Zapatismo News Update 9/9/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Tue, 9 Sep 1997 21:48:33 -0700 (PDT) Source: Joshua Paulson *ZAPATISMO NEWS UPDATE*--September 9, 1997 A service of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. Please redistribute. More information regarding the FZLN and the Zapatista struggle in Mexico can be found at: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln (English) http://spin.com.mx/~floresu/FZLN (Spanish) This and previous news updates can also be found at: http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/news.html Please send comments to: joshua@peak.org ____________________________________________________________________ NEWS SUMMARY FOR SEPTEMBER 1-8, 1997: 1. Zapatista March begins in San CristObal; 20,000 police mobilized in Mexico City 2. FZLN activist kidnapped by police in Mexico City 3. Briefs ____________________________________________________________________ ZAPATISTA MARCH BEGINS IN SAN CRISTOBAL The indigenous Zapatista march to Mexico City to demand the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Rights and Culture, an end to the militarization of indigenous regions of the country, and to participate in the Founding Congress of the Zapatista Front, began on the night of September 8th in San Cristobal de las Casas. The farewell ceremonies for the Zapatista delegation began with a march through the main streets of the city--most of which were blocked to traffic by sympathetic taxi drivers--by at least 15,000 ski-masked members or supporters of the EZLN who had gathered to bid farewell to the 1,111 participants in the Zapatista delegation, scheduled to arrive in Mexico City on September 12th. "We are going to seek peace with justice and dignity", declared one of the 12 EZLN comandantes present at the ceremony, "but let it be clear that if there is no solution to the demands of the Mexican people, and the San Andres Accords are not fulfilled, then we will be prepared to shed more blood". During the ceremony, the 12 EZLN commanders--Zebedeo, Emiliano, Carlos, Pedro, Lorenzo, German, Rosalia, Florentina, Yolanda, Rosa Maria, Hermelinda, and Patricia--handed over the representation of the Zapatista communities and leadership, symbolized by the Mexican flag and the flag of the EZLN, to Isaac, the Zapatista representative entrusted with leading the march. With respect to the Mexican flag, the comandantes said: "This is our flag, and it is loved and respected by all the men, women, children, and elderly, the bases of support, and the combatants of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation...it is the symbol which represents all of us who inhabit our homeland called Mexico. This is our flag, and it represents our desire to live and to be taken into account as the Mexicans we are". When handing over the Zapatista flag, they said: "This is our banner of struggle and rebellion. The flag with a black background, a red five-pointed star, and the letters 'EZLN'. The flag of black and red, which are the symbols of the pain and rebel dignity against a bad government which tried to forget us for so many years. The flag with a five-pointed star, which symbolizes the struggle for humanity. This is the flag of the Zapatistas. In it, are the blood and the death of our people. But also in it is the struggle, and the hope for justice, liberty, and democracy which all Mexicans deserve". The 1,111 delegates of the EZLN left San Cristobal shortly after midnight, and set course for Juchitan, in the state of Oaxaca, where they will spend the night of the 9th. Meanwhile, the EZLN announced in a pair of communiques what the program for its delegation would be upon arriving in Mexico City on the 12th, and until it leaves on the 17th: "September 12th. Xochimilco and the Zocalo of Mexico City. On the morning of this day, we will hold a political event in Xochimilco. Afterwards, we will leave toward the capital Zocalo. Here, we will carry out a demonstration with speakers from the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN. In front of the palace of the powerful, we will demand the fulfillment of the word given in San Andres, the demilitarization of the indigenous zones of the country, and a just and dignified place in Mexico for the indigenous peoples. "September 13th. Founding Congress of the FZLN. On this day, we will go to the Salon "Los Angeles" where the opening session of the Founding Congress of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation will be held. After an effort spanning 20 months, which began with the IV Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle in January of 1996, a new type of political organization is being born. Inspired by the Zapatista banners of not struggling for Power, but rather for a new relationship between those who govern and those who are governed, and the idea of "leading by obeying", the FZLN will be accompanied, from its birth, by the Zapatistas