Report From March Delegation to Chiapas
Article written by Alex Rocklin and Rachel Wallis
This past march, the Chiapas Peace House Project organized its second
international human rights delegation, together with the Mexico
Solidarity Network. It was a smashing success. The eight day delegation
offered participants from the US and Canada a chance to meet with local
NGO's and human rights organizations, visit Zapatista communities,
learn more about the political situation in Chiapas, and express their
solidarity with the struggle of the people here. The delegation began with a crash course in the political and economic forces behind conflict in Chiapas. Representatives from the organization CAPISE gave an extensive presentation about their recent report on militarization here (for a summary of their findings, see the March Peace House newsletter). We also heard from CIEPAC and Tom Hanson of the Mexican Solidarity Network about how globalization and economic neoliberalism effect the situation on the ground here. In particular, they talked about how free trade agreements like NAFTA and the FTAA, combined with agricultural subsidies in the US, are driving small farmers off of the land in Mexico and forcing them to seek work either in sweatshops in Mexico or as migrant workers in the US. Finally, we met with representatives of the Network of Community Human Rights Defenders, an organization that trains representatives of autonomous communities in basic human rights law so they can record, denounce, and combat human rights v! iolations in their regions. The meeting with the Network was particularly powerful. As opposed to our meetings with the NGO's, which although interesting were still somewhat removed from the current situation here, it was people living in communities under military occupation and threatened by paramilitaries talking about their own lives and their communities. A representative from the community of Emiliano Zapata spoke of his communities struggle to reclaim their land from the military base occupying it, and how he had been threatened and his house had been set on fire because of his work with the Human Rights Defenders. Another defender, a woman of 17, explained her decision to become a Defender, and her desire to be a resource for women in her community.
The next morning the delegation finished its transition from theory to practice, when we got up at six in the morning and began our long journey into the Lacandon Jungle. Accompanied by a member of CAPISE, we were headed out of the mountains to the community of Nuevo San Isidro. Located in the Montes Azules Biological Reserve (see the February Newsletter for more background on Montes Azules and the Lacandon Jungle), Nuevo San Isidro is a recently settled community of Zapatista supporters, who left their home community in the highlands en mass several years ago to find land with which to support themselves. They live under constant threat of eviction from the military, the environmental protection agency and the Lacandon Indians working in coalition with the government. To reach the community after our six hour car ride, we shouldered our packs and jugs of water and walked through the scrubby growth next to the highway until we reached a cool, jade green river. Once there, we! whistled and waved until several women from the community rowed over in handmade canoes and ferried us across. The community is set on the riverbank, nestled among the tall jungle trees. The twenty-odd families live in wood huts with thatched roofs clustered together, with their milpa, or farmland, stretching out behind.
{mospagebreak}
Our time in the community was tranquil and slow. During the hot days we read, spoke to the women, swam in the river, and played with the children. In the evenings when the men returned from the milpa, we gathered in the center of the community to talk to them about their history and struggle. They spoke of the decision to leave the mountains and settle in the jungle, where they could find land to support their families. They laid out the history of harassment which began as soon as they settled: how last year a group of armed Lacandon Indians came to their community accompanied by government officials and threatened to drive them off the land, stealing cameras from international human rights observers, and threatening the nearby community of Nuevo San Rafael as well. They recounted how Nuevo San Rafael had been dislocated and then burned last year, and how the army patrols everyday in speedboats and low flying planes. They also explained that they aren't interested in the pr! omises that the government makes them, saying that if they agree to be resettled they will be given land. They know that these are lies, and that other communities have been fooled before. Finally they spoke of their commitment to Zapatismo, and how they hope to be recognized as an autonomous community in the future, and to receive the school access and medical care that they currently do without. The community visit gave the delegation a strong sense of what is at stake in people's real lives behind the distant talk of dislocations, land and militarization. We also witnessed firsthand the warmth, strength and determination of the people of Nuevo San Isidro. We were all sad to leave, but committed to helping the community in their fight to hold on to the homes and lives they had built.
Our trip back was a continued lesson in the state of low intensity warfare taking place in Chiapas. Our van was stopped repeatedly at military checkpoints, where officials searched our van, questioned us, and demanded (illegally) to see our passports.
{mospagebreak}
The next day we rose early once again, to visit another Zapatista community, the Caracol of Oventic. The difference between Oventic and Nuevo San Isidro was like the difference between night and day. Where as Nuevo San Isidro was a cluster of thatched huts and little else, Oventic is an ever growing miniature city of offices, paved roads, and street lights, with an autonomous boarding school, a media center, and a small hospital.
