OPDDIC REPRESSION AGAINST ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES OF CARACOL MORELIA MUNICIPIO OLGA ISABEL

Regeneración Pomona

To the independent media y La Otra del Otro Lado

Please disregard grammatical errors and the amateur tone of this urgent response to Caracol Morelia’s Junta de Buen Gobierno’s denouncement of recent repressions. I’ll leave it up to the more well-versed writers to provide a different analysis.

First, can somebody please read the recent Denouncement as it needs to be translated into English. It describes a recent paramilitary repression carried out by the OPDDIC against our Zapatista compas of Caracol Morelia, Municipio Olga Isabel who were shot at (one compa was wounded in the stomach) while taking measurements of recuperated lands that are autonomous Zapatista territory. Although must gun-shots from a variety of weapons were aimed towards the sky or at the ground the Zapatistas of the municipality Olga Isabel make it clear that these were direct attacks against their organization and which they refuse to tolerate.

These hostile aggressions are a direct result of Chiapas’ PRD Governor, Juan Sabines, a neoliberal tool of Proyecto Mesoamerica that includes a variety of mega infrastructural projects aimed to privatize and exploit the rich, natural resources of Southern Mexico and Central America. Such projects include: hydroelectric, eco-tourism, mega high-ways, and Canadian Mines that will not only destroy the flora and fauna of Chiapas and surrounding regions but will displace indigenous peoples, repress the Zapatista Movement, and other social movements.

The recent strategies include the use of trumped-up charges to illegally incarcerate political activists; the divide and conquer tactic of organizing paramilitary groups by giving hand-outs to non-zapatista communities i.e. OPDDIC to engage in counter-insurgency operations and armed threats. For example, these groups infiltrate Zapatista communities to see how they are organizing while instilling fear and terror. It is extremely important to mention these hostile paramilitary operations are directly being carried out by the Chiapas Governor, Juan Sabines (PRD), with the help of Felipe Calderon (PAN) in collaboration with recently approved funding of over $500 million by the U.S. for the so-called war against drugs and organized crime in Mexico and Central America.

Originally dubbed as Plan Mexico, it was renamed as the Merida Initiative in order to avoid negative criticisms related to Plan Colombia which has proven to be a failed mission in the U.S.'s so-called "war against drugs". In reality, drug trafficking has increased and so has the death toll of political activists in Colombia as a result of the U.S. so-called “War on Drugs” AKA Plan Colombia. Mexico's social movements, like that Zapatistas in Chiapas, los de abajo in Oaxaca and Atenco - just to name a few- are experiencing similar repression and increase in deaths, political prisoners and torture victims as Plan Mexico/Merida Initiative is further implemented.

The recent denuncia from the Junta de Buen Gobierno of Caracol Morelia illustrates these new strategies carried through a collaboration of local, state, national and international agencies and counter-insurgency operatives. Ultimately, this is how neoliberalism continues to pave the way for the global economic domination of so-called “Third World” nations.

In the case of Chiapas however, the Zapatistas continue to build their autonomy and grow not only in numbers but in consciousness throughout Chiapas, la Republica and the World.

No estan sol=s compas!

¡LA OTRA CAMPAÑA VA!