Las Abejas Demands That Sabines Explain the Destiny of the Special Counsel For Acteal

** He never informed society about its results and it disappeared “silently,” they point out

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

Las Abejas of Acteal demanded an explanation from the government of Juan Sabines Guerrero as to the destiny of the Office of the Special Counsel for Acteal. This instance, the indigenous organization maintains, “was a State organ” that “never rendered a report to society about its results” and “disappeared as silently as it was created.”

They reiterated their disagreement with the way in which a civil process is pursued in the United States against former president Ernesto Zedillo, but not with the fact that all the intellectual authors of the massacre must be judged, including Zedillo of course, whose “immunity,” solicited by him and supported by the government of Felipe Calderón is unacceptable. “No one can be above the law, much less Zedillo, because he is stained with blood.”

They emphasize that the Frayba “our legitimate representative and assistance in the process, was repeatedly denied access to records,” to the degree that it had to file an injunction, “and even so it was not permitted to see everything that it needed.” Nevertheless, the special counsel’s report “appears quickly on a private web page in the United States that hopes to do a juicy business with the blood of our martyrs (on which they are putting the price of 50 million dollars).” And they ask the Chiapas government: “How do you justify that a private and foreign law office has announced what you did not announce to society or to the victims’ representatives?”

Therefore, Las Abejas demands an explanation from the Chiapas government and a public report of the activities and results of the special counsel.

They abounded: “There is no doubt for us that this crime was planned from the three levels of government, civilian and military, to finish off the organizations that defend their rights. The government offered the independent organizations death and displacement.”

About the material authors they express: “We are witnesses to the fact that the massacre was perpetrated by PRI and Cardenista paramilitaries.”

There is not much difference between the political parties, they point out. “The PRI planned the massacre and the murders of many indigenous compañeros in different places; the PAN was in charge of getting the paramilitaries out of prison, and the PRD government of Chiapas awarded them housing, land and a large quantity of money upon their release.”

As for the complaint filed in a United States court, they clarify that they are not against Zedillo being judged. “We want that he and many others be judged for the Acteal Massacre with all the weight of the law. But we are against the confusion and manipulation. We do not want attention to be lost in an accusation centered on only one person because it is a State crime and a counterinsurgency policy that has not been finished. We see the trap of Emilio Chuayffet who wants to present himself as the one that advised Zedillo of what was going to happen.” He is the very one who was never attentive to warnings by the Frayba and the Diocese of San Cristóbal.

About the complaint in Connecticut, Las Abejas reiterated that it is “absurd and suspicious” that the plaintiffs are anonymous. “The names of the victims and their families are public. We are not afraid because we owe nothing. We cannot support a complaint just because we are against Zedillo. In our tradition he who commits a wrong must answer to the community. Justice is not just that someone is punished, but also that a satisfaction be given to the community that he offended. The complaint against Zedillo is civil. He and his accomplices are guilty by omission and commission, and must be judged criminally.”

The Government “Administers Conflicts” Between Indigenous to Control Their Territories

** Official offensive generates “ecological depredation and privatization of natural resources”

** Attempt to plunder the Chol people from a ceremonial center, Other Campaign adherents accuse

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, January 22, 2012

Communities and collectives, adherents to the Other Campaign demanded stopping plunder, repression and harassment against the Zapatista communities. “The government wants to break the autonomous processes of the indigenous peoples.” The federal and state governments federal “carry out in the country and in the state a war of plunder that generates ecological depredation, privatization of natural resources, over-exploitation of work, territorial plunder and extermination of the peoples, repression, persecution, incarceration and murders to contain the social struggles of resistance to its policies.”

In San Patricio, a community in the autonomous municipality La Dignidad (and the official municipality of Sabanilla), “despite the fact that the government of Juan Sabines relocated in Rancho La Josefina (Palenque) the paramilitary group of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Opddic), this group continues its hostilities, backed up by police, in trucks that make rounds and watch the Zapatista bases.

Offensive against recuperated lands

The pronouncement asserts that: “the bad government creates and administer conflicts between the communities to control their territories.” It is the case with the Tzeltal ejido members of San Sebastián Bachajón (Chilón), “who resist the privatization of the ticket booth they installed on lands that belong to them, at the entrance to the Agua Azul Cascades (Tumbalá)

In the municipal headquarters of Tila, “the State attempts to take away 5 thousand 405 hectares from the Chol people” to convert its cult center –the sanctuary of the Lord of Tila– “into a big tourist center.” The Agrarian Prosecutor has attempted “to substitute” the general assembly of ejido owners for determining the use of their communal lands, which have a presidential resolution and definitive plan.

In 24 de Mayo colonia, inside the “lands recuperated” in 1999 on the property where the National Indigenous Institute once was in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the board of directors of Chiapas Solidario, headed by Juana López López, “has promoted aggressions, death threats, plunder of housing and repeated cuts in electric service” against those who resist “the multiple abuses of the directors and the high rates imposed by them, even when no meters exist and the Federal Electricity Commission doesn’t send out bills.”

In this municipality “a policy of plundering recuperated lands exists” to favor tourism businesses and housing developers. In the Utrilla and Los Arcos mills “the sale of property is promoted at all cost.” The pronouncement also denounces the continuous pursuit of the Other Campaign artisans in the Santo Domingo Plaza, “for resisting the blackmail and corruption of the unions related to the municipal presidency that promote forced affiliation with the CROM and favor the repression of the indigenous artisans.”

It points out that “due to the criminalization of struggles and human rights defense,” persecution persists against Nataniel Hernández Núñez, of the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center, as well as harassment of his relatives and members in communities of the Regional Autonomous Council of the Coast.

The Other Campaign demands the freedom of their “political prisoners” Alberto Patishtán Gómez (sent to Guasave, Sinaloa) and Rosario Díaz Méndez, of the Voice of El Amate, as well as Pedro López Jiménez, Alfredo López Jiménez, Rosa López Díaz, Alejandro Díaz Santis, Juan Díaz López, Juan Collazo Jiménez, Enrique Gómez Hernández, Amílcar Méndez Núñez and Elías Sánchez Gómez.

Procede y Fanar, Government Strategies for Grabbing Indigenous Lands

** Adherents to the Otra Campaign Denounce that they want to make a new Cancun in Chiapas

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, January 21, 2012

A dozen Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol communities, adherents to the Other Campaign, declared this Friday that in Chiapas “the strategies of plunder represented by Procede/Fanar against communal and ejido property have been the fundamental goal of Juan Sabines and Felipe Calderón in this six years.”

The indigenous maintained: “With the megaprojects for the supposed sustainable development, rural cities, ecotourism, Prodesis, the Development Strategy for the Southern States (EDES, its initials in Spanish), agreed on in the Chamber of Deputies for implementing the biological, tourist and eco-archaeological corridor, they want to de-populate and re-populate indigenous territories, until achieving a new Cancun in Chiapas, consolidating the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor to put all the natural wealth of our lands and territories in transnational hands.”

That explains, according to residents of Zinacantán, Chilón, Venustiano Carranza, Ocosingo, Tenejapa, Teopisca and Villa las Rosas why the political parties (PRI, PRD y PVEM) and the three levels of government “have enlarged the ranks of the traditional shock and paramilitary groups like Paz y Justicia, Uciaf and the Orcao, that today keep the Zapatista bases in the five autonomous Caracoles encircled and threatened.” That has occurred since 2010 in communities of all five Caracoles: San Marcos Avilés (Oventic), Nueva Purísima y Nuevo Paraíso (La Garrucha), San Patricio (Roberto Barrios), Patria Nueva and Mártires (Morelia), and Monte Redondo (La Realidad).

To the UNAM investigator, Dolores Camacho, Procede has been a “factor of conflict in ejidos and among organizations.” The division of lands in ejidos lands and communities began in 1995, after the modification of Article 27 of the Constitution. “All the independent organizations, and even the National Campesino Confederation Nacional (CNC), were not in agreement and did not permit the start of the process. That meant that the new administrative measures were not applied with the expected quickness.”

Even so, conflicts emerged due to the attempts at imposition by “small groups allied with the government.” Agrarian authorities and the governments of all levels initiated processes for convincing ejido commissioners so that they would obtain support from the assemblies in favor of the project, Camacho adds in an interview. “Pressured by the PRI, the CNC impelled the program, although the people did not easily accept the leadership’s decisions.” There was a time period established for carrying out the demarcations. Then the pressures and offerings begin.”

Durante 2000, the Agrarian Prosecutor, the Agrarian Tribunal and the Agrarian Reform delegation pressured the indigenous to accept Procede. “Organizations previously close to Zapatismo like the Orcao and the Cioac attempt ‘to convince’ their members to ‘legalize’ their lands, at the mercy of negotiations of their leaders with the new government of Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía.”

Those “agreements” modified the commitment of the pro-Zapatista organizations “and caused a struggle in ejidos and territories recuperated jointly with the risen up Zapatistas.” The EZLN support bases respected previous agreements and their Revolutionary Agrarian Law. “The ‘independent’ organizations preferred to create legal possession.” That brought about internal problems that as of this date favor conflicts, according to the investigator.

“The little clarity with which the conflict over land was resolved left spaces, now taken advantage of for confronting the Zapatistas with organizations previously close.” The Revolutionary Agrarian Law directs that the recuperation of land is for appropriating a violated right, throughout the history of the population of indigenous zones. According to the analyst, to the non-Zapatistas the taking of land was exercising a right “originating from the laws that promote the use and possession of land individually.” In Zapatista territories, “that ought to be collective and be dedicated to preferentially to products basic to sustaining the Communities.”

Rejection Grows in the Chiapas Sierra to Territorial Regularization Program

** Ejido owners from different municipalities suspect that it can be used to plunder

** Interest because of support for productive processes causes dissent between authorities and residents

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

El Porvenir, Chiapas, January 20, 2012

Rejection grows in communities of the Chiapas Sierra to the Program of Certification of Ejidal Rights and Titling of Urban Plots (Procede). In fact, Chiapas is one of the states where the titling of land has advanced the least on a national scale. Now a new ingredient appears: farmers that entered the program and now want to leave it. In Cambil ejido, in El Porvenir municipality, 233 ejido owners renounced Procede. What goes on now before this scenario of desertion?

The rejection by Cambil ejido owners is indicative of what happens in the Chiapas Sierra, where the rejection of potential mining exploitation also increases, and to evictions and de-populating like what they’re attempting to carry out in Motozintla and other localities, with the argument that they are high risk places for the residents because of the mudslides and floods that in recent years have affected the region. The campesinos perceive the ghost of rural cities (one is currently being constructed in Jaltenango) as a future option.

Despite the governmental pressures and the PRI apparatus in the countryside starting in 1995, the resistance to Procede is still important. In 2006, upon finalizing the time period programmed for the titling, it was reported that a high percentage of lands without regularization still exist in Chiapas. At the beginning of 2007, the National Agrarian Registry (RAN, its initials in Spanish) announced the “regularization” of 84 percent of the agrarian nuclei, corresponding to a surface of 2 million 427 thousand 716 hectares (59 percent), with 41 percent remaining, one million 692 thousand 38 hectares, pending regularizing.

According to the investigator Dolores Camacho, of UNAM’s Program Multi-Disciplinary Investigations on Mesoamerica and the Southeast (Proimse, its initials in Spanish), “the agrarian nuclei that have been regularized are small; in surface they represent barely one half; that explains the concern that the governments have in that respect.” The Fund for Support to Agrarian Nuclei Without Regularization (FANAR, its initials in Spanish) was created with the intention of “resolving” the mishap, to which abundant resources will be destined for achieving that objective.

The state government foresaw regularizing 278, 000 hectares in 2011, according to what Ernesto Gutiérrez Coello, RAN delegate in Chiapas, declared. Even in the absence of conclusive information, everything indicates that the goal will not be reached. The FANAR offers support to productive projects. “That induces party leaders and ejido commissioners to pressure the campesinos to accept, causing more conflicts because of differences of opinion, because they are more convinced every day to reject the program for fear of losing their lands due to seizures,” Camacho points out.

Rejection of Mine in Chicomuselo

Residents of villages bordering on the Santa María ejido, in the also mountainous Chicomuselo municipality, denounce that in November a barite vein was detected on a plot of said ejido. They maintain that the engineers Pedro Palmas Echeverría and Romeo Aguilar Méndez promote the eventual extraction. The engineers want the ejido owners to constitute themselves in a civic association “to be able to exploit said mineral.”

In December, a concrete base was constructed for registry, the text of which says: “P.P.D, lot: ‘the pear’ Sup. 2180 hrs. Ag. Tuxtla Gtz. Chiapas. Exp. 109/00258.” The Chicomuselo communities surmise, “that it refers to the exploration permit.” They remember that Governor Juan Sabines Guerrero has said, “that during his administration he will not authorize more mining exploration and exploitation permits in our state,” and they ask him to continue that way.

More than a dozen communities in the municipalities of La Concordia, Chicomuselo and Socoltenango demand the cancellation of any permit for the extraction of minerals. They argue that “they would put our lives and the lives of our animals in grave danger, would contaminate the environment and we would have a greater scarcity of water,” which is great due to a lack of natural springs. “We get our supply from wells that also run the risk of being contaminated by the toxic residues.”

Frayba Demands Systematic Attacks by PRI on IndigenousMembers Stop

** Incarcerate Tzeltal businessman accused of provoking a December quarrel in Banavil

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, January 19, 2012

A Tzeltal businessman, support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the official municipality of Tenejapa, was incarcerated in prison number 5, accused of being responsible for the acts of violence that occurred in December in Banavil community, when half a hundred members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, its initials in Spanish) attacked with firearms four families sympathetic to the EZLN and threw them out of their houses and the village.

The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) today sent out an urgent action, in which it asserts that: “the aggressions that occurred on December 4 resulted in the death of Pedro Méndez López (PRI member); the disappearance of Alonso López Luna; the displacement of four families ‘accused’ of being Zapatista sympathizers; the detention of Lorenzo López Girón, gravely injured and accused of causing bodily injury; the arbitrary detention of Francisco Santiz López, EZLN support base, was found at a place different than where the acts occurred, and injuries to six more people.”

According to testimony obtained by the Frayba, in the morning of the day mentioned above (December 4) three women “with sticks and stones” arrived at Alonso’s home and beat him and his family. “Next, around 50 men from the PRI took Alonso out and continued beating him. They all came with sticks and firearms. Lorenzo, looking for a way to defend his father, now disappeared, received a bullet in his chest and another in his groin.”

Taken to a hospital in this city, Lorenzo was detained by state police. Witnesses affirm that during the armed aggression, PRI members “took away Alonso, who was bleeding.” His whereabouts are unknown. On December 23, in the Mercedes ejido, which borders on Banavil, an arm was found that family members assure belongs to Alonso, since they identified a scar on one finger. State police, the municipal judge and the Public Ministry went to the place of the finding on December 26 and 28, and did not find the body. The family of the disappeared alleges that they did not carry out “an adequate search.”

Francisco, the Zapatista accused of initiating the aggressions, “was arbitrarily detained in the Tenejapa, the municipal headquarters (county seat), while he was working at his business of selling fruit and vegetables.” Witnesses to the acts “affirm that he was not there on the day of the aggressions.” Nevertheless, an indictment was opened before the first judge of the penal branch, who will issue his resolution in the coming hours.

“The false accusations and violence generated by the group of PRI caciques from the Banavil, Mercedes and Santa Rosa ejidos, in Tenejapa, have occasioned the forced displacement,” the organism [Frayba] reports.

Frayba emphasizes “the continuous and systematic attacks against Zapatista bases and EZLN sympathizers,” and demands from the state government a search for López Luna, clarification and sanction for the death of Méndez López, the release of Santiz López, adequate medical attention for López Girón, precautionary and cautionary measures for the return of those displaced, a real investigation of the facts, as well as disarming and punishing the group of caciques.

The harassment against the EZLN’s sympathizers dates from 2009 in this place because they are opposed to the arbitrary acts by the PRI caciques (political bosses): land grabs, illegal cutting, collecting unfounded taxes and contributions, break-ins, physical attacks and denial of the right to education, among others. The victims have denounced it before government agencies, which “ignore it.” At this time, Frayba points out, “no effective investigation exists nor punishment of those responsible, and the authorities don’t intervene to resolve the situation nor to guarantee the legal and social security in Banavil.”

Workers Denounce Governmental Stinginess and Abandonment in Clinic at Siltepec, Chiapas

** Only 8 doctors remain out of 20; there were 30 nurses, but currently half remain

** They lack specialists, therefore pregnant women and sick children have to go to Huixtla or Motozintla

** Emergency room employees go to the Other Campaign‘s civil resistance to denounce the situation

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

Siltepec, Chiapas, January 18, 2012

The Health Clinic with Expanded Services, which at some moment functioned as a field hospital, accuses governmental stinginess and abandonment. Emergency room workers have gone to the Other Campaign‘s civil resistance to denounce the situation: from the 20 doctors that came, 8 remain; of the 30 nurses, half remain.

The resistance movement Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo (People’s Light and Power) denounced to La Jornada that, faced with the lack of gynecology, pediatric, anesthesiology and radiology services (specialties that the Secretary of Health’s Health Center with Expanded Services allegedly offers), pregnant women and sick children must go either to Huixtla or Motozintla, in the low Sierra, to find adequate medical attention.

By conduct of Peoples’ Light and Power, the dissident health workers say that there is not equipment, and when there is, as in the case of ultra-sound, they lack a technician to operate it. “The budget that is supposed to be assigned is not seen. Medications that the Secretary of Health distributes arrive, and the paychecks are paid” for a decreasing labor force. Nothing more. Of the two ambulances, “in bad condition and without maintenance,” only one has a driver.

And they add: “An official letter was sent to Dr. Neftalí Rojas Pérez, from the health jurisdiction, explaining the situation to him. We continue hoping that he respond with Deeds.”

The Siltepecans in resistance point out that the phenomenon of “lost” financial resources is not exclusive to the clinic. “This year there was to be a Technological University here that the government announced. They say that the money arrived, but it is not known where it is now. It was supposed to be 18 million pesos, later it went down to 11 million and finally 5 million. The land is there, but no public work.”

It is suspected that those resources were just delivered to officialist (pro-government) social organizations, “because of a political commitment by the municipal president,” Bellaner Pérez Anzueto, who “gives away chickens, but doesn’t convince.”

For example, the roads are in very bad condition, but only the principal highway receives any maintenance and a new paved road is being constructed to the Honduras ejido (apparently of high attractiveness for the mining companies), in the direction of the county seat of Ángel Albino Corzo and to the rural city under construction in Jaltenango. As if they were pointing to the exit door.

Although this will be an election year, full of big promises and little gifts, the Siltepec communities in resistance, as announced last January 12, have decided to organize “independent of the government and the parties, because there are already many years of deceit and lying.”

With the projects “they have the town asleep, but many people live by the day.” They maintain that: “the eight municipalities of the Sierra are in complete abandonment of health, housing and roads, but the cantinas and whore houses here are permitted to be full, and people get drunk, which now is the principal health problem ya es el principal.”

Alcoholism is a big concern. As an ejido member that participates in civil resistance concludes, “a majority of the deaths are because of alcohol. People go around drunk and don’t see the future of the town. The families disintegrate. It seems that what they want if for us to get out. Because of that the people are rising up.”

Without Authorization and at Night, Mining Companies Exploit the Sierra of Chiapas

** Ejido owners denounce the robbery of their lands

** Those affected fear mudslides in the mountains and poisoning of the zone’s rivers

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

Ejido Honduras, Chiapas, January 17, 2012

Campo Aéreo community, nestled between canyons and mountains inside the Sierra of Chiapas, already feel the passes, up to now furtive, of open sky mining exploitation. Without any authorization “big trucks have come out with hidden material, but we are no longer going to permit it,” an ejido member describes at his home on level ground above the Vega de Guerrero River.

He tells that he enjoys a lot the breeding of horses to run in “pairs,” while he leads journalists among the vegetation, a couple of kilometers from the population, through a recent breach made with heavy machinery, to an excavated spot, with rocks strewn all around. “Trucks come out loaded with rocks from two to three in the morning. In Siltepec they load them onto a trailer and take them away.” The shattered rocks are hard but grainy, emerald green. “It seems like a metal” the ejido owner comments, a member of the resistance of the Other Campaign, as many campesinos in the extensive Siltepec municipality.

The ejido owners have identified that the machinery and the cargo trucks belong to the construction company of an engineer Silva, but they are convinced that they’re dealing with the Canadian company Black Fire. “We think that mining concessions exist in this whole region, but there is no agreement with the population.” And he enumerates them: Toquián, Las Nubes, Cruz de Piedra, Las Moras, Cumbre Ventana, Delicias and Campo Aéreo. There is resistance in said communities. At least in Campo Aéreo it is the majority.

In a conflictive way, in neighboring Chicomuselo, Black Fire already made an appearance. Besides, Siltepec is on the border with Guatemala, where a few kilometers away big mining projects already operate, in Tacaná and Zacapa.

“They convinced a property owner from the Honduras ejido to sell, but he does not have our agreement.” The ejido member describes: “They offer us infrastructure projects, which are clearly lacking. But we know that it is to get involved. The concessions are signed for 50 years.” He tells that a little while ago he spoke with the Guatemalan Bishop Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini, of San Marcos, an active opponent of the mines, and he confided: “Once the people sign, everything is over. Do not sign. That will be the future that you leave to your children.”

He shows the trajectory of what is a break between the mountains, and presumably the mineral vein through the forest. Afterwards he exhibits another spot, kilometers above, with another hole of green rocks. There were already responses. In Las Nubes damaged the company’s machinery; they punched out its tires.

“One must imagine what open sky mining would be like in Siltepec,” exposes the ejido owner with clarity. “After Hurricane Stan we saw that we can have grave mudslides from the mountain here. With the explosions and excavations it would be much worse, they could put in danger the lives of many people. And the cyanide that they use for cleaning is going to poison our rivers.”

One of the members of the Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo (Peoples’ Light and Power) organization who accompanies the tour points out that they know the wealth of water and forests are threatened, although the authorities act like they protect the environment. “If an ejido owner cuts down a tree, they even put him in jail. But the lumber companies illegally take out big truckloads and no one says anything. A forest was already sold in Cruz de Piedra ejido, although Semarnat and Conafor have denied it.” PRI deputy Roberto Albores Gleason declared, for his part, that such concessions do not exist.

These farmers have a lot to lose, although they offer them up to 5 million pesos for their lands. In Cruz de Piedra, an ejido commissioner authorized the sale of a virgin forest for barely 100, 000 pesos. “The pined didn’t even grow, pure native trees,” says our guide. “They promised federal projects, which turned out to be false.” Moreover, the programmed sawmill is held up because of the residents’ rejection.

SPRING DELEGATION to CHIAPAS, March 25 – April 1, 2012

The Chiapas Support Committee of Oakland, California announces a Human Rights Fact-Finding Delegation to Chiapas Mexico. We hope you will join us for this in-depth exploration of how corporate globalization is affecting indigenous communities constructing autonomy (self-governance).

On January 1, 1994, eighteen years ago, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) rose up in arms against the government of Mexico and took control of large expanses of land owned by cattle ranchers. Thirteen days later, the Zapatistas declared a truce. The government also declared a truce, but prepared for war. In February 1995, the Mexican army entered "Zapatista Territory" and set up military bases and camps close to indigenous communities. The army has never left and an estimated 50,000 or more soldiers remain there to this day. The territory claimed by the Zapatistas and militarized by the army is known as a "conflict zone," but in contrast to many places in Mexico plagued by drug-related violence, Zapatista Territory is surprisingly calm.

Since the Zapatistas put down their weapons in 1994, they began to construct another world, one characterized by regional self-government, collective economic projects, autonomous education and health care. This delegation takes place eight and a half years after the Zapatistas renamed their 5 government centers Caracoles (shells) and created 5 autonomous regional governing bodies, called Good Government Boards, or Juntas; and nearly seven years after launching the Other Campaign, an effort to unite anti-capitalist movements into a political movement within Mexico.

The indigenous peoples of Chiapas confront a design by multilateral organizations such as the World Bank to re-conquer indigenous territory for exploitation by transnational corporations. The Zapatistas live in resistance to the Mexican government and are committed to resist corporate acquisition of their lands and natural resources. They say they will not permit the Plan Puebla Panama (now renamed the Mesoamerica Project) within their territory. That project threatens the people of Chiapas with eviction from their lands so that transnational corporations can exploit the natural resources and construct hydroelectric dams, soft drink bottling plants and upscale tourist facilities; as well as for oil and mining exploration and mono-crop export agriculture, such as biofuels.

Delegates will receive briefings from Mexican non-profits and will visit Zapatista communities, including the Caracol of Oventik .

This delegation provides an opportunity to visit and interact with civilian Zapatista communities constructing autonomy and resisting corporate exploitation. (We’re hoping to include a non-Zapatista community too this year.) While in San Cristobal, there will be time for shopping and entertainment. So, we invite you to join us for an amazing learning experience.

Getting there, cost, etc.

Delegates will arrive in Tuxtla Gutiérrez by plane and then travel by bus or taxi to the colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas. We will assemble at a hotel in San Cristobal de las Casas on Sunday, March 25. Several days later, when the delegation travels into the communities, conditions will be like rough camping and require both a sleeping bag and a hammock.

Cost of the delegation is US $500.00. This does NOT include airfare or bus transportation to and from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. It DOES include most food (2 meals per day), lodging (double room) and ground transportation to the communities. Private rooms with Wi-Fi are available for an additional $50.00. Your tuition ALSO includes a donation for each community we visit, an honorarium for each NGO briefing we receive, delegation expenses and educational materials. We provide each delegation with experienced group leaders and a translator. Delegation dates are March 25 to April 1, 2012. We are working on arranging visits now. When we have arrangements confirmed, we will prepare a day-to-day itinerary and will send it to those who express interest in the delegation.

Who is the Chiapas Support Committee?

The Chiapas Support Committee is a grassroots nonprofit organization founded in 1998. All of us are volunteers. We support indigenous and campesino (peasant) organizations, autonomous communities and non-governmental organizations in Chiapas. We certify human rights observers, organize delegations, fund autonomous projects and process applications for the Zapatista Language School. We have a partnership (hermanamiento, in Spanish) with the autonomous Zapatista municipality of San Manuel, Chiapas. We have been organizing delegations to Chiapas since 2000.

Conditions in Chiapas

As described above, the areas we visit in Chiapas are in a "conflict zone." There are military bases and "paramilitary" groups within the zone. The EZLN maintains its own army, although it does not use its weapons offensively. The conflict is almost entirely between unarmed Zapatista communities and armed civilian groups referred to as "paramilitary," sometimes accompanied by local police. Violence has not been directed at or against foreign visitors. Between 1998 and 2000, the Mexican government expelled some foreign visitors from Mexico for "interfering" in internal Mexican politics because they were working in Zapatista communities, but changed its policy at the beginning of 2001 and there have been no problems for foreign visitors since then. Nevertheless, it is a zone of conflict and, therefore, conditions are not entirely predictable. Delegates travel at their own risk.

How to apply

Please email cezmat, requesting an application. Act now! There are only 10 spaces on the delegation, so the sooner you send in your application the better. We must receive all applications by February 18, 2012. A deposit of $100 is required with your application in order to reserve a space. Balance is due March 5, 2012. For those who want more information, just email your questions to: cezmat or call (510) 654-9587.

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Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas
P.O. Box 3421, Oakland, CA 94609
http://www.chiapas-support.org/
cezmat
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiapas-Support-Committee-Oakland/86234490686
http://compamanuel.wordpress.com

In the Sierra, They Had Already Repudiated the CFE’s System of Robbery Before the EZLN Rose Up

** Members of People’s Light and Power narrate their struggle in that region of southern Chiapas

[Foto]

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

Siltepec, Chiapas, January 16, 2012.

En the origin of all resistances in this and other municipalities of the Sierra Madre of the Chiapan South is the rejection of the “unjustified and intolerable” rates by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, its initials in Spanish). “I remember that we began to protest before the Zapatista Uprising, and still we continue,” says one of the representatives of People’s Light and Power del Pueblo, without a doubt the civilian movement with the greatest presence and weight here, whose identification with the Zapatista struggle is old. Now it is an adherent to the Other Campaign. On the facades of hundreds of houses and businesses of the municipal headquarters are seen the holes from the electric meters, pulled out a while ago. But bills electric bills up to 16, 000 pesos continue arriving. In one supply store its owner shows his most recent bill, for more than 5, 000 pesos, which he will not pay.

“It is the CFE’s system of robbery,” adds another family father and member of Peoples’ Lights and Power (Luz y Fuerza del Pueblo). “There are empty houses, where nobody lives, which receive bills of 800 and 1, 000 pesos. But the CFE does not dare to come. They know that they could not pass. Not even the state government has been able to negotiate with the commission.”

Nor do they accept state subsidies from the Vida Mejor (Better Life) program. Very visible signs of the resistance organization Peoples’ Light and Power accompany and underscore the energy meters’ empty rings. In fact, even many people that do not participate in the resistance are opposed to the rates.

This afternoon, 20 members of the organization met in the 20 de Noviembre neighborhood, blocking entry to the municipal seat for a while, to declare their resistance to the CFE’s “abuses” and against mining, drug trafficking, alcohol, the wood cutters, poverty and the privatization of land. A municipal patrol car was detained for a few seconds and continued ahead. “Do they watch?” the reporter inquired of don Joaquín, part of the group of men and women that hold a thin metal rod. He replied: “No, not at all.

“They are just passing by. The police know that we are un chingo (a whole lot) and they also respect us.”

The scarcity grows jointly. The CFE’s charged are just one thread. “It is a whole system of abuse. The Diconsa stores, where we have to but corn, oblige us to invest in other products that we don’t need or that we are able to find at better prices, like shampoo, tin cans or soap,” one of the activists said last night. “This is a problem throughout the Sierra.” And he pointed out: “As an organization, we grew a lot in 2011. The people are realizing that the governments of whatever party are the same.”

Dissent is common currency in Siltepec. Hundreds of families are directly in civilian resistance. Others, in barrios, parish or ejido groups, simply organize to do what no one will do for them to live. Although it was not a good year for coffee, coffee production here permits a certain level of life for the campesinos.

They have land, and that gives dignity. It produces abundant corn. But like in many places, ejidal, communal or individual property is threatened by the poisoned gift of land certification impelled by the government, which opens the doors to the alienation of the land with the Program of Certification of Ejidal Rights and Titling of Plots (Procede, its initials in Spanish).

This is an urbanized and gentle population, that literally hangs from the slopes of the Sierra like many other towns, which are son authentic balconies over the deep canyons and carry peaks, cliffs forests and milpas on their backs; which the mining companies were able to pulverize in record time. The representatives of Peoples’ Light and Power maintain: “The government already granted big extensions to Black Fire and other Canadian transnationals, although they introduce themselves with names of national corporations or construction companies, to exploit in ejidos of Siltepec and other municipalities like Motozintla, Chicomuselo and Porvenir.”

A Meeting of Struggles: Report back on The Other Campaign New York in San Marcos Avilés, Support Base of the Za patistas

The ejido of San Marcos Avilés, a Zapatista support base community, is located in the Chilón municipality of Chiapas, amidst verdant jungle. The population here is tzeltal-speaking indigenous people, and has for years fought for their autonomy, dignity, and justice, as indigenous peoples and Zapatistas.

For over a year, our compas of San Marcos Avilés have suffered under a climate of terror and violence organized by local groups and individuals with intimate ties to the PRI, PRD, and PVEM political parties of Mexico, who wish to undermine the Zapatista struggle to build autonomy. In the case of San Marcos Avilés, the construction of their autonomous school represents the primary target for the bad government, as it symbolizes and exercises that autonomy.

Last week, shortly after the Second International Seminar of Reflection and Analysis convened by the CIDECI-University of the Earth, a delegation of Movement for Justice in El Barrio, The Other Campaign New York, accompanied by two compas from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (FrayBa), visited the community of San Marcos Avilés. The purpose of the visit was to meet the community and learn more about their dignified struggle, and at the same time, share our own.

Upon arriving at San Marcos Avilés, we presented to the entire community a giant banner of the Worldwide Declaration in Support of the Zapatista Support Bases of San Marcos Avilés. The banner was printed by FrayBa and had a map indicating all the cities and countries that signed on to the declaration to demand an immediate end to the repression.

Afterwards, the compas of San Marcos Avilés welcomed us and recounted their struggle and experiences. They spoke on the situation they are currently facing. The bad government’s repression has been an unending nightmare for them. Among the various forms of violence that have been employed, include sexual aggression (in some instances, attempted rape), theft and plunder, physical attacks, forced displacement, and the destruction of food, crops, and animals—in essence, everything the community needs to survive and sustain itself. In addition, death threats continue to the present.

During the evening, we gathered in the church that our compas built, and presented a bit on our local struggle. We screened a video message that featured the Mexican immigrant members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio speaking on their struggle in East Harlem, New York. We also screened several video messages from the international campaign to free the “Bachajón 5.”
Given that, as largely Mexican immigrants who lack immigration “papers,” we could not be present in Mexico—as crossing the border is regarded as a “crime” by those in power. The neoliberal border walls that those on top impose on us attempt to keep us divided. But that evening, with our words and faces, we were able to open a crack in those walls, and we wove together our struggles even more. The message was clear: The distance and border will never keep us apart.

The following day we spoke more with the compas regarding the repression they are facing. They explained how the bad government continues to terrorize the community. To this end, some inhabitants residing near the community are of the political parties. This essentially has turned the area into a zone of aggression. Off in the distance, one could hear music being played by these aggressors. The feeling of terror weighs heavily upon the air, and is constantly reinforced by the music. Despite all of this, the dignified people of San Marcos Avilés have not given up and will continue its struggle by building the Zapatista autonomy from below. They send affectionate greetings to all of us at Movement for Justice in El Barrio and around the world who have supported them. They ask that we continue to support them and that we continue advancing in our own struggles.