NOVEMBER 2009 CHIAPAS/ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

Thanks so much to everyone who attended, supported and/or volunteered at our November 21 Community Celebration. It was an honor to have all of you present with Carlos Marentes, MamaCoAtl and our “special guests.”

1. The EZLN’s Silence on 26th Anniversary – November 17 was the 26th Anniversary of the founding of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Traditionally, this day is celebrated with festivities in all 5 Zapatista Caracoles and the EZLN’s CCRI-CG (Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command) issues a communiqué. This year, the CCRI-CG issued no statement and there were no celebrations in the Caracoles. Hmmm! We’re wondering what the Zapatistas are up to.

2. Supreme Court Releases 9 More Prisoners in Acteal Case – On November 4, Mexico’s Supreme Court ordered the release of nine more prisoners convicted for participating in the 1997 Acteal Massacre of 21 women, 15 children and 9 men as they prayed for peace in a chapel located in the community of Acteal, Chiapas. The Court ruled that their convictions were based on illegally obtained evidence. New trials were ordered for 16 others.This ruling was made over the objections of the surviving victims and family members of those murdered and after the United States released intelligence reports establishing that the government trained paramilitaries in that region. In August, the Court released 20 prisoners convicted for the massacre and ordered new trials for six. Many analysts believe the Court’s decision was purely political and that it implemented a campaign promise made by now President Calderon. The governor of Chiapas, faced with the problem of what to do with these former paramilitaries, has apparently obtained an agreement that they will not return to their communities in Chenalho Municipality in exchange for the government providing them with housing and other benefits.

3. Chiapas Repression Includes OPEZ-Historic -The Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization (OPEZ-Historic) denounced military harassment of its communities in La Trinitaria, Las Margaritas, Socoltenango, Venustiano Carranza, Nicolas Ruiz and Comitán. The organization says that soldiers enter communities when the women are alone with the children, break into houses and frighten everyone. It also reports that the Army has set up camps in or near some of its communities and that there are military checkpoints throughout this area. OPEZ-Historic is one of the several current factions of the OPEZ. It is the faction known for cooperating with the Chiapas state government.

4. What’s Behind the Current Repression in Chiapas? – La Jornada obtained a document compiled by the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office which concludes that

an armed movement is being forged for next year (2010). The document is titled The Prevailing Situation in Venustiano Carranza Municipality,” and supposedly documents the existence of a subversive network whose axis would be Jesús Landín, a Catholic priest in Venustiano Carranza parish. It also concludes that imprisoned OCEZ-RC leader, Jose Manuel Hernandez Martinez (Chema), is the leader of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) in Chiapas. It implicates Diego Cadenas of Frayba and the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) in the subversive network. This document, which seems to mix apples with oranges in order to arrive at itsconclusions, is thought to be the origin of the rumors and leaks from the state government to the media. It also serves to justify the repression in Venustiano Carranza and neighboring municipalities. Apparently, the document also anticipatted an outbreak of violence on the 99th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution (November 20) this year, which did not occur.

5. OCEZ Leader, El Chema, Free on Bail – José Manuel Hernandez Martinez and two other OCEZ leaders were released from prison on November 23, free on bail only a couple of days after Chiapas Governor Juan Sabines Guerrero met with Felipe Arizmendi, Catholic bishop of the diocese of San Cristobal. Next, there were a series of what appear to be announcements paid for by the state government in La Jornada about Sabines’ great desire to calm the tension in Chiapas. The 3 OCEZ leaders were then released and the government offered a negotiations to reach “detente” with the OCEZ. The OCEZ met with the state government on November 27. This did not result in the end of the sit-in (encampment) in front of the cathedral. OCEZ is demanding that criminal charges against the 3 leaders be dropped and the 11 warrants for the arrest of other OCEZ members be cancelled. It appears that OCEZ is also demanding a building to use as a shelter for its “internally displaced” members. The commitments reached in the November 27 meeting did, however, result in OCEZ vacating the UN offices in San Cristobal on November 30.

6. 1400 U.S. Agents Active in Mexico – La Jornada reported that there are now approximately 1400 U.S. agents gathering intelligence on Mexican soil. Half of them are Mexican citizens and previously worked for Mexican police or intelligence agencies. The agents work for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The ICE and ATF agents are concentrated mostly along the border, but DEA agents spread out all over Mexico, including Chiapas.

7. Mining Opposition Leader, Mariano Abarca, Murdered – Mariano Abarca was murdered outside his home in Chicomuselo, Chiapas, on November 27 by an unidentified gunman on a motorcycle. Abarca had been a leader in the opposition to mining in the Sierra Region of Chiapas. The Black Fire mining company is suspected of possibly having some responsibility for the crime.

8. Disinformation About Zapatistas by Chiapas Government – La Jornada carried a news note claiming that the 5 Zapatista Juntas had asked the state government for legal recognition of their autonomous municipalities and a share of the state budget. The source for the story was a PAN elected official. All 5 Juntas denied the story, each with an interesting choice of words.

