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[Nettime-bold] [Fwd: En;Reutrs,Expelled U.S.Peace Worker Can Return to Mexico,Jul 26] 




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Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 18:28:41 -0400
To: chiapas-l@tierra.ucsd.edu
From: Cupcaketoo <cupcaketoo@mindspring.com>
Subject: [Chiapas-L] Expelled U.S. Peace Worker Can Return to Mexico
Sender: chiapas-l-admin@tierra.ucsd.edu

Expelled U.S. Peace Worker Can Return to Mexico

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has overturned the expulsion of an American
rights worker deported for his work in the troubled southern state of
Chiapas, a decision that could open the way for other expelled foreigners
to return, his U.S.-based organization said on Wednesday.

This month the Interior Ministry annulled the expulsion of Tom Hansen,
director of the Chicago-based Mexico Solidarity Network, and agreed to
reconsider the expulsions of some 400 other human rights activists, priests
and foreign development volunteers, Solidarity Network said in a news release.

"There was enough pressure both from inside and outside Mexico that they
overturned my case," Hansen told Reuters by telephone, saying he would soon
visit Mexico to vacation.

Hansen was thrown out of Mexico during a 1998 wave of expulsions of
foreigners viewed as meddling in the Zapatista rebel uprising in Chiapas
that began in 1994.

The expulsions came under increasing criticism from nongovernmental
organizations, officials of the Federal Election Institute, and opposition
party officials.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, recently introduced a resolution
criticizing the Mexican government for human rights abuses and the
expulsion campaign.

Hansen, a former coordinator of the Minneapolis-based ecumenical group
Pastors for Peace, worked as an international observer in peace talks
between the government and rebels.

He also took part in the Chiapas Youth Media Project and was an observer at
an international meeting against neoliberalism in Chiapas, all activities
the government said were prohibited under his tourist visa.

He fought the deportation with a series of unsuccessful legal appeals that
ended before Mexico's Supreme  Court in April.

"This represents a very welcome reversal of a policy that has brought
criticism and embarrassment to  Mexico," Hansen said in the Solidarity
communique.

Copyright 1999 Reuters.

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