Massacre In Forest

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 19

Massacre In Forest

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) AMECAMECA (Mexico), Feb. 2. Seven woodcutters have been shot or hacked to death and four others badly injured in a dispute over forest rights near Ozumba. The victims were asleep | when about 20 intruders opened fire on them and then attacked the men with machetes before they could defend themselves. Only two of the group of 13 woodcutters, who bad been working in the forest since January 26, escaped the massacre.

“We couldn’t do a thing,” one of the survivors said. “I was scared and covered myself with my blanket and pretended I was dead. I waited until they left, and then ran.” There has been a dispute over who should cut trees in the forest since 1967. Mr Felipe Lozada, president of the Communal Farm Commission in. Ozumba, said that residents of the neighbouring village of Nexapan had exclusive rights, under a district judge’s ruling. Mr Lozada said that he entered a contract with a paper company to provide wood from the forest, the communal farm commission receiving the profits, and then signed on the 13 woodcutters. Mr Lozada blames a peasant leader from Nexapan for the killings, and has asked for a full federal investigation.