On July 26th the Caravan Paso a Paso Hacia la paz “Step by Step toward Peace..departed from the Guatamala-Mexico Border and traveled northwards to the Mexican state of Veracruz and then up to Mexico City. The Caravans objective was to bring attention to and to document the horrific realities of migrants who are migrating from Guatemala and Mexico to the U.S. In our next segment we talk to Alejandro Reyes of Radio Zapatista who was able to take part in this caravan. In the first part of this extensive interview Alejandro explains the objective of the caravan and tells the stories of many individuals and families he met on the caravan. In that latter part of this interview we explore the economic and political contexts that the caravan is bringing attention to.
Los días 12 y 13 de agosto de 2011, se estará realizando el Primer Foro Contracultural Retomando las voces, la organización y el arte en las calles en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. El evento se estará realizando en la “Casa de Arte Experimental EDELO” ubicada en Flavio A. Paniagua #10, Col. Centro.
In the voice of Jorge Luis Frayba member explains the information that organizations from Mexico and Central America shared with the Rapporteur on Migrant Workers in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Felipe Gonzalez.
In this report, we joined the students and workers in Santiago de Chile in the massive march on July 14, 2011, to hear the voices of the protesters in their struggle against neoliberalism and for the democratization of public education. We also spoke with an activist in Santiago about the history of the privatization of education to better understand what is happening in the current struggle in Chile.
Just a few days ago, on Thursday August 4, 2011, the student movement in Chile was brutally attacked by the neoliberal government of Sebastián Piñera. After nearly six weeks of protests, marches, and occupations of schools, the students once again took to the streets in a massive, unauthorized protest. In response to the escalating protests, President Piñera chose to apply a law put in place by former dictator Augusto Pinochet, which makes popular assembly illegal if it is not authorized by the government. Threatening the student activists, the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter stated that “the students will be held responsible for any deaths that result from the protests.”
The massive mobilizations throughout the country were met with violent repression by the thousands of police officers deployed to attack the protesters, and by the end of the day there were dozens wounded and 874 people had been arrested. Reports from Santiago announced that the city was under a state of siege, and the smell of tear gas had permeated the barrios. That night, neighbors took to the streets with the practice known as the “cacerolazo,” banging on pots and pans late into the night to show their support for the students and to denounce the violence. This practice became quite common during the nearly two decades of military dictatorship under Pinochet.
The following day, protests were held across Latin America and around the world, as rallies were held in front of Chilean embassies and Consulates in dozens of countries. And in Santiago, outside of the Memory Museum—a space dedicated to the collective memory of the state terrorism of Pinochet’s dictatorship—student installed the “Museum of Repression” with displays of items they had gathered during Thursday’s protests. Images circulated of a display of tear gas canisters, accompanied by a sign that reads: “Each canister costs approximately $250 dollars, and on this block alone we gathered more than 370 discarded canisters. You can draw your own conclusions.”
What follows is a segment produced by Radio Zapatista a few weeks ago, reporting from the July 14 march in Santiago de Chile. While it is now somewhat outdated, we want to air it because it gives a sense of the events that led to Thursday’s historic march and repression, and allows us to hear some of the voices of those who have been, and continue to, organize in defense of public education.
Interview with compañeros from the community of Nuevo Yibeljoj and with the directive committee of the Las Abejas Civil Association in Acteal, on their resistance to electricity prices and to the actions of the Federal Electricity Commission which cut the power to 10 families in resistance on 6th July 2011.
Interview on Flashpoints, Pacifica Radio, on the Caravan Paso a Paso Hacia la Paz (Step by Step Toward Peace), the migrant train from the southern Mexican border to the north and the violence suffered by Central American migrants through Mexico on their way to the US.
At the Home/Refuge for migrants known as “La 72” in Tenosique, Tabasco, at the border with Guatemala, activists, journalists, and migrants gathered to climb on “The Beast”, as they call the cargo train that transports hundreds of migrants every day on their way to the north. A few hours before the beginning of the trip, we listened to the words of various organizations who coordinated the Caravan Step by Step Toward Peace, an attempt by civil society to stop the violence committed against migrants in Mexico.
Frenemos el Holocausto – Pronouncement by Fray Tomás:(Descarga aquí)
Comité de Derechos Humanos de Tabasco (CODEHUTAB):(Descarga aquí)
At a press conference former prisoners of San Sebastian Bachajon Chiapas government hostage for over 5 months, talk of his release. The Frayba gives his word on this situation.
Interview to a compañero from San Sebastián Bachajón, who shares the news of the freedom of the last four political prisoners and the decision of the adherents to the Other Campaign to continue struggling for the defense of land and territory.
