by John Gibler
Ocampo continued describing what happened like this: “We all ran toward a cliff. I’d say we ran about 300 meters. We ran quite a bit until one of those boys who was acting as the rearguard helped us get over a fence. I remember that he grabbed Maribel and picked her up and set her down on the other side of a barbed-wire fence. He took an AK-47 out of his backpack. He told us: ‘Go!’ And we said: ‘You go on. We doubt they’ll do anything to us.’ So the boy took off. Then we came out near a high school building, I think it is the UAG High School 36 that is there in Zumpango. We saw all sorts of strange things on that walk. We were already, you could say, freaked out by everything that had happened. We took a mini-bus back to Chilpancingo.”
All the journalists except Téllez told me that they did not know that someone had been taken that night until the EPR published its first communiqué. Téllez, in contrast, said that they did know then, but he did not mention any of the EPR communiqués denouncing the forced disappearance.
Ocampo told me: “Later, three days later, the newspapers published the communiqué, saying that one of those guys we met that night had been detained. Later we found out that his name was Rafael. I felt really bad. I thought: ‘What mistake did I make?’ We didn’t have cell phones then, and they prohibited us from using the phone at all. Did one of the other reporters use the phone? What happened?”
Guerrero said: “A week or so later, I can’t remember exactly, the EPR sent a communiqué saying that one of the compas had been disappeared. Didn’t he escape later? Didn’t he return to civilian life?”
Gutiérrez said: “We didn’t know anything that night, not until a long time later when the bulletin came out. But we weren’t even sure about that, or anything.”
Téllez said: “None of it caused a stir until the state government found a safe house in Palomares, Acapulco, where the so-called Rafael had lived. They found uniforms, bandannas, and letters to the editors of El Sol de Acapulco, El Sur, Novedades, Diario 17. . . . ”
Everyone except Téllez speculated as to what may have happened. Gutiérrez said: “Look, did they grab Rafael because of us? I don’t think so. Or because we made a mistake with the directions or followed the wrong person? No. No.”
Guerrero said: “I feel like what happened that day in Zumpango was the guerrillas’ mistake. Why did they send us to such a visible place? . . . There was a clash between guerrillas and police near Zumpango. Near the Curva del Cristo there was an ambush. On June 28, 1996, when the EPR made a public appearance in Aguas Blancas, they also carried out several other actions, including one in the Curva del Cristo. They ambushed a group of police and wounded one or two of them. With the appearance of that EPR cell, the state sent a shit ton of spies to Zumpango. I think that it was a mistake having us go there. There were eyes all over that place.”
Throughout my interview with him, Ocampo continually came back to the issue of responsibility: “We don’t know whether the state had already seen us traveling through so many places: Chilpancingo, Tierra Colorada, and Acapulco, back and forth again. I later thought that it would have been easy to have us meet them somewhere along a highway or something, and if they’d seen that we were being followed they could have sent us a message, or just left us standing there. We already knew that we were supposed to wait ten minutes and if no one came, then they wouldn’t be coming. . . . We were left wondering what had happened. That was really hard because later we learned how they tortured that guy. Everyone . . . I at least felt a weight on my conscience, because they tortured him really badly. . . . I think, I don’t know . . . I can’t tell you that we didn’t make some mistake. Maybe we did. But we followed their instructions to a T.”
* Short for compañero or compañera, a friend and companion in struggle.
THE NEWS REPORTS
ON NOVEMBER 4, 1996, THE newspaper El Sol de Acapulco published the following on its front page, above the masthead: “One of our militants held prisoner and incommunicado since ten days ago: EPR.” The front-page article, signed by Javier Trujillo Juárez, appeared above the fold with the headline: “Rafael, the first prisoner to be recognized by the masked ones,” and the subheading: “They demand he be presented alive.” The article states the following:
Rafael is the first prisoner of war of the self-proclaimed Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). He was captured and kidnapped by members of the Mexican Army who were disguised as civilians.
The insurgent group’s regional military General Command released the above information in an EPR communiqué dated last November first and signed by Commandant “Antonio.”
In the document, the armed group demands that the combatant Rafael—his nom de guerre—be immediately presented before the authorities. The document states that Rafael was captured in front of various eyewitnesses near Zumpango del Río on Friday, October 25.
The next six paragraphs give a summary of the EPR’s communiqué. A second section of the same article describes “a new EPR attack” against “a police outpost in Teloloapan; no casualties were reported on either side.”
That same day, November 4, 1996, La Jornada published a four-paragraph article by Maribel Gutiérrez on page 16 with the headline: “EPR: A militant was captured during the ceasefire,” and the subheading: “He has not been taken to authorities nor seen by the press: Antonio.” The article provides a brief summary of the group’s communiqué and closes with this quotation from it:
The detention and kidnapping of this combatant occurred before the expiration of the unilateral truce (October 27 at 20:30 hours) that our army declared once the government made public declarations calling for supposed talks, while that same government represses, disappears, and tortures.
On November 6, 1996, El Sol de Acapulco published an article by Chilpancingo correspondent José Manuel Benítez on the upper right-hand side of the front page with the headline: “The governor knew about the detention of Rafael from the EPR.” The article says:
Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero said that he knew about the detention of Rafael, a member of the so-called Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), stating that he would no longer offer to hold talks [with the group], since they do not desire such talks.
Interviewed at the end of a ceremony for the signing of the Alliance for Economic Growth in the state, the governor was asked if he knew about the detention in Zumpango del Río last October 25 of a member of the EPR, as charged in the armed group’s communiqué.
The governor answered: “Yes I know about it; of course, I’m aware as state governor, but it is not my job to be giving information about the details. I wouldn’t know what to tell you all.”
The five-paragraph article continues on page five, where the governor says that he will not make another offer to hold talks since the EPR has rejected such offers with its ongoing acts of aggression against police and soldiers. The reporter then cites the governor as stating that in his meeting with the federal Secretary of Gobernación (the most powerful member of the Mexican Cabinet) they did not talk about the armed group, and then confirmed that the federal budget for Guerrero state would triple in the coming year, “to address important items such as health, education, public safety, and others.”
On November 11, 1996, El Sol de Acapulco published an article by José Manuel Benítez on the upper right-hand corner of the front page with the headline: “The Army still has not handed him over to the state PGR” (Attorney General). The article accompanies a blurry, black-and-white photograph of a face with a one-word caption: “Rafael.” The piece opens with this sentence:
The Army still has not taken the supposed member of the self-proclaimed Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), called Rafael, to the Federal Attorney General, said the state PGR delegate, Agustín Peniche Álvarez.
The article’s second paragraph mentions the EPR communiqué sent a week before. Then it states:
The PGR delegate did not comment on whether or not the Mexican Army had informed them about the detention of the presumed EPRista, as denounced by the a
rmed group, but if such were true, he said: “they still have not delivered him to us so that we may proceed as need be.”
The remaining five paragraphs describe the PGR’s efforts to investigate and arrest members of the armed group.
On November 12, 1996, La Jornada published an article by Maribel Gutiérrez on page 14 with the headline: “Denial of reports of captured EPR militant.” The article’s opening paragraphs read:
General Edmundo Elpidio Leyva Galindo, commandant of the Ninth Military Region based in Acapulco, refused yesterday to provide information about the capture and disappearance of a member of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) by soldiers last October 25 in Zumpango. Meanwhile, in two communiqués the EPR demanded that authorities demonstrate that “the combatant Rafael” is alive and that his status as “prisoner of war” be respected.
When asked in Acapulco, General Leyva Galindo maintained that he was not authorized “to make that kind of a comment.” However, he did not deny the events revealed by the EPR and told reporters that only the National Defense Secretariat could provide the relevant information.
The remaining seven paragraphs quote the general denying “categorically that Guerrero is militarized,” and then provide a brief summary of two EPR communiqués released the day before demanding that the military prove that the man they disappeared is still alive and that they hand him over to the proper civilian authorities.
On November 18, 1996, El Sur published a four-paragraph article on page three with the headline: “‘No comment’ about Rafael’s capture.” The article, which does not include a byline, quotes General Edmundo Elpido Leyva Galindo, commandant of the Ninth Military Region. Asked about the EPR’s communiqués denouncing combatant Rafael’s disappearance, General Galindo replies: “I am not authorized to make that kind of comment.” Asked about the Army’s presence in Guerrero after the EPR’s public appearance, the general responds:
There has definitely not been an increase. What’s happening is that we are moving around more trying to cover more territory, but Guerrero is not being militarized. Over time there has always been this presence; in the regions where we are located, as in the mountains, people view us as friends.
On December 4, 1996, El Sol de Acapulco published an article by Javier Soriana Guerrero on page five with the headline: “New EPR communiqué again denounces Rafael’s disappearance.” The opening paragraphs read:
“In the face of the Mexican people’s just struggles for work, justice, democracy, and liberty, the government has responded with all the State’s might,” states a communiqué from the Democratic Revolutionary Party and the General Command of the Popular Revolutionary Army sent to this newspaper yesterday.
Last night during an anonymous call, a man’s voice said that an EPR communiqué addressed to El Sol de Acapulco could be found next to a corner store on Capitán Malaspina Street.
The EPRistas’ document is addressed to the armed forces, and points out that the Army defends the interests of the 24 multimillionaires who dominate Mexico, trampling the Mexican people’s rights, and ignoring the pain and lives of those who proclaim their discontent concerning the current state of affairs.
They call out to the “Mexican Soldier,” indicating that the Homeland does not mean the 24 oligarchs, but the 93 million Mexicans, 65 million of whom are to be found in poverty and whose situation gets worse by the day, and saying, “Amongst those poor you’ll find your family . . . you’ll find yourself.”
The remaining six paragraphs continue to summarize the communiqué and only mention Rafael’s case in the penultimate paragraph, when the reporter paraphrases the EPR: “Having honor means refusing to torture or to murder innocent people, or children, as happened recently in Chilpancingo, Guerrero; to refuse the Dirty War* to detain, torture, and disappear prisoners of war, like Rafael, an EPR combatant in Guerrero.”
On December 8, 1996, El Sol de Acapulco published an article signed by Javier Trujillo Juárez on the lower left-hand part of the front page, with the following two headlines: “EPR calls out to NGO,” and “Asks them to intercede with the government to present Rafael.” The article continues on page nine and consists of nine paragraphs that summarize the EPR communiqué dated December 6, 1996.
On December 9, 1996, El Sur published an article that filled almost all of page five, with the headline: “Don’t give up, endure the torture, a message from the EPR to Rafael in a video.” The article, by Misael Habana de los Santos, describes a video recording sent by the armed group to El Sur:
The video lasts eight minutes and was accompanied by a photograph of the guerrilla detained by plain-clothes members of the Mexican Army, taken to Military Zone 35 in Chilpancingo, and, according to accounts obtained by this reporter, later taken to the base of the Ninth Region in Cumbres de Llano Largo in Acapulco, from where he was finally sent to the Military Base Number One.
A package left outside the newspaper’s office in Acapulco contained a VHS cassette, a color photograph of the combatant Rafael, and two communiqués. One communiqué was addressed to human rights organizations, and the other was a “list of events related to the combatant Rafael’s detention.” The article provides a brief summary of the “list of events” and then offers “the non-official version of the events”:
According to state police sources, Rafael confessed his links to the armed group that appeared in Aguas Blancas last June 28 to a compadre and, according to the same source, had invited him to participate. His compadre told his boss about the identity of the EPR combatant and his boss, in turn, personally told the leader of the Military Zone 35, Efraín Leyva García, who organized the operation against Rafael, whom he had been following from the moment of the betrayal up until Rafael’s capture in Zumpango del Río.
According to the same source, Rafael was taken to Military Zone 35, where he was interrogated for the first time. Later he was taken by helicopter to the base of the Ninth Military Region in Cumbres de Llano Largo, in Acapulco, still under the leadership of the commandant Edmundo Elpidio Leyva Galindo, whereupon he was taken to the Military Camp Number One in Mexico City, where he is supposedly being held.
The remaining five paragraphs describe an eight-minute video featuring a woman wearing a gray bandanna and a thick tan shirt. With the sound of the Andean group Los Calchakis playing in the background and a white sheet hung as a backdrop, the woman looks directly into the camera and identifies herself as Rafael’s wife. The video edits together three segments, each shot from a different position. Misael Habana de los Santos writes:
The woman interrupts her testimony multiple times; at times her voice breaks with the pain of losing her husband Rafael, other times, due to the nervousness the camera causes her and “because of the risk I am taking.” There is drama, especially when she shows Rafael’s photo, and when her small daughter seeks her out, and comes up to her with only her head showing in the video. When the woman speaks of her children she says “nosotras” [the feminine plural of “us”].
The reporter then quotes directly from the woman’s testimony, parenthetically inserting his own descriptions:
To The People, to everyone who sees me and hears me. I want to tell you that I am the wife of Rafael who was detained on October 25 in Zumpango del Río. They have not presented him before authorities, and like him, many other people have also been disappeared. Now that they have kidnapped him I have learned that he was a member of that organization, but at the time I did not know that my husband participated. I do not plan on giving up my demand for him.
Rafael, wherever you are, wherever they have you, if you are alive, I want to tell you that the children are well (she cries and pauses) we miss you so much (the children’s cries can be heard). I wish this hadn’t happened (she raises her hand to her head, wearing a long-sleeved shirt), but this is the reality. The only thing I can tell you is not to surrender. If they are torturing you, endure all the torture because that would help us a lot, you would help your family and especially the orga
nization. . . . Don’t give up!
If you come back alive someday you will find us here. We are not alone because we remain united. We have our family. You are also not alone. The Popular Revolutionary Army supports you. (Weeping, she raises her hand to her eyes. Long pause during which only the music can be heard.) You have to be very strong. You always told me that I should take care of the children. I will take care of them, and I know that you will return. I will wait for you always. (The shadow of someone giving her something can be seen. As a child approaches her, she then lifts a photograph of Rafael. She and the child both cry.)
I know that it is a risk to be here, but this is a decision that I have made, and I will continue to demand that they account for you and prove that you are alive. If you see us or hear us someday, we love you, the children and me.
On December 18, 1996, El Sol de Acapulco published a front-page, four-column headline: “Rafael’s Car Found.” Beneath the headline is a photograph showing two men in a white Volkswagen Beetle leaving a parking lot through a wide exit toward the street. The photo caption reads: “Authorities confiscated yesterday the car that the EPRista Rafael left in a public parking lot in Chilpancingo.” On the upper left-hand portion of the front page, the corresponding article, written by Rodrigo Carmona Casiano, begins with the headline: “The EPRista left it in a parking lot in Chilpo.”
The article leads with this sentence:
Yesterday afternoon the State Investigative Police (PJE) removed a white Volkswagen with the license plate number GZF-9281 from the public parking lot known as Vélez; the car was left there by Rafael, the combatant of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), on Friday October 25 of this year.
The reporter quotes the officer in charge of the forfeiture and then writes: