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.”