Plague of rust affects 16% of coffee production*

Dear readers,
This bad news is of vital importance to many farmers in Mexico and Central America, including close partners of the Americas Program. The effort by Starbucks is a good gesture, but we have to place it in an overall context. Starbucks investment in Mexico is a mixed bag. First, they refused to give Mexican producers any priority in purchasing or Mexican consumers a broader range of national products to choose from, claiming that the mix of coffee sold throughout the world is decided at a global corporate headquarters level. They did however provide important training in quality control and selection for some of their Mexican partners. Our readers who donated know that Mexico  received a bag of producer-marketed coffee from an organization that has long been dear to us, CEPCO in Oaxaca.

Starbucks' shade-grown coffee project in Chiapas started as an alliance with Conservation International in an area where organized indigenous farmers have long been growing sustainable coffee. Although at the beginning the project supported the indigenous cooperative, it was characterized by top-down methods and later imposed a series of changes that undermined the collective. The relationship was not an easy one.

We will be following up on this in the near future. It may also be a contributing factor to the immigration surge. Please stay tuned--we will also send along ways to support the region's small coffee farmers.
Laura Carlsen

UNIÓN: The coffee production in Mexico in the last year fell 16.1 percent, due, among other factors, the presence of rust fungus , which has mainly affected the coffee growers in Chiapas, the largest producing area in the country.

In this regard, the CEO of Starbucks Mexico , Federico Tejad to announced the "All coffee planted" in support of the coffee communities of Chiapas.

Starbucks will donate Mexico producers requiring coffee renovation 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of coffee bags Shade Grown Mexico until December this year and are supported by the purchase of crop plants tolerant to the fungus rust.

CHIAPAS: FROM "COFFEE ROUTE" TO DISASTER

Sin Embargo
By: Emma Martinez Landeros
July 8, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation 

The failure of both the state and federal governments to address the epidemic in coffee regions in Chiapas will generate a drop of 50% of its production, produce more unemployment, and therefore, greater social conflict.

El Soconusco, Chiapas, July 8 (Sin Embargo). - Pablo Hernandez (72 years) is a small coffee producer, who every day, rain or shine, at 4am walks for 60 minutes until reaching Recibidero, where he works on three acres of land.

Since late 2011, Pablo lived one of the greatest tragedies of his life. It is now over a year when he began to notice that the leaves of some of his plantations began to fall rapidly and its backs were stained orange. Without stopping to think, he quickly concluded that it was rust. He could not save his crop, because today all plants are infected.

Since 2011 this pest has devastated coffee trees in Latin American countries, from Brazil to Mexico. It is a fungus that grows on the leaves and after they fall, the plant weakens and fails to produce future fruit. The infection spreads rapidly to other areas through packaging bags or by the dispersion of the rain and wind.

When talking about the best coffee beans in the world we rarely stop to think about the exact region where they are harvested, because we usually recognize them by their country of origin.

Mexico: Voices from 'Below and to the Left' Say it's the Time of Hope and Action for Movements

Written by Desinformémonos
Translation by Dorset Chiapas Solidarity Group
Upside Down World   

"History cannot be silenced. The roar of the silence of our Zapatista brothers and sisters has re-lit the fire of hope in even the most incredulous," the philosophers Fernanda Navarro and Luis Villoro said, in a message sent to the Third International Seminar of Reflection and Analysis, "Planet Earth: anti-systemic movements."

"After the silence they invite us, encourage us to walk the word, their word, to show what they have achieved resisting and building a world in which everything that has life is loved and respected, because it has heart," they said in an emotional greeting in the final moments of the seminar.

Framed by three communiques issued by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on the night of December 30 - one to civil society, one to the PRI and another to Louis H. Alvarez and the Panista government - the space for dialogue was developed at the premises of CIDECI-Unitierra, from December 30, 2012 to January 2, 2013. Certainly, the common reference point for attendees and speakers was the massive silent demonstration of the Zapatistas, held last December 21, the date on which they reappeared after more than a year of having no public actions.  Read more. 

The EZLN Announces Upcoming Meetings in its Territory

Written by Desinformémonos   
Translated for Upside Down World
February 4, 2013

They also announce the characteristics of those who will (and won’t) accompany its new initiatives

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) ended "a phase on the path" of the Sixth  Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and announced the start of its next political steps, which include upcoming meetings (encuentros) in its territory and the explicit selection of those who will accompany future initiatives, that will have as its main objective: "to be in direct contact with the Zapatista support bases in the way that, in my long and humble experience,  is the best: as students," said Subcomandante Marcos.

In this next phase, say the rebels from Chiapas, "we will endeavor to apply some of what we learned in the last seven years, and, yes, we will make changes in the pace and speed, but also in those who accompany us." And they warn that one of their "major flaws" is “we remember when and who was where, what they said, what they did, what they kept quiet, what they messed up, what they broke, what they wrote, what they erased. We recall calendars and geographies."  Read more. 

Unemployed Youth Are Fighters, Victims in Mexico Drug War

InSight Crime: By Geoffrey Ramsey. Reports that the number of unemployed youths in Mexico stands at 8 million and is set to rise are bad news for security, as this group makes up the majority of combatants and victims in the country's drug war.

Excelsior published a report saying that there are currently 8 million Mexicans aged 18 to 30 who are not in work or education -- known as “ni-nis” (so labeled because they neither study or work, "ni estudian ni trabajan"). This is equivalent to more than 20 percent of the age group, and is on the rise, according to the newspaper.

InSight Crime Analysis
The high level of youth unemployment in Mexico is not only a social problem but a factor driving violence and organized crime. Ni-nis are the main prey of drug trafficking organizations, making up the majority of victims of drug-related violence, and also serve as the pool from which they draw their workforce, commonly serving as the expendable foot soldiers of gangs and cartels. Crime pays; an enforcer for a large cartel can make nearly three times as much per month as the national average, as demonstrated by the story of six female adolescent Zetas-in-training captured last year. Read more.

The struggle for territory in San Sebastián Bachajón is once again met with repression

Desinformemonos: Americas Program Original Translation by David Feldman
See Spanish Original.

The indigenous peoples of San Sebastián Bachajón once again tried to exercise their rights over their territory by taking back the ticket booth at the Agua Azul waterfalls; the government’s response was the same as always: repression and paramilitaries.

Chiapas, México. This past June 19, members of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacondón Jungle (SDSL in Spanish) of the San Sebastián Bachajón Ejido (SSB) in Chiapas took back the Agua Azul Waterfalls ticket booth. The response from the government of Juan Sabines’ Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) was the same as always: a violent and repressive removal and a flagrant violation of the human and collective rights of the members of the San Sebastián Bachajón cooperative.

Taking back what is legitimately theirs, and solidarity with national demands
During the early morning of this past June 19, members of San Sebastián Bachajón, tired of suffering so much injustice, entered the “Agua Azul Waterfalls” complex to take back the ticket booth located at the entrance. As a native tzetzal village in the region, the booth rightfully and legitimately belongs to them, but Juan Sabines’ government in Chiapas took it from them on February 2, 2011. At the same time, the members set up a roadblock near Agua Azul, where they distributed flyers and demanded the release of three political prisoners from the San Sebastián Bachajón cooperative, as well as the immediate release of Alberto Patishtán Gómez and the Zapatista Francisco Sántiz López. This action took place within the framework of a disjointed national and international action called for June 19, with the goal of demanding the release of Alberto Patishtán Gómez—on the twelfth anniversary of his detention—and the rest of the political prisoners in the country.

One of the San Sebastián Bachajón cooperative’s spokespeople explained during the mobilization: “This current movement is part of a process that we are carrying out to take back a part of the cooperative’s land, which the government has been trying to violently strip us of since last February 2. And so we as organizations and members of the San Sebastián Bachajón cooperative want to retake this piece of land that Juan Sabines’ government wants to take away from us.

Mexico election diary: State-level pickups for the PRI

The Economist: ALL eyes are on Mexico’s presidential battle. But when voters go to the polls on July 1st they will elect 2,127 people to political office, from federal congressmen to local mayors. Among the most important are six governors, or seven if you include the head of the capital’s Federal District, whom we tend to describe as the mayor of Mexico City but who effectively has the powers of a governor.

Four of the seven contests look likely to result in no change of party control. The Federal District is all but certain to pass to Miguel Ángel Mancera, who was the attorney general under the current administration of Marcelo Ebrard. Alhough polls were looking a little uncertain last year, Mr Mancera now enjoys a huge lead according to most surveys, which suggest he could win about two-thirds of the vote. A win for Mr Mancera would mean another term for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which has held the capital since elections to the post were introduced in 1997. Read more.

2 political figures shot to death in Mexico

A state assembly candidate in the state of Guerrero and a PAN supporter in Chiapas have both been killed, marking the upcoming elections with violence. 

Associated Press: TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico -- A candidate for a state assembly seat was shot to death Monday in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, and a supporter of President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party died of a gunshot wound in the southern state of Chiapas, marring the campaign for Mexico's July 1 national elections with bloodshed. 

The presidential and state races had been peaceful until now. Read more.

Police accused of torturing two Indigenous members of the “Otra Campaña” in Chiapas

La Jornada: (Americas Program Original Translation) San Sebastián Bachajón, Chiapas: Antonio Estrada Estrada and Miguel Vázquez Deara, members of a Tzeltal ejido (communal agricultural plot) and the “Otra Campaña” (“Other Campaign”), found themselves in prison, suffering severe torture from the police and state judiciary, in order to force them to incriminate themselves as assailants.

Their stories were given to La Jornada by their families and uncover the practice of torture and set ups in Chiapas. Ejido representatives say that they are innocent and consider them “political prisoners” because their families “are very involved in the ‘Otra Campaña.’”

Vázquez Deara has been in the Ocosingo prison since last September and Antonio Estrada has been in the Playas de Catazajá prison since August. Antonio says that on August 7 he was arrested near his home by five hooded agents “and a commander” (as identified by their radio communications). “They covered me with a shirt, handcuffed me, and put me in their paddy wagon, face down, hands behind my back. They asked me if I was the one who had been attacking people and punched me in the ribs. They threatened to shoot me in the head, roll me in a mat, and throw me into a landfill.”

On the way to Palenque, they continued to beat him. There he was handed over to “the court,” his hood was removed, “and they immediately slapped me so I wouldn’t see the person, after which they blindfolded me very hard.” He has a 5cm scar in his nasal septum. “They put a bag over my head to suffocate me and I fainted.” They insisted on “a confession.” “When I woke up they put the bag over my head again. Later they put me in a bin full of water, pulled me out, and threw me on the floor where I hit the back of my head. I didn’t know if I’d recover or if I’d die.”

The officers warned him “that barely a quarter of the punishment had been delivered.” After “they covered my nose and mouth with a cloth, held my head back, and poured water on the cloth so when I breathed the water entered my nose and mouth. If I wanted to talk, they told me to move my head and say I was the assailant. I said no, and they continued their punishment. I felt death coming on. I signaled that I wanted to talk as they were hitting me in the head, and I managed to deny it still. The third I couldn’t stand.”

When interrogating him about his “accomplices,” Antonio mentioned Santiago and Pascual Gómez Moreno, from Xanil. “It’s well-known in my town that they attack people.” The police brought a search warrant to Santiago’s home. “They took me to Ocosingo” and then to Xanil. “They didn’t find it, they had been tipped off.”

They brought him to the sandbar to show them the location of the assaults. A few days earlier, one had occurred there. He started to deny the crime again. “They started punching me in the stomach and my ears and kicking my backside.” Bound hand and foot, he was blindfolded again and heard officers dragging a trunk into the middle of the road. “At that moment I didn’t realize it because of the blindfold, but when I saw the record, I saw the picture of a white RAM van with its doors open and the license plate covered in masking tape, making it seem like it was attacked; I don’t appear in the picture.” They planted a gun, two knives, and a ski mask.

Back in Palenque, they brought him before the Public Prosecutor (MP). “In the report, the MP and experts had already written a document. They didn’t let me make a statement, they just threatened me that if I didn’t sign they would hit me, so I signed the papers out of fear.”

By Hermann Bellinghausen

Translation by Michael Kane, Americas Program 

Intolerance in Chiapas and Oaxaca

La Jornada: (Original translation) It is not a new issue, but its resurgence is worrying. Cases of religious intolerance against evangelicals are occurring once again in Chiapas and Oaxaca, states with the highest portion of indigenous populations. Their persecutors are political and religious authorities. This is a dangerous partnership, because they do not value the freedom of belief and worship enacted by Benito Juárez, and indigenous man, on December 4, 1860.

According to the veteran reporter Isaín Mandujano, about one hundred families in the ejido (communal farm space) of Matamoros, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, were stripped of their land and animals and not allowed to bury their dead in the community cemetary because they publicly profess their religion to be other than that of Catholicism or Protestantism. He adds that about a thousand families’ lands were dispossessed and Catholics destroyed their fields and scattered their cattle (www.proceso.com.mx/?p=303135).

Those who have been stripped of their lands are indigenous Tzotil. They accuse Salomón Suárez Balcázar, president of the ejido, and local official Eduardo Belázquez Balcázar, of leading the hostilities against them. A delegation of the persecuted is in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the Chiapas capital, to demand the Secretariat for Religious Affairs fulfill its obligation to guarantee the free exercise of their beliefs by intervening and penalizing those who restrict that freedom. Will the authorities comply with those lawful obligations this time, or as in previous similar cases, lengthen the conflict?

In regards to Oaxaca, Elías Betanzos Luis, head of at least 400 congregations united by the Oaxaca Evangelical Unity Council, announced that 17 communities in the 415 municipalities which are governed by the system of laws and customs set up by the organization, have registered cases of serious religious intolerance (noted by Sofía Valdivia, Oaxaca a Diaro, 4/2).The Protestant leader explained that the higher incidences of intolerance against their coreligionists occurs in La Mixteca, the Sierra Norte, and now the coast.

The persecution against protestant indigenous populations is not widespread in the communities governed by custom. For the most part, as is clear from the testimony given by the leader of the Oaxaca Evangelical Unity Council, indigenous people of different faiths live together without aggression and respect the growing pluralization taking place in their villages. However, the number of cases in which evangelicals are harassed by threats of the closure of services, like water, or of expulsions should be more than enough to mobilize human rights organizations in order to demand respect for constitutional guarantees of those attacked. Or are the rights of indigenous evangelicals worth less?

It is time to abandon the habit of blaming the victims of persecution as the cause of their own suffering. The very conservative idea comfortably states that protestant Indians are the causes of their own misfortune, by converting to beliefs which differ from their traditional religion. This is deeply discriminatory and denies proper human rights to an important part of the Mexican population.

We can’t expect the conservative right to lift a finger to defend the freedom of belief for Protestant Indians. Their spirit and attitude of absolute submission to the will of the head of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI, of making religious minorities invisible was fully and shamelessly on display in the recent visit by the pope to our country. There is historical continuity there: yesterday they adamantly opposed the removal of catholicism as the official religion of the Mexican state. Today, now that they can’t reverse historical gains in the decolonization of Mexico, they push the government to return some of the privileges they held in the past.

The left would do well ideologically, culturally, and politically to resurrect the liberal leftists of the nineteenth century. They were strong advocates for freedom of religion. None more so than the native Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (born in Tixtla, Guerrero). He often wrote newspaper articles (beginning in 1869) documenting cases of intolerance against indigenous protestants.

Altamirano was present when San José de Gracia (Mesones 139) was first opened up to Protestant worship. On April 23, 1871, Manuel Aguas, a former Dominican turned evangelical Christian, preached there. According to his account, the 1500 seats were not enough to accommodate the crowd that gathered to see the event. He said that the audience was composed of all classes, ages, and sexes: men, women, artisans, many indigenous people; everyone was gathered in a sense of true brotherhood, in the spirit of the Gospel (El Federalista, April 24, 1871, p.3). Indigenous people have played a historic role in the development of Protestantism on Mexican soil.

Why is the left hedging the right of Indians to exercise freedom of conscience and stigmatizing them when they choose an option other than Roman Catholicism? Spanish original

By: Carlos Martinez Garcia

Translation by Michael Kane, Americas Program

Drug War: South Mexico Land Conflict Aggravated by Drug Gangs

InSight Crime: "A land conflict in southern Mexico is heating up, with the danger heightened by the prospect of intervention by drug trafficking groups and illegal logging interests.

The Chimalapas rainforest, located on the border between the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, is the largest tract of tropical rainforest in Mexico. Its 2,300 square miles are home to a wealth of natural resources, as well as a large percentage of the country’s biodiversity. However, it is also home to a decades-old land conflict, one that could get worse as criminal activity increases in the region." read more

MexicoBlog Editorial: Reflections on the Caravan to the South of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity

A U.S. friend recently wrote in response to seeing the photo album of the Caravan to the South of Mexico organized by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, led by the poet and social critic, Javier Sicilia. He had a number of questions about the Caravan and its outcomes: Do you think the tour achieved what it wanted to achieve? Do you think the tour had any affect on the Government? Did the Government acknowledge the tour at all? Here is our response: 

Dear Friend,

I thank you for your questions. They give me an opportunity to organize and reflect on my own observations and learnings from my experience with the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and its September Caravan to the South of Mexico.

The primary intent of the Caravan to the South, as I experienced and observed it along the way, was to expand the Movement, making it truly national in scope by connecting it with local organizations throughout the south of Mexico. Together with the prevous Caravan to the North in June, it was weaving a web of connections and activist alliances across all of Mexico, something that I understand to be rare in the country.

The Caravan to the North, which I didn't go on, was more focused on the destruction done by the drug war, since that is more concentrated in the north. It became known as "the Caravan of Consolation," because the testimony of victims, people who had lost family in the drug war, became the central dynamic of its rallies. Also, there are active drug war opposition groups in Ciudad Juarez and there were--and continue to be--differences over goals and strategy between these more militant groups and the Sicilia Movement. The Juarez group, whose city has been most brutally affected by the war and the Mexican army and federal police, want both forces withdrawn, which is now actually happening.

Groups with other agendas attached themselves to the Caravan from its beginning. For example, for over two years, the Mexican Electricans Union in Mexico City has been protesting Calderon's take-over of the government-run electric company in the center of the city, with plans to privatize it. The union had representatives on the northern Caravan and on the southern one. There was a big group present in the Zocalo square when we returned to Mexico City. 

The green and yellow flags are those of the Electricians Union.

A big question for the Movement has been how to balance the focus on the drug war--especially on the victims, including Sicilia himself, who are the major emotional force driving the Movement--while expanding and welcoming other groups protesting other aspects of Mexican government corruption, impunity and abuse of rights. Sicilia places the anti-drug war movement in this larger context of the government's failure to fulfill its responsibility to protect its citizens. For example, the Movement is calling for a citizen focused "public security law" in place of the miltary oriented one that Calderon has presented to Congress and which is currently being debated there.