We were there to speak to the Junta de Buen Gobierno, or Good Government Council, the new system of autonomous government formed this past august. There are five Juntas in the state of Chiapas, which are made up of representatives from all of the Zapatista communities in their region (in the case of Oventic it is the highland region). Since the representatives are volunteers and receive nothing for their service, they cannot afford to spend all of their time at Oventic. The Junta therefore rotates every two weeks, with only five members in Oventic and the rest in their home communities tending their crops. The Junta acts as a central governing body for the entire region. They resolve inter-community disputes, review aid and development projects to insure they meet the needs of the communities, distribute donations to where they can be best used, and are generally available, five days a week, to meet with anyone who requests a meeting. We spoke to both the Junta itself, and a! lso the official welcoming committee. They recounted the history of the Zapatista struggle for us, explained the role and function of the Junta, and spoke about some of the recent harassment they have faced from the Mexican military, who have been entering communities under the pretext of searching for illegal drug plantations.
The Junta also laid out the three main needs of the communities in the highland: education, fair trade markets and health care. In Oventic, the secondary school is training education promoters for the autonomous schools across the region, but it is a costly process, both in terms of time and money, to build such an extensive, independent school system. Since the formation of the Juntas, a number of cooperatives have sprung up in the region. There are three women's artesania cooperatives, and two cooperatives that market fair trade coffee. All of these organizations have permission to export their products abroad, and are looking for just markets to sell them in, thereby bringing much needed funds back to projects in the community.
{mospagebreak}
We got the incredible opportunity to learn about the third need, health, first hand. Oventic is home to what can only be described as a small hospital. In our meeting with the hospital coordinators, we learned that the clinic provides not only basic medical care, but also dental care, ophthalmology, surgery, sonograms, urgent care, a laboratory, and a traditional medicine center. The hospital is staffed twenty-four hours a day, and also helps service eight micro-clinics in the region. Since the formation of the Juntas, it has been serving Zapatista community members without charging for consultations or medicine. Non-Zapatistas pay a small fee, but many still come to the clinic because it is better staffed and more affordable than the government facilities in the area. It sees an average of 20-30 patients a day. Providing free medical care comes at an incredibly high cost, however, and the clinic is desperately in need of medicine and funds. The Mexican Solidarity Network is! currently organizing a campaign to collect medicine to support the clinic. We will have more information on how you can get involved in the next newsletter.
All in all, the delegation was an incredible experience. It allowed a small group of people to support first hand the incredible project that is being built here in Chiapas, and to understand the struggle that the indigenous people here are fighting. We also had the pleasure of the presence of a journalist from the Canadian Broadcasting Company on the trip, and in a matter of weeks, she should be finishing a half-hour radio piece on the trip. As soon as we know when it will be on the air, we will let you know.
This past march, the Chiapas Peace House Project organized its second
international human rights delegation, together with the Mexico
Solidarity Network. It was a smashing success. The eight day delegation
offered participants from the US and Canada a chance to meet with local
NGO's and human rights organizations, visit Zapatista communities,
learn more about the political situation in Chiapas, and express their
solidarity with the struggle of the people here. The delegation began with a crash course in the political and economic forces behind conflict in Chiapas. Representatives from the organization CAPISE gave an extensive presentation about their recent report on militarization here (for a summary of their findings, see the March Peace House newsletter). We also heard from CIEPAC and Tom Hanson of the Mexican Solidarity Network about how globalization and economic neoliberalism effect the situation on the ground here. In particular, they talked about how free trade agreements like NAFTA and the FTAA, combined with agricultural subsidies in the US, are driving small farmers off of the land in Mexico and forcing them to seek work either in sweatshops in Mexico or as migrant workers in the US. Finally, we met with representatives of the Network of Community Human Rights Defenders, an organization that trains representatives of autonomous communities in basic human rights law so they can record, denounce, and combat human rights v! iolations in their regions. The meeting with the Network was particularly powerful. As opposed to our meetings with the NGO's, which although interesting were still somewhat removed from the current situation here, it was people living in communities under military occupation and threatened by paramilitaries talking about their own lives and their communities. A representative from the community of Emiliano Zapata spoke of his communities struggle to reclaim their land from the military base occupying it, and how he had been threatened and his house had been set on fire because of his work with the Human Rights Defenders. Another defender, a woman of 17, explained her decision to become a Defender, and her desire to be a resource for women in her community.
The next morning the delegation finished its transition from theory to practice, when we got up at six in the morning and began our long journey into the Lacandon Jungle. Accompanied by a member of CAPISE, we were headed out of the mountains to the community of Nuevo San Isidro. Located in the Montes Azules Biological Reserve (see the February Newsletter for more background on Montes Azules and the Lacandon Jungle), Nuevo San Isidro is a recently settled community of Zapatista supporters, who left their home community in the highlands en mass several years ago to find land with which to support themselves. They live under constant threat of eviction from the military, the environmental protection agency and the Lacandon Indians working in coalition with the government. To reach the community after our six hour car ride, we shouldered our packs and jugs of water and walked through the scrubby growth next to the highway until we reached a cool, jade green river. Once there, we! whistled and waved until several women from the community rowed over in handmade canoes and ferried us across. The community is set on the riverbank, nestled among the tall jungle trees. The twenty-odd families live in wood huts with thatched roofs clustered together, with their milpa, or farmland, stretching out behind.
{mospagebreak}
Our time in the community was tranquil and slow. During the hot days we read, spoke to the women, swam in the river, and played with the children. In the evenings when the men returned from the milpa, we gathered in the center of the community to talk to them about their history and struggle. They spoke of the decision to leave the mountains and settle in the jungle, where they could find land to support their families. They laid out the history of harassment which began as soon as they settled: how last year a group of armed Lacandon Indians came to their community accompanied by government officials and threatened to drive them off the land, stealing cameras from international human rights observers, and threatening the nearby community of Nuevo San Rafael as well. They recounted how Nuevo San Rafael had been dislocated and then burned last year, and how the army patrols everyday in speedboats and low flying planes. They also explained that they aren't interested in the pr! omises that the government makes them, saying that if they agree to be resettled they will be given land. They know that these are lies, and that other communities have been fooled before. Finally they spoke of their commitment to Zapatismo, and how they hope to be recognized as an autonomous community in the future, and to receive the school access and medical care that they currently do without. The community visit gave the delegation a strong sense of what is at stake in people's real lives behind the distant talk of dislocations, land and militarization. We also witnessed firsthand the warmth, strength and determination of the people of Nuevo San Isidro. We were all sad to leave, but committed to helping the community in their fight to hold on to the homes and lives they had built.
Our trip back was a continued lesson in the state of low intensity warfare taking place in Chiapas. Our van was stopped repeatedly at military checkpoints, where officials searched our van, questioned us, and demanded (illegally) to see our passports.
{mospagebreak}
The next day we rose early once again, to visit another Zapatista community, the Caracol of Oventic. The difference between Oventic and Nuevo San Isidro was like the difference between night and day. Where as Nuevo San Isidro was a cluster of thatched huts and little else, Oventic is an ever growing miniature city of offices, paved roads, and street lights, with an autonomous boarding school, a media center, and a small hospital.
We were there to speak to the Junta de Buen Gobierno, or Good Government Council, the new system of autonomous government formed this past august. There are five Juntas in the state of Chiapas, which are made up of representatives from all of the Zapatista communities in their region (in the case of Oventic it is the highland region). Since the representatives are volunteers and receive nothing for their service, they cannot afford to spend all of their time at Oventic. The Junta therefore rotates every two weeks, with only five members in Oventic and the rest in their home communities tending their crops. The Junta acts as a central governing body for the entire region. They resolve inter-community disputes, review aid and development projects to insure they meet the needs of the communities, distribute donations to where they can be best used, and are generally available, five days a week, to meet with anyone who requests a meeting. We spoke to both the Junta itself, and a! lso the official welcoming committee. They recounted the history of the Zapatista struggle for us, explained the role and function of the Junta, and spoke about some of the recent harassment they have faced from the Mexican military, who have been entering communities under the pretext of searching for illegal drug plantations.
The Junta also laid out the three main needs of the communities in the highland: education, fair trade markets and health care. In Oventic, the secondary school is training education promoters for the autonomous schools across the region, but it is a costly process, both in terms of time and money, to build such an extensive, independent school system. Since the formation of the Juntas, a number of cooperatives have sprung up in the region. There are three women's artesania cooperatives, and two cooperatives that market fair trade coffee. All of these organizations have permission to export their products abroad, and are looking for just markets to sell them in, thereby bringing much needed funds back to projects in the community.
{mospagebreak}
We got the incredible opportunity to learn about the third need, health, first hand. Oventic is home to what can only be described as a small hospital. In our meeting with the hospital coordinators, we learned that the clinic provides not only basic medical care, but also dental care, ophthalmology, surgery, sonograms, urgent care, a laboratory, and a traditional medicine center. The hospital is staffed twenty-four hours a day, and also helps service eight micro-clinics in the region. Since the formation of the Juntas, it has been serving Zapatista community members without charging for consultations or medicine. Non-Zapatistas pay a small fee, but many still come to the clinic because it is better staffed and more affordable than the government facilities in the area. It sees an average of 20-30 patients a day. Providing free medical care comes at an incredibly high cost, however, and the clinic is desperately in need of medicine and funds. The Mexican Solidarity Network is! currently organizing a campaign to collect medicine to support the clinic. We will have more information on how you can get involved in the next newsletter.
All in all, the delegation was an incredible experience. It allowed a small group of people to support first hand the incredible project that is being built here in Chiapas, and to understand the struggle that the indigenous people here are fighting. We also had the pleasure of the presence of a journalist from the Canadian Broadcasting Company on the trip, and in a matter of weeks, she should be finishing a half-hour radio piece on the trip. As soon as we know when it will be on the air, we will let you know.
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