MEXICO. Chiapas. 1995. Jose Aguilar (left), President of Chiapas Cattlemen's Association at a round-up a few miles south of Altamirano.
In February 1995, the Mexican army moved into the state of Chiapas a year after the January 1994 uprising, in search of Zapatista commandante Marcos. The guerillas melted into rural civilian life or hid in the Laconda Mountains as the state army occupied their towns. Bishop Ruis suffered death threats and peasants surrounded the cathedral in San Cristobal de las Casas to protect him from ranchers and others opposed to social reform who had threatened to kidnap him.