Sicilia is a poet, Christian mystic and pacifist, influenced by Gandhi, who seeks to confront his opponents with the truth spoken in love. He sees the person and teachings of Jesus as a model, referring often to the words of Jesus about loving one's enemies. He literally embraces and kisses government representatives as well as compañeros in the Movement. Therefore, he has sought and attended a series of "dialogue" meetings with Calderon and other government leaders to address the security law, create a truth commission to investigate drug war deaths (which almost totally go without real investigation), gain compensation and support for victims and other goals .

Javier Sicilia

However, in the last dialogue meeting, Friday. Oct. 14, Calderon basically stonewalled the Movement people, saying that he is sticking to his guns, literally, and rejecting creation of a truth commission. Instead, Calderon recently unilaterally announced the creation of a Social Care Office for Victims of Crime to "unite and structure all the actions currently being taken on behalf of the victims." The Movement questions whether this will be any more effective than the already ineffective government efforts. I don't know, as of now, how the Movement will proceed regarding further dialogues.

As for government awareness of the Caravan, we were accompanied throughout the trip by federal police. State and local police accompanied the Caravan through their respective jurisdictions. However, interestingly, the federales and state police disappeared in Tabasco and Sicilia's car was actually accosted by masked men near Villahermosa. The press was present and began filming them, so they disappeared without incident. Sicilia notified the federal government and the next day, going through Veracruz, there were federales all over the place.

On the Caravan to the South, each stop was organized by local groups. They organized the marches and rallys. They also provided food--lots of tortas (sandwiches of ham and American cheese and mayonaise on rolls), tamales of various kinds--some exceptionally delicious, frijoles (beans) and lots of coffee, fresh fruit and water. They also provided a place to sleep, usually the floor of an auditorium, community center, church or school, with toilet facilities of various levels of serviceabililty.

These local groups have a great variety of political purposes, depending on the local situation. For example, in Acapulco, where there are many deaths from the cartels, there were local "victims," relatives of people killed or missing, who spoke. But there were also indigenous people protesting seizures of their land, a long-standing issue in Mexico.

Indigenous group from the mountains of Guererro State

In Xalapa, Veracruz, there have also been many deaths due to the drug war, so that was the focus.

Pretty much everywhere, there were protests against local and state government corruption, either as part of the drug war or in general, as in Villahermosa, Tabasco State. In Villahermosa, there was also an indigenous group protesting a dam that had caused flooding of their lands. In Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, another indigenous group was protesting a Canadian factory that processes gypsum and pollutes their village with its powder. 

"We are up to the mother (we've had it) with those that inundate us!"

In Oaxaca and Chiapas, where there has been little direct drug war mayhem, indigenous groups were predominant. Sicilia has been carrying on a public exchange of letters with Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas in Chiapas about their differing views of political reform--pacifist vs. militant. So he and other Movement representatives sought and obtained a meeting with the Zapatistas (Subcomandante Marcos did not attend) and with a pacifist group that suppports the Zapatista reforms, called "the Abejas," the Bees, forty-five of whose members had been massacred in Acteal in 1997. 

"The war in Chiapas isn't against the narco, it is against the indigenous Zapatista pueblos"

Near the Guatemala border, migrant support groups were predominant. One in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, led by Father Alejandro Solalinde, is frequently written about in the U.S. press. We spent the night hosted by the shelter there.

Migrant Shelter of Ixtepec

So just about every grassroots issue in southern Mexico was represented. One group, I forget where, was carrying red communist flags with the hammer and sickle. It was quite an education to see all this diversity of political movements. 

Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata live!

Evidently, all of them were attracted to the Caravan because they see it--and the charismatic power of Javier Sicilia's leadership and consequent media attention--as a means to bring visibility to their causes, both in their local press and nationally. There was much coverage in the local press of each state and more than a hundred press on the Caravan buses. 

These journalists were mostly from the "alternative" and "independent" media, twenty-somethings from Mexico, other Latin American countries, the U.S. and Europe. They, as well as many of the younger compañeros, wore long hair, earrings, tatoos and sandals. I actually felt right at home, as if  I were back in the sixties protesting for civil rights or against the Vietnam War. 