of the EZLN. "September 14th. Political Event with the National Indigenous Congress. Together with our sisters and brothers of the CNI, we will lay out the situation of Indigenous Mexico, its demands and its aspirations. "September 15th. Encounter with Civil Society in Cuicuilco. We invite all the unions, students, teachers, campesinos, colonos, indigenous peoples, men and women of faith, housewives, ecologists, NGOs, intellectuals, artists, social movements, gays and lesbians, brothers and sisters of other countries, and all those who wish to speak and listen with us, to an ENCOUNTER in which all of us will be able to speak our word. It will not be an event with a single planned ending, or for a single cause. It will be an encounter for everyone and a space to speak and demand, listen and see, for all who--like us, the Zapatistas--are not in agreement with the way things are, who feel that there is still hope, and who struggle for a better Mexico. For more information regarding this celebration of the word, contact Luis Hernandez Navarro, at 525-25-45. "September 16th. Closing Session of the FZLN Congress. We will be with our sisters and brothers of the FZLN in the closing ceremony of their Congress. We will celebrate Mexican Independence Day with a verbena and a dance in a location which has yet to be confirmed. "September 17th. Political Events with Social and Political Organizations, and Farewell Ceremony for the Zapatistas. In the morning, we will participate in a joint political event together with other social and political organizations. In the afternoon, we will prepare our odds and ends, and then in the evening will be the farewell event of the delegation of 1,111 Zapatistas, who will begin their return to the mountains of the Mexican Southeast at dawn on September 18th." In Mexico City, meanwhile, government officials are verbally "welcoming" the march, while their authorities are preparing a massive police and military operation for "security purposes" in preparation for the arrival of the Zapatistas. According to La Jornada, there will be at least 20,000 police officers--as well as elite, specialized police units and armed plainclothes officials--taking part in the operations, which began last week with helicopter surveillance flights over several areas of the Federal District, especially roadway entry points. The Secretary of Public Security (SSP) and the Mexican Army have also ordered constant surveillance over the marchers once they arrive, by way of "camaflouged cameras" placed in different "strategic locations" of the capital city, in addition to armed plainclothes officers who will be assigned to follow the march and identify possible leaders of the EZLN. Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones, general director of specialized police units in Mexico City, is also preparing to assign riot police and the elite groups known as the Zorros and the Jaguares to watch over the events; their actions will reportedly be coordinated by "specialists in military strategy". The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), for its part, quickly condemned the security preparations, calling them a "provocation", since the events scheduled in Mexico City between civil society and indigenous groups, including the EZLN, will be of a peaceful nature. On September 8th, Melquiades Rosas, one of the spokespersons of the CNI, called on the government to halt its mobilizations of police forces and intelligence gathering units, and instead to focus on questions of "health and hygiene" for the marchers. Rosas also called on the governors of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Morelos to provide guarantees of free transit for the rebel caravan. _________________________________________________________________ FZLN ACTIVIST KIDNAPPED BY POLICE IN MEXICO CITY On September 5th, Oscar Granados San Martin--an activist of the FZLN and member of one of the Civil Committee of Dialogue (CCD) in Mexico City--was kidnapped by presumed judicial police who intercepted his taxi in an unmarked car and small truck at 9:30pm at the corner of Insurgentes Sur and Periferico Sur in Mexico City. Granados San Martin was then taken by four men, who claimed to be police officers, to an unknown location where he was beaten, tortured, and interrogated, in order to extract a "confession" from him about belonging to an "armed Zapatista commando unit" which would supposedly be arriving in Mexico City this week with the indigenous march. Around midnight, he was finally freed by his captors after repeatedly insisting that he belonged to the FZLN--not the EZLN--and that the march to Mexico City was to be a peaceful one. The incident was denounced the following day by the Organizing Committee for the Founding Congress of the FZLN, which classified the kidnapping as a clear "provocation" on the part of the government, and expressed its concerns that this could be the beginning of