says Fr. David Fernández, SJ, director of the Jesuits' Miguel Pro Human Rights Center in Mexico City. He is reflecting on the intimidation and threats to which Mexican Jesuits have recently been subjected.

The Mexican Jesuits have identified themselves with the indigenous peoples of the country. This has earned them the enmity of the wealthy landowners who link themselves to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to maintain political control. The landowners are accused of abusing the indigenous peoples. Since the Chiapas uprising in 1994, attacks against the Jesuits, especially those working with poor communities, have increased.

The attacks in Chiapas were against Jesuits accused of being involved in the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, which led the uprising. Some in the media even asserted that Zapatista leader Marcos was himself a Jesuit. In May 1996, the Jesuit mission house in Bachajón was set on fire, reportedly by Los Chinchulines, a paramilitary group linked to the PRI.

Most recently, on March 8, 1997, Frs. Gonzalo Rosas, SJ, and Gerónimo Hernández, SJ, together with two activists from Xi'Nich, a human rights organization, were arrested by members of the State Judicial Police. Rosas and Hernández, who support Xi'Nich, were accused of taking part in an ambush near Palenque in Chiapas, during which two policemen were reportedly killed. The four were beaten with fists and rifle slings and held incommunicado for 24 hours.

Charges against the two included "qualified homicide" (not being present at the alleged murder but sharing in the responsibility for it). But these charges were dropped for lack of evidence and strong pressure from the Church, human rights organizations, and the U.S. Government. The four were released on March 12.

The killing of the two policemen supposedly occurred during the eviction of over 600 indigenous people from their homes on land belonging to a wealthy family. In 1994, the government had agreed to buy the land for the campesinos but gave in to pressure from the owners, who wanted to maintain their ownership.

The Miguel Pro Center doubts that there was an ambush at all. "We still don't know if policemen were actually killed," says Fr. Fernández. "The investigations did not continue. I think the arrests were the main objective of the government and the landowners, and the supposed deaths of the policemen were the excuse."

"Jesuit priests in Chiapas have always been committed to the causes of the indigenous people. Our activities prove very uncomfortable for some people who have their own economic and political interests," said Fr. Rosas at a press conference after he and Fr. Hernández were released.

Aggression against Jesuits linked to poor communities has occurred elsewhere in Mexico. In 1995, Fr. Prieto Francisco Goitia, SJ, founder of a human rights organization in the state of Tabasco, was libeled by the government media and received death threats, as did Fr. Fernández in Mexico City in 1996. In Veracruz, Jesuits who have established education programs for farmers and indigenous people have been accused of various crimes, including murder. Two others, Frs. Camilo Daniel, president of a human rights commission in Chihuahua, and Alfredo Zepeda, member of a human rights center in Veracruz, have received death threats.

This persecution of Jesuits active in places where social injustice is most severe is the price they pay in the struggle for the rights of the poor. As Fr. Fernández says, being the victims of malicious stories and aggression is part of their mission.

Ariadna Estévez, with a degree in journalism from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has contributed to several newspapers and magazines in Mexico on human rights issues. A former Amnesty International volunteer in London, she reports for the Universal Journal, the English section of the El Universal newspaper, and volunteers at the Miguel Pro Center.