Movement for Peace with Justice: Caravan to the South of Mexico - a Photo Album

The Caravan to the South of Mexico took place from Sept. 9 to 19, 2011. It was organized by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which seeks to end the Mexican government's use of Mexican armed forces to fight the drug cartels. This strategy has led to further violence and the deaths and disappearances of innocent people.

The Movement and the Caravan are led by Javier Sicila, a Mexican poet whose son was killed in Cuernavaca by a cartel in March of this year.

The Caravan features powerful testimonies of women and men who have lost family members to the war.

In June, the Caravan traveled to the northern states most affected by the war. The second Caravan's thirteen buses and many cars traveled for eleven days and 1800 miles through the southern states of Morelos, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz and Puebla.

Local citizen groups in each state, whose focuses - in addition to the drug war - are on issues such as migration, repression of indigenous communites and government corruption, joined the Caravan's marches at its numerous stops and sought its support.

The link below leads to a photo album of highlights of the Caravan.

photo album

Human Rights: Former President Zedillo Sued For 1997 Acteal Massacre

Latin American Dispatch: "Family members and survivors of the 1997 attack in the Mexican state of Chiapas that killed 45 indigenous people sued former President Ernesto Zedillo for his alleged complicity in the massacre.

The 53-page lawsuit (filed in Connecticut, where Zedillo now lives) obtained by CNN states that the massacre in the village of Acteal was part of an alleged plan called Chiapas 94, which hoped to bring an end to the insurgency of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in southern Mexico. The slaughter occurred on December 22, 1997 when a group of men entered the village and killed 45 people, including weapon and children."

read more

Human Rights Report Released Amid Growing Violence in Chiapas

The International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights delivered its Report on Human Rights at a press conference in San Cristobal de la Casas, Chiapas Sunday then presented the report in the Zapatista “Good Government Boards” that govern on a rotating basis in five regions. The report is the result of an intense fact-finding mission carried out from January 30 to February 20 of this year by a volunteer group of 50 people, including this writer, and the sixth visit of the Commission since it began its work following the Acteal massacre on Dec. 22, 1997.

The 484-page report documents serious human rights violations in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and San Salvador Atenco in the State of Mexico. After conducting 275 interviews with over six hundred people--including victims of human rights violations, government officials and human rights groups--the Commission ratifies its conclusion that “the human rights situation in Mexico is extremely critical.” Moreover, it states, the pattern of violation and the lack of response from state and federal governments or the justice system constitutes “an authentic state policy.”

The report calls on the government to conform to international human rights agreements and actively prosecute violators that form part of the government and official security forces. In press conferences in Mexico City and Chiapas, human rights groups praised the report as a major contribution toward ending impunity. However, in its return visit, the Commission noted with concern that since the time of the report, not only has little progress been made on documented cases (with the exception of the release of some political prisoners in Chiapas and Oaxaca), new cases have been reported in Chiapas and Oaxaca. 

The five of us charged with presenting the report throughout the state have received documentation regarding military incursions, harassment from paramilitary groups, and arbitrary detentions in Zapatista base communities. Conflicts over land continue to be a common theme throughout the state, as legal structures to recognize post-insurrection occupations have been insufficient in granting clear rights and protections to Zapatista communities and competing groups have spearheaded offensives to gain control of Zapatista territory. 

Members of the group also met with Governor Juan Sabines, who announced that the state would purchase the land where the Morelia Caracol is located to defuse a conflict there. The Commission requested a review of the case of 16 political prisoners and visited two prisons where prisoner organizations have staged sit-ins and hunger strikes to protest torture, human rights violations and to call for a review of their cases.

