Radio Zapatista

Monthly report by the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (in English). In this report the Frayba shares with its listeners the worrisome situation of conflict between Tzeltal indigenous peoples from the ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón in the northern zone of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, the underlying economic interests, and the struggle for control of the tourism resort of Agua Azul and natural resources. We listen to a communiqué by the adherents to the Other Campaign from Bachajón.

Monthly report by the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (in Spanish). In this report the Frayba shares with its listeners the worrisome situation of conflict between Tzeltal indigenous peoples from the ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón in the northern zone of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, the underlying economic interests, and the struggle for control of the tourism resort of Agua Azul and natural resources. We listen to a communiqué by the adherents to the Other Campaign from Bachajón.

On Feb 2, prisoners in solidarity with the organization La Voz del Amate began a hunger strike to demand their freedom. The next day, prisoners in Cereso 5, members and supporters of La Voz del Amate and adherents to the Other Campaign began a fast and prayer for 36 hours, renewed on Feb 9. On Feb 3, 117 adherents to the other campaign from San Sebastián Bachajón were detained; two days later 107 were freed, remaining 10 prisoners of conscience.

In this program we interviewed relatives of political prisoners from Voz del Amate and in solidarity and adherents to the Other Campaign, in addition to interviews to compañeros from Bachajón and from Mitzitón during the road blocks to demand freedom for political prisoners. (More info below.)(Descarga aquí)  

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On Feb 5 and 6 more than 110 delegates and 44 communities and organizations participated in Mezcala, Jalisco, of the 13th meeting of the CNI, Center-Pacific Region, where autonomy was debated. In the three workgroups these questions were debated: what is autonomy; what have been the problems for exercising autonomy; autonomous proyects under way, and how is dispossession experienced in the communities. The Final Declaration gathers the results of the work and a list of denunciations that reflect what is happening to adherents to the Other Campaign throughout the country.

Declaration: (Descarga aquí)  

Closure (Cerilo Rodad Lopez from the Coca peoples of Mezcala, Jalisco): (Descarga aquí)  

Representatives from 44 indigenous communities share experiences in autonomy in their communities.

Representatives from Ejido Tila and members of Frayba gave a press conference on 8 Feb 2011 to share the current situtation on the defense of their land and territory. The dispossession of 130 hectares of ejido Tila, by the Chiapas state governor, the Congress of the State, Registro público de la propiedad y del comercio and the municipal government of Tila, will be analyzed by the Mexican Supreme Court. Because of this, the authorities of Tila will have an audience with the Minister Olga María del Carmen Sánchez Cordero on 8 Feb 2011 to argue on the importance of protecting the indigenous Ch’ol territory of Tila.

Communique: (Descarga aquí)  

Words  by a compañero: (Descarga aquí)  

Questions: (Descarga aquí)  

Interview with one of the authorities from Ejido Tila (by Frecuencia Libre 99.1):(Descarga aquí)  

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(Descarga aquí)  
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Today’s show is a difficult one. This past month—actually, within the course of a single week—Zapatistas, Other Campaign adherents and sympathizers around the world lost two extraordinary compañeros. John Ross, who passed away on January 17, was an author, poet, journalist, and activist who left his home in New York in 1957, following the Beat Trail to Mexico City.  John wrote extensively about the Zapatista struggle and Mexican politics, dividing his time mostly between Mexico City and San Francisco.  John personifies the kind of physical and mental migrations we hope to make in the best of worlds in our own attempts to define and practice a solidarity that goes beyond its conventional, privileged form. It moves beyond the global as something that’s always “over there,” to a way of imagining a politics that actively resists and undoes borders, creating community and encounter in all that we do…

Full intro is available on indybay.org.