Mexican Army Destroying Chiapas Rainforest

by Diego Cevallos

The government, however, blames the problems on the Zapatista guerrillas.

To curb the destruction, the Federal Prosecutors Office for Protection of the Environment announced today that it would invest $2 million in conservation efforts in the jungle, in which the military will directly participate.

The fragile 500,000-hectare Lacandona jungle represents 50 percent of North America's tropical rain forests. It is home to most of Mexico's tropical trees, 33 percent of the country's species of reptiles, 80 percent of butterfly species and 32 percent of bird species.

The international environmental watchdog Greenpeace warns that the Lacandona jungle is being destroyed faster than South America's Amazon jungle.

Since the EZLN burst on the scene in January 1994 and engaged in 12 days of fighting with the army, the nature reserve has been the scene of an uneasy armed truce, with an estimated 40,000 soldiers surrounding the rebels in their jungle hideout along the Guatemalan border. Peace talks were broken off in 1996.

Army troops, who open up roads and periodically build new outposts, indiscriminately hunt lizards, monkeys and other species to sell the skins, said Margarito Chancayum, spokesman for the Lacondon Native community.

In a letter sent to the government of Pres. Ernesto Zedillo May 3, the Native group warned that if the indiscriminate hunting and logging continued, the jungle would soon become a desert. The message stated that the outposts looked more like zoos than army bases.

The Lacandon Indians, who have been living in the area for hundreds of years, are considered to be removed from the conflict between the government and the EZLN. The Zapatistas are mainly members of the Tzotzil and Tojolabal indigenous communities, which reached the jungle around 50 years ago.

The Lacandons also denounced mistreatment of local peasants by army troops, and growing alcoholism and prostitution arising from the military presence.

"We are calling for the withdrawal of the army bases and police posts because they are the main destroyers of local ecology, killing animals, smuggling timber, beating and jailing locals and abusing authority," said Chancayum.

The Zedillo administration has acknowledged that the jungle is being steadily ruined, but it blames the EZLN for the destruction.

Secretary of the Environment Julia Carabias said last year that due to the conflict, authorities had no access to many parts of the jungle, which made it impossible to implement conservation programs and prevent illegal logging.

Furthermore, park rangers and inspectors have been threatened, and are unable to carry out their conservation work in Chiapas, she added.

Local conservation groups back the Lacandon community's complaints, and have urged the government to supervise the soldiers. The passage of small tanks and continuous overflying by military planes has irrevocably altered the flora and fauna of the jungle, while smuggling of animals is on the rise, environmentalists say.

If the army and rebels continue their stand off in Chiapas, the jungle could be totally destroyed in just a few years, warned Jeffrey Wilkerson, a researcher with the Center of Cultural Ecology of the Tropics.

A century ago, the Lacandona jungle stretched out over 1.3 million hectares and was inhabited by around 2,000 people. Today, the 500,000-hectare forest is home to some 300,000 people.