1. Escalating violence in Chiapas

Since the end of July, a new wave of violence has broken out in Chiapas, close or in the Lacandon Jungle and around the Montes Azules Biosphere. Five members of the civilian support base of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) have been killed and over 20 wounded in renewed conflicts involving local paramilitary groups. Several Zapatista communities have fled because of paramilitary violence, adding to the 12,000 people already displaced by ongoing violence in the state of Chiapas. The perpetrators of these latest crimes have not been brought to justice.

The government continues to spread the myth that "Indians are killing Indians over family squabbles", and while it is difficult to work out the exact details from varying reports on the incidents, there is no doubt that these assaults have been accompanied by the deployment of hundreds of additional Mexican soldiers throughout the "canyon" region and Lacandon
Jungle of Chiapas. On the surface these attacks are reported as random, "internal" or communal conflicts, but there is reason to fear that this latest wave of violence marks a new era of military and paramilitary activity, and is being used as a justification to re-militarise the autonomous zones.

In particular, tension has been growing in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve over the past months, with the Mexican government looking to relocate (forcibly or otherwise) approximately 28 communities located within the Reserve. Under the pretext of environmental conservation, military presence has increased heavily, and the Mexican Army has been assigned the new role of environmental supervision. Not coincidently, roughly half of the communities located within the Reserve are Zapatista-affiliated communities. According to a recent report by Global Exchange "Human Rights,
Biodiversity and Local Autonomy: The Case of Montes
Azules", the relocation effort would serve two purposes: 1) it would attack the heart of Zapatista communities, and 2) grease the wheels for the absolute exploitation of Montes Azules' prolific natural resources. See www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/mexico


2. Watered-down autonomy law upheld by Supreme Court

In a related move which privileges corporate ownership and profits over human rights protection, biodiversity conservation and the struggle for autonomy, the Mexican Supreme Court announced on September 6th 2002 that the watered-down reform law passed congress in May 2001 is now officially valid. The new law gutted a landmark agreement - the San Andres Accords - reached between the EZLN and the federal government six years ago. PRI and PAN legislators mutilated the proposed law by eliminating meaningful autonomy (now relegated to state congresses), the concept of territoriality that defines an Indian people, association of majority Indian municipalities into autonomous regions with
legal and political standing, and the collective ownership of the land and natural resources.

Over the past year, 330 majority indigenous municipalities and Indian organizations from the 11 states with the highest native populations in the Mexican union have appealed the constitutionality of the law, to no avail. In response, protestors in the main square in Mexico City laid out representations of 57 skulls symbolizing each of Mexico's Indian peoples, along with a cardboard coffin and funeral candles, to dramatize the deathblow to Indian rights. A young Mazahua woman set fire to a Judas, a traditional paper
mache figure, this one with an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Sam.

While the Zapatista commandantes have remained silent for the past 17 months since their march to Mexico City, the EZLN continues to demand 1) implementation of the original San Andres Accords, 2) liberation of all Zapatista political prisoners (five remain in prison in Tabasco and Queretaro after three were released in May 2002) and 3) demilitarization of 7 key bases in the conflict zone.

The Supreme Court decision is likely to contribute to the perception by indigenous groups that all legal and peaceful means to resolve the conflict have been exhausted. Perhaps the most likely scenario is that Indian activists will abandon the legal battle to embed the principles of San Andres in the Mexican constitution, and simply declare the extra-legal autonomy of the various indigenous nations. A
resolution passed by the National Indigenous Congress at a mammoth Michoacan gathering last year called for self-declarations of autonomy should the principles of the Accords be thwarted by congress.

In addition to 38 Zapatista autonomous municipalities in Chiapas, a handful of self-declared 'autonomias' continue to function in southern and central Mexico - the newest being San Salvador Atenco where machete-wielding Nahua farmers recently successfully fought off government expropriation of communal lands for a new international airport outside Mexico City. This struggle, which received broad support from 12 neighbouring communities and other sectors of civil
society, forced the government to cancel the project in August. Viva!

3. Resistance to Plan Puebla-Panama and Free Trade Area of the Americas

For some analysts, this conflict can be seen as a foreshadowing about what could happen with the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP). In recent months, popular opposition has grown faster than the Plan itself. In the states of Veracruz and Chiapas, and in Guatemala and Nicaragua, social and indigenous organizations based in the Mesoamerican region have united to voice their categorical rejection of the megaproject because it is considered functional to the strategic interests of the USA; and because the affected peoples have not been consulted, in spite of the strong social and environmental impacts it will have on them.

On Friday August 16th, a 15,000 strong demonstration against the PPP took place in San Cristobal de las Casas, where even the Bishop Felipe Arismendi declared, ìthe plan can only benefit business owners and foreigners and not those who really live in this region." In answer to critics, President Fox and the ex-coordinator of the Plan, Florencio Salazar, hinted that nothing will be done without consent of the region's inhabitants.

For more information on the PPP, see the Chiapaslink website News section, or the new booklet, "Plan Puebla-Panama: Corporate Globalization vs. Indigenous Empowerment in Southern Mexico and Central America". Email  acerca@sover.net for information on ordering copies.

