Another Chiapas Near Acapulco? -- Despite Peasant Unrest, Governor Of Guerrero Says He's In Control

THE WORDS ACAPULCO and Ixtapa suggest sun and fun. But conditions just a few miles away strongly resemble those of the late 1960s and '70s, when the killing of several campesinos by police sparked a guerrilla insurrection.

COYUCA DE BENITEZ, Mexico - The municipal building here lies torched and abandoned. Broken glass and ashes litter the floor where officials should be working, and graffiti blanket the walls, labeling the government a pack of murderers.

Police are nowhere to be found. The mayor fears for his safety and has moved to nearby Acapulco, and what's left of the government operates out of rented offices above a hardware store.

"A town without law," observed a resident.

Outraged by the alleged police massacre of 17 campesinos (farm workers) in the state of Guerrero on June 28, peasant groups once sworn to peace now threaten to fight violence with violence, adding to Guerrero's far-too-well-deserved reputation as one of Mexico's most dangerous and contentious places.

At the same time, Guerrero has become yet another proving ground for President Ernesto Zedillo's troubled pledge to reform Mexico's authoritarian political system.

"Guns of Guerrero" picture book

The disparity of wealth in Guerrero is acute. Foot Locker stores, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Sheraton hotel chain line Acapulco streets, while people die from cholera and diarrhea not 10 miles away.

Guns abound, so much so that there's a picture book called "The Guns of Guerrero" with photo after photo of men proudly showing off their weapons.

"Like you wear your watches, people in Guerrero carry guns," said the Rev. Hugo Hernandez Maldonado, the Roman Catholic parish priest in Coyuca. "It's part of life here."

The June 28 massacre occurred just 20 miles north of Acapulco when peasants riding in a truck were stopped for what state police called a routine gun sweep. Some passengers were headed to market in Coyuca; others were members of the Southern Sierra Campesino Organization and were going to Atoyac to demand fertilizer and government farm credits.

Police allege that the campesinos opened fire as they approached the truck and that the officers retaliated only in defense. The peasants charge that police shot first and didn't stop until several minutes later, after 17 people were killed and another 20 or so were wounded.

Later, the peasants claimed, police planted guns in dead men's hands to back up their case. One officer reportedly was wounded by a machete; none was shot.

The clash was the first of three violent incidents over a 10-day period. In all, 35 people died.

"No problem" for state

In a rare interview with foreign reporters, Gov. Ruben Figueroa Alcocer defended his police and accused the Southern Sierra of being a radical, violent outfit.

"The example of Chiapas has in some way inspired the radicalism of this group," Figueroa said. "It's a very small group - no more than 300 campesinos. . . . It does not present a problem for government or for the state, yet it presents a problem of order."

For their part, the Southern Sierra claims thousands of supporters. About 400 hard-core members come from Tepitixtla, a town up in the hills beyond Coyuca where 20,000 people live in wood-slat houses with neither phones nor sewers nor running water.

For Figueroa, who is with Zedillo's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, campesino problems run in the family. His father was kidnapped by a peasant group while he was running for governor in 1974. He was later released, won the election and as governor cracked down on the group.

A recent National Human Rights Commission report said the government "disappeared" some 530 people in Guerrero during that period, burning some bodies or tossing them into the sea.

The guerrillas, neither well-trained nor well-organized, had risen up spontaneously after a 1967 shootout in Atoyac left several campesinos dead at the hands of police.

Governor: Police innocent

The present governor has come under increasing pressure to resign. His aides insist that won't happen and said Zedillo has been supportive, but in the interview Figueroa clearly was on the defensive.

"Do you believe that we are interested in killing campesinos?" he asked. "You think that as the governor I want this type of problem? I almost fainted when they told me."

Figueroa took a hard line, calling not for a deeper probe into the police action but for an investigation into who organized the peasants' trip to Atoyac. He said the police may have overreacted not out of malice but because they are poorly trained.

"It was a disgrace. It wasn't an ambush or a trap by the police."

Three days after the killings, 10 officers were accused of abuse of authority and homicide, charges that could bring prison terms of 4 to 40 years, though it will likely be closer to 4 if they are convicted, officials said.

Why, the governor was asked, are those men in jail if they were reacting to an attack?

"Because I put them there! So there were no doubts, so we can investigate.

"It's a question of investigation," he said. "They are not guilty!"

-----------------------------------------------------------. `Same situation' as Chiapas.

As Guerrero resembles its past, comparisons also can be made between it and another poor Mexican state whose armed rebellion still simmers after 18 months: the southern state of Chiapas.

"At the heart of it, the situation is the same" as in Chiapas, said Julio Ocana Martinez, a government official in Atoyac de Alvarez, a town in Guerrero state. "The misery, the poverty, the repression, the abandonment of the people are all the same."

Some similarities: -- Government deceiving self? As in Chiapas, the Guerrero government denies large numbers of campesinos are threatening revolt. -- Political process abandoned. The campesino groups of Guerrero, like their Chiapas brethren, have abandoned the traditional political process, contending that politicians from all parties are concerned more with their own interests than those of the people. -- Tactical retreat. Like Chiapas officials before them, Guerrero authorities have abdicated large swaths of land. Not only do police steer clear of Coyuca for fear of retribution, they have pulled out of Tepetixtla altogether, locking up their office on the hill.

Chicago Tribune