1997

25 February 1997: two indigenous people who were apprehended in Tlacoachistlahuaca, Costa Chica are disappeared by members of the State Judicial Police. Representatives of human rights organizations form a “Peace Observers Brigade.”

April 1997: indigenous Nahua from the community of Atlixtac, in the Montaña region of Guerrero, accuse soldiers from the 50th Infantry Battalion of illegal execution, intimidation, arbitrary detentions, disruption of community life and military siege.

End of May 1997: the two largest confrontations to date between the Mexican Army and the EPR take place: one on the highway to Chilapa, in the Montaña region, in which two guerrillas and two soldiers are killed and 20 soldiers are injured; the other one in the Sierra de Atoyac, with more than seven hours of combat, resulting in two guerrillas and three soldiers killed and multiple wounded. In the face of this violence, social and political organizations call for dialogue and peace talks.

3 December 1997: members of the Army rape two indigenous Tlapaneca women in the region of Tlacolcingo, in the municipality of Atlixtac. One month later, in another community in the same municipality, 6 indigenous people are kidnapped by members of the Army, taken to a field sown with opium poppies, and photographed, with the aim to portray them as drug traffickers.