Zapatista
Women Meet with Women of the World
Saturday,
May 17, 2008, 7:00 P.M.
Niebyl-Proctor
Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
The
Chiapas Support Committee presents a slide show and
report from the Zapatista Women's Meeting (Encuentro)
in La Garrucha, Chiapas, Mexico. 3,000 people
registered to hear these revolutionary women
describe how they emerged from serfdom to become
resistance leaders. Also: Update on the
current situation in the Chiapas conflict zone and
Questions/ Discussion. Admission is
free, Donations Requested. Donations benefit the
Longest Walk II (speaker invited). Wheelchair
Acessible.
Zapatista
Women Touch Our Hearts
by
Mary Ann Tenuto Sanchez
I
am once again inside the La Garrucha Auditorium,
Francisco Gómez autonomous Zapatista municipality in
rebellion, Chiapas, Mexico. My first time in this
auditorium was in July 1996 during the First
Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against
Neoliberalism. This time I am attending the Third
Encuentro of the Zapatista Peoples with the Peoples of
the World, Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatista Women. It
is December 2007. More than eleven years have passed
since that first Encuentro and although La Garrucha has
grown, its essence remains the same.
Inside
the auditorium are hand-printed signs that read:
"In this Encuentro, men cannot participate as
note-takers, translators, presenters, spokesmen, or
representatives. Men can only work making food, sweeping
and cleaning the Caracol and the latrines, taking care
of the children, and carrying firewood. On January 1,
things will return to normal." Wow! I see
these signs posted around the Caracol and realize that
this Encuentro (Gathering) is muy otro (very different).
La
Garrucha is located in the Patihuitz Cañada (Canyon),
one of the valleys east of the city of Ocosingo. At an
altitude of around 3,000 feet, it gets plenty hot and
humid here but often catches a breeze and cools off in
the evening. The Lacandón Jungle’s rains are usually
plentiful, but this year there wasn’t enough rain in
these parts, and many of the subsistence farmers will
not have a good harvest, if they have any harvest at
all. They are worried. Ever since the 1996
Encuentro affectionately nicknamed “the
Intergalactic,” I have returned here to visit many
times.
When
I think of La Garrucha, I think of its essence: the
central plaza, where all the visitors are housed and
where all the activities take place. The offices
of the Good Government Junta and the four autonomous
municipalities, the offices of the vigilance committee
and the information committee, the auditorium, the new
church, primary school, basketball court, clinic, café
and some stores all surround the central plaza. Being
housed in the central plaza creates the opportunity to
chat with residents and to feel a part of the community.
The
central plaza of La Garrucha is a little different now.
An old wooden church used to be in the center of the
plaza. It’s gone. The old church served as a
discussion space during the Intergalactic. I have fond
memories of the old church its altar decorated with
beautiful dolls and hand-embroidered altar cloths, its
ceiling adorned with paper cuts. Five or six years ago,
an imposing mural was painted on the front of the old
church: big ears of corn with ski masks depicting the
revolutionary people of corn. The mural is, of course,
gone too. Now in the center of the plaza is a large
covered stage, raised high atop a cement block
structure. The stage is at least two stories tall. My
attention is drawn there by the familiar sound of “Cañadas
Music.” To my amazement, I look up to see a
young person, who appears to be no more than 9 or 10
years old, belting out the favorite local corridos. He
is the lead singer with “Dos Vientos,” a Zapatista
band from Ricardo Flores Magón. He is awesome!
The
community is opening its heart and its doors to those of
us who come from many states in Mexico and countries
around the world to listen to the Zapatista women speak.
Some of us are taken into the homes of community
members; others bring tents and set up camp outdoors;
still others are on the floor of any available building
with sleeping bags and pads. Zapatista authorities tell
me that 3,000 people registered and received
identification badges. There are approximately 200
Zapatista women participants in the program and another
large number of Zapatista men working on the Encuentro
in one capacity or another, mostly cooking or cleaning.
There
is good energy here, high energy. The women who planned
this gathering create an atmosphere of warmth and compañerismo,
a good feeling among everyone. The warm sunshine
facilitates socializing and mingling, as does the
location of activities around the central plaza. It is
exciting to be here: to see old friends from the
communities, from the United States, and from Chiapas
and to meet new friends from around the world. I am, as
are my traveling companions, nevertheless aware of the
dangerous counterinsurgency campaign being waged against
Zapatista communities throughout Chiapas, but especially
in areas where strategic natural resources are coveted
for the extraction of oil, biodiversity, water or
electric energy, as well as for “ecotourism.”
Little
cocinas (kitchens) are set up all over the central
plaza. I quickly locate the Cocina Ramona set up by San
Manuel, the Chiapas Support Committee’s partner
autonomous municipality. The cocinas serve as a meeting
place for folks during breaks in the program, as well as
a source of good food. (After the Encuentro, I am told
that the Cocina Ramona was financially very successful.)
There are also places selling crafts, CDs, literature
and T-shirts. Some activity booths and cultural events
took place here on the plaza between sessions and in the
evening.
Only
women are allowed inside the auditorium while the
Zapatista women speak. They talk about the old days when
the plantation owners raped them and their fathers
decided who they would marry. While an exodus from the
plantations ended the rape by plantation owners, it was
not until the 1993 Women’s Revolutionary Law that
women won the right to choose their own husbands. Their
ongoing struggle within their own Zapatista communities
to have the right to an education, to speak in
assemblies and participate in community decision making,
as well as to hold positions of responsibility, is
inspiring. As with any struggle, it is not over.
It continues.
The
compañeras tell us that their work in women’s
collectives helped them learn to speak about their
situation as women. Breadbaking, artesanía, grocery
store and vegetable garden collectives run by women
helped to integrate them into community production and
to then find their voice in community assemblies. The
collectives functioned somewhat like support groups for
them.
Whenever
I visit “the Cañadas,” I am always mindful that I
am surrounded by the people who rose up in arms against
the plantation owners that so cruelly exploited them,
the Zapatista people who succeeded in claiming those very
same plantations as their own in order to end their
hunger and exploitation. Now, I am also mindful of
how far the Zapatista women have advanced in the last 14
years (often over the objection of their fathers,
brothers, and husbands) in order to establish their
place in the Zapatista movement and to be able to
organize this amazing event.
Many
of the women who participate in the program are dressed
in their finest traditional clothing. In the case of the
women in the La Garrucha region, that consists of
dresses covered with a rainbow of multicolored ribbons
and lace. They also wear either ski masks or paliacates
(red bandanas) to cover their faces. Very few of the
other Zapatistas present at the gathering cover their
faces. Keeping one’s face covered is not
customary (unless there’s someone with a camera
around) in the region encompassed by the Caracol of La
Garrucha. That region includes the autonomous
municipalities of Francisco Gómez, San Manuel,
Francisco Villa and Ricardo Flores Magón. There are
lots of cameras inside and outside the auditorium, so
the women cover their faces.
The
compañeras talk about the triple oppression they face:
1) discrimination against them for being indigenous, 2)
discrimination for being poor, and 3) gender
discrimination for being female. I believe all of us who
are old enough to remember what it was like growing up
female in the United States before the Women’s
Movement of the 1970’s are able to identify with their
struggle. Although we are not indigenous or poor, we
understand gender discrimination from our own
experience. Tears formed in many of our eyes as we
proudly watch the dignity of these female council
members, comandantas, insurgents, mothers, wives,
sisters, grandmothers and daughters. I think we
understand what they are saying with our hearts.
Women
are here from the movements in Oaxaca, Atenco and around
the world to listen to the word of the Zapatista women.
A delegation of women representing Via Campesina from
the several continents is present to support the
Zapatistas. Many of these visitors speak at the
Encuentro’s last session. Messages of support from
women who could not be present are read. A standing
ovation marks the end of the presentations. It is now
early evening on December 31. Indigenous women perform a
beautiful traditional dance on the high stage. A little
before midnight, Comandanta Rosalinda takes the
microphone and reminds us of the government’s betrayal
on February 9, 1995, when the Mexican Army entered the
Zapatista communities and tried to finish them off but
didn’t succeed. She also reminds us that the land
reclaimed on January 1, 1994, “was bought with the
flesh and blood of the compañeros.” The
comandanta concludes by calling out the names of all
those who have given their lives in the struggle. By
now, there were 5,000 of us gathered in La Garrucha’s
central plaza, and we responded with “presente”
after each name. Zapatistas and their supporters are
here to celebrate the 14th Anniversary of the Zapatista
Uprising. They come from surrounding communities
and towns.
The
Women’s Encuentro ends and men can once again speak.
Comandante Omar takes the microphone and states the
obvious: “After 14 years the party continues.”
He notes the “chingo” of provocations that the
Zapatistas have resisted because the bad government
continues to “purchase people’s consciences.”
As he speaks about the political parties no longer being
an option for change, I briefly reflect on the current
media circus of an electoral process in the United
States. “They only change their discourse when they
need something from the people,” says Comandante Omar,
and warns: “the parties aren’t going to change if
the people don’t demand that they do.” He then urges
people to organize and struggle against the “bad
governments” so that one day we might have a better
world. We all sing along as best we can to the Zapatista
Hymn. It’s midnight, the fourteenth anniversary
of the Zapatista Uprising. Everyone hugs and wishes one
another Feliz Ano Nuevo! Happy New Year! and then we
begin dancing the night away, a happy ending to a most
successful Encuentro.
Somehow,
I don’t think that the “normal” to be returned to
on January 1 will be the same as it was before the
Women’s Encuentro. I see this gathering as a milestone
for Zapatista women within the EZLN, as well as a
milestone for the Zapatistas as a national and
international political movement.
_______________________________________________________
______
Sixth
Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle
Part
One
I. What We Are.
“What
We Are” begins with a summary of why the EZLN rose up in arms
eleven and one-half years ago, saying “Ya Basta!” Written in the
“voice” of the indigenous campesinos in Chiapas, they say: “...we
grew tired of exploitation by the powerful, and then we
organized to defend ourselves and to fight for justice.” They
speak of the government sending the Army, bombs, bullets and
planning to kill them all; of their escape and resistance. They
speak of the “people” of Mexico who went into the streets to
stop the bombs and bullets and telling them to dialogue and put
aside their weapons. These were the people they have come to call
“civil societies.” So, they dialogued and reached an agreement
with the bad government people called the San Andrés Accords. They
speak of the Army attack in February, 1995 and the Acteal Massacre;
the intercontinental “encuentros”
(gatherings); the march of the 1,111 to Mexico City in 1997; the
Consulta (vote) in 1999 and the “march for indigenous
dignity” in 2001. They conclude this part by speaking of the
government’s failure to comply with its word and its outright
betrayal and of the good people they have met during the last eleven
and one-half years.
II. Where We Are
Now.
“Where We Are Now”
summarizes what the Zapatistas have done since 2001. In this part
they talk about constructing autonomy and improving their own
internal organization; basically, the changes announced in 2003 with
the birth of the Caracoles and Good Government Juntas. They speak of
the increased separation of the political-military arm from the
autonomous and democratic aspects of organization in the Zapatista
communities, of “governing by obeying,” of the accomplishments
of the Juntas, and conclude by saying that they have come as far as
they can alone. They now believe that they must join with “workers, campesinos,
students, teachers, employees, the workers of the city and
countryside.”
PART TWO
III.
How We See The World.
Attention all
you anti-capitalists out there! You will love “How We See The
World.” It is a scathing indictment of global capitalism’s
exploitation of everyone and everything around the globe. Here is a
clear and concise easily understood explanation of the evils of the
capitalist system. I recommend that you read PART TWO even if you do
not read the others. You can find it in either English or Spanish
(as you can all 3 parts) at: <http://chiapas.indymedia.org>
IV. How We See Our
Country Which Is Mexico
Here, the Zapatistas apply their
analysis of capitalism to Mexico and explain how it has hurt their
homeland. They also observe, however, that there are many in their
country who do not surrender to capitalist globalization; rather,
they resist and rebel.
PART THREE
V. What We Want
To Do.
The Zapatistas say they want
to support all those who are fighting and resisting in the world.
After acknowledging the many resistances to neoliberal privatization
in Latin America, the EZLN makes a clear statement of what they want
to do:
“What we want to do in Mexico is to make an
agreement with people and organizations just of the Left, because we
believe that it is in the political left where the idea of resisting
neoliberal globalization is, and of making a country where there
will be justice, democracy and liberty for everyone. Not as it is
right now, where there is justice only for the rich, there is
liberty only for their big businesses, and there is democracy only
for painting walls with election propaganda. And because we believe
that it is only from the Left that a plan of struggle can emerge, so
that our homeland, which is Mexico, does not die.”
They
hope to develop a “National Program of Struggle” among the
people and organizations of the Left to save Mexico from the
neoliberal politicians.
VI. How We
Are Going To Do It.
In this final
part of the Sixth Declaration, the EZLN maintains its commitment to
an “offensive ceasefire,” not to establish any secret relations
with political-military organizations in Mexico or anywhere else in
the world, and to defend, support and obey the communities of which
it is composed.
In the world...
1. Forge new
relationships with those who are resisting and struggling against
neoliberalism and for humanity.
2. Send material such as food and
handicrafts to those brothers and sisters from all over the world.
3.
Hold another intercontinental encuentro in maybe December or
January.
In Mexico...
1. Fight for all the
exploited and dispossessed of Mexico, including migrants to the
United States.
2. Build an anti-capitalist program.
3. Build
another way of doing politics in Mexico.
