Gunmen kill two Zapatista leaders
August 27, 2002 Posted: 1258 GMT
source: http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/08/27/mexico.rebels.ap/index.html
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- A group of gunmen shot and killed two Zapatista leaders in the jungle-ringed city of Ocosingo in southernmost Chiapas state, local authorities said Monday night.
Ricardo Flores, a spokesman for Zapatista leadership in Ocosingo, said several men with guns burst into a meeting of rebel officials in a local school and opened fire late Sunday, killing Lorenso Martinez Espinosa and Jacinto Hernandez Gutiarrez.
Flores said the gunmen, who he said were affiliated with local members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, took Lorenso Martinez's body before fleeing the scene.
The Zapatistas led a short-lived rebellion in the name of Indian rights and Socialism in January 1994. Since then, in Ocosingo and municipalities and villages across Chiapas, Zapatista supporters have chosen a local rebel governing board that performs city duties alongside the official government.
In Ocosingo, the local rebel leadership has had several recent, high-profile clashes with the official city government, controlled by the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 until President Vicente Fox took office in December 2000.
Reached by telephone, an Institutional Revolutionary spokesman in Ocosingo said his party had nothing to do with the attack.
Ocosingo's government released a statement saying the attack was a crime of passion that had nothing to do with politics.
The press release said that a man related to Hernandez Gutiarrez, named Manuel Guterrez Hernandez, had agreed to marry a local woman and, in accordance with local customs, the groom was required to pay a compensation of 5,000 pesos ($550) to the family of the bride.
"Gutierrez began a feud between the two families by refusing to pay his bride's family," the statement said, adding that the controversy led to "regrettable violence and death."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
August 27, 2002 Posted: 1258 GMT
source: http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/08/27/mexico.rebels.ap/index.html
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- A group of gunmen shot and killed two Zapatista leaders in the jungle-ringed city of Ocosingo in southernmost Chiapas state, local authorities said Monday night.
Ricardo Flores, a spokesman for Zapatista leadership in Ocosingo, said several men with guns burst into a meeting of rebel officials in a local school and opened fire late Sunday, killing Lorenso Martinez Espinosa and Jacinto Hernandez Gutiarrez.
Flores said the gunmen, who he said were affiliated with local members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, took Lorenso Martinez's body before fleeing the scene.
The Zapatistas led a short-lived rebellion in the name of Indian rights and Socialism in January 1994. Since then, in Ocosingo and municipalities and villages across Chiapas, Zapatista supporters have chosen a local rebel governing board that performs city duties alongside the official government.
In Ocosingo, the local rebel leadership has had several recent, high-profile clashes with the official city government, controlled by the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 until President Vicente Fox took office in December 2000.
Reached by telephone, an Institutional Revolutionary spokesman in Ocosingo said his party had nothing to do with the attack.
Ocosingo's government released a statement saying the attack was a crime of passion that had nothing to do with politics.
The press release said that a man related to Hernandez Gutiarrez, named Manuel Guterrez Hernandez, had agreed to marry a local woman and, in accordance with local customs, the groom was required to pay a compensation of 5,000 pesos ($550) to the family of the bride.
"Gutierrez began a feud between the two families by refusing to pay his bride's family," the statement said, adding that the controversy led to "regrettable violence and death."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.