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Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes recently slammed the government for its policy of ridding troubled Chiapas state of independent witnesses, drawing parallels with Hitler's Auschwitz and Stalin's gulags. In hard-hitting newspaper column, Fuentes said government policy to expel foreign human rights observers, as well as federal and local mendiators, was encouraging impunity in the violence-torn southern state, while shielding the army and security forces from criticisms
"Chiapas without witnesses means extermination with impunity." "The state government does not want witnesses. Nor apparently does the federal government," he said. "Hitler did not tolerate witnesses in Auschiwitz, nor did Stalin in the gulags, nor Pinochet in Chile without witnesses means..extermination with impunity."
The government has staged a relentless crackdown on foreign observers in Chiapas since paramilitary gunmen with ruling party affiliations massacred 45 Indian peasants in December last year. Since January, Mexico has expelled at least 50 foreigners including 40 Italian human rights observers and 67-year-old French priest who had worked in the Chiapas highlands for 32 years. The situation has been particularly tense since the massacre, after which thousands of troops were brought in allegedly to keep the peace. In early June the tension was cranked up another notch when eight Indian supporters of Chiapas's Zapatista rebels were shot to death in an army-backed police operation. Meanwhile CONAI, a key mediation body headed by Roman Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz, dissolved itself, due to what Ruiz said was constant official harassment that made his job impossible.
Fuentes said the government's policy of shunning foreign observers was damaging MexicoÕs international prestige. "The nefarious official policy of expelling foreign observers .. resuscitating the lowest xenophobic and chauvinistic vocabulary, ought to be reversed," he said. "Mexico should welcome foreign observers with open arms, converting them into witnesses of the government's effort to negotiate peace in Chiapas." He added that the number of displaced people in the poor southern state, nation's hydroelectricity and coffee, made a legitimate case for calling in the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees.