My heart ached as it had in war-ravaged Vietnam, Nicaragua and El Salvador. And police and paramilitary units were involved as well. The army's strategy in the 1995 offensive was simple and cruel. Soldiers would enter a Zapatista community and drive the people out and into the mountains with just the clothes on their backs. Soldiers would burn some buildings, destroy crops, damage precious water supplies, then leave.
Costs are low, few soldiers are endangered, nothing makes the newspapers in the cities.
But small vibrant communities of human beings are devastated. This style of warfare was sickeningly familiar to me. Benning, Georgia for many years. I was not surprised to find that the Mexican army had been sending officers to the School for many years. But terror was not limited to the countryside.