Posted on 01/31/2003 5:52:18 PM PST by neutrino
MEXICO CITY, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A U.S. couple from Idaho is trapped in their own hotel-ranch in southern Mexico's Chiapas state with local Indian peasants sympathetic to the Zapatista rebels threatening to take their land.
Glen Wersch, 49, and Ellen Jones, 55, have closed their 10.5-hectare (26-acre) Rancho Esmeralda and the U.S. embassy in Mexico City has advised them to leave their property in the wake of threats from the neighboring Tzeltal community.
"This is terrifying. We're more or less trapped here. The local government has sent us a clear message they can't do anything because they're afraid of the reaction of the Zapatistas," Jones told Reuters by telephone on Friday.
Wersch and Jones have suddenly found themselves caught in the middle of a land dispute, common in impoverished Chiapas, where the National Zapatista Liberation Army took up arms against the government in 1994 in the name of Indian rights.
Rancho Esmeralda's administrator Ernesto Cruz, 21, a Tzeltal Indian, told Reuters the Nuevo Jerusalen community on Thursday seized him, kicked and beat him for six hours before releasing him with a message for the ranch owners: get out and don't take anything with you .
"We don't want you here anymore," the message reads. "We are not playing. This time was simple but the next it will be worse if you don't understand," it said, adding they should leave everything behind when they abandon the ranch.
Since 1994, pro-Zapatista peasants have invaded hundreds of rich ranches around Ocosingo, the nearest town to Rancho Esmeralda and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Mexico City.
The government has let the peasants keep the bulk of the property in a belated attempt at land redistribution.
LIFE SAVINGS
The U.S. State Department on Friday issued a travel warning for Americans in Chiapas because of threats against foreigners and businesses that serve them.
Since Dec. 12 locals from Nuevo Jerusalen have blockaded the dirt road to the ranch, letting only the owners and 10 local staff through. Tourists have had to pick their way to the ranch via an overgrown back route through nearby Mayan ruins.
But on Wednesday night Wersch found the gate unmanned and padlocked. He broke the padlock to be able to leave and when he returned, a group of 30 angry locals hurled rocks at his bus.
Local ranch workers, who have all stuck by the owners, have received death threats from the pro-rebel community.
"It's just greed and mob mentality and the belief they are assured of getting away with this," said Jones.
Wersch and Jones, former Peace Corps volunteers who invested their life savings in the ranch, have asked for police protection but the local government has indicated it is helpless in the strongly pro-Zapatista region.
Jones said they have proposed to stop taking in tourists in a bid to be able to remain on their land, where they have a macadamia orchard and an ornamental garden.
"We hope their response will not be 60 men with machetes coming over the hill," she said.
Rancho Esmeralda, which has 10 modest log cabins without electricity, is listed in the 2002 edition of the Lonely Planet Guide as one of the top 10 best places to stay in Mexico.
Apparently they didn't save enough to buy some newspapers for the last decade or so, to get a glimmer that their little dream wasn't really viable.
I see that you have an appreciation for the classical approach, as do I!
Since 1994, pro-Zapatista peasants have invaded hundreds of rich ranches around Ocosingo, the nearest town to Rancho Esmeralda and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Mexico City.
The government has let the peasants keep the bulk of the property in a belated attempt at land redistribution.
From Zimbabwe to Mexico in only a few years .... my my how progress goes.
And can be made from 12 gauge shells and pipe quite easily. :)
If you lose your land, deny anyone decent use of it.
I think history will show that the safety valved named the USA backfired on the Mexican elites.
It might be too late. We've managed to prop up the elite ruling class of Mexico for so long now. There is a great hunger for "government of the people, by the people, for the people" in Mexico but there have been Communists working overtime down there while we befriended their oppressors.
I concur. It's called taking the easy way out. All boots, no brains.
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