a powerful government campaign designed to discredit the upcoming indigenous march and the Founding Congress of the FZLN, calling on the authorities to respect the constitutional rights of free transit and freedom of assembly. This is also only the latest in a series of harassment incidents against the FZLN in recent weeks, including a break-in and robbery at the Mexico City offices of the organization, as well as "home visits" by judicial police to organizers of the Founding Congress. Meanwhile, in spite of all the provocations, the preparations are continuing for the Founding Congress, scheduled to be held from September 13-16. According to the Organizing Committee, more than 4,000 people are already planning to attend, including observers from the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Australia. The presence has also been confirmed of at least 1,242 participants from 26 states in Mexico, in addition to the EZLN delegation. _________________________________________________________________ NEWS BRIEFS: NEW PARAMILITARY ORGANIZATION APPEARS IN CHIAPAS A new paramilitary counterinsurgency group has appeared in Chiapas. Calling itself the MIRA--Indigenous Revolutionary Anti-Zapatista Movement--the organization is apparently comprised of 500 to 600 sympathizers or militants of the ruling PRI party, and may be attempting to join together other paramilitary groups, such as the Chinchulines and Paz y Justicia, into one single paramilitary front. According to various accounts published last week in various Mexican newspapers, citing Mexican army officials as well as local community leaders, the MIRA has been operating for three or four months, primarily in the municipalities of Oxchuc, Huixtan, San Juan Cancuc, Altamirano, Ocosingo, Chilon, Chanal, and Sitala--all regions where the Zapatista movement is strong. Military intelligence reports suggest that the group's main function is to "counteract" the sympathy for the EZLN in the jungle region, highlands, and the north of Chiapas, and that the groups leaders are most likely former members of the Mexican Army, including possible desertors, as well as former town authorities from the PRI. However, the state government of Chiapas has since contradicted these reports, claiming that they will "not permit, in any moment or circumstance, the operation of armed groups outside of the law in Chiapas". ROCCATTI: MILITARIZATION IN CHIAPAS IS TO "FIGHT CRIME" The official Mexican human rights "ombudsman", Mireille Roccatti, stated on September 3rd that the militarization in the state of Chiapas "is due more to the increasing crime problem than to the social problems", referring specifically to the increase in "drug trafficking, drug-related arrests, and the decommission of drugs" in the state. Roccatti's comments were quickly and thoroughly condemned by a wide range of human rights organizations, among them Amnesty International, the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, the Mexican Academy of Human Rights, and the National Democratic Lawyers Association. "These are very grave declarations", signalled Morris Tidball-Binz, the regional coordinator for Amnesty International. "They contribute to a maintenance of impunity for acts of human rights violations committed in Chiapas by public security forces, backed up by the Mexican Army, and to a continuing lack of attention to social and economic problems". "It is not possible to avoid the fact that the presence of the Army in Chiapas is due to the Zapatista insurgency", added David Fernandez, president of the Miguel Agustin Pro Center (PRODH). "If this is not recognized, then we will be confusing social conflicts. If the insurgency is ranked on the same level as delinquency, then we are faced with a limited vision with respect to the reality in Chiapas. The truth is, this type of declaration is very worrisome, coming from who it comes from". 25,000 YOUTH ATTEND "ROCK FOR CHIAPAS" CONCERT AT THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY On September 4th, more than 25,000 young people packed themselves into the Olympic Stadium at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) for a rock concert benefitting the indigenous Zapatista communities of Chiapas. Each ticket cost 15 pesos and a kilogram of either rice or beans. When the concert was over, the organizers announced they had collected more than 15 metric tons of food, as well as 300,000 pesos, which will soon be sent to the Zapatista communities to help offset the effects of low-intensity warfare. _______________________________________________________________________ Primary sources for all news articles: La Jornada, Proceso, El Financiero, and Siglo 21. The primary responsibility for the content of this news page lies with its author, Joshua Paulson, and not necessarily with a commission, civil committee, or other dependency of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-09.12.97-01:26:55-25222