In violation of USA law, helicopters paid for by the aid, attack local communities with machine guns, rockets and bombs. Paramilitaries trained by the USA CIA carry out massacres and torture opponents.
American companies, under North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) plans, want indigenous peoples' land to grow cash crops for export rather than food and access to oil and minerals. Riordan Roett, a consultant for Chase Manhatten Bank in New York (USA) writes:
"[The Mexican government] will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy... [and] will need to consider carefully whether or not to allow opposition victories if fairly won at the ballot box".