In Other Parts of Mexico…

1. Electrical Workers Union (SME) and Allies Stage National Strike – The SME called for a national strike on November 11 and received lots of support across the country. They filled Mexico City’s Zocalo with approximately 200,000 people and had large marches in other cities around the country too. On November 29, as President Calderon was giving a speech at the National Palace, electrical workers, organized a demonstration in front of the National Palace which was tear gassed by the Federal Police. In response the electrical workers threw eggs at the police. The local police, controlled by Mexico City’s Mayor, put themselves in between the Federal Police and demonstrators, effectively preventing the Federal Police from further action. Currently, 4 women are on a hunger strike demanding reinstatement of Central Light & Power. (See last month’s news summary.) Peasant organizations and electrical workers will commemorate the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution on December 4 by carrying out a symbolic takeover of Mexico City.

2. U.S. and Colombian Law Enforcement Personnel Train Mexico’s Federal Police in San Luis Potosi – Funds from the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico), distrubuted by the U.S. State Department, are financing training of Mexico’s new Federal Police agency at a secure police academy in San Luis Potosí. The training program is run by a private logistics company, Kaseman LLC, in Virginia. FBI agents, ICE officers, U.S. marshals, DEA agents and detectives from city police departments give the training, as well as police from Colombia and other countries. According to the Arizona Republic, which visited the site, the Colombians are graduates of similar U.S. training efforts in Colombia, where Plan Colombia funds helped counter leftist rebels and drug traffickers.

3. ERPI Commander Murdered – Comandante Ramiro of the Insurgent People’s Revolutionary Army (ERPI, its initials in Spanish) was shot dead in Palos Grandes, Ajuchitlan del Progreso Municipality, Guerrero, on November 4 with an AK-47. The ERPI alleges that a hired gunman did the job for the government. The ERPI issued a communique alleging that the gunman was tied to the biggest cacique (political and economic boss) in Guerrero and also to the police and military. The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Guerrero (APPG) claimed Ramiro’s body and buried him.

__________________________________________________

Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.

The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).

We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.

News Summaries from previous months are now posted on our web page.

http://www.chiapas-support.org

_______________________________________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box 3421, Oakland, CA 94609

Tel: (510) 654-9587

Email: cezmat@igc.org

http://www.chiapas-support.org

OCTOBER 2009 CHIAPAS/ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

Another month full of news. Several incidents occurred towards the end of September that required clarification due to conflicting or ambiguous news stories. Therefore, we waited to report them until this month when we had more clarity regarding the facts. They show that the counterinsurgency in Chiapas extends to actors within civil society beyond the Zapatistas and Other Campaign adherents. It seems clear that the state government is preparing for what it thinks will be a “social explosion” in 2010 (or is it merely an excuse for repression?). CSC

 

1. Repression of Social Protest Spreads to OCEZ-RC, Leader in Prison – On September 30, Chiapas state police dressed up in uniforms worn by Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) workers. They entered the community of 28 de Junio (June 28) in Venustiano Carranza municipality, asking if anyone had service problems. When they reached the home of Jose Manuel Hernandez Martinez, they took him out of his house, put him in a truck and drove him to the El Amate state prison. Hernandez Martinez, known as Chema, is the long-time leader of the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC). Several members of that organization attempted to follow the vehicle in which Don Chema was abducted, but their car was run off the highway and one person died in the crash. A second man died from his injuries two weeks afterwards. The OCEZ-RC has continuously struggled to recuperate indigenous people’s communal land in Venustiano Carranza. The charges against him have to do with a 2005 land takeover. Hernandez Martinez recently led a successful hunger strike to obtain the legalization of land and the speculation is that the illegal detention (no arrest warrants were shown and the police agents disguised themselves) is in retaliation for that protest action. A national and international campaign to free Chema is underway. Neither OCEZ-RC nor Hernandez Martinez have any current connection that we know of with the Zapatistas or the Other Campaign. Nevertheless, judicial authorities interrogated Hernandez Martinez about belonging to the EPR and the EZLN. After 2 weeks in a state prison, the state moved Chema to a high-security federal prison in Nayarit state, a long way from Chiapas. This, in spite of the fact that the crimes of which he is accused are common state crimes. Is the state afraid that Chema will organize social protests from prison in Chiapas?

 

2. Arson Attempt at Kinal Antsetik Center – On September 26, an unidentified person sprinkled gasoline around the Kinal Antsetik (Land of Women, in Tseltal) installations and lit a fire. The location includes a capacity building center and workshop for indigenous women and the facilities of Jolom Mayaetik (Maya Weavers), a weaving cooperative. Young women living at the center put out the fire quickly. Kinal’s founder, Yolanda Castro, is an outspoken activist in the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) in Chiapas and has recently been involved in the resistance to mining. She has suffered break-ins and vigilance due to her activism. Castro has no current connection to the EZLN or the Other Campaign and, to the best of our knowledge, neither does Kinal Antsetik or Jolom Mayaetik.

 

3. Amnesty International (AI) Wants Clarification of Immigrant Detention and Death – Amnesty International (AI) has asked Mexican authorities to clarify an incident which occurred on September 18 near the city of Comitan, Chiapas. Mexican security forces opened fire on a group of undocumented Central American immigrants resulting in the death of a Salvadoran. The immigrants were in a vehicle belonging to those who traffic in undocumented immigrants. They passed a control post and agents ordered the vehicle to stop. Instead, the driver went faster and the agents followed and fired on the vehicle. AI reports that there were seven in the group. Three men escaped, one died from a bullet wound, two remain in the hospital with serious injuries and one is detained and will soon be deported. AI wants clarification of whether it was members of the Mexican Army or immigration agency that fired on the group of immigrants and clarification as to the beatings they received when captured and already injured.

 

4. Two More OCEZ Leaders Apprehended, Houses Searched – In the wee hours of Saturday morning (October 24), police and military carried out an operation in Venustiano Carranza municipality and arrested 2 more OCEZ-RC leaders. The 2 detained are Jose Manuel de la Torre Hernandez and Roselio de la Cruz Gonzalez. From the El Amate prison, both men have denounced that they were tortured. They are accused of land takeovers. Following the detentions, police and soldiers returned to 28 de Junio and Laguna Verde communities (the 2 bastions of the OCEZ-RC) and searched houses, looking for drugs and/or weapons. They did not find any. The state government suspects that members of the OCEZ-RC belong to a criminal gang that traffics in drugs, weapons and undocumented people. It also seems to suspect that OCEZ-RC has connections with a guerrilla organization.

 

5. Update on Mitziton and the Palenque Toll Road – The Chiapas government finally announced the plan for a new super-highway (toll road) to Palenque. It will not pass through Mitziton. Instead of adopting the plan designed by the Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT), which would have cut Mitziton in half, the state chose an alternative plan. The state government also committed to “consulting” with affected communities. The plan announced does not include the location of access roads to tourist attractions, but it does include agricultural requirements which affected communities will be urged to accept. The high-speed toll road will pass through part of the Meso-American Biological Corridor. Therefore, the World Bank and its conservation cohorts have special recommendations for what crops ought to be planted. Some will be for local tourism, but the majority apparently will go to the Yucatan Peninsula’s tourist Mecca, the Riviera Maya.

 

6. Three Detained with Arsenal in Frontera Comalapa – The Chiapas government released information that on October 12, three men (none originally from Chiapas) were detained near Frontera Comalapa, very close to the Chiapas/Guatemala border. They allegedly admitted to 3 murders and police determined that they belonged to a criminal gang. It claimed that one of them belonged to a group with “the facade of a social organization” and “called OCEZ or OPEZ.” Two of them allegedly claimed that they were sent to Guatemala for training in weapons, disarmament and survival techniques by kaibiles upon the recommendation of a catechist from Altamirano (municipality). During interrogation, the men disclosed the location of a ranch in Frontera Complapa where weapons were stored. When police went to the ranch house, they found a large arsenal of all kinds of weapons, cars and 2 race horses. What is interesting about this press release is that it implicates a “catechist,” and refers to 2 social organizations as being a facade for violent activity. Some Chiapas government officials are leaking slanderous statements to local press about the Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal, individual priests and catechists, as well as Las Abejas, in connection to violent activity. It got so bad that the 2 bishops from that diocese issued a statement denouncing the slanderous attacks!

 

7. Response to Repression: Demonstrations – On Monday, October 26, social organizations with different political demands converged on the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas to march in protest of diverse issues. Las Abejas protested against the release of those imprisoned for participating in the Acteal Massacre. Pueblo Creyente (People Praying) demonstrated in support of the Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal. OCEZ-RC protested the detention, torture and imprisonment of its leaders and the searches of homes conducted in its communities. Other Campaign members from different municipalities were there with banners demonstrating against the toll road to Palenque because it will destroy jungles, forests and their lands. Several organizations also demonstrated for the release of political prisoners. I cannot remember the last time such a diverse assortment of Chiapas organizations demonstrated together. Approximately 150 members of the OCEZ have remained in a sit-in on San Cristobal’s main plaza ever since, demanding the release of their 3 prisoners and the removal of soldiers and police from their communities. Additionally, 20 OCEZ members “took over” an office of the United Nations in San Cristobal, claiming they were refugees, and demanding the release of the 3 imprisoned leaders.

 

8. Chiapas Government Cancels Local Elections in 2010 – Mid-term elections for local municipal councils and presidencies, as well as local deputies to the state Congress, were scheduled for 2010. In a somewhat clandestine move, the Congress voted to cancel those mid-term elections and change the state’s constitution. Local deputies will continue in office until 2012 and they will appoint, YES! appoint, the local municipal councils and presidents. Chiapas is governed, at least on paper, by the Party of the “Democratic” Revolution (PRD). Many Chiapas citizens are furious and an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court. As of now, it appears that the government may back down.

 

9. Gloria Arenas & Jacobo Silva FREE! – Gloria Arenas was released from prison on October 28, after serving 10 years for rebellion. Jacobo Silva, her husband, was released the next day (October 29). Gloria is the former Colonel Aurora and Jacobo is the former Comandante Antonio of the Revolutionary Army of Insurgent People (ERPI). Upon their release, both announced that they will now struggle openly and peacefully with the Zapatistas Other Campaign!

 

In Other Parts of Mexico…

 

1. Union Busting ala Calderón – In the wee hours of Saturday, October 10, President Felipe Calderon sent 6,000 soldiers and heavily armed Federal Police to take over the state-owned Central Light and Power installations in Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Puebla, Morelos, and Hidalgo. Immediately following the takeover, Calderon issued an executive order closing Central Light & Power. The government’s official justification for closing Light and Power is that the company’s operating expenses exceed those of other state-owned companies. like the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). It claims the takeover was a pre-emptive strike to prevent a militant union from taking control of the facilities and cutting off power in protest of the closing of Light & Power. However, a week prior to the police and military takeover, the union specifically stated that it had no intentions of striking or cutting off power to customers. Most analysts believe that it is a preliminary move to privatizing an enormous and growing industry. And, the right-wing Calderon government gets the special benefit of busting the SME, a union that has been part of many social protests over multiple issues and has formed strong alliances with social organizations in Mexico. Tragically, approximately 44,000 workers lost their jobs in the government’s move. The SME is calling for mass mobilizations against the closing of Light & Power.

 

2. The Drug War Numbers – According to reports by Mexico’s Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) and Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), 5, 570 executions have been counted so far this year. The number of people murdered due to alleged ties with organized crime during the nearly 3 years of the Felipe Calderón government now exceeds 15, 400, while during the whole 6-year term of Vicente Fox 13, 000 homicides of this kind were counted.

 

__________________________________________________

Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.

 

The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).

 

We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.

 

News Summaries from previous months are now posted on our web page.

http://www.chiapas-support.org

_______________________________________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box 3421, Oakland, CA 94609

Tel: (510) 654-9587

Email: cezmat@igc.org

http://www.chiapas-support.org

Day of the Dead/Dia De los Muertos Celebration this Sunday!

*The Wellington Zapatista Support Group invites you to join us for:

 

*Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life** *Sunday Ist November 2009 –

two events!*

 

*4pm MUSEUM OF WELLINGTON CITY AND SEA* (Queens Wharf Jervois Quay)

 

*OFRENDA and Face-painting/Preparation for the STREET PROCESSION*

through Wellington’s streets to *Bar Bodega* (departs 6PM)

 

*7.30pm **BAR BODEGA *101 Ghuznee Street.

 

*DIA DE LOS MUERTOS* *Fiesta – featuring: Bella Cajon, Julie Bevan,

Carlos Naverrette, Te Kupu, Sam Kelly, German Renthel, and other

performers – **plus music, poetry, dance, and SPOT PRIZES!!*

 

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is an annual festival observed

throughout Latin America originating in pre Columbian culture which

celebrates life by honouring the dead. It is believed that on this day

each year the spirits of the dead return to Earth to reconnect with the

living, and re-experience the sensory world. Friends and family honour

the deceased by celebrating in cemeteries, homes, and public spaces with

food, flowers, music, and prayers. Colourful paper cut-outs called papel

picado decorate churches and cemeteries. Fancy dress, especially

skeletons and other deathly outfits, is the norm.

 

In recent years Mexicans living locally have brought this festival alive

for New Zealanders, and once again invite Wellingtonians and visitors

alike to share in their celebrations of this traditional cultural – and

colourful – event.

 

At *Museum of Wellington City and Sea/Te Waka Huia o Nga Taonga Toku Iho

*there will be a *Traditional Ofrenda *on display*, *as well as

*Face-painting and Preparation for the Procession.*

 

Ofrenda’s – or altars – often have a photo of the deceased, and are

elaborately-decorated with flowers as well as objects, foods and drinks

that the dead prized or enjoyed while they lived. It is believed that

displaying their favourite things entices their souls to return to take

part in the remembrance celebrations.

 

This year’s ofrenda is dedicated to Emiliano Zapata, Commandante Ramona,

Subcommandante Marcos, and the people of Honduras. It will be on display

from 4pm, and remain in place 1- 7^th November. (Photo of Diego Rivera

Ofrenda in Mexico City in 2006 attached, as an example)

 

There will also be face-painting and preparation for the street

procession, which will leave at 6pm. The public is encouraged to join

in, wear fancy dress, and carry colourful memorabilia of deceased loved

ones. The procession will wind through Wellington streets to end at *Bar

Bodega*.

 

Inside *Bar Bodega (*$10 cover charge) there will be performances* *on

the theme of life and death by a variety of acts, from poet Mercedes

Webb-Pullman to musicians such as Bella Cajon and Te Kupu, to Latin

dancers, and more.

 

All proceeds from the Bodega event will go to the community of La

Garrucha in Chiapas, Mexico.

 

 

SEPTEMBER 2009 CHIAPAS/ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY

Whenever we have a hard time keeping up with the news in Chiapas, years of experience tell us that it usually indicates an escalation of the “low-intensity” conflict; the counterinsurgency. The essence of the so-called “low-intensity” war, as the counterinsurgency in Chiapas has often been called, is that it ebbs and flows as counterinsurgency campaigns begin and then run their course. There is little doubt that a counterinsurgency campaign is now underway against the Zapatista and Other Campaign communities in resistance. The violence is escalating and we can hardly keep up with the news. CSC

1. San Manuel Zapatistas Attacked by Armed PRI Members – A September 1 attack by Aric-official and Aric-UU left 1 member of Aric-UU dead, 8 Zapatistas injured, 8 Aric members injured and 7 Zapatistas taken prisoner. The Zapatistas taken prisoner were tortured for 36 hours until government officials and human rights organizations arrived. Aric-official and Aric-UU are 2 factions of the Aric peasant organization affiliated with the PRI political party. They are pro-government but not paramilitary. However, the Opddic inserted itself into this land dispute on the side of the Aric groupings, its fellow members in the PRI. The Opddic, pointed to as a paramilitary group, supplied guns to the Aric members and Opddic members also joined in the attack. San Manuel is the Chiapas Support Committee’s partner Zapatista municipio (county). For a detailed account of this attack, See: http://www.chiapas-support.org/Attack-On-San-Manuel.html

2. FPDT (Atenco) Opens 2nd Stage of Campaign to Free Political Prisoners – The Peoples’ Front in Defense of Land (FPDT, its Spanish initials) launched the 2nd stage of its campaign to free Atenco’s 12 remaining political prisoners. The new stage of the campaign began in Chiapas with a visit to Las Abejas, in Acteal. The FPDT went to the Pacific Coast region of Chiapas for meetings with Other Campaign members and to Oventik for a long meeting with the Zapatista Junta in the Highlands. The FPDT also held a large public meeting in San Cristobal with social organizations struggling to free their political prisoners. An FPDT delegation plans to visit social organizations in 12 states between now and the end of November seeking support for their cause. Besides gathering support for the liberation of the 12 FPDT members, the delegation also carries a message of unity against the repression of social protest.

3. Update on Mitziton Situation – Earth movers are at Mitziton’s door, ready to carve up their land for the new toll road to Palenque. Meanwhile, the heavily armed Army of God members continue to threaten violence. They beat up a 17 year old boy and cut down the letreros (hand-painted signs) proclaiming resistance to the toll road. The ejido commissioners also denounced them as criminals that traffic in “undocumented brothers.” The commissioners allege that the state government has known about this human trafficking for 10 years and has just covered it up.

4. Another Armed Attack: Opddic Members Beat Up Frayba Lawyer and Shoot an Other Campaign Member in Jotolá – On September 18, a human rights lawyer from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) was stopped as he was leaving Jotolá community by a tree trunk blocking the road. Members of the Opddic, alleged to be a paramilitary organization, placed it there to block his exit. They pulled him from his vehicle and hit him repeatedly and said they were going to lynch him. When inhabitants of Jotolá and San Sebastián Bachajon heard the commotion and went to rescue him, the armed Opddic members opened fire. One Other Campaign member from San Sebastián Bachajon was wounded by a bullet in the muscle of his left leg.

5. Mining Company Announces Withdrawal from Chiapas – On September 25, Linear Gold Mexico sent a letter to the governor of Chiapas announcing its withdrawal from the state due to resistance from some ejidos and communities. Before it withdrew, however, La Jornada reports that it extracted 1 million ounces of gold and 4.4 million ounces of silver from Chiapas territory. The withdrawal followed a major mid-September march through municipalities along the Chiapas border with Guatemala to protest the effects of mining.

6. The War in Guerrero – According to an article in Milenio, a war is taking place in the Mexican state of Guerrero without the public’s knowledge. According to this article, skirmishes between the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo Insurgente (Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People, ERPI) and the Mexican Army take place frequently. The Army claims they are skirmishes with narcotraficantes (drug traffickers) and that the ERPI is involved with them. The ERPI says the narcotraficantes are involved with the Army in counterinsurgency. The gist of this article is that the state of Guerrero is on the verge of exploding. [We wonder if the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico) is funding the counterinsurgency in Guerrero?]

http://semanal.milenio.com/node/1241

__________________________________________________

Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.

The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).

We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.

News Summaries from previous months are now posted on our web page.

http://www.chiapas-support.org

_______________________________________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

P.O. Box 3421, Oakland, CA 94609

Tel: (510) 654-9587

Email: cezmat@igc.org

http://www.chiapas-support.org

Dia De Los Muertos / Day of the Dead 2009

We are just confirming the final details for our annual Day of the Dead events… Stay tuned for more info, or email us at zapatistasolidarity{at}gmail.com.

saludos,

Wellington Zapatista Support Crew

Film Screening and Raffle Draw – Friday 3 July

A Big Noise Film

Wellington Zapatista Solidarity and the Latin American Solidarity Committee proudly present

A screening of ‘The Fourth World War’ (2004, 75 minutes) and Raffle Draw

Friday 3rd July, 6-8pm

Newtown Community Hall, Daniell St, Newtown, Wellington

All proceeds go to the Latin America Solidarity Committee

The Wellington Zapatista Solidarity Committee and Latin America Solidarity Committee are organizing a raffle draw and film screening to raise funds for the people of Atenco, to aid them in their ongoing legal battle for the release of citizens wrongly imprisoned since 3 May 2006.

The screening will take place at the Newtown Community Hall on Daniell St on Friday 3rd of July, 6-8pm. The prize for the raffle will be a $50 voucher for Flying Burrito Brothers restaurant on Cuba Street.

The Fourth World is a documentary about the struggles of men and women around the world resisting global conflict across five continents. Shot on the front lines of struggles spanning five continents, this film is the untold story of men and women who resist being annihilated in the current global conflict. While our airwaves are crowded with a talk of a new world war, narrated by generals and filmed from the noses of bombs, the human face of war is rarely seen. The Fourth World War weaves together the images and voices of the war on the ground – from the front line struggles in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, ‘the North’ from Seattle to Geneva and the “War on terror” in New York and Iraq.

This is not about some distant foreign people dealing with equally distant and foreign problems; it’s about struggle and oppression, which can happen anywhere that people try to protect land and resources from the powers that be.

Raffle tickets ($2 for one ticket, $5 for three) will be available for purchase on the night.

For more information please email zapatistasolidarity(at)gmail.com

Or visit http://www.floweroftheword.wordpress.com

Judge Declares APPO Adviser David Venegas Innocent of Drug Charges

by Kristin Bricker – April 21, 2009

Reprinted from www.narconews.com

Innocent Verdict Means Judge Acknowledges that Police Planted Cocaine and Heroine on a Movement Leader

April 21, 2009 – Today Oaxacan judge Amado Chiñas Fuentes absolved APPO adviser David Venegas of charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroine. Venegas’ defense team argued that police had planted cocaine and heroine on Venegas after his arrest in order to imprison him and later charge him with sedition, conspiracy, arson, attacks on transit routes, rebellion, crimes against civil servants, dangerous attacks, and resisting arrest.

The government tried Venegas on all charges except for the drug-related ones. The court declared him innocent of all charges and released him on March 5, 2008, after he’d served nearly eleven months in jail. With the drug charges still pending, he was released on bail and forced to report to the court every week for over a year, severely limiting his ability to travel.

Today’s innocent verdict means that the judge has accepted Venegas’ defense that Oaxacan police planted the drugs on him. The drug charges are the last of a series of false charges that Venegas has had to fight for just over two years.

In a statement released by his collective VOCAL, Venegas stresses that it was grassroots support that led to his freedom. “This innocent verdict, far from demonstrating the health or rectitude of the Mexican legal system, was pulled off thanks to the strength of the popular movement and with the solidarity of compañeros and compañeras from Mexico and various parts of the world. The legal system in Mexico is corrupt to the core and is a despicable tool used by the authorities to subjugate and repress those who struggle for justice and freedom.”

The statement goes on to say that VOCAL is committed to fighting for the freedom of Oaxaca’s political prisoners. Furthermore, “We aren’t satisfied with having won our compañero’s unconditional freedom. Having demonstrated the bad government’s lie, we will now focus on imprisoning the Oaxacan peoples’ repressors, who are responsible for this arbitrary and illegal detention: from the police who carried out the detention and repression up to these thugs’ highest bosses.”

Mexican Consulate Closes as The Other New York Demands Freedom for the Prisoners of Atenco

On May 4th, the third anniversary of the state repression to the people of Atenco, the Mexican Consulate in New York City was peacefully “taken” by the pro-zapatista Movement for Justice in the Barrio (Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio).

The authorities decided to close the Consulate all day. In a press conference, the Consul, very upset, denounced and placed blame on the members of The Other Campaign in New York.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OTHER NEW YORK DISTRICT OF MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE

To our sisters and brothers of the People’s Front in Defense of Earth:

To our brothers and sisters the Zapatistas:

To our comrades of the Other Campaign:

To our comrades of the Zezta Internazional:

To our comrades following the International Campaign in Defense of the Barrio and our allies around the world:

A greeting of solidarity from the women, men and children, the socially marginalized from the Other Campaign New York, Movement for Justice in el Barrio in East Harlem zapatista.

Today, May 4, 2009, The Other New York peacefully took the Mexican Consulate in New York to demand the release of 12 political prisoners who have been brutally repressed for opposing the predatory neoliberal development projects that denigrate life and culture, specifically the construction of an airport in Atenco, and for the protection of flower growers in Texcoco.

On this third anniversary of the repression, arrests, rape, torture and burglary committed by military police in Atenco, today, a committee of members of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio was able to enter the offices of the Mexican Consulate in New York, which are under strict surveillance, stepping up the campaign in Mexican heart and memory, demanding the release of prisoners from Atenco. We managed to enter the offices to conduct a peaceful protest demanding the immediate release of prisoners from Atenco.

Once inside, the comrades of the Other New York, cried: “Political prisoners, freedom!, Freedom, freedom to prisoners to fight!” “We are all Atenco,” among other slogans, and with our banners, some with masks simulating prison bars, and also with bandanas, distributed to passers-by DVDs of the video Rompiendo El Cerco (Breaking The Siege), about the repression in Atenco, and informational leaflets explaining the central demands.

Then we demanded to speak to the Consul Ruben Beltran to deliver a letter of demands.

First we were told that he was not there because he was in Mexico, but we knew that this was a lie since the day before the consul was in El Barrio performing a proselytizing act in the imposed celebration of Cinco de Mayo. After a time, the consulate authorities told us that the ambassador was in New York, but was not in the consulate, and then closed the consulate to the public, asking everyone to leave the office.

At the end of our event, the ambassador came.

We delivered a letter, amplified in a banner, with the following demands:

1) Freedom of the 12 political prisoners from Atenco;

2) Cancellation of warrants for the 2 prosecuted;

3) Withdrawal and cancellation of the sentences;

4) Strict respect for the human rights of the detainees and persecuted; and

5) Punishment of those responsible for human rights violations.

At first Ambassador Ruben Beltran said he was willing to talk with all the Mexican residents in New York and listen to all their views, but then threw the blame on us and our cause – the release of prisoners of Atenco – of having closed the services of the consulate and leaving many people without being served.

We believe that reaction of the consul is an act of great injustice and cynicism, as if the government of Mexico does not torture, kill, rape and unjustly imprison its residents for opposing Mexico’s business with large multinationals that make water into a merchandise, these things should not need to happen.

Notwithstanding this, we are pleased to have been able to successfully make this protest against the release of the martyrs of Atenco, as we now know that many Mexicans in New York will be able to learn through alternative means, such as the DVD of Breaking The Siege, that which really happened.

Then in the afternoon of that day, the press went to the consulate because of another event, and the consul took the opportunity to complain about us, denounce us and say that because of us, they had to close the Consulate for the entire day. At that evening event, the consul showed the press pictures of us from different angles.

It should be clear that our demonstration was peaceful.

If there will be reprisals against us for exercising our right to freedom of expression in Mexican territory (as is any Embassy of Mexico abroad), this means that the consular authorities were violating our rights, like they do not respect the human rights of the people of Atenco.

It pains us greatly that the worthy social activists, the true defenders of our land and our country, remain in jail. We do not rest until they are released. Human beings are not merchandise.

They can not stop us and clear us out to build airports and hotels, not in Atenco, not in Agua Azul, and not in our Barrio in East Harlem.

From The Other New York:

WE ARE ALL ATENCO!

FREEDOM FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Movement for Justice in el Barrio, New York, May 4, 2009.

3 years since Atenco and innocent people are still imprisoned – Let’s take action!

Today marks the 3 year anniversary of the Mexican State’s brutal violence towards the people of Atenco. Please read below for more information and contact the Mexican Embassy to demand freedom for the political prisoners and justice for all those terrorised by state forces.

If enough of us make a short phone call or send an email, the Mexican Government will get the message that the world knows about their atrocious actions.

In solidarity,

Wellington Zapatista Support Group

Contact details for the Mexican Embassy in Wellington, NZ

Level 8, Perpetual Trust House

111-115 Customhouse Quay

PO Box 11-510, Manners Street

Wellington, New Zealand

Telephone (+64) 4 472 0555

Fax (+64) 4 496 3559

E-mail mexico@xtra.co.nz

Website www.mexico.org.nz

Office Hours Mon – Thurs 0900 -1600, Fri 0900 – 1500

Consular: 0900 – 1400

FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ATENCO

By Heriberto Salas and Salvador Díaz

On May 3, 2006, the sun rose with a dark stain around the Belisario Dominguez market in Texcoco: the state and local police had posted a guard around the spot where flower growers had sold their flowers for as long as we can remember. The Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), which had participated in a dialogue with Enrique Peña Nieto’s government had counseled and defended the flower growers. The day before, the state government had promised them and the FPDT that they would withdraw their police forces.

At 6 o’clock in the morning, when we met up with men, women, and children carrying baby’s breath, chrysanthemums, and spikenards, joined in their chants, and helped them set up their stands on the curb, we never imagined that we would go through some of the cruelest, most ferocious and heartless repression unleashed in the contemporary history of Mexico.

Yet the flower growers, the FPDT, and the people fell into a shameless trap of the so-called “golden boy,” who in fact is a true Caligula or “golden tyrant,” Enrique Peña Nieto, supported by then prosti-president Vicente Fox Quezada, and the complicity of the PRD lapdogs of Texcoco, all defenders of a barbarous State whose enemies are the most defenseless people.

As everyone knows, the outcome of the repression of May 3 and 4 was two comrades murdered, Javier Cortés and Alexis Benhumea; 207 arrested, including 47 women; and dozens of people wounded, pursued, and disappeared. But that wasn’t all. Our small community, San Salvador Atenco, like the Gaza Strip, Tikrit, or Kabul, was militarily occupied by thousands of vicious police who crudely profaned the peaceful streets of our beloved land just as they raped our comrades, sisters, daughters, and relatives on the road to the Santiaguito prison in those dreadful days.

They were like hordes of beasts who stopped at nothing to bring their brutality down on everyone. Consider the images: A Mazahua indigenous woman covering her legs as she was viciously beaten by the killers; an elderly paraplegic dragged by two buzzards in uniform; a dog beaten by a policeman; 10, 15, 20, 30 police monstrously beating a committed Zapatista militant; warrantless house searches; an elderly woman crying because her three sons were carried away; a barefoot Atenco man forced to his knees in the middle of a new Tlatelolco Plaza de las Tres Culturas; hooligans climbing up on top of the church and searching water tanks for Zapatista militants and Atenco community people. These are the indisputable testimonies that will never be erased from the memory of Mexican people.

From there on…a journey through hell. From the persecution of militants to the torturous process of winning the freedom of our prisoners. From our initial denunciation of the outrageous violation of the supposed State of Law and the smashing of our individual guarantees to the interminable trials with all its delays. The government and its front men have twisted the laws with the same impunity that existed during the Inquisition, charging us with crimes that we never committed, issuing arrest warrants for our most visible comrades, and subjecting our peoples to close-up, unyielding police vigilance. The names of those responsible for the military occupation by the federal and state police are well known: Vicente Fox, Enrique Peña Nieto, ex Director of the State Security Agency (ASE) Wilfrido Robledo Madrid, current Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, then State Attorney Abel Villicaña, ex Under Secretary of National Security Miguel Angel Yunes, among others.

Along this thorny path, we’ve relied on the support and solidarity of the Zapatista comrades of the Other Campaign, who have shown their goodwill and courage from the very beginning in the camp outside the prisons where our comrades have been held. Other workers, farmers, indigenous, popular, and even international organizations have also walked along beside us in this heroic effort. But of special importance is the honorable role played by the group of lawyers who have advised us all through the trials as we’ve fought against an invisible enemy embedded in the institutions of the State itself, one that plays by the same rules and exhibits all the official aberrations and inconsistencies. This united effort has made it possible to get most of our prisoners out of jail.

Needless to say, this State violence responds to the same logic of the finance capital that rules the world. It’s the same violence used on all five continents to snatch peoples’ natural resources from them, from oil to water, corn to rice, mines to forests, rivers to seas, in other words, to seize the wealth of the whole planet.

This war declared on the peoples of the world struggling to conserve their natural resources has reached our town Atenco, because we’ve defended our territory, and the communities in Chiapas who struggle against oblivion; the peoples of Oaxaca, for autonomy; the people of Guerrero, for their rivers and mountains; the peoples of San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas, against the predatory mining companies –all of these places where levels of organization and social consciousness have gained such force that they’ve become a real danger to the government and the transnational companies.

This, and no other, was the main reason for the State offensive against the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land: a high level of organization. A triumphant social movement that was not absorbed by the political parties, a radical, horizontal, anti-establisment, solidarity organization that grew along with its social demands, going beyond the initial struggle in defense of the land.

So an intricate network of relationships was woven along with other movements in the country and other parts of the world. But it reached its peak with the bond formed with the Zapatista movement and the Front’s adherence to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Selfa and The Other Campaign. The April 25, 2006 visit to Atenco by the Sixth Commission headed by SubComandante Marcos was tremendous. The tie between macheteros and zapatistas put the government on alert. And the answer came a week later with the attempt to pulverize the FPDT.

Today the federal and state governments of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto are still holding twelve of our kidnapped comrades, nine of them in the Molino de Flores prison in Texcoco, with sentences of 31 years, 10 months, and 15 days, and three others in the maximum security Altiplano prison at Almoloya, State of Mexico, two of them sentenced to 67 years in prison (Felipe Alvarez and Héctor Galindo), and one, Ignacio del Valle sentenced to 112 years, accused of being the intellectual author of the events of May 3 and 4. The federal and state governments have relied on the complicity of all the political parties and all the institutions of justice in the country, and even though the Supreme Court found in their investigation that the authorities did indeed commit Crimes against Humanity, it didn’t identify the responsible parties and instead, absolved them.

Faced with this ignominious exoneration on February 12, 2009, by the devious Ministers of Calderon’s Supreme Court, which allows presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and his accomplices to maintain their impunity, the FPDT along with human rights and independent organizations, have drawn many outstanding personalities like Eduardo Galeano, Bishop Samuel Ruíz, Manu Chao, and Adolfo Gilly into a current aimed at building the Committee for Freedom and Justice for Atenco, whose aims are the same as those upheld in 2002, when we defeated the expropriation decree––the incorporation of the civil society into the struggle, now oriented towards winning the freedom of our brothers held prisoner and the strict application of the law against those who massacred our people.

In support of these demands on the third anniversary of this attempt against the people of Atenco, we call on all national and international social and political organizations to join in the demand for the freedom of the political prisoners of Mexico and the world on May 3 and 4.

———-

Once again, please contact the Mexican Embassy to demand freedom for the political prisoners and justice for all those terrorised by state forces.

If enough of us make a short phone call or send an email, the Mexican Government will get the message that the world knows about their atrocious actions.

Contact details for the Mexican Embassy in Wellington, NZ

Level 8, Perpetual Trust House

111-115 Customhouse Quay

PO Box 11-510, Manners Street

Wellington, New Zealand

Telephone (+64) 4 472 0555

Fax (+64) 4 496 3559

E-mail mexico@xtra.co.nz

Website www.mexico.org.nz

Office Hours Mon – Thurs 0900 -1600, Fri 0900 – 1500

Consular: 0900 – 1400

For the freedom of the people of Atenco – letter from political prisoner America del Valle

To the comrades of the Committee for Freedom and Justice for Atenco; to the supportive comrades of Mexico and the world:

An intense hug to all of you.

Insofar as possible, I’m following all the efforts undertaken to gain freedom and justice for Atenco and can’t find the words to thank you for embracing us with your strong solidarity. This fills us with dignity, strength, and hope.

The third anniversary of Red May is almost here. They overpowered us, but they’ve never defeated us; they’ve given us life sentences, oblivious to the fact that our spirit is still free and eager to keep struggling, yet we have too many reasons not to surrender in the face of prison bars and persecution.

The exoneration of the repressors by the system of injustice doesn’t mean that they are absolved by history or by the people. Luis Echeverría Álvarez, Enrique Peña Nieto, Ulises Ruiz, Mario Marín, and a long list of tyrants have been condemned by the people!

We know that the national situation is getting worse all the time, not only because of the international economic crisis –a product of the insatiable voracity of the owners of money–, but also because of the deep entrenchment of organized crime in the State itself. And it’s precisely because we’re facing such difficult times that the organization and unity of people on the ground are all the more urgent and necessary.

Out there in the streets, the schools and universities, the factories and the barrios, you are organizing and arguing about what to do. Here, from our trenches in exile or in prison cells, we are standing strong in resistance, too. It’s in the struggle that we come together. In spite of distances, in spite of prison bars, we are together, with our faces towards the Sun.

Thanks to all of you in the far corners of the world for your voices and hands of solidarity. Thanks to all of you in the Committee for Freedom and Justice for Atenco.

América del Valle

(politically pursued by the Mexican State), Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land

PS: Compañero Manu Chao. We are furious about the repressive State’s attempt to expel you from Mexico even though their agents finally had to desist in an effort to conceal their own incompetence. Your courage and steadfastness are a lesson to all of us who believe that solidarity carved out at the side of the people is a right and a duty that knows no borders and needs no permit. Atenco and México are your home, and the laws of the tyrants seek to silence you for simply defending your home with the truth. You are in our hearts and minds. Wherever you are, may the struggle continue because that’s what we’ve decided and because there are thousands of us and more…