4. Make a new
Constitution, new laws which take into account the demands of the
Mexican people which are: housing, land, food, work, health,
education, information, culture, independence, democracy, justice,
liberty and peace. A new Constitution which defends the weak in the
face of the powerful.
THEREFORE, the EZLN will send a
delegation of its leadership throughout national territory to where
they are expressly invited and they will make alliances with
non-electoral organizations and movements specifically defining
themselves as being of the Left, not imposed or negotiated from
above but FROM BELOW AND FOR BELOW - to build an alternative to
neoliberalism, a Left alternative for Mexico.
________________________________________________________________
Update:
March 27, 2005.
International
Women's Day in Chiapas: a report from the Chiapas Support
Committee's March delegation.
From March 3 to 12, 2005 the
Chiapas Support Committee’s sixth annual March delegation toured
Chiapas communities and visited nonprofit organizations working in
the state's indigenous communities. We visited the Caracols located
in Oventic and La Garrucha, and the autonomous municipalities
(counties) of San Pedro Polhó and San Manuel, our sister
municipality. We had briefings from Enlace Civil, Ciepac and La Red
de Defensores Comunitarios de Derechos Humanos. We thank the Juntas
de Buen Gobierno (Good Government Juntas) in both Oventic and La
Garrucha for welcoming us to their respective territories, as well
as San Manuel and San Pedro Polho. We likewise thank Enlace Civil,
Ciepac and La Red de Defensores for their excellent briefings.
Finally, our thanks to Dona Rosita for her hospitality and to OTEZ
for safe and friendly transportation. The information in this Update
is compiled from a synthesis of what we learned during our visits
and briefings, as well as from articles in the Chiapas press.
I. San Pedro Polhó
- Polhó is an autonomous municipal headquarters in the Chiapas
Highlands (in the official municipality of Chenalhó) which
continues to house between 5,000 and 6,000 internally displaced
refugees who fled from paramilitary violence in the Chiapas
highlands during 1997. This violence culminated in the massacre of
45 women, men and children in the nearby village of Acteal on
December 22, 1997. We met with several members of the autonomous
council who gave delegates a good summary of the history of that
paramilitary violence and informed all of us that the current
paramilitary group surrounding them is composed of
"Presbyterian members of the PRI" (the political party
which held power for more than 70 years).
Due to this
paramilitary activity the refugees are not able to return to their
lands to plant and harvest
crops. Consequently, a massive food shortage has existed for seven
years. The International Commission of the Red Cross assisted with
both food and medicine until December of 2003 when it left for Iraq.
Since then, Polhó has depended on national and international civil
society, as well as the few lands which can safely be farmed, for
its survival. The exit of the Red Cross has also left Polhó without
enough medicine for a population vulnerable to disease because of
malnutrition.
Councilmembers denounced one of the state's local
newspapers, Cuarto Poder, for saying that all the displaced had
returned to their communities of origen. They felt that such
propaganda was an added insult to their already precarious
existence.
We received a supplement to the history told by the
autonomous council members
in the far-away autonomous
municipality of San Manuel, which is now home to some who fled the
Highlands as refugees. One of them told us of the paramilitary
attack on Acteal. He ended by saying that if he had not been a
Zapatista, he would have been killed during the attack. (We have
been told on more than one occasion from more than one source that
the paramilitaries massacred Las Abejas because they were unable to
get at the Zapatista support bases living there.)
Anyone wishing
to help Polhó can contact the Chiapas Support Committee at:
cezmat@igc.org
We continue to support the Polhó refugees and their woman's weaving
cooperative.
II. International
Women's Day in La Garrucha - As we were eating breakfast in an
Ocosingo restaurant, a car drove by announcing a Zapatista Fiesta
over a loud speaker. A few hours later, we arrived in the community
of La Garrucha, where one of the five Zapatista Caracols is located.
During our meeting with the Good Government Junta, we quickly
learned that the Junta was indeed sponsoring a big party to
celebrate International Women's Day on March 8.
We also listened
to members of the Junta as they first reported that the entire
region was calm and then lamented the fact that the indigenous
communities within their region were divided. They attributed this
division to the government's low-intensity war against the
Zapatistas (which includes propaganda campaigns and economic
assistance programs to buy off families and whole communities). This
was the first time that we had heard this political message from the
Junta, which I interpretaed as one of seeking a reunification of the
indigenous communities within its region.
On March 7, trucks
filled with campesinos began to arrive from the four municipalities
in this Tzeltal Jungle Region: Francisco Gómez, San Manuel, Ricardo
Flores Magón and Francisco Villa. Covered stages for the two bands
were constructed on either side of the central plaza. Soon there
were plastic tents sheltering families, basketball games and
bonfires for cooking. A cow was butchered and being prepared. The
peace camp was full.
The two bands began to play on the afternoon
of the 7th; corridos, cumbias and merengue. The rain began to fall
as both male and female insurgentes mingled with civilian support
bases. Dancing began in the evening. The rain began to fall harder
and continued through-out the night, as did the music.
By morning
on the 8th, there were thousands of Zapatistas camping in the center
of their Caracol. People were selling food and other merchandise. We
met a woman and her husband who said they had been homeless
(landless) and had just been given land in a new community by the
autonomous council of Ricardo Flores Magón. They were selling her
crafts to raise money to construct a house on their new piece of
land. After the beef soup was served, the dancing began once again.
Undaunted by the light rain, almost everyone was dancing. Many of
the people we talked to emphasized the importance of bringing people
together in these region-wide fiestas. I connected it to the desire
for reunification expressed by the Junta.
III. Health Care
Crisis - As we were celebrating International Women's Day in La
Garrucha, a woman was dying in one of the region's communities
because there was no ambulance to take her to a hospital.
Complications developed as she began to give birth and there was no
nearby hospital, clinic or ambulance to care for her. We learned
about this tragedy when we visited San Manuel, our sister
municipality, the day after International Women's Day. We had first
heard a woman express the need for an ambulance in a November
training workshop in San Manuel. Now, members of the autonomous
council were making an official request for one.
The need for
emergency medical services is coupled with the lack of medicine in
this region. When the International Red Cross left Chiapas, it also
closed the clinic in San Miguel, not far from La Garrucha and San
Manuel. The clinic had an ambulance with emergency medical equipment
and emergency technicians. It also had medicine. The entire region
is now without basic medicines. Some cases of typhoid and malaria
have been detected and a general health care crisis exists.
IV. Paramilitaries
- The issue of paramilitary activities arose several times during
the weeks prior to the delegation: 1) The Fray Bartolomé de Las
Casas Human Rights Center (FBCCDH) announced that it was filing a
petition with the Interamerican Human Rights Commission against the
Mexican government for human rights violations in the case of the
Acteal massacre; and 2) Chiapas state police used violence to break
up a sit-in blocking the city hall, allegedly involving one faction
of the paramilitary group known as "Paz y Justicia"
against another faction. Each was cloaked in the colors of a
political party.
Several NGOs we met with addressed the topic of
paramilitaries. We were told there were three paramilitary groups
with strength: 1) Paz y Justicia; 2) Mascara Roja; and 3) OPDIC.
Several others exist without much strength, such as Los Chinchulines
and Los Autenticos Coletos. The latter has arms but no military
training. The state government of Chiapas had previously denied the
existence of paramilitary groups in the state. However, Governor
Pablo Salazar acknowledged the presence of Paz y Justicia as a
paramilitary group after the problems in Tila.
A. The Acteal Massacre Case -
On February 9, La Jornada reported that the Fray Bartolome de las
Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) announced that it was filing a
petition (complaint) with the Interamerican Human Rights Commission
(IHRC) against the federal government of Mexico, alleging that the
government bears responsibility for creating, training and
supporting the paramilitary group, Paz y Justicia, which allegedly
committed the massacres in the Northern Zone of Chiapas between 1995
and 1997. Part of their allegations are based on the confession of
an alleged former military commander of Paz y Justicia. The petition
was actually filed on February 18, 2005 and reported in the press on
February 22, shortly before we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas.
Frayba filed the petition jointly with Las Abejas, the Catholic
campesino organization whose members were massacred. Frayba is a
human rights organization sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of San
Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Retired Bishop Samuel Ruiz is on
the Board of Directors.
B. The case of Tila - In the
early morning hours of February 15, 2005, state police vehicles
entered the town of Tila for the purpose of dislodging protesters
from their sit-in at city hall. Apparently, some or all of them were
anti-riot police. Dissidents had been blocking entry to the building
since December of last year (2004). According to news reports, the
police arrested more than fifty people during the eviction and their
whereabouts were unknown for several days. Eye witnesses report that
the police kicked in doors to enter private homes and take out men
they wanted to arrest. While inside, they beat the men and also beat
women and children. Residents describe that helicopters flew
overhead dropping tear gas. For several days after the operation,
Tila’s schools and businesses were closed, residents stayed
indoors and more than 100 families fled in fear of police agents who
were patrolling the town.
By the time we arrived in Chiapas
thirty of those detained had been released, including the only
Zapatista supporter detained.
The dissidents who blocked entry to
city hall were opponents of the new Tila mayor, elected in October,
2004. The two opposing forces were the Institutional Revolutionary
Party, known as the PRI for its initials in Spanish and the Alianza,
an alliance of two opposition parties, the Democratic Revolution
Party (PRD) and the Worker’s Party (PT). Apparently the election
was very close and the State Election Tribunal declared that the
Alianza won. However, an appeal by the PRI to the Federal Election
Commission was successful and that body declared the PRI to be the
winner. The sit-in by members of the Alianza began several days
before the new PRI mayor, Juan José Díaz Solórzano, was to take
office on January 1, 2005.
The state government of Chiapas had
been negotiating with both sides from the beginning of the problem.
The Alianza demanded power sharing; i.e., 50% representation on the
Municipal Council. Some agreements were reached, but each side
claims the other broke them.
Tila is one of the Chiapas
municipalities, or counties, where paramilitary violence was rampant
from 1995 until 2000. During those years, the paramilitary group Paz
y Justicia terrorized the region and caused at least 100 deaths,
numerous disappearances and up to 20,000 displaced indigenous
people. Paz y Justicia was allegedly trained by the military and
funded by those in power at the time - the PRI governments of
Ernesto Zedillo at the federal level and Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro and
Roberto Albores Guillen in Chiapas - as part of the
counterinsurgency campaign against the Zapatista National Liberation
Army (EZLN) and others on the left, including the PRD. Paz y
Justicia was never dismantled or disarmed when the governments
changed in December of 2000. Rather, it began to self-destruct,
eventually splitting into two factions, one faction calling itself
the Union of Indigenous, Farming and Forest Communities (UCIAF, for
its initials in Spanish). The other remained Paz y Justicia.
The
governor of Chiapas, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, was cited in La
Jornada as alleging that the two factions of Paz y Justicia were
behind the current political conflict in Tila. He claimed that one
faction (the UCIAF) sought power using the PRI as a vehicle while
the faction still calling itself Paz y Justicia was using the
Alianza to seek power. There was an inference that all those
arrested were members of Paz y Justicia, a claim denied by both the
Bishop of San Cristóbal and the wives of those detained. It appears
those detained were mostly members of the PRD, although Samuel
Sánchez Sánchez, a founder of Paz y Justicia and now a leader in
the UCIAF, has also been detained.
What is of particular
significance is that for more than three years Salazar’s Chiapas
government of change has denied that paramilitaries exist within the
state. Perhaps the recent confessions of a former Paz y Justicia
comandante, made public by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human
Rights Center have forced the state government to confront reality.
These confessions form part of the basis for the Human Rights Center’s
recent complaint against former officials of the Mexican government
filed with the Interamerican Human Rights Commission, a commission
of the Organization of American States (OAS).
BY: Mary Ann
Tenuto Sanchez
March 17, 2005
please feel free to address
questions about this report to Mary Ann at: cezmat@igc.org
Details
on the Acteal case are available on the Fray Bartolome de las Casas
Human Rights Center's webpage at: http://www.laneta.apc.org/cdhbcasas/
The
same site contains information about the violence in Tila.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Zapatistas
Construct Another World
by Mary
Ann Tenuto Sanchez. Aug. 12, 2004
On
January 1, 2004, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN or
Zapatistas) and their
supporters around the world
commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising in
Chiapas, Mexico. Rebel Magazine, a monthly magazine of Zapatista
thought published in Mexico, promoted a global campaign of
festivities in honor of that anniversary, as well as the twentieth
anniversary of the founding of the rebel organization on November
17, 1983. As this double anniversary occasions many important
articles of analysis remembering EZLN history and the significance
of the Uprising, it is useful to look at what the Zapatista
communities are actually constructing inside their autonomous
regions: an alternative to neoliberalism. They are constructing
another world.
Although the construction of this
other world began soon after the 1994 Uprising, it became more
apparent with the major policy statements made in July and August of
2003. This other world is based upon civilian, regional, indigenous
self-government (autonomy) and collective work for the community.
In July of 2003, Subcomandante
Marcos, the eloquent spokesperson for the Zapatistas, informed the
world of major internal organizational changes, the goal of which is
to strengthen and advance autonomy (self-government) and to
implement the San Andres Accords. Those Accords were the result of
an initial peace agreement between the EZLN and the Mexican
government on how to harmonize self-governing
indigenous regions
within the Mexican state. Unfortunately, the Mexican Congress did
not implement the full agreement into law, so the Zapatistas are de
facto implementing the San Andres Accords within their
territory--autonomy without permission.
