The staff was filled with terror, so afraid to go home that they slept in our hotel rooms that night. The attack was carried out by non-uniformed goons in unmarked cars. Such paramilitary squads have also routinely attacked and smashed efforts by indigenous people throughout Chiapas to establish alternative economic cooperatives such as for weaving or organic products. Poor people in the villages of Chiapas are also subjected to a mighty, oppressive everyday military presence. The army is everywhere.
Convoys rumble through villages, with soldiers pointing machine guns at children and their mothers.
Military helicopters fly low over villages, sometimes with the machine guns visible through the open doors. These villages are very simple. They have no automobiles, scarce food supplies, minimal health resources, inadequate educational services, and few material possessions. It is tragic that so much costly military is being used to preserve such deep poverty. In the face of all this, the survival of spirit among the Mayan people of Chiapas is wonderful to witness.