Mexican Chiapas rebels threaten U.S. ranch owners

Reuters Alert News ^ | 01 Feb 2003 00:09 | Elizabeth Fullerton

[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.

[neutrino]

Interesting, is it not, that Mexico demands that the US protect their citizens illegally in our country - but will not lift a finger to protect our law-abiding citizens legally in their country.

[caisson71]

This only proves that we should protect the America we have, for our sake, rather than the one some WANT us to have, for their sake. God Bless America.

[Billy_bob_bob]

It seems to me that there are more and more places in the world where white people are routinely being denied the right to life, liberty and property. Why isn't rampant racism of this kind condemmed by the lamestream media?

[doberville]

Sounds a bit like Zimbabwe, doesn't it.

[neutrino]

Sounds a bit like Zimbabwe, doesn't it.

I hadn't made that connection...you make an excellent point!

[aynrandfreak]

Those people have the right to live where they want to, but I know enough about current events not to buy a ranch in Chiapas. Gee, maybe I could start a ranch in Israel. Are any of the Shebaa Farms for sale?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bump

[dennisw]

 

http://www.ranchoesmeralda.net/

 

 

Our vegetable garden

Rancho Esmeralda is an eight cabin guest ranch situated on 10 hectares (26 acres) of former cattle pasture in the middle of the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state.  We are a working ranch involved in the cultivation of macadamia nuts and coffee in addition to citrus and fruit trees, ornamental plants and vegetable gardening.  We offer you the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful countryside of Chiapas, visit the incredible Maya ruin site of Toniná, explore the Ocosingo Valley by horseback, see a huge variety of bird life or just relax while you look out at our fabulous valley views.

[Pilsner]

Why isn't rampant racism of this kind condemmed by the lamestream media?

This has very little to do with these folks being Americans, and very much to do with them being (I assume) of European origin. The peasants in that part of Mexico are direct and usually unmixed descendants of the various indigenous tribes that lived there before the Spanish arrived. They view Europeans and people of European origin as land stealing interlopers, and have for the past 484 years.

Any knowledgable wealthy Mexican would not to buy a rancho in Chiapas unless he also had the money to hire armed guards and the political clout to see that they had machine guns.

Lesson? Make sure you know what the h#&@ you are doing before you buy a bunch of "cheap" land in some foreign place and move there.

[theiamons]

So An American couple cant buy land and live in Mexico, But Mexicans can come over here illegaly and we can do nothing about it? Half the employees in the warehouse that I work for are illegal mexicans and they say I can do nothing...

[SauronOfMordor]

Any knowledgable wealthy Mexican would not to buy a rancho in Chiapas unless he also had the money to hire armed guards and the political clout to see that they had machine guns.

Lesson: You "own" property only to the extent that you have the right to defend it against anyone who might want to take it, or have a reliable entity who will defend it for you. If somebody can walk over and take it without consequence, you don't own it.

One of the reasons for the Second Amendment

[BJungNan]

It is time to deal with the problem of Mexico. The U.S. should immediately take over that country, clean it up and make it the mecca it should and could be.

Liberate Mexico!

[Gritty]

Somehow, this is sounds like something that could be starting in Arizona.

[Wagonmaster]

There once was a time when America protected her citizens no matter where they were. Will that ever happen again?

[Pilsner]

So An American couple cant buy land and live in Mexico...

Sure they can. They just gotta hire hire enough guards, same as if they were from Mexico City or Monterrey. You ought to read the history of that part of Mexico. In the mid 1800's the central government in Mexico was an ineffective joke and indios rose against the creoles (Mexicans of European ancestry). The creoles were driven off much of the land, and feared that they would be killed off entirely. They even offered to join the United States or become a colony of England or France in return for enough troops to suppress the peasants and give them their (under Mexican law) land back.

Some people think land belongs to them and just don't care that somebody else has a pice of paper that says different. (Think Ireland under the English where everybody on both sides was white to see this in a non racial context).

I repeat: know what you are doing before you wander the globe buying up land. You may get into a problem that you can't solve by saying "But I'm an American!"

[theiamons]

I wish so... But we cant even protect the farmers on OUR side of the border with Mexico.. It takes towns like Tombstone to try to protect them...

[highpockets]

And from the little acorn grows the mighty tree.

The deliberate failure of the Internationl Community to denounce the seizure of land from white farm owners in Zimbabwe is responsible for this.

It will only get worse, as every self identified victim makes his or her claim.

Having nothing to do with justice, nothing to do with current generatinal suffering, the claims will be made.

Much as our own poverty pimps lay seige to the rule of law in their greedy pursuit of dollars.

[theiamons]

Maybe I would agree with you, if we could say the same things, like: "So what if you came over ilegally and had a kid on american soil, you still dont get welfare!" But we dont say that do we?

[Teacher317]

Sow the fields with salt and go

[El Gato]

You have to ask yourself, WWTRD? What would Teddy Roosevelt Do? I suspect a MEU would do the trick, although they all seem to be otherwise occuppied at the time. Maybe a bunch of Reservist Jarheads could be activated and sent to rescue these American Citizens and protect their property from that bunch of Che wannabees.