This role is demonstrated by the quotes taken out of an internal memo leaked to the US magazine Counter-punch by a Chase employee. What the consequences are for the people of Mexico are demonstrated by the statements under the section the Deeds
From MEXICO-POLITICAL UPDATE ,January 13, 1995
CHASE MANHATTAN'S EMERGING MARKETS GROUP MEMO
author: Riordan Roett
[...]While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be so by many in the investment community. The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy.
[...] The Zedillo administration will need to consider carefully whether or not to allow opposition victories if fairly won at the ballot box. To deny legitimate electoral victories by the opposition will be a serious setback in the President's electoral strategy.
The deeds
Some of the statements of the people detained by the Mexican Federal Public Ministry, read to a crowd of 100,000+ in Mexico city. Amnesty International has now released several urgent appeals on behalf of these and other detainees.
She rejects the statement that they made her sign and in denunciation, said:
I was detained in Yanga, Veracruz on Wednesday, February 8, 1995.
I was blindfolded until I got here.
I was beaten on the head and the bust. All of my clothes were taken off and I was touched all over my body. Later they brought us here, and I was beaten again in the jail.
He presented visible signs of physical mistreatment with profoundly cut and beaten wrists and cuts on the face. He complained of a pain in his chest from the beatings he received.
He was detained in Yanga, Veracruz on Wednesday, February 8.
He declared:
I am not in agreement with the alleged statement... I was blindfolded, held in communicado and terrorized.
The contents of the statement are not correct. It is not the truth. I signed the statement under physical and psychological pressure.
I was at the point of asphyxiating from a bag that they had put over my head. I was beaten in my private parts, and all over my body. When they detained me, they took me out while beating me. They blindfolded me. Since I saw them, they said that they now had alot of information about us, and they forced me to say that I knew German and Marcos and that the things that they found in the house were for other parts of the Republic and not for Chiapas.
She was detained in Yanga, Veracruz on Wednesday, February 8.
She is 20 years old.
She declared:
When I was detained, they wrapped in chains and blindfolded my eyes. When they put in the car, they tied my feet and that's how they brought me in. Then they covered with a blanket and I was at the point of asphyxiating. When they brought me in, they covered me with a wet sheet and they gave me electrical shocks all over my body.
I have been blindfolded from the time they detained me until now.
This statement is from the Mexican paper La Jornada , Thursday, Feb. 16. La Jornada is part of the same international grouping of papers as the Irish Times and the Guardian.
Oscar Camacho Guzman, correspondent, Comitan, Chiapas, Feb. 15
Mario Alvarez is 40 years old and Alfredo Santis Jimenez is 33. Both are Tojolabales indians and they are denouncing the same act: We were tortured by the Mexican Army.
When the Mexican Army came into Chiapas, they explain, they detained us and then they kidnapped us. From Friday until Monday. In Tuxtla they put bags on our heads, they beat us, they shocked us, they asphyxiated us. Here are the marks, all over our bodies. They beat us until they made us sign some sheets with knowing what they said, and then they let us go, saying that if we talked they would return and kill us.
[...] getting to the headquarters they put us spreadeagle and they told us that I should prepare myself and that my companero would go with them. He was the first one to be tortured. I heard him yelling and then one of the torturers came out to talk with me.
Now you have to tell me some things and if you do not tell me the truth, you will have to stay here. You are going to tell how many Zapatista soldiers there are in the collective farm, who are the Zapatista leaders, how many arms they have
What is one to say, that I am a member of CIOAC. ''And what is this CIOAC'' he asked.
''It is an organization that works on projects for the community'' I told him.
''No, no it isn't. You have tell everything you have seen regarding the EZLN, you have seen those of the EZLN.''
''I don't know anything,'' I told him.
''Well, if you don't want to say, if you do not want to talk, wait a minute. Soon I am going to come back for you, there you will tell me''.
''If you want me to do something, well kill me, but I am going to tell you that I don't know anything,''
I told him. About 10 or 15 minutes later, they came to get me. When I went in where my compa was, he was hanging from his hands, with a hood over his face, badly beaten, and they had taken off his clothes, his pants, he was completely naked.
''Now you see how things are'', he told me, ''if you do not tell how many Zapatistas there are in your collective farm, that's what we are going to do to you.''
''Sirs, what am I going to tell you; I don't know anything.''
''Well if you're not going to talk, lie down face up'', he told me.
Then he brought a chair that had an iron bar underneath, and he put me face up, and he put the chair's iron bar over my throat. Then one of them, the fattest one, came and sat on the chair. I couldn't breathe.
''You are going to answer my questions'', he told me.
