Responses to Information Requests MEX9248 of 14 August 1991 and MEX27351.E of 14 August 1997 provide information on the origins and recent status of Antorcha Campesina.

In addition to the information provided in those Responses, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in a 1995 report on Mexico published the following:

In its more extreme form, the PRI strategy of using surrogates to combat the PRD has relied on shadowy, often violent, groups such as Antorcha Campesina (Peasant Torch). Peasant Torch would invade PRD rural strongholds by sending in organizers to orchestrate demands for government services - a new school, piped water, sewers, a paved street. Whereas similar requests from PRD municipal authorities would be ignored, state and federal governments would deliver the goods wherever Peasant Torch had established a foothold, allowing the latter to expand its base of support. In return, Peasant Torch attacked the government's enemies, murdering independent organizers, and often occupying PRD-led town halls. This strategy peaked under President Salinas, who seated Peasant Torch in the PRI's national convention in 1990.

More recent reports indicate that Antorcha Campesina continues to exist as a national political pressure group representing or supporting peasants and settlers, with enough influence to garner thousands of supporters in demonstrations. Although some reports describe it as affiliated or supportive of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), its members have also clashed with PRI supporters, and faced problems with at least one PRI state government. No report found by the Research Directorate describes Antorcha Campesina as an armed organization; however, some reports refer to armed persons or groups of persons belonging to Antorcha Campesina.

An ongoing dispute involving antorchistas (members of Antorcha Campesina) and PRI supporters over illegally occupied land in Chiapas led to violence on the disputed land in late 1996, as well as demonstrations by Antorcha Campesina in Mexico City and in the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez (Sididh 17 Oct. 1997; El Universal 19 Nov. 1996; ibid. 4 Dec. 1996). The demonstrating antorchistas repeatedly disrupted traffic in the federal capital to demand, as expressed by the group's national coordinator Omar Carreón Abud, justice for 120 families that had been ousted from a Chiapas locality known as El Refugio, and the release of three jailed members of Antorcha Campesina (ibid.). In Tuxtla Gutierrez the antorchistas protested the neglect of their demands by the state government, demanded the return of the house used as a headquarters and allegedly ransacked by government-supported villagers, and compensation for vehicles they had lost or which had been damaged during the earlier confrontations in the area (ibid.). According to one report, antorchistas had earlier attempted to seize back the land of El Refugio, where some 800 PRI-supporting families had settled; after antorchistas harassed a leader of the settlers, settlers went to the antorchistas' headquarters in the local town hall (casa del pueblo), where they were met with gunfire (ibid. 19 Nov. 1996). The fight ended with a total of seven persons injured and sixty arrested (ibid.).

Before the 6 July 1997 federal elections, a report on political forces throughout Mexico City stated that in the poor and conflict-ridden area of Gustavo A. Madero, particularly in Local District No. 1, Antorcha Campesina is one of the political organizations present (Excelsior 3 May 1997). The report adds that the group there sometimes supports the PRI, and sometimes supports other political forces (ibid.).

A report on the results of the 6 July 1997 elections states that the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) won in various electoral districts of the State of Mexico, despite the fact that Antorcha Campesina was one of a number of powerful PRI groups that controlled the most marginal areas to the east of the federal capital city (El Universal 9 July 1997). Another post-election report states that PRD deputies won in the capital's peripheral areas of Cuautepec Barrio Bajo and Barrio Alto, where Antorcha Campesina operates (Excelsior 16 Aug. 1997).

By mid-July 1997 the Agrarian Reform Secretariat of the Federal Government announced that Antorcha Campesina was one of 17 agrarian or agrarian-related organizations that had signed agreements with the Secretariat to establish grounds and mechanisms for application of the law, and provide legal support to formalize land ownership (SRA 31 July 1997). The Secretariat's communiqué states that these agreements were not a means of ensuring political subordination, but rather an effort to solve a historic problem (no son condiciones de sumisión política, sino instrumento para resolver una carga histórica) (ibid.).

Later in 1997, an ongoing land conflict in the State of Oaxaca involving Antorcha Campesina and members of the community of Río Ñumi resulted in the unacknowledged police detention of members of the latter group (Sididh 17 Oct. 1997). The incident prompted the concern of a Mexican human rights organization, which described one of the sides of the conflict as "an armed group of members of the pro-government Antorcha Campesina" (un grupo armado de la organización oficialista Antorcha Campesina) (ibid. 22 Oct. 1997).

Also in October 1997, a group of approximately 6,000 settlers or neighbours (colonos) of Antorcha Campesina, described as affiliated with the PRI (de filiación priísta) and arriving from different nearby localities, converged at the municipal government of Atizapan, in the State of Mexico, to demand public services for poor neighbourhoods (colonias pobres) (El Universal 2 Oct. 1997). The group, led by Jesús Román Tolentino Bojorges, arrived from areas near or around Mexico City and protested before the municipal government led by the Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN) (ibid.).

Soon after this demonstration, the national leadership of Antorcha Campesina announced that it was "leaving behind its aggressive stigma" (desde hoy el estigma de que ésta es agresiva quedará atrás), and that its acts of protest would now include artistic demonstrations, such as the participation of folkloric dancers in rallies (Excelsior 9 Oct. 1997). This was announced as a peaceful demonstration in the central square of Mexico City, the Zocalo, and was carried out by groups of antorchista students from the Federal District (DF) and the Valley of Mexico (ibid.). The demonstrators demanded housing from the DF government, as well as the closure of a school facility, and the legal recognition of a housing lot in an area of the capital that was allegedly promised two years before by the DF government (ibid.).

The most recent news report related to Antorcha Campesina is a 12 February 1999 article from El Universal. The document reports that a six-month long sit-in by antorchistas at the Zocalo was dislodged by anti-riot policemen (granaderos) on 21 January 1999 at 2 a.m., adding that the DF government planned to press charges against the group for damaging public property (a lamp post was bent by its prolonged use as a mast for a protest banner), invasion of property and blocking of traffic, among other charges. The report also states that some of the antorchistas who participated in the prolonged sit-in continued to participate in daily protest demonstrations to make demands that the DF government considers outside of the legal realm (fuera del ámbito legal).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

El Universal [Mexico City]. 12 February 1999. 12 February 1999. Jose Luis Flores. "Se ejercerá acción penal contra líderes de Antorcha." [Internet] http://www.el- universal.com.mx/net1/1999/feb99/12feb99/ciudad/01-ci-f.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

_____. 2 October 1997. Rebeca Jimenez Jacinto. "Sitian 'antorchistas' el palacio de Atizapán, Edomex; piden servicios; provenían de otros cinco municipios mexiquenses." [Internet] http://www.unam.mx/universal/net1/1997/oct97/ 02oct97/nacional/41-na-d.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

_____. 9 July 1997. Juan Manuel Barrera et al. "PRD, primera fuerza política del Edomex; obtuvo 16 diputaciones." [Internet] http://unam.netgate.nt/universal/ net1/1997/jul97/09jul97/nacional/41-na-c.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

_____. 4 December 1996. Sandra Palacios and Rita Balboa. "Desquician antorchistas el tránsito." [Internet] http://aguila.el-universal.com.mx/net1/1996/dic96/04dic96/ ciudad/03-ci-a.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

_____. 19 November 1996. Rita Balboa. "Chocaron priístas y antorchistas en Chiapas; 7 heridos." [Internet] http://unam.netgate.net/universal/net1/1996/nov96/19nov96/ nacional/41-na-f.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

Excelsior [Mexico City]. 9 October 1997. Mario Peralta. "'Manifestaciones Artísticas', la Nueva Cara de Protesta de Antorcha Campesina; Caos Vial en el Primer Cuadro Durante su Marcha al Zócalo." [Internet] http://www.excelsior.com.mx/9710/ 971009/nac25.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

_____. 16 August 1997. Alberto Rocha. "De Grupos Radicales, la Fracción del PRD en la ALDF." [Internet] http://www.excelsior.com.mx/9708/970816/exe04.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

_____. 3 May 1997. Nidia Marin. "Territorio en Disputa,Picaporte o Tumba Política el 6 de Julio." [Internet] http://www.excelsior.com.mx/9705/970503/exe01.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

Secretaría de Reforma Agraria (SRA), Mexico City. 31 July 1997. Boletín de Prensa No. 73/97. "Arturo Warman firmó un convenio con la Alianza Campesina Revolucionaria (ACR) para finiquitar diez expedientes de esa organización." [Internet] http://www.corett.gob.mx/sra/noticias/not57073.htm [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

Sididh (Servicio Diario de Información de Derechos Humanos). 22 October 1997. "Petición para que se investigue asesinato; se libere a 8 detenidos ilegalmente, incomunicados y torturados; cesen ataques a defensores de derechos humanos y se atienda problema agrario." Mexico City: Centro de Derechos Humanos "Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez" A.C.. [Internet] http://mixcoac.uia.mx/~prodh/sididh97/ si221097.htm [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]0

_____. 17 October 19997. "Desaparición de ocho indígenas de la comunidad de San Juan Ñumi, Tlaxiacao, Oaxaca." Mexico City: Centro de Derechos Humanos "Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez" A.C.. [Internet] http://mixcoac.uia.mx/~prodh/sididh97/ si171097.htm [Accessed 2 Mar. 1999]

United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Resource Information Center, Washington, DC. July 1995. Mexico Profile. (Refinfo/Sharenet)