relating that before the churches came in 1972,
they sold liquor instead of sodas, and that the townspeople's favourite
past-time was to get drunk and fight.

After the night's prayers, Guynn, Moore, and Young returned to their
encampment, also the home of their hosts, Pedro Hernandez and Juana Lopez.
There they were told that a man had been seen sneaking around the house, and
ran away when pursued. Because of this incident a watch was planned for the
next night

Soon after Guynn, Moore, and Young went to bed, a very drunk man came
crashing into the yard, yelling for Pedro Hernandez. Guynn and Young
stumbled out of their tent, and identified the man as Diego, a former
paramilitary, according to local Abejas. Guynn managed to escort Diego on
his way back to his home. Guynn and Young stood watch for a half hour before
returning to bed.

Yaxgemel: In the evening, Charles Carol Spring heard the news of the attack
on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Wednesday, September 12, 2001
Puebla: Young departed in th morning to meet Stoltzfus in Acteal and to meet
with the Mesa Directiva about the return of Los Chorros. Guynn encountered a
drunk man acting
slightly aggressive, later recognized as the pastor of one of the
Pentecostal churches, who, after asking insistently why CPT is in Puebla,
repeatedly insisted that he has done nothing wrong. Young returned to Puebla
with the news of yesterday's attack on the highjackings and attacks on the
Twin Towers and the Pentagon. In the evening Guynn and Young kept watch with
two Abejas men, Macario and Nicolas, until 9:30 P.M.

Sushtic: Shirley Way brought the news of the suicide attacks on the Twin
Towers and the Pentagon to Sushtic.

Thursday, September 13, 2001
Puebla: Rusty Dinkins-Curling, and Charles Spring arrived from Sushtic and
Yaxgemel to stay in Puebla. Dinkins-Curling and Spring visited with the
Presbyterian pastor Augustine Cruz. Guynn, and Young departed Puebla for San
Cristobal, and met Stoltzfus in Yapteclum. In Yapteclum they had talked with
Lorenzo Gomez from Puebla. They were told
not to talk to this man by an older Abejas man because he is paramilitary.

Yaxgemel: Way arrived from Sushtic. Priista families gathered at the school
to receive small government supports of basic food necessities. Abejas
families did not take part. Carol Spring was informed that the Mesa
Directiva has written a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to
seek peace.

San Cristobal: Young and Stoltzfus went to a meeting at FrayBa (a human
rights center) about the next Abejas return to Los Chorros. In the evening,
Stoltzfus, Young and Guynn had a time of prayer for the people who were
killed in the attacks on the Twin Towers and for sanity in the U.S.A.

Friday, September 14, 2001
Puebla: Way came from Yaxgemel to stay in Puebla and walk between Puebla
and Sushtic and back as part of CPT patrol. The grandmother of Francisco
Arias Cruz, who had been sick, died. Moore and Way joined Pedro Hernandez to
pay respects.

Saturday, September 15, 2001
San Cristobal: Guynn went to a seminar at
SIPAZ about stress management techniques.

Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Moore, Dinkins-Curling, and Young went to Acteal to meet with the Mesa
Directiva to share ideas about prayers related to the elections, and to ask
where the Mesa would like the team. They also talked about the
possibilities of the team visiting Los Chorros. The Mesa thought it would be
a good idea.

Friday, September 21, 2001
Young departed for Acteal for the commemoration mass. During the mass, Young
learned of six more planned returns to Los Chorros, Canholal, Quextic
Centro, Poblado Queztic, Acteal Alto, and Tzajalhucum. After the mass Young
went to stay in Puebla.

Monday, September 24, 2001
Young left for San Cristobal to bring the news of the six planned Abejas
returns to the team members in San Cristobal, and to the Chicago office.

Wednesday, September 26, 2001
Young traveled to X'oyep to speak with representatives from the displaced
communities of Los Chorros about the planned return. He spent several
hours
helping take apart houses, and rode back to Puebla with the materials.

Thursday, September 27, 2001
In Puebla, Young spoke with an older traditionalist, non-Abejas man at some
length. According to the man, a lot of bullets had been sold in the
municipality of Tenijapa. He also said there are a lot of bullets in
Chenalho too. The man then related how a very long time ago whole villages
got sick with fevers and fell into the "boiling pot" and died. In the
afternoon, Young walked the "patrol" between Puebla, Yaxgemel, and Sushtic
and back.