Chiapas and the Zapatistas - a first encounter.

The highlands of Chiapas are overwhelmingly green, mountainous and dramatic. Its hard to imagine anyone 'conquering' this impossible seeming landscape. Over the last 13 years, since the Zaptista uprising of 1994, the Mexican government has moved 70 000 of its military into the area, mostly to repress the Zapatistas and their movement for autonomy.



My first encounter with the masked people of the EZLN was at CEDICI-UniTierra in San Cristobla del las Casa- the old colonial city center of the Chiapan Highlands. Hundreds of people were packed into a small conference room to hear the round table on 'Defending the Earth and its Territories,' with delegates from Brazil, India and Korea. I think many of the large crowd came to see and hear the mysterious subcommandante Marcos, the white skinned, spokesperson of the Zapatistas.



Marcos has been critized for gaining a cultish following, but his high profile stratergy has, in some incidents, used the attention of well known members of western civil society, to prevent repressive actions by the Zedillo and Chiapas state government. If we are looking for the romance of a heroic leader, Marcos with his poetry and metaphoric tales, could fit the bill. The Zapatista struggle, however, has been anything but romantic.



Emerging armed and dangerous in 1994 with a force that shook the government, the Zapatistas put aside their weapons and entered 20 months of lengthy negotaitions with the government that came to nothing. Called the San Andreas Accords, the government never followed through on its adoption of the Indian Accords. The Zapatistas began to create their own autonomous communities, claiming about 38 autonomous zones in Chiapas by 2000.





The governments response since 1994 to the Zapatistsa, has been the intense militirization of Chiapas, with over 70 000 troops, (2) occupying Chiapas and intimidating local communites. Over the last 13 years, thousands of Indians have been jailed, tortured or killed: suspected leaders, supporters, orgnizers, participants or those affiliated with the Zapatistsa movement. The threat of autonomy was too much for the then Zedillo administration and it, and the Chiapan government, reacted with added brutality. Many members of autonomous communities had to flee into the mountains(3) for safety, as the government troops destroyed their villages.

It was not, nor remains, only the army involved in this " dirty war". Government armed paramilitaries, mostly PRI supporters, have intimidated and killed Zapatistsa and their allies. Some of the more horrific incidents on record are: Acteal 1997, El Bosque 1998, El Charco, 1998.


The Church at Ateal , where 47 people, mostly women and children of Las Abejas (the bees) were gunned down in cold blood while the military at a nearby base did not intervene.




There is something almost magical about these masked men and women. Small in stature and beautifully dressed in bright colors and ribbons, their image has been commercialized on posters, t-shirts, coffee cups and dolls in the tourists markets of San Cristobal. The Zapatistsas are however, deadly serious about the" work" that they have before them.

The Intergalatica with the Zapatistas and the People of the World, at Morelia, 2007, was my second encounter with the Zapatistas and their deliberate and thorough way of community assembly - something so different from a meeting structure in the west. Over hours and hours, the speeches eventually merged into one consistent voice of struggle against the bad government and conditions of poverty. Its a strange process of acculturation to sit for hours and listen. In the assembly structure, each person is heard, each community represented.



The Zapatistsas have since 2006 begun organizing beyond their territory, through the Other Campaign, a stratergy developed in reaction to Calderón's contested election victory in 2006. It reaches north and south, east and west across Mexico and unites all indigenous people in the same struggle- essentailly one of autonomy over land and resources and against the "mal gobierno" that fails to address the needs of the indigenous communities in Mexico.



1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil
2. The War Against Oblivion" Ross, John: Common Courage Press.
3. ibid

Oaxaca

(click on images for larger view)


(click on images for larger view)
The Mexican state of Oaxaca has been embroiled in a conflict since May 2006 that has resulted in at least 18 deaths and over 300 illegal arrests and detentions by the government. The conflict emerged in May 2006 with violent action by the Oaxacan Police towards the local teacher's union during their 25th annual teacher's strike and has grown into a broad-based movement of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz.



APPO is a broad based group comprised of indigenous and other communities, and the teachers union, human rights groups, and religious groups.



Oaxaca has a long history of popular organizing including agricultural struggles for territory, social struggles for infrastructural needs, and community struggles for the rights of traditions and customs.



"In Oaxaca there is a particular resistance, because of the way communities traditionally live, it enables resistance of oppression in all aspects of life," Fernandez Soberanes, Co-ordinator of projects for CMPIO; a coalition of indigenous teachers and member of the Oaxacan Section 22 teachers union.



Zapata looks out from the walls at UniTerra.


Ulises Ruiz, depicted in this poster as a Nazi like figure, with the initials of the Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP). 4500 PFP, a counterinsurgency police, were sent by the federal government to Oaxaca to end the protests in 2006. Ruiz, governor of Oaxaca since 2004, is accused of repressionof the protests, suppressing the freedom of the press, destruction of historical monuments in the city, and the detention and killing of his political opponents. Ruiz forms part of a history of institutional violence in Mexico that includes ignoring the needs of 75% of Oaxaca's population - the indigenous communities.



The APPO has made Ruiz's resignation or removal their one non-negotiable demand before they will agree to end the conflict.
" We reject the government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, because we do not accept a government which uses public resources to benefit only one priveleged sector of society. We withdraw our support from institutions which do not fulfill their obligations and silence the voice of the people."
The Declaration of the People of Oaxaca:August 2006



APPO stated in a November 2006 Declaration:
" We're peaceful, not passive; we're plural and autonomous, yet united; we're from the base, not leaders or vangaurds. We're combining centuries of indigenous organizational stratergies with modern social movements. This is what we have to strengthen and consolidate."
Guelegtza Popular, Zocola, Oaxaca City, July 2007.




The Communist Party of Mexico is one of the many different groups of APPO occupying the Zocola in 2007.



"Oaxaca is a lab for social change," says Marcos Leyva, photograhed in his office at EDUCA. EDUCA has worked in Oaxaca for 15 years, focusing on human rights, gender issue and indigenous people's rights. It is now part of APPO.





Pedro Matias, a journalist with 20 years of experience watching governmental abuses in Oaxaca, describes the events of 2006 as only the last part of a long chain of events.



The teacher's "planton" in the government building on the Zocola continues, and is organized into shifts, so that schools do not have to close. In addition ot seeking salary increase, teachers have assumed broader social causes because of their close relationship with indigenous communities.


A helicopter of fireworks, symbolic of the government helicopters that tear-gassed participants in the mega-marches of 2006, goes off at the 2007 Geulegetza Popular's Fireworks display.



The Guelaguetza, in traditional communities, is a dance festival with gift giving of pineapple, mango, bread, chocolate. The government has turned this into an annual folkloric festival and tourist attraction. In 2006 the Government run Guelegetza was cancelled because of the conflict .In 2007, APPO staged the “Guelaguetza Popular" and called for the boycott of the "official" Government Gulegetza.



Oaxaca city roads around the Zocola are shut to Ruiz (PRI) supporters during the Guelegetza Popular.



Dancers at the Guelegetza Popular.






APPO security guard in Guelegetza Popular Parade. APPO has its own security to prevent outside agitators from disrupting marches.


Interactive art exhibit, red dots represent the barricades in Oaxaca City in 2006 . Barricades kpet armed thugs from entering neighbourhoods to beat and kill people, especially leaders of the movement. US journalist Brad Wills was killed at such a barricade, and it was after his death that Vicente Fox deployed 4500 Federal Police (PFP) to crush the popular uprising.
Protestors tried to use barricades to prevent these military and police forces from entering and occupying the city.


Estela Río Gonzalez and Itandehuí Santiago Galicia (right), explains how on August 1st 2006, she was one of 15000 participants in " La marcha de las caseroles ( the march of women beating their pots and pans with wooden spoons) that seized the state TV Channel 9. TV Caserole, as it was known, broadcast for 3 weeks " the voice and images of the people." Soldiers shot down the antenna and forced them out on August 21st.



Sergio Beltrán at UniTerra, shows video clips of a TV Caserole broadcast. UniTierra, an alternate education university, helped the women with video production. The take over of the station helped break the image of the "passive woman. "Cuando una mujer avanca, no hay hombre que se detenga” (when a woman is advancing, no man is held back), Ricardo Flores Magón.


Alba Cruz Ramoz, Mayem Arellanes, both lawyers, and Alma Soto, members of the November 25th Liberation Commitee, work with the legal body of Appo. Founded by well known Oaxcan painter- Francisco Toledo, the November 25th Commitee was formed in response to the illegal and arbitrary detentions at the mega- marches.



Dionisio Martinez, artist, in his studio in Oaxaca City. Dionisio was one of 150 arrrested and detained on November 25th. Two of his ribs were broken, and he was detained incommunicado in Nayuruit, 1000km away for 15 days. He is facing 9 charges, including terrorism. Dionisio spoke of devastating psycholgical and financial costs of the detention and legal proceedings. Behind him is a portrait of legendary guerrilla leader, Luciano Cabanas, from Guerrero, whose Guerrilla Army of the Poor terrorized government supporters in the 1970's. He was killed by the Mexican army in 1974.



Over the last 20 years, the church has played a role in launching social struggles in Oaxaca, including training teachers and Indigenous leaders and building Christian Base Communities. Often, however, the church hierarchy betrayed these struggles and abandoned people to repressive forces.


Padre Manuel Arias Montes is the parish priest in the Jukilita neighborhood of Oaxaca. Arias spoke of how priests built solidarity with APPO even as the church hierarchy allied with the government. Arias and other parish priests continue to work with civil society to make fundamental social changes. Arias embraces the importance of Indigenous spirituality in his work, and points to the importance of Indigenous cosmologies to find solutions to problems that they face. He talks of a long history of exploitation and repression, with the government propagating systems of corruption and impunity and the local governments becoming the worst caciques (chiefs) who take advantage of community members.

part two

Oaxaca : ( part 2 )

A wall of objects related to corn production at CMPIO, the Oaxacan Coalition of Indigenous Teachers and Promoters. CMPIO has, since 1974, been working with indigenous teachers within 12 of the 16 indigenous languages in Oaxaca, developing and implementing appropriate pedagogues for indigenous communities. Their goal is to build a state wide congress.


Juan Santiago, manager of districts for CMPIO, opens the door to the outsde corn garden at CMPIO headquarters.



Dolores Villalobo and Rafael Perez Cruz of CIPO-RFM, Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magón”. CIPO-RFM- founded in 1974, is named after Ricardo Flores Magun, an intellectual author of the Mexican revolution, and is an alliance of indigenous communities that works within communities for self determiniation, including control of territories and resources. Projects include building schools and teaching traditional values, such as tekio- community work. Villalobo sees indigenous people as a hope for the future and their capacity of strength in the assembly structure of organizing.



The State of Oaxaca is one of Mexico's richest in cultural and environmental diversity, yet it is economically one of the three poorest states in Mexico. The Mixteca region of northern Oaxaca is one of the hardest hit by poverty and environmental degradation with the highest migration rate in the state.


Veronica Ramirez Vicente with her child, Jaretzl, of Tres Lagunas, in the Mixteca region. There are not many children in Tres Lagunas- most people are over 60. The young leave to find work in the city or in the US.



Jesús Leon Santos goes over plans in the meeting room at CEDICAM (Center for the Integral Development of the Campesinos of the Mixteca Alta). Jesús pointed out, " there are a lot of good Mixteca farmers in Fresno." CEDICAM works against state sponsored government programs to privatize land- builds campesino schools that teach sustainable farming methods and encourages youth to see the opportunities in their home. Overall goals include food sovereignty and food security


CEDICAM carries the name ‘campesino’ (peasant or small farmer), not Indigenous in its name, even though the area is a primarily Indigenous area. Jesús said that they debated naming the organzation “campesino y indígena” but thought that it would imply a division into two groups. Instead, they went with the broader and more comprehensive label “campesino.” Jesús noted that academics tend to overstate the differences between campesinos and Indigenous. Nevertheless, with their milpas it is clear that farmers are following Indigenous practices.



Pedro Cruz, a campesino farmer in Tres Lagunas, explaing cover cropping, a sustainable farming method taught by CEDICAM.



Carlos Beas Torres of UCIZONI, (the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Isthmus Zone) points to the Northern part of Isthmus region of Oaxaca on a map of the Americas. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is the narrowest part of Mexico which historically has been a transhipment point between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean and currently is a focus of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a plan to bring new mega-projects to the Isthmus and privatize local resources. Torres describes the Isthmus region as experiencing a "new invasion of multinational megaprojects." UCIZONI is part of a Mesoamerican wide movement opposing PPP's huge infrastructure of dams, railroads and highways. Torres presents his opposition to these projects in terms of a global struggle against neoliberal capitalism that undermines local sovereignty. The government's goal to fund foreign capital projects does little for local sustainable projects.


A wind turbine energy project in development in La Venta on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. A Spanish company pays very low rents for the use of the land. UCIZONI and Community members are concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the windmills, especially on migratory bird populations and a lack of information and consultation with local community members.


Aleso Giron Carrasco of UCIZONI at a meeting with community members at La Venta. While UCIZONI received support from international environmental groups such as Greenpeace when they opposed a shrimp farm project, they receive no such support for their opposition to clean energy projects.


Members of La Ventosa Vive, a community organization fighting a proposed second stage of the wind turbine project at La Ventosa.



The Bénito Juárez dam, built in 1955, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, dammed the confluence of the Tequisistlan and Tehuantepec rivers in order to create a reservoir to irrigate the Isthmus. The dam flooded the town of Jalapa and its inhabitants were moved to the community’s current location, Santa María Jalapa de Marqués, in 1961. With the dam now at the end of its useful life span, the government is considering converting it into a hydro electric project.



Community meeting at Santa María Jalapa de Marqués. Fisherman, teachers, and farmers attend to listen to the discussion on how the proposed hydroelectric project may impact them.



Evangelico Mendoza, community member of Santa María Jalapa de Marqués. The community feels that they had received the short end of the deal with the first dam, and that the government had not fulfilled many of its promises. Their new lands were not nearly as fertile as the river bottom land that they had lost, and the government did not deliver on their promises of a new, modern town. Many former farmers turned to fishing in the new lake behind the dam. The group complained about a lack of consultation with the affected communities, that corrupt officials were the only ones who benefitted from the 1955 project.



Mareote? Mendez Barriga, former resident of Jalapa listens at the community meeting. Given the history of experience with the current dam, the community is naturally suspicious that the hydro-electric project will have more negative impacts on their lives. The government promises jobs with the project, but the community suspects that there will only be short-term unskilled labor while the dam is built and then a few engineers will remain to run it.



Armando Melindes, a campesino from the original Jalapa community, which has no access to the water from the Bénito Juárez dam. A dry summer means the agriculture cooperative he is part of has to turn to irrigation and faces costs of up to five thousand US dollars a month to pay the electrical company to pump water to their fields.




Available as a 66 page color book: 'A Particular Resistance': written by Marc Becker, photography by G.Meyer.
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