Resistance is equally growing across the continent to the Free Trade Area of the Americas. At the end of October, there will be a meeting of 34 American countries in Quito, Ecuador, with the aim to finalize some key aspects of FTAA which, according to its architects, will come into force in 2005.

The FTAA means a subordination of Latin American countries to the interests of transnational corporations (TNCs) based in the USA. While Latin American countries will have to abolish all that is considered a "barrier to free trade" such as taxes on goods, subsidies, preference for national products by the governments, the USA insists on maintaining
their own subsidies and their own barriers. Also, Latin American countries will have to open every aspect to so called free market, which means selling natural resources to TNCs, privatising state companies, education, health institutions etc., with which the population will lose their right to access to education, health, fresh water and electricity, to mention a few. Another aspect of the FTAA is the flow of cheap agricultural products from the USA which are produced in big quantities with state subsidies and
often genetically manipulated, and could mean the end of small farmers in Latin America. Their populations will not only lose their food sovereignty, but also their food security as theyíll become totally dependent on imports from rich countries.

These are just a few aspects of the planned FTAA. For these reasons, social movements in all Latin American countries are totally opposed to this project that has been negotiated in secret for eight years and they are preparing for their protests in late October. There are plans to mobilise tens of thousands of farmers to oppose the Ministerial meeting in Quito, only a week after the Ecuadorian elections in which numerous social movements are also involved.

A call has been sent out worldwide for solidarity actions to coincide with the meeting and for the creation of communication groups in various countries to raise the issue within the mainstream and alternative media. There will be an active media group working in Quito that will be a contact point for daily news on the ground. See www.ecuador.indymedia.org for more information on getting involved.


4. Demonstrations and harassment in San Cristobal

On September 10th civil society groups from across the state took the streets of San Cristobal in Chiapas to protest the Supreme Court decision.

On that day and over the following week, a number of people working with local organisations have been stopped and interrogated on the streets, in their offices and in their homes by plain clothed men. In particular members of the "Coordinators of the Civil Society in Resistance" seem to have been targeted for intimidation and harassment. See
chiapas.indymedia.org for updates on the situation.

Protests have been voiced over the past month in Barcelona, Geneva, Paris, Madrid, Argentina, the Basque Country, Canada and the United States.


5. ACTION ideas

1.) Organise protests at Mexican Embassies/Consulates, and at offices/headquarters of companies investing in Chiapas.

2.) Write letters of support (ideally in Spanish) to the five remaining political prisoners:

FRANCISCO PEREZ VAZQUEZ (Tabasco)
ANGEL CONCEPCION PEREZ GUTIERREZ (Tabasco)
CARRILLO VAZQUEZ LOPEZ (Tabasco)
SERGIO GERONIMO SANCHEZ SAENZ (Queretaro)
ANSELMO ROBLES SANCHEZ (Queretaro)

Send to:
La Voz de Cerro Hueco,
Av Diego Duguelay 36c,
Barrio El Cerrillo,
San Cristobal de las Casas,
Chiapas, Mexico
Email: bajlum_vozcerrohueco @ hotmail.com

3.) Write to Vicente Fox and Pablo Salazar and express
your serious concern over:
a. the Mexican Supreme Court dismissal of more than 300 constitutional complaints against an Indigenous Rights Law, which does not reflect the original agreements developed in the San Andres Accords;
b. paramilitary violence against indigenous people, and the recent severe escalation of attacks;
c. the impunity of the perpetrators of brutal human rights violations against indigenous people; and
d. the continued, and fortified, military saturation of Chiapas.

Lic. Vicente Fox
Presidente de la Republica
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos
11850 Mexico, D. F., Mexico
Fax: (+52) 55 55 15 17 94
 http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/?P17

Lic. Pablo Salazar Mendiguchi'a
Gobernador del Estado de Chiapas
Palacio de Gobierno, 1er piso
Fax: (+52)-961-61-20917
 salazarp@prodigy.net.mx
 http://www.pablosalazar.org.mx

4. Go to Chiapas. The Zapatista communities are calling on the international community to send emergency human rights delegations to Chiapas. See www.chiapaslink.ukgateway.net for information and advice.

5. Spread the word about what is happening. If you have been to Chiapas recently, give talks and write articles about your experiences. Put on a film night about the Zapatista struggle.

6. Organise benefit events to raise money for local communities in Chiapas. As a result of the recent paramilitary violence and military occupation, several
indigenous communities have been forced from their communities, and lack both food and medicine. Local organizations are coordinating collections for food, medicine and clothing to be delivered to the newly displaced communities. If you would like to make a financial donation to support this process, please contact Global Exchange's Mexico program for more information. Email  mexico@globalexchange.org

THE SAN ANDRE'S ACCORDS ARE THE LAW THAT WE WANT TO SEE!

NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT ITS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES!

ZAPATISTA AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITIES LIVE!

PARAMILITARISM IS STATE TERRORISM!

TOTAL REJECTION OF THE PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA!

NO TO THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS!

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