The EZLN announced the creation
of five centers of autonomous, regional civil government. This
involved a change in the name of those centers from Aguascalientes
to Caracols (conch shells). It also involved the creation of
autonomous, regional governance structures called Juntas de Buen
Gobierno (Good Government Committees). The Zapatistas refer to them
simply as Juntas.
The Juntas are composed of
representatives from each autonomous county within the region.
Autonomous counties were initiated soon after the Uprising. They are
composed of Zapatista supporters who live in resistance to the
local, state and federal governments. The autonomous counties
democratically elect their own autonomous county councils to carry
out the usual functions of local government: recording births,
marriages and deaths; obtaining development projects; constructing
schools and clinics, etc. They also have a judicial function:
dispute resolution.
The autonomous county councils
resolve disputes which arise within Zapatista counties between
members of the organization. They also attempt to resolve disputes
between Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas within their territory. This
latter function has caused friction between Zapatistas and
anti-Zapatistas. It is important to note here
that many
non-Zapatistas have accepted the role of the autonomous councils.
The anti-Zapatistas are those with an axe to grind, such as
paramilitaries, quasi-paramilitaries and those at the service of
local politicians and cattle ranchers.
Other problems between the
autonomous counties themselves have been the unequal distribution of
economic support from civil society and the imposition of projects
by some international aid organizations. The Juntas were created, in
part, to address these problems and inequities.
On a recent fact-finding trip,
this writer met with the Good Government Junta based in the
community of La Garrucha. Its chairperson stated that its functions
were equitable distribution of economic solidarity, resolving
complaints of human rights abuse, and resolving disputes between
people in different autonomous counties.
The chairperson explained that
cases were initiated by someone who believes he/she has been wronged
or cases are referred by the local courts in the official government
county. In other words, the Juntas provide an alternative court
system to that of the constitutional state government and,
amazingly, according to the Junta and several experts, the local
branches of the state government are cooperating!
Cases heard by the Juntas are
free to all parties and hearings are conducted in the local
indigenous language. This contrasts sharply with the state courts
which cost lots of money (graft) and are conducted in Spanish and
legalese. Many indigenous people in Chiapas do not speak Spanish at
all and certainly not well enough to understand a court proceeding.
Nor does the average indigenous campesino understand the legal
system. Therefore, in order to pursue a case in a local court,
indigenous people must pay the fees and hire a lawyer and also an
interpreter. There are few indigenous peasants who can afford these
costs. Consequently, most indigenous people do not have access to
the state courts for resolving problems, and unresolved problems can
escalate into violence. The reduction of violence may motivate the
present-day cooperation of the local courts while a justice system
conducted in their own language, free of charge and free of racism
is a strong motivation for the average peasant with a grievance to
use the Juntas.
An alternative system of justice
necessarily raises the question of what rules or laws form the basis
for decision making. An autonomous council president explained it
perfectly: "We resolve problems according to indigenous justice, not
according to money like they do in Ocosingo" (where the government
courts are located). The new Juntas rely on traditional indigenous
concepts of justice to resolve disputes just as the autonomous
councils have been doing for at least five years.
It became apparent during my
interviews that there is another dimension to the Good Government
Juntas: territorial control. The Juntas want to know what is going
on within what they consider Zapatista territory. This derives
directly from the San Andres Accords which granted a degree of
territorial control to indigenous peoples throughout Mexico. The
Juntas expect all those doing business inside their territory to
obtain permission from the Junta for their activities. One means of
doing this is through the appellate function of the Juntas. A
conflict which remains unresolved at the autonomous
council level
can be taken up by the Juntas, thereby enforcing requirements and/or
decisions of the autonomous councils within the region.
In several instances where
anti-Zapatista groups have threatened the Juntas with violence, the
state government has intervened so as to prevent violence. The
assertion of territorial control over businesspeople, transport
companies, construction companies and anti-Zapatistas will continue
to present challenges to the Juntas as long as the Mexican Congress
fails to convert the San Andres Accords into law.
Despite these challenges, the
Juntas represent a significant step in converting the regional
administration of justice and territory from the EZLN military
structure to an EZLN civilian structure. It is sometimes difficult
for observers of the Zapatista movement to separate the civilian
side of the EZLN from the military side. According to Marcos, this
will become easier because the lines will no longer cross. The
military's function will be the protection of the civilian
population and will no longer be involved in civilian functions.
Overseeing the distribution of
economic solidarity and approving projects by national and
international organizations present challenges. The Zapatista
communities are developing an indigenous economy, often referred to
as a solidarity economy or campesino economy by those advocates of
constructing another world. It is referred to here as an indigenous
economy because it is rooted in an indigenous tradition of peasant
farmers, an indigenous emphasis on the primary importance of
community, and on a traditional practice of working collectively for
the community.
The 1994 Uprising claimed
thousands of acres of former cattle ranches as Zapatista territory.
The need for land was a major reason for the rebellion, just as
defending themselves against armed aggression by cattle ranchers was
a motive for arming themselves. The land taken by the Zapatistas
("recovered land") has been settled by Zapatistas from other
communities in need of land. New communities were founded with just
a piece of land (no water supply, no electricity, no houses, no
schools, clinics or stores). The rather awesome task of the
autonomous councils was and still is to develop these services. This
has been accomplished by means of projects by nongovernmental
organizations: water projects, ongoing training of health promoters
and education promoters (teachers) and economic support from civil
society (the construction of schools, clinics and collective
stores). Other projects have included coffee cooperatives, weaving
cooperatives, blacksmith shops, shoemaking shops, organic vegetable
gardens, bread-baking cooperatives, cafes and even the reproduction
of their music on CDs and cassettes. Nevertheless, the communities
must be able to create a commerce of their own, independent of
outside economic support. They must be able to generate funds to
maintain the autonomous councils and to buy supplies for their
schools and medicine for their clinics.
One proposal for generating
profits is the construction of at least ten warehouses throughout
Zapatista territory. These warehouses would buy necessities
wholesale rather than through a middleman and then sell to the
community stores at a small profit. This would generate the funds
necessary for the daily maintenance of autonomous institutions.
Eventually, the warehouses could purchase products from their region
for trade with other regions and would be in a position to seek
markets for their products. The labor of the warehouse workers is
labor donated to the autonomous county, that is, collective work.
The warehouse project is already under way in several regions.
Another world is not generated
overnight. One autonomous council president told us that the name of
the cooperative coffee shop in his community is Smaliyel. That means
"slow going" in the Tzeltal Maya language. They chose that name
because progress is made slowly. What is important is that several
hundred thousand Zapatistas have begun the process of constructing
their own world with cultural values opposed to those of
neoliberalism.
(This article appeared in the
Spring, 2004 edition of Left Turn magazine. It gives a good summary
of what is taking place inside the civilian Zapatista communities as
they construct autonomy. It is also available in Spanish.
)
_______________________________________________________________
Zapatistas Retake the Political Stage in
Mexico
by Mary Ann Tenuto Sanchez, Sept. 26,
2003.
Chiapas Support Committee
What do a pink shoe with a
stiletto heel and five conch shells have to do with the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation's (EZLN's) latest initiative to
recapture political space in Mexico for the indigenous movement?
Stay tuned for the answer from that master of prose, rebellion, and
public relations himself, Subcomandante Marcos (aka "the
Sup").
The comunicados began flooding our email bins in
mid-July. First, an announcement by the commanders that Marcos would
be temporarily speaking for the 30 autonomous municipalities. Next,
a few brief statements on the international, national, and local
political scene and two bold announcements: 1) that the Plan Puebla
Panama (PPP) would not be permitted in Zapatista territory; and 2)
that the Zapatistas would implement the San Andres Accords without
the government's permission.
Then came the announcement of a
death. Marcos didn't say who or what was about to die and left us
worrying whether the Sup was gravely ill. He kept us hanging until
the next day when we learned that the five Aguascalientes had
received the death sentence. We waited yet another day to find out
that those same five communities (Oventic, Morelia, La Garrucha, La
Realidad and Roberto Barrios) would die in order to be reborn as
Caracoles (conch shells). Conch shells? Spirals that lead to the
heart.
Rather than the political support, dignity, and
respect the communities deserve, Marcos said, they have received
many cast-off items from modern industrial societies: one pink shoe
with a stiletto heel, old computers that don't work, expired
medicines, and inappropriate (useless) clothing. He characterized
this charity, which was delivered to the five Aguascalientes, where
it remains unusable, as the "Cinderella Syndrome." Marcos also
reported that the Aguascalientes experienced the imposition of
unnecessary projects by some nonprofit organizations.
The
death of the Aguascalientes signifies the end of their acceptance of
such charity and imposed projects. The Caracoles will no longer
accept cast-off items or imposed projects. Rather, they expect
dignity, respect, and political support.
Since 1996, the five
Aguascalientes functioned as spaces where civil society could meet
and dialogue with the Zapatistas. They also served as training and
cultural centers for communities in the region. The Caracoles will
continue to perform those functions as well as some additional
ones.
Building the Material Conditions
for Resistance
In a communique entitled "A History,"
Marcos evaluated the progress made by the autonomous municipalities
over the last seven years, a very practical and down-to-earth
assessment of the current situation in the communities. He praised
them for the important advances they made in such high-priority
areas as health care and education, with the support of civil
society (that's us). Marcos reminded us that resistance means great
material sacrifice for the communities because they will
accept
nothing from the "bad government" (mal
gobierno).
Progress has taken place "under conditions of
extreme poverty,
shortages, and technical and information
limitations . . . ," he
continued. "Its having managed to survive
under conditions of
persecution, harassment, and poverty that
have rarely existed in the history of the world speaks to the fact
that [autonomous government] has benefited the communities." Marcos
recognized that, with support from civil society, the autonomous
councils have carried on the labor of building the material
conditions for resistance. However, he said, the development of
these autonomous municipalities has not been equal.
The
inequality had been caused by several factors: 1) the autonomous
municipalities (counties) in which the Aguascalientes were located
have tended to receive more attention and more economic support from
civil society than other municipalities; and 2) those
autonomousmunicipalities which are easy to reach have also received
more economic support and thus are more developed. The resulting
inequality in development is unfair and causes friction between
communities and between autonomous municipalities.
The
success of the autonomous councils in dealing with conflicts between
Zapatista communities and nonZapatista communities got mixed
reviews. Thus, the new plan to remedy the inequalities: Good
Government Committees (Juntas de Buen Gobierno or, simply,
Juntas).
These are juntas of good government in contrast to
the "bad government" of Mexico (as the Zapatistas usually refer to
it). The Juntas will take on the duties of distributing economic
solidarity and projects in an equitable manner throughout their
region. They will also resolve disputes which cannot be resolved
locally. They will regulate who enters and leaves their region.
Marcos put it this way:
"The Caracoles will be like doors for
going into the communities and for the communities to leave. Like
windows for seeing us and for us to look out. Like speakers for
taking our word afar and for listening to what is far away. But,
most especially, for reminding us that we should stay awake and be
alert to the rightness of the worlds which people the
world."
The Juntas will be composed of one or more
representatives from each autonomous municipality within the
jurisdiction of each Caracol, in other words, regional
self-government. A bold move, which takes autonomy to another level
and places it on the national agenda once again. Suddenly, Mexican
newspapers were full of articles pro and con the new Zapatista
initiative on autonomy and the legality of its Juntas (or lack
thereof). Mexico City's progressive daily, La Jornada, called it
"autonomy without permission."
The Political
Context
Many of the problems this initiative addresses have
been around for a while. Those of us who travel to Chiapas
frequently (and have learned to listen and see) have observed the
unequal development, imposed projects, and useless cast-off items
for some time. So the logical question is, Why has the EZLN waited
until now to launch their new initiative?
We have only to
look at the election debacle of July 6 of this year for the answer.
Mexican voters expressed themselves by abstaining from voting.
Nearly 60 percent failed to vote. In Chiapas, the rate of abstention
was close to 70 percent, a negative referendum on the failed
promises of the Fox presidency. The PAN (Fox's political party) lost
seats in the Chamber of Deputies whereas both the PRI and the PRD
gained.
There is much talk about the inability of Fox to
govern for the
remaining three years of his term. A political
power vacuum results. Enter Marcos, the EZLN, and the autonomous
communities to fill that vacuum, reopening space for the issue of
indigenous autonomy. The Zapatistas are reuniting the nation's
majority, which supported them on the March of Indigenous Dignity
during February-March of 2001. They invited civil society to three
days of fiestas in Oventic this past August 8, 9, and 10 to
commemorate the death of the Aguascalientes and the birth of the
Caracoles. Indigenous peoples from all over Mexico, as well as some
campesino organizations, the press, and civil society, attended. An
estimated 15,000 or more greeted this new phase of EZLN resistance
to globalization and bad government.
Warning Issued to
Paramilitary Leaders: 2 for 1
Marcos reported that the
activity of paramilitary gangs has increased in Chiapas, especially
in Los Altos (The Highlands). Once again, these gangs are
threatening attacks against Acteal and Polho similar to the Acteal
massacre of December 1997. Marcos put the paramilitary leaders on
notice that there will be no impunity for them if they attack. He
stated that for every Zapatista killed, the EZLN will kill two
paramilitaries, his point being that this time the paramilitaries
will suffer the consequences of their actions.
In his letter
to the festival in Oventic, Marcos spelled out very
clearly that
the autonomous municipalities and Good Government Juntas will have
autonomy from the EZLN's military structure. Members of the military
will no longer perform police functions, like maintaining
checkpoints and collecting taxes from individuals. Therefore, all
checkpoints and tax collections will be terminated immediately. This
announcement was well received by the mainstream media and the
government, a good public relations move by the EZLN, interpreted by
some as a signal for peace and dialogue. Marcos said clearly that
the military's role would be to defend the
communities.
Plan La Realidad to Tijuana (Plan
RealiTi)
Interspersed among the practical matters of moving
toward regional autonomy, Marcos repeated his scathing critique of
the Plan PueblaPanama (PPP), that ill-fated plan by the Fox
administration to "develop" the infrastructure of indigenous Mexico,
not for indigenous people but to accommodate transnational
corporations and the FTAA. The Sup boldly
announced that the PPP
would not be permitted in Zapatista lands. He also predicted that
all the resistance movements throughout Mexico and Central America
had already doomed any attempt to implement the PPP. The comunicado
on this issue is worth reading for his critique of "big
capital."
A big surprise came when Marcos announced the Plan
La RealidadTijuana (Plan RealiTi). This plan involves linking all
the resistance movements in Mexico and together rebuilding the
country from below. And . . . the Zapatistas have four more plans to
deal with the rest of the world, including the U.S. and
Canada!
In connection with globalization, an announcement was
made during the Oventic fiesta that the Zapatista word would travel
to Cancun in mid-September for the WTO
gatherings.
Conclusion
We congratulate the
Zapatistas on this advance in their construction of indigenous
autonomy. A Chiapas Support Committee delegation will deliver our
congratulations in person to the Caracol of La Garrucha when we
travel into the river valleys of the Lacandon. We will be asking the
questions everyone has about what the reorganization means to those
of us in civil society. Join us on our October 5 to October 12
delegation
to Chiapas, and help construct the material conditions
for resistance. Call (510) 6549587 or email:
cezmat@igc.org
Note: All the EZLN's comunicados can be read
in Spanish at:
www.ezlnaldf.org
and in English at:
www.eco.utexas.edu/facstaff/Cleaver/aguascalientes.html.
_______________________________________________________
The War in
Chiapas: CSC delegation report (March,
2003)
Military Situation.
There is a war in Chiapas. It is
called a "low-intensity" war. It is a war directed at the civilian
population. From time-to-time orchestrated violence breaks out. All
is watched and controlled by the Mexican Army's estimated
70,000+plus troops stationed throughout the EZLN zone of influence.
We saw troops everywhere we went: on the main highway between San
Cristobal and Ocosingo, on the dirt road into the Las Tasas Canyon,
on the road into the Patihuitz Canyon and on the mountain road that
passes the entrance to Polho.
They were "on patrol." The
entire countryside is dotted with military camps and bases of
various sizes, beginning with the gigantic olive-green 39th Military
headquarters across the road from the Tonina Ruins and the community
of Jerusalen. They watch, harass and frighten civilian Zapatista
supporters. They protect and coordinate with the paramilitary
groups.
Paramilitary Situation.
The paramilitary
groups do the dirty work for the government and the Mexican Army.
When violence is planned, it is the paramilitaries who do it. They
have complete impunity. In the Northern Zone, the autonomous
counties do not publicly announce themselves for fear of attack by
Development, Peace and Justice, ironically the name of a large
paramilitary group. In the canyons east of Ocosingo, some counties
do not publicly announce the name of the county seat for fear of
paramilitary reprisal. County headquarters are rotated. Communities
protect themselves by close coordination and cooperation/ support in
the event of an attack and with denuncias (public announcements) of
paramilitary activity. They stressed the importance of international
observers in their peace camps and of international civil society
distributing information about events in Chiapas.
We learned
that the paramilitary group MIRA has disappeared because, according
to the companeros, civil society found out about it and it was
denounced. It has been replaced with a new paramilitary group, the
Opdic, which operates in the canyons of the Lacandon Jungle. The
Opdic is said to be responsible for several of the attacks last
July-August. We also learned that it is growing and spreading
throughout the canyons east of Ocosingo. According to the
companeros and the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada, the Opdic is
organized and financed by the Municipal president of Ocosingo, Omar
Burguete and by Pedro Chulin, a delegate to the state Congress from
a district in Ocosingo county (the largest in terms of square miles
in Mexico).
Autonomy
Although the Mexican Congress
and Supreme Court have refused to implement the San Andres Accords
into law, the Zapatista communities in Chiapas have constructed
autonomy on their own. They have developed a structure of self
governance based on their cultural values and on the principles of
their resistance against neo- liberalism and a "bad
government." They elect their own authorities who in turn
implement programs for autonomous education and health. They
construct schools, libraries, health clinics and begin to develop an
autonomous economy. They face many obstacles: lack of money,
inability of many to read and write, lack of transportation, lack of
medicine, etc. They know it will take a long time to accomplish all
they hope for, but they are diligently working on
it.
Polhó Refugee Camp
There are still many
refugees from the "low-intensity" warfare. 8,000 are in the
autonomous refugee camp of Polho, possibly
the world's only
entirely self-managed refugee camp. They are
in resistance.
One of the leaders told us that they will not sell out by returning
to their villages of origin while there are still paramilitaries
there. They were critical of those who did return.
As I
emerged from the van at Polho, trucks full of soldiers were no more
than 15 feet away on the road, glaring at me and at those guarding
the entrance to the refugee camp. The patrols were frequent. The
military camp is adjacent to Polho. It is active and
menacing.
Lack of food is a problem for everyone in the
community of Polho. The International Red Cross has reduced the
amount of food aid to 25% of the minimum daily requirement. To that
amount is added the food from those fields which it is safe for some
of the refugees to work plus the money contributed by national and
international civil society. There is hunger there. It seems to me
that the refugees are the responsibility of all of us.
We
were shocked to hear that the Mexican Red Cross, which is supposed
to be providing health care to the county, developed a little
housing project which was for PRI families (read paramilitaries) in
other communities and they are using it to divide communities. The
paramilitaries have been given 1,000 tons of building materials
(gravel, cement, wood, tin roofs).
Montes Azules -
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor-Mexico.
The threat of
eviction looms heavy over the indigenous communities settled inside
the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. Towards the end of our
delegation, Global Exchange took a group of NGO workers and press
people for a flight over the area and a visit to several
communities. Their report confirmed all we have previously said
about the phony "green" reasons being but an excuse to evict
troublesome indigenous communities in the way of corporate
exploitation of the rainforest. They echoed our criticisms of
Conservation International's (CI's) position on this matter. We
applaud their work. The more voices that are added to the critique
of what is really happening in the Montes Azules the
better.
In one of our informational briefings we were told
that one of the
things CI is doing in the Montes Azules is
catching butterflies to send to a tourist park in Cancun. They also
send fungi and orchids to the U.S.
Both before and after the
delegation, several of us met with friends in Tuxtla Gutierrez,
where we discussed the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor-Mexico
(MBC-M). In the opinion of these folks there is no doubt that it is
being used for counterinsurgency purposes. The reserves of El
Triunfo and the Chimilapas are home to the EPR and both EZLN and EPR
respectively. Civilian communities supportive of these groups
live inside the reserves. The Montes Azules is only the first
biosphere reserve to be threatened with
evictions.
Jerusalen/Rancho Esmeralda.
While
several of us were en route to Chiapas, EZLN bases of support
surrounded Rancho Esmeralda, the now notorious "ecotourism" ranch
owned by a couple of U.S. citizens. Zapatistas took control of the
property several weeks after it was abandoned by the owners, who
remain in Chiapas and talk to the press, U.S. government
representatives, and to representatives of the Chiapas government
regularly. We did not detect much sympathy for them among
Chiapanecos. They are asking the Chiapas government to indemnify
them in the amount of $5,000,000.00 pesos ($500,000.00 U.S.
dollars). The governor has refused.
This is a difficult
subject to discuss because we do not have the
benefit of the
EZLN's word on this. They are completely silent on this subject.
However, some information was published in La Jornada and the local
Chiapas papers while we were there. The essence of the published
information is that a top-level Israeli military official was the
leader of the "eco-tourist" group that caused the problem last
December. The group is known to have ties to the Guatemalan military
and it is suspected that they brought arms with them as well as
satellite telecommunications equipment. They must have been seen as
a threat to civilian Zapatista bases of support in Jerusalen, so the
road through Jerusalen was closed to further Rancho Esmeralda
"eco-tourists."
The remainder of our experience was a mix of
serious interviews and celebrations in autonomous communities. We
are producing a video on that part of our trip for presentation at
La Pena Cultural Center, 3105
Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, on April
9 at 7:30
PM.
______________________________________________________
*
The Chiapas Support Committee's (CSC) 4th Annual Delegation for
International Women's Week began on March 2 when all eleven
delegates gathered in San Cristobal de las Casas Chiapas, Mexico. We
were 7 from the Greater Bay Area (6 from Oakland), 1 from Davis,
California and 3 from Germany.
During the 9-day delegation we
received excellent informational
briefings from Enlace Civil, the
Coordinator of Civil Society in
Resistance and the awesome
research center, CIEPAC. We traveled to four communities in the
canyons east of Ocosingo (where the U.S. State Department advises us
not to go), spending four days and three nights there. We had formal
meetings with autonomous authorities in two communities and chatted
informally in others. In addition, we visited the archaeological
ruins of Tonina, celebrated International Women's Day (a day late)
at a fiesta given for us by the women's collective store in the
community of San Jose and ended the delegation with a visit to the
Polhó refugee camp on March 10. A very full itinerary and an amazing
experience. Below we summarize what we learned about the general
situation.
For more information about Chiapas, the La Pena
program or about future delegations to Chiapas, please contact
us.
___________________________________
CNC
Activity
(REPORT from
CHIAPAS - PART 3)
The CNC is a
national peasant organization affiliated with the Partido
Revolucionario Institutional (PRI), the ruling party in Mexico and
Chiapas until the elections of 2000. The PRI still controls the
enormous county of Ocosingo. It soon became apparent that the CNC
members in La Providencia were interested in more than just having
some land. Some of them, Los Lecheros, were one of the groups which
pretended to leave the Zapatistas and faked turning in their weapons
to former Governor Roberto Albores Guillén. Around the same time
(1999) this group began to provoke the Zapatistas by making false
reports to the police and causing the wrongful detention of one of
the Zapatistas. Moreover, they entered Zapatista
houses.....
See story
Mexican Human
Rights Lawyer Is Killed
A winner of
Amnesty International's Enduring Spirit Award, had been menaced by
death threats for years, often in notes devised from newspaper
clippings that appeared under her door. In 1999, she was kidnapped
and beaten. Two months later, she was tied, blindfolded and tortured
in her home for nine hours. No arrests were made in the
attacks.........
See story
Report
on Chiapas - Parts 1 &
2
Chiapas
state elections & Francisco
Gómez
".....it
was clear that the PRI remained the majority party. [Later results
showed that the PRI was indeed the #1 favorite of the people who
bothered to vote, with the PRD a distant second and the PAN (Fox’s
party) third.] The PRI will have a majority of deputies in the state
Congress and maintains control of a majority of the municipal
governments. A big surprise was that a previously unheard of party,
the PAS, won control of San Cristóbal municipal government. It is
rumored that the PAS was founded by a rich conservative
(redundant?), but who knows!
Pérez López
and Morales Ramírez shared the analysis that there was one crystal
clear message to be learned from this year’s election: if you want
to beat the PRI, you must do so in alliance with other
parties..."
See story
Worsening situation of internally displaced
Chiapas refugees & threats from paramilitaries against Zapatista
bases of support.
"We Will Die of Hunger Without Red
Cross Committee Aid." Say Chenalhó Displaced Elio Henríquez,
correspondent San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
Indigenous
from the municipality of Chenalhó, displaced from their communities,
asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) to
reconsider its decision to reduce their humanitarian aid deliveries
because, if they do not, "we are going to die of hunger...."
See story
Brief Background on
Chiapas
The
EZLN.
On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of
National Liberation (EZLN) declared war against the Mexican
government by seizing the four largest municipal governments in the
state of Chiapas, Mexico. The EZLN, or Zapatistas as they are often
called, is composed largely of indigenous Mayan campesinos. Their
demands include land, housing, food, schools, health care, roads,
electricity, safe drinking water, and democratic
elections.
After thirteen days of fighting, a fragile truce
was called by the government. Peace talks resulted in an initial
agreement on Indigenous Rights and Culture in February, 1996. (This
agreement is referred to as the "San Andres Accords.") Additional
talks were called off in September of that year when the government
failed to implement the agreement it signed. In November, 1996 all
parties to the peace talks agreed to language for implementing the
initial accords into law. The president of Mexico refused to sign
the language to which his own negotiators agreed. No talks have been
held since. Meanwhile, the government has implemented a strategy of
"low-intensity warfare" against civilian communities supportive of
the Zapatista demands. This includes sending 70,000 military troops
to Chiapas (a state with only 3.2 million people), allowing
paramilitary groups to terrorize with impunity, and the military
occupation of civilian communities.
This strategy culminated in the brutal Christmas Eve massacre of
45 women, children and men, as they prayed in the chapel of a
refugee camp in a village of Acteal, Chiapas. Military and
paramilitary violence has driven 19,500 indigenous people into
makeshift refugee camps where they lack food, shelter, medicine and
safe drinking water. The hunger in these camps is now combined with
a critical food shortage caused by this year's severe drought. We
also work directly with indigenous communities.
A New President.
On Dec. 1, 2001, Vicente Fox
became the President of Mexico. His election represented a change in
political party for the first time in more than 70 years. He is a
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