Subject: MEXICO:Chiapas - Fiscal Especial
From: International Gay Lesbian Human Rights Commission <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Apr 94 20:57 PDT

INTERNATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

514 Castro Street, San Francisco, California 94114 USA
Tel. 415.255.8680 Fax Tel. 415.255.8662

International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Press Release

April 7, 1994 Contact:  Jose Maria Covarrubias,  +52-5-536-8242

Jorge Cortinas, 415-255-8680

Governor of Chiaspas Bows to Gay Pressure -- Reopens Investigation
Into Murders

	Representatives from Lesbian and Gay groups attended a
	series of meetings this week with Mexican officials in
	order to pressure them to move forcibly towards solving a
	series of murders of transvestites in Mexico's southern
	state of Chiaspas.  The two days worth of meetings ended
	yesterday that the Governor of Chiaspas would would
	appoint Jorge Gamboa, a private attorney based inTuxtla
	Guiterrez, as independent investigator charged with
	reopening the cases.

	The meetings with the governor and state attorney of
	Chiapas were organized by the Mexico City based Circulo
	Cultural Gay and attended by representatives of the
	International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission
	(IGLHRC) and the International Lesbian & Gay Association
	(ILGA).  Circulo Cultural Gay has been investigating the
	assassinations of at least 15, and possibly as many as 25,
	transvestites and gay men.  The killings happened between
	June of 1991 and February of 1993, most of them in Tuxtla
	Guiterrez.  Many of the victims were killed with the same
	high caliber bullets used by the police, their bodies
	sometimes showing signs of torture.

	Although the peasant insurrection launched this year by
	the EZLN (Zapatista Army for National Liberation) is
	largely credited with creating the political aperture that
	is forcing the governor of Chiapas to reopen the unsolved
	cases, it remains to be seen how far this political
	willingness, and by extension Gamboa's investigation, can
	be pushed.  Observers expressed the need for all levels of
	the Mexican government to support as fully as possible the
	difficult work of the independent investigator.  "In the
	context of Chiapas, where witnesses have good cause to
	fear testifying, and where not all sectors of the judicial
	system can be expected to cooperate, the investigation can
	only succeed if the highest levels of the Mexican
	government ensure that Gamboa receives all the resources,
	cooperation & security he needs," said Jose Maria
	Covarrubias of Circulo Cultural Gay.

	Representatives from the international groups hastened to
	add that they would follow closely the course of the
	investigation, paying special attention to the safety and
	well being of Gamboa as well as the members of Circulo
	Cultural Gay.  "We intend to mobilize as much
	international attention from both governmental and
	non-governmental players as we can," said Jorge Cortinas
	of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights
	Commission.  "We will hod the Mexican government
	responsible should any of those brave enough to speak out
	suffer any consequences.  The citizens of Chiapas have
	already waited too long for the perpetrators of these
	assassinations to be brought to justice.

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