While on the road between indigenous communities, we witnessed the heavy military presence as we passed truckloads of soldiers deployed in the area north of San Cristobal. The report mentions “A major strategy of the current government has been to reinforce the role of the Army in persecuting crimes of drug-trafficking, arms-running and border control. In Chiapas, these reasons have been used to justify its continued and disproportional presence at a time when the armed insurgency has long ceased to be a justification.” In some places, this has led to concrete violations of human rights and in others a source of harassment and intimidation.

To read the report and press releases of the Commission, go to http://cciodh.pangea.org. 

For the conclusions in English, see http://cciodh.pangea.org/?q=es/node/207 

People from all over the world have signed on to the conclusions to emphasize the urgency of the situation and call on the government to respond to the recommendations for prevention, investigations, prosecution and reparations to victims. 

To sign on to the conclusions, http://cciodh.pangea.org/firma_conclusiones_6_cciodh.htm
To contact the commission, cciodh@pangea.org
photo: SIPAZ

Human Rights Situation in Mexico "Extremely Critical"

Today the International Civil Commission on Human Rights presented its conclusions, following an intense fact-finding mission in parts of Mexico. The document was a harsh indictment of President Felipe Calderón's government and state and local governments for what the Commission calls the "extremely critical" situation of human rights in Mexico.

The Commission's work bears close examination because it is based not on rhetoric or officially arranged tours, but more than 280 carefully documented interviews with a wide range of victims, their family members, grassroots organizations, human rights groups and government officials. This often heart-breaking reservoir of material forms the basis for its preliminary conclusions and recommendations and the more detailed report that will follow.

I was commissioned as a member of the delegation and assisted with interviews in the Lacandon Jungle in Chiapas, in Oaxaca City and in Mexico City. While the report (available in Spanish at http://cciodh.pangea.org/, English coming up soon) is strong stuff, it can´t compare to the experience of actually listening to individuals who have been beaten and terrorized--like the men and women rounded up during the police crackdown in Oaxaca on November 25, 2006, or Zapatista sympathizers hounded by paramilitary groups. Nor can the words on the page convey the power of the tears on the cheek of a daughter whose father has been imprisoned, killed or disappeared.

I came back deeply dismayed. Although I had been at least somewhat prepared for what we´d find, the impact of the personal contact and the sheer number of violations reported provided a grimmer perspective than I´d expected.

Over the course of three weeks, the Commission examined the situation in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Mexico. This visit was the sixth since the Commission was founded following the massacre of indigenous people in Acteal, Chiapas on December 22, 1997. Although it was intended to follow-up on previous investigations, the delegates heard scores of testimonies regarding new cases from 2007.

The testimonies of human rights violations were charged with fear, grief and indignation. It rapidly became clear that despite the government´s claims that the crisis is over in Oaxaca and that the conflict in Chiapas has been resolved, not only are both states embroiled in endemic violence, but the violence follows patterns that involve the active participation or at the least the complicity of governments and police forces. This pattern of human rights abuses, the Commission concludes, constitutes a conscious government policy. Practices such as arbitrary arrests of members of social movements are often justified by inventing false evidence for crimes of robbery, sexual aggression or even murder. The logic is to "criminalize members of social movements, thereby also avoiding that they be categorized as political prisoners."

The Commission's investigation and preliminary conclusions provide a wealth of information for analyzing what's really happening on the ground in Mexico. The more active role of the military, increased paramilitary activity and selective violence by police forces combine to create environments where the violation of human rights is commonplace. After the violations have occured they are compounded by a justice system that fails to punish the guilty, especiallywhen on the side of the state, and confuses impunity with keeping the peace.

We´ll talk more about the human rights situation in Mexico and the findings of the VI Commission in later blogs, and in articles on the webpage http://www.americaspolicy.org/. The work of the 51 Commission members deserves a broad airing and the situation they report should be widely known. Mexico is at a critical point at which it can continue down this road of stomping out dissidence and refusing to recognize injustices of the past, or it can reverse the present course and institute firm practices and institutions for the respect of human rights as a top priority.

Here's a video from the commission's interview of political prisoner Flavio Sosa: