1. Zapatistas Other Campaign - On November 1, in response to the EZLN’s call for roadblocks in protest of the repression in Oaxaca, the Other Campaign began the month by blocking the Lerdo International bridge at the Mexico/US border between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Protesters from both sides of the border participated as US helicopters circled above, flying low and violating Mexico’s air space. Roads throughout Chiapas were also blocked, including the Pan American Highway. Protest actions occurred throughout the world. While in Ciudad Juarez, Marcos again met with La Otra supporters from the US side of the border. More national and international protests in support of APPO occurred on November 20 and December 1.
The Other Campaign continued on through the states of Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, and Tamualipas. The first phase of the Other Campaign has now been completed and a national Encuentro of the Other Campaign has been called for in Chiapas
2. More Oaxaca Repression - During the last week of November, federal police began to crack down violently on the APPO protesters in Oaxaca, incarcerating and disappearing hundreds. Human rights violations, such as rape, torture, arbitrary detentions and illegal searches were rampant. Many of the APPO leaders have been detained and placed in maximum security prisons. Others detained have been sent to prisons out of state, thus depriving them of family visits as well as legal representation. Those sent to a Nayarit prison are still being held incommunicado. The violent repression ended the occupation of Oaxaca City. The university radio station has been returned to the university, which has reopened for classes and is no longer occupied by the APPO. Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of the APPO, was detained on November 4 and taken to La Palma, a maximum security prison where some leaders of the People’s Front in Defense of Land (Atenco) are also held. Despite this State Terrorism, the APPO released a communiqué from an unknown clandestine location in Oaxaca saying its state council was alive and well and functioning. A total of 17 have died in the Oaxaca protests.
3. Murder in Viejo Velasco, Chiapas - On November 13, an armed attack occurred against the indigenous community of Viejo Velasco, in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. At least four people died as a result, another 4 people are unaccounted for and 2 people have been detained. A tremendous amount of inaccurate information was published in both Spanish and English about the number of dead and the political affiliations of Viejo Velasco’s residents. The misinformation about the number of dead seems to be due to the fact that not all the bodies were found and, therefore, not all the missing could be classified as dead. The EZLN finally released a statement clarifying that those attacked were not Zapatistas. That clarification did not, of course, state the political affiliation of those attacked.
What has never been in dispute is who the attackers are. They are members of the Lacandon Community, recipients of a communal land grant to a group of Indigenous people whose origins are in dispute, but are known as Lacandons. Some Chol and Tzeltal folks were also included in this land grant after much protest. Among the group of attackers were armed men wearing uniforms. At least one human rights group identified them as members of Opddic, a group of PRI members organized and funded by local cattle ranchers. Following this incident, the Lacandons fled to several cities, including San Cristobal de las Casas, saying that they feared reprisals by the EZLN. Next, Opddic announced that it would no longer recognize the authority of the Good Government Juntas
and intended to take back vast quantities of land in 4 official Chiapas countries. This is an ominous sign for independent and Zapatista communities and the entire incident and its aftermath have the smell of a counterinsurgency move.
5. Calderon and AMLO “take office.” - On November 20, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) declared himself Mexico’s ‘legitimate president’ before a large crowd in Mexico City. On December 1, Felipe Calderon took the official oath of office in a secret midnight ceremony with outgoing president Vicente Fox. Later in the day, after a week of sleep-ins (pajama parties?) in the Congress, Calderon was sworn in before a Congress that engaged in fist fights and other actions protesting his presidency.
6. Schwarzenegger to Chiapas - While state officials are trying to locate the bodies in Viejo Velasco and Oaxacans are being tortured, disappeared and shuttled off to out-of-state prisons, the newly-re elected governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled to Mexico and the state of Chiapas to increase trade. California and Mexico are huge trading partners. As Mexico’s human rights record steadily worsens, one cannot help but wonder if this volume of trade is appropriate. Something seems wrong with this picture.
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Chiapas Support Committee
P.O. Box 3421
Oakland, CA 94609
Tel: (510) 654-9587
e-mail: cezmat@igc.org
www.chiapas-support.org
www.RadioZapatista.org
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