In the framework of the International Call for actions in Solidarity with Chiapas we will hold a peaceful demonstrate in front of the Argentinian Embassy of Mexico Calle Arcos 1650 – Capital Federal at 6pm on 15th February 2008. We will hold a photo exhibit showing the continuous actions and harrassments that violate the human rights of the Zapatista communities and other communities in resistance. AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: 15th February 2008 – SOLIDARITY WITH CHIAPAS: RESPECT FOR INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY AND A HALT TO THE REPRESSION IN CHIAPAS
In the framework of the International Call for actions in Solidarity with Chiapas we will hold a peaceful demonstrate in front of the Argentinian Embassy of Mexico Calle Arcos 1650 – Capital Federal at 6pm on 15th February 2008. We will hold a photo exhibit showing the continuous actions and harrassments that violate the human rights of the Zapatista communities and other communities in resistance. AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
We call on all fellow adherents to the Sixth Declation of the Lacandona Jungle and those struggling and resisting from Below and to the Left to join us on this day , 15th February 2008, for an international day of action in solidarity with the Chiapas, for the respect of indigenous autonomy and against repression.
In recent months, agressions against the Zapatista communities have drastically worsened. The low intensity war has acquired a dimension not seen since the Acteal massacre ten years ago. At the same time, media coverage remains low. We believe that it is crucial that we make it clear to public opinion in Europe that we have not forgotten the conflict and resistance in Chiapas. We will show the Mexican government that here in Europe we are closely watching the worrying situation in Chiapas. For this reason, we are calling for an international day of action on the 15th February in front of Mexican Embassies and Consulates. The date coincides with the 12th anniversary of the San Andrés Accords. (The anniversary is actually the 16th February, but this is a Saturday, so embassies will be closed on the day).
The San Andrés Accords negotiated between the EZLN and the Mexican government had as their objective to guarantee indigenous autonomy. Amongst other things, they included indigenous autonomy and self management of natural resources by the indigenous inhabitants of the area. However, the EZLN broke off the negotiations due to the fact that the government neither fulfilled nor respected the Accords. We are in solidarity with the realization of indigenous autonomy.
The situation of the indigenous communities in resistance has worsened since the implementaiton of Plan Puebla Panama and other neoliberal megaprojects which require access to Chiapas’s biospheric reserves for infrastructure and tourist purposes.
In August 2007 four communities were violently displaced in the biospheric reserve of Montes Azules in the Lacandona Jungle. Over the last year, the number and intensity of paramilitary attacks carried out by OPDDIC (Organization for the Defence of Indigenous and Peasant Rights) against Zapatista communites has increased in the area of Agua Azul, the most visited and well known waterfalls in México. Since September 2007, OPDIC has issued several threats and carried out attacks against the Zapatista settlement Bolon Ajaw due to the fact that the people are located in the road to some waterfalls which are currently still inaccessible to tourists. In cahoots with the state government OPDDIC is planning a new tourist project for which it intends to displace the community. Now that the community has refused voluntary resettlement, it has suffered numerous attacks and death threats, as well as threats of rape, at the hands of OPDDIC. Furthermore, some houses were burnt down in Bolon Ajaw. The perpetrators of these deeds were inhabitants of the ejido Agua Azul, nearly all of whom belonged to OPDDIC. For this reason, both local and international organizations are calling for a tourism boycott until the agressions against Zapatista communities cease. In the community of Vetel Yo’chib, near to Agua Azul, on the 29th December 2007, on the road to his milpa [plot of land], compañero Pablo Silvano Jiménez received a bullet in the leg from two policemen and a member of OPDDIC. From then on, he has had to go into hiding and can no longer work to feed his family. In the last week of January an international observation brigade that was in Vetel received death threats and also threats of rape. On the 1st February 2008 compañero Eliseo Silvano Jiménez and his son were shot at by members of OPDDIC and the police. Afterwards they were arrested in an OPDIC truck. In the prison they were tortured and forced to have photos taken of them holding arms. Currently they are still in prison in Palenque and there is no media attention.
WE DEMAND:
1.The suspension of all forms of agression against the Zapatistas and other communities in resistance.
2.The suspension of war against the insurgency against the indigenous and zapatista communities and the withdrawal of the military bases from the indigenous region of Chiapas.
3. The release of Eliseo Silvano Jiménez and Eliseo Silvano Espinoza as well as all other political prisoners.
4.A total halt to the violent evictions in the indigenous territory of Chiapas.
5.The end of cooperation between paramilitary organizations such as OPDDIC and the federal army and police, as wll as the legal recognition of the crimes which this organization has committed.
6.Respect for Indigenous Autonomy.
This call was issued by Activists from the Gruppe B.A.S.T.A. (Münster,Germany) and Atenco Resiste(Berlin), who are currently in Chiapas, México
Showing posts with label ezln. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ezln. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Why the Zapatistas Are Preparing for War; the Color Red, “26 Communities” and La Otra
Subcomandante Marcos got everyone’s attention when he presented "Feeling Red: The Calendar and Geography of War" at a symposium in honor of the late Andrés Aubry in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Marcos announced that they (the EZLN) would not be attending conferences, encuentros or giving interviews for a “good while.” He said the Zapatista communities are surrounded by military camps and paramilitaries and are preparing for the war which they see coming. "Those of us who have made war know how to recognize the paths by which it is prepared and brought near," Marcos said. "The signs of war on the horizon are clear. War, like fear, also has a smell. And now we are starting to breathe its fetid odor in our lands." He delivered that speech on December 17, 2007, just eleven days before the start of the Women’s Encuentro in La Garrucha, Chiapas.
Consequently, one question on everyone’s mind in La Garrucha and during our visits after the Encuentro was: What did Marcos mean when he said they were preparing for war? The Center of Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations, AC (CAPISE, its initials in Spanish) has documented 56 military bases and/or camps surrounding indigenous Zapatista territory in Chiapas. Regular Army troops in those military positions have been replaced by elite special forces, which CAPISE thinks may constitute a sign of war. CAPISE also talks about the 27,000 acres of land claimed by the EZLN after being abandoned by their landowners in 1994 which are now in danger of violent eviction because Mexico’s Agrarian Reform agency is granting legal title to those same lands to antiZapatista groups, often referred to as paramilitary.
Other answers to this question may vary somewhat from region to region. In the Northern Zone of Chiapas, for example, the answer would surely include the violent paramilitary attacks in Olga Isabel, part of an effort coordinated with the government’s Agrarian Reform agency to take away Zapatista lands. Efforts by the government to expel Zapatista communities surrounding the Agua Azul Cascades and the paramilitary violence against those communities and its members, including shootings and severe beatings, certainly qualify as incidents that could indicate war is coming, Zapatistas in the Northern Zone might say.
While Zapatistas in Los Altos may point to the anticipated eviction of Huitepec Hill or to death threats against the San Andrés autonomous municipal council by paramilitaries calling themselves “Opddic Roja” as signs of war, those in the Border Jungle region near Las Margaritas would surely point to the Zapatista community of 24 de Diciembre. That community is living under constant threat of a violent forced eviction by their neighbors belonging to the Unión de Ejidos de la Selva (UES) or, in English, the Union of Ejidos of the Jungle. All are signs of war.
La Garrucha, however, is in the Patihuitz Cañada (Canyon) east of the city of Ocosingo in the Lacandón Jungle, a region with a unique history. This writer was traveling with a group that visited other cañadas in this same region after the Women’s Encuentro and chatted with its residents about this issue. These conversations called to mind a somewhat secretive expropriation of land by the federal government with potentially devastating consequences for the Cañadas.
In May 2007, Mexico’s federal government expropriated 14 thousand hectares of land (approximately 35,580 acres) in the Lacandón Jungle of Chiapas. Somewhat suspiciously, it did not announce exactly where these lands were located, but, nevertheless, asserted “ecological concerns” as its reason. A Chiapas non-governmental organization (NGO), Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste (Woods of the People of the Southeast), filed a freedom of information request to find out exactly where the expropriated lands were located. Woods of the People finally received the information it requested and La Jornada published an article regarding the specifics of that information in October 2007. (http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/10/22/index.php?section= politica&article= 010n1pol)
It is important to remember that, as a result of the expropriation decree, state and federal police violently evicted several indigenous communities from the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in an August 18, 2007 surprise attack. Residents of 2 communities, San Manuel and El Buen Samaritano, were forced at gunpoint to get into helicopters. They were then removed from their homes, which were ransacked and burned; all their belongings damaged or stolen. Six (male) heads of family were taken to El Amate prison, while at least 33 women, small children and youths were held in a former brothel. Some of those removed at gunpoint were Zapatista support bases, others were members of ARIC-Independent and/or ARIC UU.
The expropriated lands consist of eight sections. One section borders on Amador Hernández, which some may remember for its brave and prolonged resistance to the Army in 1999. At the time of that standoff, Subcomandante Marcos said the region was rich in oil. The entire area of eight sections has a wealth of biodiversity, forests containing precious woods, unparalleled natural beauty and an abundant supply of uncontaminated fresh water in the form of white water rivers, natural springs and aquifers. It also has many Other Campaign supporters, both Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas.
As well as one section inside the Montes Azules, the expropriated area includes some of the area outside of the Montes Azules in the region of Las Cañadas (the Canyons) and affects the “26 ejidos legalized in 1989.” In order to fully appreciate the significance of this information, a little history of the region is helpful.
Sometime between 1950 and 1960, an exodus of indigenous people into the sparsely settled Cañadas of the Lacandón Jungle began. Some went in order to establish new settlements and escape the extremely harsh life of exploitation as peons on the fincas (estates). Others were no longer needed on the fincas as land use changed from cash crops to cattle ranching, a less labor intensive business. The lowly-paid farm workers were turned loose without land, money or homes. They went in search of land on which to settle and grow their food. The new Jungle settlements founded by the colonists began to apply for ejido title to their lands under Article 27 of the new Mexican Constitution. Eventually, some obtained title to the lands they had settled. Others were not so fortunate because the process of obtaining title was often backlogged for many years in government red tape and bureaucracy.
The settlers faced incredible obstacles. Most were subsistence farmers. There were few schools and no health care services. The new communities had no electricity or safe drinking water, no sewage disposal. The region had few roads, and those which existed were deeply rutted dirt trails, making access to nearby cities where they could sell their cash crops and purchase their supplies extremely difficult. In other words, the settlers were impoverished and ignored by the federal and state governments in so far as those governments did not extend public services to them.
Then, in 1972, Mexican president Luis Echeverría granted 1,517,372.8 acres (614,321 hectáreas) of land to a small group of indigenous people (66 families), who he called Lacandóns, living in the heart of the Jungle. The 1972 Presidential Decree created a legal entity known today as “the Lacandón Community.” There were several practical effects of this decree on the communities of the Cañadas: 1) 26 well-established communities fell inside the limits of the “Lacandon Community,” thereby placing their land tenure at risk and making them vulnerable to eviction; and 2) it closed off the possibility of future expansion by the next generation of inhabitants of the Cañadas. The Jungle was no longer open to further settlement. The consequences of this decree were not lost on the youth of the Cañadas. While their fathers may have a piece of land to farm now, the sons had nowhere they could go to acquire land for themselves when they married and had their own families to feed.
In response to both the presidential decree and in order to collectively overcome the economic obstacles they faced, on December 14, 1975, the settlers in the Cañadas to the east of Ocosingo, formed the Union of Ejidos Quiptic Ta Lecubtesel (United for Our Strength, in Tzeltal). Quiptic’s demands were: 1) regularization (legalization) of land tenancy; 2) opposition to taxes imposed by the government for services they did not provide; and 3) opposition to fines for planting their milpa (cornfield) or cutting firewood for cooking. The first demand and that which united Quiptic from the beginning was to legalize ownership of “the 26 communities” established before the Lacandón Community was created and which fell inside its boundaries. Quiptic maintained a militant stance despite wanting to work with government programs and advisors to commercialize their products and obtain credit. The reason for the militancy was the precarious tenancy of “the 26 communities” affected by the presidential Decree of the Lacandon Community, over which hung the threat of eviction.
Quiptic later joined together with campesino organizations from other regions of the Jungle (Altamirano and Las Margaritas) to form the Union of Unions (UU). After a UU split, the grouping to which the former Quiptic belonged eventually formed the Rural Association of Collective Interest (ARIC, its initials in Spanish), which achieved the legalization of “the 26 communities” as ejidos in 1989. By that time, many of ARIC’s members were also clandestine members of the EZLN. Throughout its different formations and political splits, the issue of “the 26 communities” always held those from the Cañadas east of Ocosingo together.
Now, according to the report in La Jornada, the federal government has expropriated lands which 15 of those 26 communities use and work. Currently, several indigenous organizations, including the EZLN and the various ARIC and UU groupings, inhabit the lands involved. The expropriation is a direct provocation to the EZLN, as well as to the campesino organizations that struggled for many years to legally own and work these lands. It raises the threat of more violent evictions like those of San Manuel and Buen Samaritano.
In our conversations with residents of the Cañadas, we learned that government agents are visiting the region and making known government intentions to expel communities pursuant to the May 2007 decree. One of our sources told us that this is like waving a red flag in front of a bull and, consequently, that the region’s residents and their social organizations are uniting to fight against the government’s plan to evict them.
Indeed, not long after these interviews, a press release appeared on the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center’s web page, denouncing the expropriation and reporting on a meeting in Amador Hernández of 640 delegates from the communities and organizations throughout the Cañadas.
The idea of uniting the different organizations to which campesinos of this region belong was one motive behind the Other Campaign. One of our interviews addressed this question and what we learned is that the Other Campaign has been remarkably successful in this regard, at least in the Cañadas. It has provided an opportunity for the campesino organizations which do not want to lose their identity by joining the EZLN to work together with the EZLN on issues of common concern throughout the region, a ray of hope in what could otherwise be seen as a gloomy “prewar” atmosphere. When asked why Marcos said that they were preparing for war, one of the compañeros answered by saying: “If we prepare for war well enough, there may not be a war.”
Consequently, one question on everyone’s mind in La Garrucha and during our visits after the Encuentro was: What did Marcos mean when he said they were preparing for war? The Center of Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations, AC (CAPISE, its initials in Spanish) has documented 56 military bases and/or camps surrounding indigenous Zapatista territory in Chiapas. Regular Army troops in those military positions have been replaced by elite special forces, which CAPISE thinks may constitute a sign of war. CAPISE also talks about the 27,000 acres of land claimed by the EZLN after being abandoned by their landowners in 1994 which are now in danger of violent eviction because Mexico’s Agrarian Reform agency is granting legal title to those same lands to antiZapatista groups, often referred to as paramilitary.
Other answers to this question may vary somewhat from region to region. In the Northern Zone of Chiapas, for example, the answer would surely include the violent paramilitary attacks in Olga Isabel, part of an effort coordinated with the government’s Agrarian Reform agency to take away Zapatista lands. Efforts by the government to expel Zapatista communities surrounding the Agua Azul Cascades and the paramilitary violence against those communities and its members, including shootings and severe beatings, certainly qualify as incidents that could indicate war is coming, Zapatistas in the Northern Zone might say.
While Zapatistas in Los Altos may point to the anticipated eviction of Huitepec Hill or to death threats against the San Andrés autonomous municipal council by paramilitaries calling themselves “Opddic Roja” as signs of war, those in the Border Jungle region near Las Margaritas would surely point to the Zapatista community of 24 de Diciembre. That community is living under constant threat of a violent forced eviction by their neighbors belonging to the Unión de Ejidos de la Selva (UES) or, in English, the Union of Ejidos of the Jungle. All are signs of war.
La Garrucha, however, is in the Patihuitz Cañada (Canyon) east of the city of Ocosingo in the Lacandón Jungle, a region with a unique history. This writer was traveling with a group that visited other cañadas in this same region after the Women’s Encuentro and chatted with its residents about this issue. These conversations called to mind a somewhat secretive expropriation of land by the federal government with potentially devastating consequences for the Cañadas.
In May 2007, Mexico’s federal government expropriated 14 thousand hectares of land (approximately 35,580 acres) in the Lacandón Jungle of Chiapas. Somewhat suspiciously, it did not announce exactly where these lands were located, but, nevertheless, asserted “ecological concerns” as its reason. A Chiapas non-governmental organization (NGO), Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste (Woods of the People of the Southeast), filed a freedom of information request to find out exactly where the expropriated lands were located. Woods of the People finally received the information it requested and La Jornada published an article regarding the specifics of that information in October 2007. (http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/10/22/index.php?section= politica&article= 010n1pol)
It is important to remember that, as a result of the expropriation decree, state and federal police violently evicted several indigenous communities from the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in an August 18, 2007 surprise attack. Residents of 2 communities, San Manuel and El Buen Samaritano, were forced at gunpoint to get into helicopters. They were then removed from their homes, which were ransacked and burned; all their belongings damaged or stolen. Six (male) heads of family were taken to El Amate prison, while at least 33 women, small children and youths were held in a former brothel. Some of those removed at gunpoint were Zapatista support bases, others were members of ARIC-Independent and/or ARIC UU.
The expropriated lands consist of eight sections. One section borders on Amador Hernández, which some may remember for its brave and prolonged resistance to the Army in 1999. At the time of that standoff, Subcomandante Marcos said the region was rich in oil. The entire area of eight sections has a wealth of biodiversity, forests containing precious woods, unparalleled natural beauty and an abundant supply of uncontaminated fresh water in the form of white water rivers, natural springs and aquifers. It also has many Other Campaign supporters, both Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas.
As well as one section inside the Montes Azules, the expropriated area includes some of the area outside of the Montes Azules in the region of Las Cañadas (the Canyons) and affects the “26 ejidos legalized in 1989.” In order to fully appreciate the significance of this information, a little history of the region is helpful.
Sometime between 1950 and 1960, an exodus of indigenous people into the sparsely settled Cañadas of the Lacandón Jungle began. Some went in order to establish new settlements and escape the extremely harsh life of exploitation as peons on the fincas (estates). Others were no longer needed on the fincas as land use changed from cash crops to cattle ranching, a less labor intensive business. The lowly-paid farm workers were turned loose without land, money or homes. They went in search of land on which to settle and grow their food. The new Jungle settlements founded by the colonists began to apply for ejido title to their lands under Article 27 of the new Mexican Constitution. Eventually, some obtained title to the lands they had settled. Others were not so fortunate because the process of obtaining title was often backlogged for many years in government red tape and bureaucracy.
The settlers faced incredible obstacles. Most were subsistence farmers. There were few schools and no health care services. The new communities had no electricity or safe drinking water, no sewage disposal. The region had few roads, and those which existed were deeply rutted dirt trails, making access to nearby cities where they could sell their cash crops and purchase their supplies extremely difficult. In other words, the settlers were impoverished and ignored by the federal and state governments in so far as those governments did not extend public services to them.
Then, in 1972, Mexican president Luis Echeverría granted 1,517,372.8 acres (614,321 hectáreas) of land to a small group of indigenous people (66 families), who he called Lacandóns, living in the heart of the Jungle. The 1972 Presidential Decree created a legal entity known today as “the Lacandón Community.” There were several practical effects of this decree on the communities of the Cañadas: 1) 26 well-established communities fell inside the limits of the “Lacandon Community,” thereby placing their land tenure at risk and making them vulnerable to eviction; and 2) it closed off the possibility of future expansion by the next generation of inhabitants of the Cañadas. The Jungle was no longer open to further settlement. The consequences of this decree were not lost on the youth of the Cañadas. While their fathers may have a piece of land to farm now, the sons had nowhere they could go to acquire land for themselves when they married and had their own families to feed.
In response to both the presidential decree and in order to collectively overcome the economic obstacles they faced, on December 14, 1975, the settlers in the Cañadas to the east of Ocosingo, formed the Union of Ejidos Quiptic Ta Lecubtesel (United for Our Strength, in Tzeltal). Quiptic’s demands were: 1) regularization (legalization) of land tenancy; 2) opposition to taxes imposed by the government for services they did not provide; and 3) opposition to fines for planting their milpa (cornfield) or cutting firewood for cooking. The first demand and that which united Quiptic from the beginning was to legalize ownership of “the 26 communities” established before the Lacandón Community was created and which fell inside its boundaries. Quiptic maintained a militant stance despite wanting to work with government programs and advisors to commercialize their products and obtain credit. The reason for the militancy was the precarious tenancy of “the 26 communities” affected by the presidential Decree of the Lacandon Community, over which hung the threat of eviction.
Quiptic later joined together with campesino organizations from other regions of the Jungle (Altamirano and Las Margaritas) to form the Union of Unions (UU). After a UU split, the grouping to which the former Quiptic belonged eventually formed the Rural Association of Collective Interest (ARIC, its initials in Spanish), which achieved the legalization of “the 26 communities” as ejidos in 1989. By that time, many of ARIC’s members were also clandestine members of the EZLN. Throughout its different formations and political splits, the issue of “the 26 communities” always held those from the Cañadas east of Ocosingo together.
Now, according to the report in La Jornada, the federal government has expropriated lands which 15 of those 26 communities use and work. Currently, several indigenous organizations, including the EZLN and the various ARIC and UU groupings, inhabit the lands involved. The expropriation is a direct provocation to the EZLN, as well as to the campesino organizations that struggled for many years to legally own and work these lands. It raises the threat of more violent evictions like those of San Manuel and Buen Samaritano.
In our conversations with residents of the Cañadas, we learned that government agents are visiting the region and making known government intentions to expel communities pursuant to the May 2007 decree. One of our sources told us that this is like waving a red flag in front of a bull and, consequently, that the region’s residents and their social organizations are uniting to fight against the government’s plan to evict them.
Indeed, not long after these interviews, a press release appeared on the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center’s web page, denouncing the expropriation and reporting on a meeting in Amador Hernández of 640 delegates from the communities and organizations throughout the Cañadas.
The idea of uniting the different organizations to which campesinos of this region belong was one motive behind the Other Campaign. One of our interviews addressed this question and what we learned is that the Other Campaign has been remarkably successful in this regard, at least in the Cañadas. It has provided an opportunity for the campesino organizations which do not want to lose their identity by joining the EZLN to work together with the EZLN on issues of common concern throughout the region, a ray of hope in what could otherwise be seen as a gloomy “prewar” atmosphere. When asked why Marcos said that they were preparing for war, one of the compañeros answered by saying: “If we prepare for war well enough, there may not be a war.”
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Mireya: “We'll continue to resist; the Blood Spilled by Our Dead Will Not Be Betrayed”
The Zapatista Women’s Conference Ended on January 1, the 14th Anniversary of the Armed Uprising
By Juan Trujillo and Raúl Romero
Reporting from the mountains of Chiapas
La Garrucha, Chiapas, México. 28th and 29th December – The phrase, “We’ll continue to resist; the blood spilled by our dead will not be betrayed,” echoes a cry in honor of the women and men who died fighting in the armed uprising of 1994, at the start of the “Comandanta Ramona and the Women Zapatistas” meeting late last month in the Resistencia Hacia Un Nuevo Amanecer (Resistance Toward a New Dawn) Zapatista caracol. The meeting, whose principal objective had been to dignify the history of the legendary comandanta’s fight, was held a meeting space of this community with speeches about the advances in women’s struggles in the five caracoles.
Photos D.R. 2008 Raúl Romero
The inauguration took place on the night of December 28 in the presence of supporters from more than 30 countries from five continents. Comandante Susana spoke of her special relationship with Ramona. Jessica, representing Zapatista support base, saluted military commanders while commenting that the “womens fight” is also a fight for “a different and better world.” Addressing the EZLN, Comandanta Delia explained that the political prisoners of Atenco and Oaxaca were also not forgotten.
At the entrance to this caracol there is a sign which informs the men that they cannot participate as “speakers or translators,” but they can “clean the toilets, make dinner and look after the children.” This is how the feminine influence takes form in this Tzeltal jungle valley, with the constant flow of women supporters and activists from around the world.
On the morning of December 29 activities centered around the rebel insurrection of January 1, 1994 including the time leading up to it and after. Generations of women Zapatistas were present as emphasis was put on the participation of women, mothers and daughters.
Abuelita (grandmother) Avelina (all the women Zapatistas here use pseudonyms) said “when grandmothers, when our mothers, when we ourselves work under bosses, we suffer a lot. That’s why we’re now fighting to be free.”
The history of the indigenous in Mexico has been one of exploitation and humiliation, and it has been worst of all for the women. “The bosses abused maids, raped them, had families with them, had as many women as they wanted. That was the boss,” explained the grandmother.
Nevertheless, “that is why we women left everything behind one day, we abandoned the boss’s fields,” and that’s how the rebellion started for them, on the first of January.
As soon as abuelita Avelina finishes speaking, you hear the cry of “We’re not all here, we’re missing our prisoners!” The women of San Salvador Atenco with the Peoples Front for Defense of the Land (FPDT) also bang their machetes. Among them is Trinidad Ramírez, wife of Ignacio del Valle.
Durring Elisa’s emphatic speech, she said that fear was the main reason that they the women their husbands get away with all kinds of abuses. “When they were drunk they would hit us and then rape us. Our fathers were the same,” Elisa said. “They chose who we married. Most times exchanging us for a piece of land, or worse, handing us over to the bosses in exchange for alcohol.”
The rich variety of the participants who listened to the speeches merged with the diverse (mostly female) population filling the auditorium of this caracol. The international organisation Vía Campesina – whose members here wear green scarves around their necks, the color of the organization – have accompanied the EZLN on all their international conferences over the past few months.
Mireya: “We’ll never forget the blood we’ve spilled”
The “married youth” (in Zapatista language she might be too young to exercise political or military command) Mireya, explained how the reality lived by previous generations has changed radically since the rise of the EZLN “in 1994 when we rose up in arms. In that moment it became clear why we were fighting and it became clear that we women have the same rights.” She added that indigenous women were looked down on and couldn’t even choose whom to marry. But it’s different now: they choose their partner, they know their rights and they are even part of the Good Government Councils.
“We are positioning ourselves on land recovered in 1994, land that was bought with the blood of our fallen comrades. But now the PRI (Institutional Revolution Party in its Spanish initials) and the Organization For Defense of Campesino and Indigenous Rights (OPDDIC in its Spanish initials, a local paramilitary organization) want us to give up what we have gained.”
She also said that bad governments use many methods to confuse and divide communities, like their social programs, along with other programs that seek to buy “other indigenous brothers,” who fall into the trap because they are in need. She finished her speech affirming that as women Zapatistas “we won’t go for Government Rural Help and Assistance Program (PROCAMPO in its Spanish initials) or bad government projects, because we’re never going to forget nor betray the blood we’ve spilled.” Finally, Mireya remembered all those who fought, armed, that January 1 and assured that “we’ll continue to resist, the blood they spilled will not be betrayed.”
For her part, the single, young woman Adriana (a Zapatista girl who is also a mother), said that she lives a different reality than that which her mother and grandmother lived. She explained that while still a girl she had to live through hard situations. “Before, our fathers didn’t let us go out because they said we knew nothing. They sold us like an animal in exchange for drinks. However, we recognize that today is a different reality and everything changed with the participation of the EZLN in 1994.” She added that “our fathers came to realize that we have rights and we can participate in several positions at work, in education and in health. Now our fathers give us freedom to work for the town.”
The child Zapatista Marina, from San Rafael – in Zapatista Rebellious Autonomous municipality Francisco Gómez – turned 9 years old on the previous January 4 and studies in the Zapatista autonomous school in her town. She told of being glad to have the right “to dance, to sing, and to enjoy herself.” Finally, Marina recounted that in her school there aren’t enough work materials and they can’t ask the Council of Good Government because there are more urgent needs, and that “we Zapatistas don’t want charity or crumbs from the bad government because that would betray the struggle.” Although she is just a child, she knows well that they are in resistance and is conscious of the limitations and complications that this brings with it. “We are used to it,” she said.
Originally published in Spansih January 5
By Juan Trujillo and Raúl Romero
Reporting from the mountains of Chiapas
La Garrucha, Chiapas, México. 28th and 29th December – The phrase, “We’ll continue to resist; the blood spilled by our dead will not be betrayed,” echoes a cry in honor of the women and men who died fighting in the armed uprising of 1994, at the start of the “Comandanta Ramona and the Women Zapatistas” meeting late last month in the Resistencia Hacia Un Nuevo Amanecer (Resistance Toward a New Dawn) Zapatista caracol. The meeting, whose principal objective had been to dignify the history of the legendary comandanta’s fight, was held a meeting space of this community with speeches about the advances in women’s struggles in the five caracoles.
Photos D.R. 2008 Raúl Romero
The inauguration took place on the night of December 28 in the presence of supporters from more than 30 countries from five continents. Comandante Susana spoke of her special relationship with Ramona. Jessica, representing Zapatista support base, saluted military commanders while commenting that the “womens fight” is also a fight for “a different and better world.” Addressing the EZLN, Comandanta Delia explained that the political prisoners of Atenco and Oaxaca were also not forgotten.
At the entrance to this caracol there is a sign which informs the men that they cannot participate as “speakers or translators,” but they can “clean the toilets, make dinner and look after the children.” This is how the feminine influence takes form in this Tzeltal jungle valley, with the constant flow of women supporters and activists from around the world.
On the morning of December 29 activities centered around the rebel insurrection of January 1, 1994 including the time leading up to it and after. Generations of women Zapatistas were present as emphasis was put on the participation of women, mothers and daughters.
Abuelita (grandmother) Avelina (all the women Zapatistas here use pseudonyms) said “when grandmothers, when our mothers, when we ourselves work under bosses, we suffer a lot. That’s why we’re now fighting to be free.”
The history of the indigenous in Mexico has been one of exploitation and humiliation, and it has been worst of all for the women. “The bosses abused maids, raped them, had families with them, had as many women as they wanted. That was the boss,” explained the grandmother.
Nevertheless, “that is why we women left everything behind one day, we abandoned the boss’s fields,” and that’s how the rebellion started for them, on the first of January.
As soon as abuelita Avelina finishes speaking, you hear the cry of “We’re not all here, we’re missing our prisoners!” The women of San Salvador Atenco with the Peoples Front for Defense of the Land (FPDT) also bang their machetes. Among them is Trinidad Ramírez, wife of Ignacio del Valle.
Durring Elisa’s emphatic speech, she said that fear was the main reason that they the women their husbands get away with all kinds of abuses. “When they were drunk they would hit us and then rape us. Our fathers were the same,” Elisa said. “They chose who we married. Most times exchanging us for a piece of land, or worse, handing us over to the bosses in exchange for alcohol.”
The rich variety of the participants who listened to the speeches merged with the diverse (mostly female) population filling the auditorium of this caracol. The international organisation Vía Campesina – whose members here wear green scarves around their necks, the color of the organization – have accompanied the EZLN on all their international conferences over the past few months.
Mireya: “We’ll never forget the blood we’ve spilled”
The “married youth” (in Zapatista language she might be too young to exercise political or military command) Mireya, explained how the reality lived by previous generations has changed radically since the rise of the EZLN “in 1994 when we rose up in arms. In that moment it became clear why we were fighting and it became clear that we women have the same rights.” She added that indigenous women were looked down on and couldn’t even choose whom to marry. But it’s different now: they choose their partner, they know their rights and they are even part of the Good Government Councils.
“We are positioning ourselves on land recovered in 1994, land that was bought with the blood of our fallen comrades. But now the PRI (Institutional Revolution Party in its Spanish initials) and the Organization For Defense of Campesino and Indigenous Rights (OPDDIC in its Spanish initials, a local paramilitary organization) want us to give up what we have gained.”
She also said that bad governments use many methods to confuse and divide communities, like their social programs, along with other programs that seek to buy “other indigenous brothers,” who fall into the trap because they are in need. She finished her speech affirming that as women Zapatistas “we won’t go for Government Rural Help and Assistance Program (PROCAMPO in its Spanish initials) or bad government projects, because we’re never going to forget nor betray the blood we’ve spilled.” Finally, Mireya remembered all those who fought, armed, that January 1 and assured that “we’ll continue to resist, the blood they spilled will not be betrayed.”
For her part, the single, young woman Adriana (a Zapatista girl who is also a mother), said that she lives a different reality than that which her mother and grandmother lived. She explained that while still a girl she had to live through hard situations. “Before, our fathers didn’t let us go out because they said we knew nothing. They sold us like an animal in exchange for drinks. However, we recognize that today is a different reality and everything changed with the participation of the EZLN in 1994.” She added that “our fathers came to realize that we have rights and we can participate in several positions at work, in education and in health. Now our fathers give us freedom to work for the town.”
The child Zapatista Marina, from San Rafael – in Zapatista Rebellious Autonomous municipality Francisco Gómez – turned 9 years old on the previous January 4 and studies in the Zapatista autonomous school in her town. She told of being glad to have the right “to dance, to sing, and to enjoy herself.” Finally, Marina recounted that in her school there aren’t enough work materials and they can’t ask the Council of Good Government because there are more urgent needs, and that “we Zapatistas don’t want charity or crumbs from the bad government because that would betray the struggle.” Although she is just a child, she knows well that they are in resistance and is conscious of the limitations and complications that this brings with it. “We are used to it,” she said.
Originally published in Spansih January 5
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Our word is a weapon
Zapatista shows the human side of revolution
On New Year's Day 1994, a small group of revolutionaries rose up and took the entire Chiapas region from the Mexican government. The action was in response to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was signed the day before.
They were known as the EZLN, or Zapatista Army of National Liberation. A little over a year later, the Mexican army overran much of the territory, causing the group of socialists and indigenous peoples to turn to outside help and a new strategy--one that focused on words rather than guns.
The primary figure in this battle of words is known as Subcomandante Marcos. Always appearing in the typical black mask of the Zapatistas, Marcos became the public face of the uprising. Thought by many to be a former philosophy teacher, he is the author (or at least editor) of numerous Declarations of the Lacandon Jungle and the leader of their more publicly recent campaign across Mexico.
The latest bi-lingual production at Miracle Theater (Teatro Milagro) focuses on the life of this very public, yet secretive individual. Zapatista was written by Mircale Theater co-founder Dañel Malan, who also plays the only female character, Ana Maria. She spent over a decade researching the Zapatistas, including multiple interviews with social activists in the Chiapas. Zapatista follows the development of Marcos and the EZLN from the original uprising, through the 1997 Acteal Massacre, to the creation of the Declarations and the campaign in the rest of Mexico.
We first see Marcos as a disheartened new member of the Zapatistas who is uncomfortable using a gun and even less comfortable with life in a jungle inhabited by people who speak a strange language. His way with words earns him the right to not carry a gun, improving communication between the revolutionaries and the indigenous people instead, and waging a propaganda war. He begins to teach the native peoples of the Chiapas to read and write, and learns their language and culture.
After several massacres and broken accords with the Mexican government, the residents of Chiapas tire of the fight. Marcos now becomes even more important as he leads a campaign to bring in foreign support for building schools and health clinics, and helps create the autonomous local councils that govern the region. Eventually, he leads a completely unarmed campaign across Mexico to advocate for the indigenous, democracy and human rights. He also becomes the first revolutionary to tap the power of the Internet.
Gilberto Martin Del Campo does a good job of bringing a real humanity and vulnerability to the character of Marcos. Malan's character, Ana Maria, shows a soft heart under a hardened exterior as a female indigenous commander in the EZLN. Jorge Madrid-Enamorado is suitably tough, yet open as Zapatista Comandante Tacho, and also takes a great comic turn as a young local. Omar Vargas imbues his native Chiapan character Don Antonio with the kind of wisdom often characteristic of indigenous peoples.
These performances are all the more remarkable because most of the characters are wearing black masks nearly all the time and switching back and forth between English and Spanish. Those who don't speak Spanish will need to pay close attention to catch everything, but even just a little Spanish knowledge will make it much easier. While you may miss a joke here or a small bit of information there, the themes and characters of the play still come across well.
Together with the directing work of Laurel Pilar Garcia, the writing and performances help to focus us on the real human story and characters of the Zapatista uprising. This is fitting, since the revolution itself grew out of a connection between socialist intellectuals and the indigenous farmers of Chiapas, two very different groups. And it has grown beyond a local revolution, now encompassing the globe through electronic and other media.
The desire to be free to pursue our own lives without government control or marginalization, the power of words written and spoken, and the difficulty in communicating across cultures are themes we can all relate to. The benefit that can be gained from the culture and practices of indigenous peoples is something we could all use as well. The ease with which we relate to these characters and themes in this play remind us, as they say that, "We are all Zapatistas."
Zapatista's run at Miracle Theater is over and now it's going on tour of the West Coast. They will be at Tualatin High School at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 and Hillsboro High School at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20. They will be at the Sylvania campus of Portland Community College at 6:30 p.m. on Mar. 10. For more information and tour dates, visit www.milagro.org
On New Year's Day 1994, a small group of revolutionaries rose up and took the entire Chiapas region from the Mexican government. The action was in response to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was signed the day before.
They were known as the EZLN, or Zapatista Army of National Liberation. A little over a year later, the Mexican army overran much of the territory, causing the group of socialists and indigenous peoples to turn to outside help and a new strategy--one that focused on words rather than guns.
The primary figure in this battle of words is known as Subcomandante Marcos. Always appearing in the typical black mask of the Zapatistas, Marcos became the public face of the uprising. Thought by many to be a former philosophy teacher, he is the author (or at least editor) of numerous Declarations of the Lacandon Jungle and the leader of their more publicly recent campaign across Mexico.
The latest bi-lingual production at Miracle Theater (Teatro Milagro) focuses on the life of this very public, yet secretive individual. Zapatista was written by Mircale Theater co-founder Dañel Malan, who also plays the only female character, Ana Maria. She spent over a decade researching the Zapatistas, including multiple interviews with social activists in the Chiapas. Zapatista follows the development of Marcos and the EZLN from the original uprising, through the 1997 Acteal Massacre, to the creation of the Declarations and the campaign in the rest of Mexico.
We first see Marcos as a disheartened new member of the Zapatistas who is uncomfortable using a gun and even less comfortable with life in a jungle inhabited by people who speak a strange language. His way with words earns him the right to not carry a gun, improving communication between the revolutionaries and the indigenous people instead, and waging a propaganda war. He begins to teach the native peoples of the Chiapas to read and write, and learns their language and culture.
After several massacres and broken accords with the Mexican government, the residents of Chiapas tire of the fight. Marcos now becomes even more important as he leads a campaign to bring in foreign support for building schools and health clinics, and helps create the autonomous local councils that govern the region. Eventually, he leads a completely unarmed campaign across Mexico to advocate for the indigenous, democracy and human rights. He also becomes the first revolutionary to tap the power of the Internet.
Gilberto Martin Del Campo does a good job of bringing a real humanity and vulnerability to the character of Marcos. Malan's character, Ana Maria, shows a soft heart under a hardened exterior as a female indigenous commander in the EZLN. Jorge Madrid-Enamorado is suitably tough, yet open as Zapatista Comandante Tacho, and also takes a great comic turn as a young local. Omar Vargas imbues his native Chiapan character Don Antonio with the kind of wisdom often characteristic of indigenous peoples.
These performances are all the more remarkable because most of the characters are wearing black masks nearly all the time and switching back and forth between English and Spanish. Those who don't speak Spanish will need to pay close attention to catch everything, but even just a little Spanish knowledge will make it much easier. While you may miss a joke here or a small bit of information there, the themes and characters of the play still come across well.
Together with the directing work of Laurel Pilar Garcia, the writing and performances help to focus us on the real human story and characters of the Zapatista uprising. This is fitting, since the revolution itself grew out of a connection between socialist intellectuals and the indigenous farmers of Chiapas, two very different groups. And it has grown beyond a local revolution, now encompassing the globe through electronic and other media.
The desire to be free to pursue our own lives without government control or marginalization, the power of words written and spoken, and the difficulty in communicating across cultures are themes we can all relate to. The benefit that can be gained from the culture and practices of indigenous peoples is something we could all use as well. The ease with which we relate to these characters and themes in this play remind us, as they say that, "We are all Zapatistas."
Zapatista's run at Miracle Theater is over and now it's going on tour of the West Coast. They will be at Tualatin High School at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 and Hillsboro High School at 7 p.m. on Feb. 20. They will be at the Sylvania campus of Portland Community College at 6:30 p.m. on Mar. 10. For more information and tour dates, visit www.milagro.org
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Over Three Thousand People From Five Continents Danced and Partied with the EZLN on its 14th Anniversary
Comandanta Rosalinda: “The reclaimed land was bought with the flesh and blood of compañeros. That blood hasn't disappeared; it sings and cries for joy over the years”
By Raúl Romero
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
January 17, 2008
The streams…when they run downstream…they can’t turn back…just underground.
Old Antonio
LA GARRUCHA, CHIAPAS, January 1, 2008: As the final moments of 2007 wound down, over three thousand attendees of the Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas with the People of the World, named “Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatista women,” came together in the center of the caracol of la Garrucha. Their faces were lost amongst the hundreds of bases of support that have come from different Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ in its Spanish initials) to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the public appearance of the EZLN.
Photos: D.R. 2008 Raúl Romero
Nationality, language, and skin color were not impediments as various people melted together in hugs, wishing each other the best in the new year. Neither was it an impediment that the majority had only known each other for three days; since the beginning of the encuentro “we share a dream of a different world and that has already made us brothers in the struggle,” said one teenager as he hugged another.
Some members of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (CCRI-CG-EZLN) appeared on the stage. Applause and cries of “viva!” got louder. However, many were surprised not to see Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. Comandantes Tacho, David, and Zebedeo, the most widely known commanders, are also missing.
Somewhere in the crowd someone said, “The Zapatistas mean business. When they say something they follow through.” A couple weeks earlier, on the final day of the four-day “International Discussion in Memory of Andres Aubry. Planet Earth: Anti-systemic Movements,” Marcos had announced that they would no longer appear at public events as a measure of precaution in the face of the strong threats they’ve received over the past months. This decision has been interpreted by many as a “strategic retreat.”
At ten minutes to midnight, Comandanta Rosalinda took the microphone and kicked off the EZLN’s anniversary festivities. The Mexican national hymn was sung first, making it very clear that this is not a separatist movement and that they claim the tri-colored flag as their own, as well as the “great nation” called Mexico. Next, the same comandanta briefly recounted how the EZLN appeared and how it was betrayed by then-president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, when on February 9, 1995, “plain-clothed soldiers” violently showed up in some Zapatista communities. “Later, dressed as soldiers, they entered with tanks…they wanted to make us disappear, finish us off, but they didn’t succeed…”
Rosalinda said that the land reclaimed on January 1, 1994, “was bought with the flesh and blood of the compañeros.” She also noted “that blood hasn’t disappeared; it sings and cries for joy over the years.” Now paramilitary organizations want to take these lands from them. But more than harboring feelings of rancor or rivalry towards these groups, who are also indigenous, the Zapatistas show understanding and know they are not the true enemies, they know that these paramilitaries are “indigenous brothers cheated by the bad government who bought off them with handouts of expired food.” Comandanta Rosalinda concluded her remarks by naming each one of the EZLN members who have died since 1983 while attendees responded with “¡presente!” after each name.
Next to speak was Comandante Omar, who said that he felt happy because men could now participate. It should be mentioned that during the four days of the women’s encuentro no man was able to use the microphone.
“After 14 years the party goes on,” said Omar, who also mentioned that for the Zapatistas, it is important to “party with happiness in our hearts, without worrying about the bad government’s threats, the bad government that imprisons us and beats us for defending what is originally and naturally ours.” He also stressed that during those 14 years the Zapatistas have resisted “a shit-ton of provocations” and that the bad government has continued purchasing people’s consciences.
The political parties are no longer an option for change, continued Omar, because as soon as they come to power their promises are forgotten, and “they only change their discourse when they need something from the people.” He also said to those present: “Don’t let them fool you, the parties aren’t going to change if we the people don’t demand that they do.”
Comandante Omar concluded by making a call to all of the participants, inviting them to organize themselves and “struggle against the bad governments. So that one day things might change into a better world.”
Then came the Zapatista hymn. Those who knew it well sang it out loud, while those who just learned it raised their voices when it got to a verse they had memorized already. One girl saluted like the comandantes do from the bandstand. Her compañera questioned her: “You’re not in the militia.” Blushing, she raised her left hand and made a “V” for victory with her fingers.
The hymn ended and the chants started, including some classics that the foreigners like so much.
And then came the dancing. The dancers formed a line that ran the length of the plaza and grew and grew, just like the streams – when they run downstream their flow increases and then they no longer have a way back nor a dam that holds them back.
By Raúl Romero
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
January 17, 2008
The streams…when they run downstream…they can’t turn back…just underground.
Old Antonio
LA GARRUCHA, CHIAPAS, January 1, 2008: As the final moments of 2007 wound down, over three thousand attendees of the Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas with the People of the World, named “Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatista women,” came together in the center of the caracol of la Garrucha. Their faces were lost amongst the hundreds of bases of support that have come from different Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ in its Spanish initials) to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the public appearance of the EZLN.
Photos: D.R. 2008 Raúl Romero
Nationality, language, and skin color were not impediments as various people melted together in hugs, wishing each other the best in the new year. Neither was it an impediment that the majority had only known each other for three days; since the beginning of the encuentro “we share a dream of a different world and that has already made us brothers in the struggle,” said one teenager as he hugged another.
Some members of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (CCRI-CG-EZLN) appeared on the stage. Applause and cries of “viva!” got louder. However, many were surprised not to see Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. Comandantes Tacho, David, and Zebedeo, the most widely known commanders, are also missing.
Somewhere in the crowd someone said, “The Zapatistas mean business. When they say something they follow through.” A couple weeks earlier, on the final day of the four-day “International Discussion in Memory of Andres Aubry. Planet Earth: Anti-systemic Movements,” Marcos had announced that they would no longer appear at public events as a measure of precaution in the face of the strong threats they’ve received over the past months. This decision has been interpreted by many as a “strategic retreat.”
At ten minutes to midnight, Comandanta Rosalinda took the microphone and kicked off the EZLN’s anniversary festivities. The Mexican national hymn was sung first, making it very clear that this is not a separatist movement and that they claim the tri-colored flag as their own, as well as the “great nation” called Mexico. Next, the same comandanta briefly recounted how the EZLN appeared and how it was betrayed by then-president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, when on February 9, 1995, “plain-clothed soldiers” violently showed up in some Zapatista communities. “Later, dressed as soldiers, they entered with tanks…they wanted to make us disappear, finish us off, but they didn’t succeed…”
Rosalinda said that the land reclaimed on January 1, 1994, “was bought with the flesh and blood of the compañeros.” She also noted “that blood hasn’t disappeared; it sings and cries for joy over the years.” Now paramilitary organizations want to take these lands from them. But more than harboring feelings of rancor or rivalry towards these groups, who are also indigenous, the Zapatistas show understanding and know they are not the true enemies, they know that these paramilitaries are “indigenous brothers cheated by the bad government who bought off them with handouts of expired food.” Comandanta Rosalinda concluded her remarks by naming each one of the EZLN members who have died since 1983 while attendees responded with “¡presente!” after each name.
Next to speak was Comandante Omar, who said that he felt happy because men could now participate. It should be mentioned that during the four days of the women’s encuentro no man was able to use the microphone.
“After 14 years the party goes on,” said Omar, who also mentioned that for the Zapatistas, it is important to “party with happiness in our hearts, without worrying about the bad government’s threats, the bad government that imprisons us and beats us for defending what is originally and naturally ours.” He also stressed that during those 14 years the Zapatistas have resisted “a shit-ton of provocations” and that the bad government has continued purchasing people’s consciences.
The political parties are no longer an option for change, continued Omar, because as soon as they come to power their promises are forgotten, and “they only change their discourse when they need something from the people.” He also said to those present: “Don’t let them fool you, the parties aren’t going to change if we the people don’t demand that they do.”
Comandante Omar concluded by making a call to all of the participants, inviting them to organize themselves and “struggle against the bad governments. So that one day things might change into a better world.”
Then came the Zapatista hymn. Those who knew it well sang it out loud, while those who just learned it raised their voices when it got to a verse they had memorized already. One girl saluted like the comandantes do from the bandstand. Her compañera questioned her: “You’re not in the militia.” Blushing, she raised her left hand and made a “V” for victory with her fingers.
The hymn ended and the chants started, including some classics that the foreigners like so much.
And then came the dancing. The dancers formed a line that ran the length of the plaza and grew and grew, just like the streams – when they run downstream their flow increases and then they no longer have a way back nor a dam that holds them back.
Chiapas: Zapatistas "stronger" —despite paramilitary backlash
Refuting widespread media portrayal of the "erosion" (desgaste) of the Zapatista movement, Jorge Santiago, director of the local group Economic and Social Development of the Indigenous Mexicans (DESMI), which has been working with Maya communities in the Highlands of Chiapas for 35 years, told Blanche Petrich of the Mexican daily La Jornada that 14 years after the armed uprising, "we are stronger, because we are linked" with social struggles across Mexico. "Our word has to do with the words of others. The people are beginning to have confidence in themselves as builders of relations, with the local base." He especially credits the Zapatistas' maintenance of the moral high ground: "The decision not to instigate confrontations with the local enemies, in spite of harassment and the onslaught on their territory." (La Jornada, Jan. 6)
Paramilitary harassment of the Zapatista communities continues unabated. At Bolon Ajaw settlement, near Agua Azul nature reserve, gunmen opened fire on community members working in the corn fields with shotguns and rifles on Jan. 2. Although there were no casualties, community members say this was but the most recent in a series of such attacks. They say gunmen routinely set up illegal roadblocks, threatening community members and impeding access to their farmlands. They blame the attacks on the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC), which they charge is a paramilitary group loyal to the political machine of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). (CGT Chiapas, Jan. 5)
The attacks have continued despite a public ceremony Dec. 19 in which the pro-PRI leaders of the community Ejido Agua Azul supposedly "defected" from the OPDDIC and handed their arms over to Chiapas state authorities. La Jornada reporter Hermann Bellinghausen called the ceremony a media "show" organized by the state government. He also notes that attacks have continued despite the establishment of new Mexican army camps near Agua Azul in a supposed crackdown on arms and drug plantations. (La Jornada, Dec. 22)
Since then, the leaders of Ejido Agua Azul have publicly called for the eviction of the local Zapatista communities, accusing them of causing ecological damage and threatening the nature reserve. (Noticias Palenque, Jan. 12) Local Zapatista leaders, in turn, charged the Ejido Agua Azul leaders of seeking to clear the lands to make way for tourism development. A statement from the Zapatista community Nuevo Progeso Agua Azul said: "We are natives here. Like our parents. Our grandparents were resident farmworkers [peones acasillados] of the landlord [patrón]. And for more than 13 years we have been in resistance." (La Jornada, Jan. 16)
Two local campesinos, Fidelino Ruiz Hernández, 73, and Alfredo Hernández Pérez, 48, could face 25 years in prison in an imminent judicial ruling for the killing of two OPDDIC members in 2002. Accused by local authorities of being "Zapatistas," the two have been held at the prison in Ocosingo for almost five years. The Zapatistas deny any attacks on the OPDDIC. (La Jornada, Jan. 15)
At an international memorial held in the Highland city of San Cristobal de Las Casas for the late anthropologist and Zapatista supporter Andrés Aubry, writers John Berger and Naomi Klein, Belgian priest Francois Houtart and dozens of other academics and activists issued a statement on the growing paramilitarism in Chiapas, saying "a new Acteal must not be permitted in Mexican territory." (La Jornada, Dec. 18)
La Jornada's Hermann Bellinghausen, who has reported aggressively on the paramilitary activity, reports that in recent weeks his house in San Cristobal has been under constant surveillance by unknown men with cameras in matching sports jerseys, and that vehicles have followed him as he leaves his home. (La Jornada, Jan. 11)
In an ominous sign that elements of the violent PRI machine are being incorporated into the Chiapas state government now under a coalition led by the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Gov. Juan Sabines has appointed prominent rancher Jorge Constantino Kánter as his sub-secretary for commerce in the Agriculture Secretariat. Kánter is a bitter opponent of the Zapatistas, and was widely known in the '90s as leader of the "White Guards," a paramilitary force established by the state's cattle lords. (La Jornada, Dec. 16)
The struggle over turf in Chiapas even extends to San Cristobal, where Zapatista-loyal inhabitants of the poor neighborhood (colonia popular) 5 de Marzo have announced that they will re-install water services, which were cut off to their families by municipal authorities. (CGT Chiapas, Jan. 14)
Escalating social struggles in Chiapas also extend beyond the contest between the Zapatistas and their opponents. On Jan. 7, members of the Coalition of Independent Organizations of the Lacandon Selva (COCISEL), an alliance of 30 community groups from the lowland rainforest, peacefully occupied the offices of various state and federal agencies in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, to demand better government services for the impoverished region. (La Jornada, Jan. 8)
See our last posts on Mexico and the struggle in Chiapas.
Paramilitary harassment of the Zapatista communities continues unabated. At Bolon Ajaw settlement, near Agua Azul nature reserve, gunmen opened fire on community members working in the corn fields with shotguns and rifles on Jan. 2. Although there were no casualties, community members say this was but the most recent in a series of such attacks. They say gunmen routinely set up illegal roadblocks, threatening community members and impeding access to their farmlands. They blame the attacks on the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC), which they charge is a paramilitary group loyal to the political machine of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). (CGT Chiapas, Jan. 5)
The attacks have continued despite a public ceremony Dec. 19 in which the pro-PRI leaders of the community Ejido Agua Azul supposedly "defected" from the OPDDIC and handed their arms over to Chiapas state authorities. La Jornada reporter Hermann Bellinghausen called the ceremony a media "show" organized by the state government. He also notes that attacks have continued despite the establishment of new Mexican army camps near Agua Azul in a supposed crackdown on arms and drug plantations. (La Jornada, Dec. 22)
Since then, the leaders of Ejido Agua Azul have publicly called for the eviction of the local Zapatista communities, accusing them of causing ecological damage and threatening the nature reserve. (Noticias Palenque, Jan. 12) Local Zapatista leaders, in turn, charged the Ejido Agua Azul leaders of seeking to clear the lands to make way for tourism development. A statement from the Zapatista community Nuevo Progeso Agua Azul said: "We are natives here. Like our parents. Our grandparents were resident farmworkers [peones acasillados] of the landlord [patrón]. And for more than 13 years we have been in resistance." (La Jornada, Jan. 16)
Two local campesinos, Fidelino Ruiz Hernández, 73, and Alfredo Hernández Pérez, 48, could face 25 years in prison in an imminent judicial ruling for the killing of two OPDDIC members in 2002. Accused by local authorities of being "Zapatistas," the two have been held at the prison in Ocosingo for almost five years. The Zapatistas deny any attacks on the OPDDIC. (La Jornada, Jan. 15)
At an international memorial held in the Highland city of San Cristobal de Las Casas for the late anthropologist and Zapatista supporter Andrés Aubry, writers John Berger and Naomi Klein, Belgian priest Francois Houtart and dozens of other academics and activists issued a statement on the growing paramilitarism in Chiapas, saying "a new Acteal must not be permitted in Mexican territory." (La Jornada, Dec. 18)
La Jornada's Hermann Bellinghausen, who has reported aggressively on the paramilitary activity, reports that in recent weeks his house in San Cristobal has been under constant surveillance by unknown men with cameras in matching sports jerseys, and that vehicles have followed him as he leaves his home. (La Jornada, Jan. 11)
In an ominous sign that elements of the violent PRI machine are being incorporated into the Chiapas state government now under a coalition led by the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Gov. Juan Sabines has appointed prominent rancher Jorge Constantino Kánter as his sub-secretary for commerce in the Agriculture Secretariat. Kánter is a bitter opponent of the Zapatistas, and was widely known in the '90s as leader of the "White Guards," a paramilitary force established by the state's cattle lords. (La Jornada, Dec. 16)
The struggle over turf in Chiapas even extends to San Cristobal, where Zapatista-loyal inhabitants of the poor neighborhood (colonia popular) 5 de Marzo have announced that they will re-install water services, which were cut off to their families by municipal authorities. (CGT Chiapas, Jan. 14)
Escalating social struggles in Chiapas also extend beyond the contest between the Zapatistas and their opponents. On Jan. 7, members of the Coalition of Independent Organizations of the Lacandon Selva (COCISEL), an alliance of 30 community groups from the lowland rainforest, peacefully occupied the offices of various state and federal agencies in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, to demand better government services for the impoverished region. (La Jornada, Jan. 8)
See our last posts on Mexico and the struggle in Chiapas.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and….revolution?
Since 1994, the Zapatista's have placed women's rights and participation at the centre of their social and health agenda, including the promotion of sexual and reproductive rights. Today the Zapatistas run a health system autonomous from the Mexican government that includes community educators, trained midwives, community clinics and an autonomous hospital. This transformation is promoting women's sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Mexico’s indigenous people suffer serious disadvantages related to sexual and reproductive health. Most Mexican women in urban areas now have access to modern family planning methods and reasonable hospital care in case of emergencies related to labor and birth. But rural women, and particularly rural indigenous women, lack access to these services to ensure their reproductive and sexual choice and rights. These gaps in services are on of the main reasons that Mexico may not achieve the Millennium Development Goal for reducing deaths associated with labor and birth (maternal mortality).
In indigenous communities, poverty, limited health services, long-distances to hospitals, and in some cases, the lack of value given to women’s health, contribute to these needless deaths. International experts agree that ensuring women’s rights and full participation are cornerstones for improving sexual and reproductive health and promoting human development. The Mexican government has affirmed its commitment to these goals through various international conventions, including the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000).
Independent of the Mexican government, Zapatista women and their communities are seeking to improve sexual and reproductive rights on the foundation of women’s rights and participation. Not very long ago, the situation for these rural indigenous women from Chiapas was grim. Adriana, an unmarried Zapastista woman says: “In the past we were only good to look after the family and the house and they sold us like animals.” On the coffee plantations, women suffered sexual harassment from the landowners, and if the women or their parents resisted, they were rounded up and punished and the women were raped. Women weren’t allowed to choose their own husbands. If they were lucky, their father chose their husband. If they were unlucky, a suitor asked the landowner for the woman’s hand. In this case, many of the women had to have sex with the boss until he tired of her and passed her on to the spouse. Today, Adriana says: “Our parents have started to learn that we have the same rights as men.”
Commander Rosalinda of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) states that before the establishment of the autonomous communities: “Only men had rights, even our parents said that women weren’t worth anything. Our rights were crushed. If we participated in meetings, the men made fun of us. We weren’t allowed to go out in the street. We only worked in the house and taking care of the animals. Our grandmothers worked in the corn field (milpa) and then came home to work and wash the clothes, while the men had time to go out and have fun.” She goes on to say that: “Part of the collective work after the uprising was to help women see that they have rights, the same as the men.” These changes are having an impact in women’s lives, and promoting community respect for their sexual and reproductive rights.
Grandmother Elisa says that today: “Our daughters marry as they wish, they are not forced. The go where their destiny and their luck leads them. Now we know our rights as women, to go where we want and to work, not only the men.” Mireilla, a young married Zapatista says: “I married after ’94 [the armed uprising] and no one made me marry. I chose my husband. We also give freedom to our children because children also have rights, just like adults”.
Rosaura, a Zapatista community health promoter says that before the 1994 uprising women’s health wasn’t a priority for the government or for the community: “Sometimes the men didn’t worry about our health, they just waited to see if we would get better.” Medical attention in their communities was very limited and many women died during or after labor and birth, or because of sexually transmitted infections. Transporting women to hospitals in obstetric emergencies was and continues to be a problem because of lack of roads and limited radio communication. Traditional midwives lacked training and materials, such as gloves.
Today the Zapatistas run a health system autonomous from the Mexican government that includes community educators, trained midwives, community clinics and an autonomous hospital. Sexual and reproductive health is a priority supported through ongoing community based education on sexually transmitted infections, diagnosis for the human papiloma virus and cervical cancer, family planning, and preventative health care before, during and after pregnancy and birth. However, there are ongoing economic and human challenges: they lack sufficient specially trained personnel, medical equipment and essential medicines. And what about condom use in Zapatista communities? Rosaura says “Yes, they are recognized and some men and women use them, but it is the decision of each individual.”
Armed uprising may not be the path to ensuring women’s rights for all communities, but it is clear that since 1994 the Zapatistas have made considerable gains in transforming an extremely macho indigenous culture into one where women participate fully and their rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights, are promoted.
Mexico’s indigenous people suffer serious disadvantages related to sexual and reproductive health. Most Mexican women in urban areas now have access to modern family planning methods and reasonable hospital care in case of emergencies related to labor and birth. But rural women, and particularly rural indigenous women, lack access to these services to ensure their reproductive and sexual choice and rights. These gaps in services are on of the main reasons that Mexico may not achieve the Millennium Development Goal for reducing deaths associated with labor and birth (maternal mortality).
In indigenous communities, poverty, limited health services, long-distances to hospitals, and in some cases, the lack of value given to women’s health, contribute to these needless deaths. International experts agree that ensuring women’s rights and full participation are cornerstones for improving sexual and reproductive health and promoting human development. The Mexican government has affirmed its commitment to these goals through various international conventions, including the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000).
Independent of the Mexican government, Zapatista women and their communities are seeking to improve sexual and reproductive rights on the foundation of women’s rights and participation. Not very long ago, the situation for these rural indigenous women from Chiapas was grim. Adriana, an unmarried Zapastista woman says: “In the past we were only good to look after the family and the house and they sold us like animals.” On the coffee plantations, women suffered sexual harassment from the landowners, and if the women or their parents resisted, they were rounded up and punished and the women were raped. Women weren’t allowed to choose their own husbands. If they were lucky, their father chose their husband. If they were unlucky, a suitor asked the landowner for the woman’s hand. In this case, many of the women had to have sex with the boss until he tired of her and passed her on to the spouse. Today, Adriana says: “Our parents have started to learn that we have the same rights as men.”
Commander Rosalinda of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) states that before the establishment of the autonomous communities: “Only men had rights, even our parents said that women weren’t worth anything. Our rights were crushed. If we participated in meetings, the men made fun of us. We weren’t allowed to go out in the street. We only worked in the house and taking care of the animals. Our grandmothers worked in the corn field (milpa) and then came home to work and wash the clothes, while the men had time to go out and have fun.” She goes on to say that: “Part of the collective work after the uprising was to help women see that they have rights, the same as the men.” These changes are having an impact in women’s lives, and promoting community respect for their sexual and reproductive rights.
Grandmother Elisa says that today: “Our daughters marry as they wish, they are not forced. The go where their destiny and their luck leads them. Now we know our rights as women, to go where we want and to work, not only the men.” Mireilla, a young married Zapatista says: “I married after ’94 [the armed uprising] and no one made me marry. I chose my husband. We also give freedom to our children because children also have rights, just like adults”.
Rosaura, a Zapatista community health promoter says that before the 1994 uprising women’s health wasn’t a priority for the government or for the community: “Sometimes the men didn’t worry about our health, they just waited to see if we would get better.” Medical attention in their communities was very limited and many women died during or after labor and birth, or because of sexually transmitted infections. Transporting women to hospitals in obstetric emergencies was and continues to be a problem because of lack of roads and limited radio communication. Traditional midwives lacked training and materials, such as gloves.
Today the Zapatistas run a health system autonomous from the Mexican government that includes community educators, trained midwives, community clinics and an autonomous hospital. Sexual and reproductive health is a priority supported through ongoing community based education on sexually transmitted infections, diagnosis for the human papiloma virus and cervical cancer, family planning, and preventative health care before, during and after pregnancy and birth. However, there are ongoing economic and human challenges: they lack sufficient specially trained personnel, medical equipment and essential medicines. And what about condom use in Zapatista communities? Rosaura says “Yes, they are recognized and some men and women use them, but it is the decision of each individual.”
Armed uprising may not be the path to ensuring women’s rights for all communities, but it is clear that since 1994 the Zapatistas have made considerable gains in transforming an extremely macho indigenous culture into one where women participate fully and their rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights, are promoted.
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