But what am I going to say, I told him. He sat down again. What am I going to say if I don't know anything. We aren't Zapatistas. Then when I was recuperating a little, he sat down again. Then he brought a nylon bag, and he put it over my head, tied it tight, and cut off my air. I fell. I kept opening my mouth because I wanted to breath and couldn't get any air. Then he covered my mouth with his hand, and then I fell, and he picked me up again. Then I saw him go for some buckets of water, and then he threw them on me, all over, and he went to connect an electric cable. He said: <'Now yes, you are going to answer my questions''.
Then he put his leg in my stomach, and on my head, but it was when he put the electric cables on my private parts, on my head, that I lost my mind. With such torture that he did to me, I tell you, then yes, yes the Zapatistas came to us, because of the torture. I told him that I am Zapatista, even though the truth is I'm not a Zapatista. But I told him there were some who came to visit with us, with such pain.
And he asked me what kind of firepower they had, did they have 60 high power weapons.
''I don't know'', I told him.
''Why the f-- not''
And he put the cables on again, and he brought a knife. He scraped our bodies, and he brought some pliers, and he squeezed our tongues. He squeezed my tongue with the pliers. He told me he was going to pull out my molars. And that's when I told him again, yes we have arms, a few small high powered arms, but for war [sic].
''No, how the f... are they not for war, if this weapon that they have is for killing someone. How the f...not?''
And again he tortured me and asked ''Where are the caves where they hide the weapons? How big is it?, Is it big or small?''
And I didn't tell him, and he put the cables on me again, everywhere he wanted to, and then I told him that there was a small cave where we hid the weapons, but it was because of the torture and it wasn't the truth. And a federal Public Minister told me he was writing it all down. And from there he told me: ''And the cathechists, how many cathechists are there. You're not going to say that there aren't cathechists. What do they say in the churches? What do they say during their sermons?''
''The cathechists carry out the word of God...''
''How the f... are you going to deny that the cathechists are the ones giving the bad ideas to those who join the Zapatistas and who say the government is bad, is rich. Tell me it isn't so.''
And then he tortured me again. He stuck his knife like this, here, here and here (in the chest and back). Then I told him yes, that the cathechists sometimes look for the parts that say that the rich are the enemies of everyone, that they are rich and that whoever gets authority, as the government, they always want all of the power.
''Then I have some names of cathechists and if you don't tell me if you know any of them, I am going to kill you here with a pistol.''
[...] and like that I continued talking, because of so much torture. Well then he took notes again, and now I've said everything that he asked me. He put me face down again, and I thought it was because he was going to let me go. Then he put the electric cables on me again. He put them here (with one hand pointing to his buttocks and the other to the high part of his back).
And that's when I began getting bent back, doubled backwards, because of the electrical shock. Then he put me face up again, and he put coke in my eye. He filled it with coke, and I couldn't see. Then I cleaned it out.
''Wipe your eyes'' he told me.
I was face up, like this, and he had the knife like this, and he stopped. He had it high above me, and then he let it go towards my eye, but it didn't hit me. It came that close, that close (right next to his head). And he did that five or six times; he'd hold it up high and then let it go, but it never hit my eye. And that's how we were tortured. Then from there since I had said so much under torture, they took us out, and they had written down everything I had said.
''You have to repeat everything again.'' he told me.
[...] Then I struggled, struggled to remember, and I asked him to help me a little because I just couldn't do it. I was really bad off, and so it was partly his statement and partly mine. Then after everything was stated, three others came. There are three of them who do the torturing.
''Now we are going to let you go free. We are going to let you go. You have made your statement. You helped us a little. But if you go and tell anyone that we have tortured you or beaten you, if tomorrow we find out that you are talking with anyone about being tortured, we are going to bring you back here. What you are going to do, if anyone asks if you were beaten, or if anyone hit you, you are going to say no. You aren't going to tell anyone.''
[...] Sometimes the one who tortured me; sometimes a soldier came to ask how I was, if I was well, if I was being treated well. And that's how I was handling it. It didn't matter that I was hurting here and here, and above all my tongue, so much that I couldn't talk. That's how we spent Saturday and Sunday. After awhile a soldier came and told us:
''Just wait awhile. Now they've given us the order to kill you. Just wait a little while, and we're going to kill you.''
Ay! We got sad again, and sometimes we cried. What were our children going to do? But the day went by, and then Sunday night the federal Public Minister came and said that they were going to bring medicines. But it wasn't until early Monday morning that they brought us the medicines, but it didn't ease the pain.
[leaflet given to Chase employees and surrounding office workers at demo in Dublin Jan/Feb 1995.]