O.C. Activists Plan Rally for Mexico’s Chiapas Indians

SANTA ANA — A coalition of Orange County activists will hold a rally Wednesday to call for humanitarian aid to Tzotzil Indians affected by last week’s massacre in Chiapas, Mexico, and demand support from the Mexican Consulate here.

The Chiapas Human Rights Council of Orange County, formed under a different name in 1994 when the Zapatista rebellion began, will demonstrate at 2 p.m. at the Mexican Consulate in the 800 block of North Broadway Street, followed by a rally at Flower Park, at 3rd and Flower streets.

Organizer Seferino Garcia, with the Anaheim-based Solevar Community Nonprofit Organization, said the group will ask Mexican consular officials to recognize the human rights council and provide the group with information as the investigation develops into the Dec. 22 massacre in the Chiapas town of Acetal.

The council is also asking that the consulate assure volunteers safe passage for humanitarian aid convoys and safe delivery of donated goods. Garcia did not specify how the group expects the consulate to meet that demand. The group also wants an independent investigation into the massacre by an international human rights organization.

Forty-five people were killed and 25 injured in the massacre by masked men dressed in blue who sprayed unarmed residents--many of whom were praying in the town’s clapboard chapel--with gunfire.

Garcia said it’s important that people here understand the Chiapas conflict.

“We have a lot of people in the area here from Mexico,” he said. “We’ve been very close to the struggle over there since 1994.”

The Chiapas Human Rights Council is collecting clothing, medical supplies, blankets and other needed supplies for victims’ families and other refugees in the region. For information about the rally, call (714) 535-0488.