by Miguel Pickard

The development of large infrastructure projects by Mexico’s federal government and the Chiapas state government continues to advance — rapidly where no organized opposition exists and stealthily where it does. These projects are part of the Meso-America Project (formerly known as the PPP or Plan Puebla Panama).[1] Currently the two most important mega-projects in Chiapas are (1) the Sustainable Rural Cities Project[2] (SRC) and (2) the large infrastructure projects designed to turn Chiapas into a “second Cancún” for tourism and, at the same time, an important participant in the lucrative carbon-credit trading market.

The second Sustainable Rural City in Chiapas will soon be launched in Santiago el Pinar[3] before a gala audience including President Calderón, Governor Sabines, and their respective entourages. The multi-million-dollar Sustainable Rural Cities Program could be described as a genocidal “cold war” led by Governor Sabines against the thousand-year-old rural and indigenous cultures, given its intent to clear the countryside of rural peoples, many of them indigenous, and destroy their way of life and means of production rooted in the land that many have held for centuries.

Claiming to have found “the reason behind poverty” in the “dispersion” of rural peoples in small and relatively isolated villages, the Chiapas state government has pressured rural and indigenous people to sell or turn over their land in order to relocate and concentrate them in newly built Rural Cities,. This social-engineering project was conceived mainly to benefit large corporations, which will profit from the “freed up” land. Rural families will find themselves living on tiny plots on street after street of identical houses, in a scene reminiscent of suburban sprawl in the United States. In this setting, they will be uprooted from their traditional lifestyles based on forms of production that are ecologically sound, and thrust into a capitalist economy, where they will have to meet all of their needs, including the acquisition of basic foods, through purchase in the market. They will be hostage to the meager salaries that some — a few — will receive in exchange for their labor in agricultural projects or in maquiladoras that are being built on land near the Rural Cities. The indigenous peoples’ loss of autonomy will have begun and, over time, it will be total. (Listen to the Special Report by Radio Zapatista.)

Another key project in Chiapas is the construction of a new 173 km [109 mile] toll road that will link the tourist sites of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Palenque, current magnets for domestic and international visitors. The toll road is the backbone of a comprehensive tourism project (disguised as ecological tourism) that, in the words of Governor Sabines, will make Chiapas “the second Cancún.”

Upon signing the National Tourism Agreement on February 28, 2011with entrepreneurs from the tourism industry, Calderón committed Mexico to becoming the world’s fifth largest tourism destination by 2018. According to Calderón, the agreement will “increase [Mexico’s] connectivity” by land, sea and air to facilitate tourists’ “arrival, travel and departure” along the main sightseeing routes. This implies “speeding up…construction of…ports and highways.” Fittingly, 2011 was declared the “Year of Tourism.”[4]

In 2009, the construction of the toll road between San Cristóbal and Palenque was stopped by mobilized groups of indigenous peoples resisting the plunder and destruction of their lands that would inevitably result from the project. Resistance by the traditional landholders and members of the Zapatista-inspired “The Other Campaign” has been centered in the communities of Mitzitón, some 15 km [10 miles] from San Cristóbal, and in San Sebastián Bachajón, municipality of Chilón, some 70 km [43.5 miles] from Palenque.

Sites of special importance to the construction of the toll road are Mitzitón, which has been designated “Kilometer Zero,” or the starting point for the toll road, and San Sebastián Bachajón, which abuts the tourism sites of Agua Azul and Bolom Ajaw.[5] In 2009, the federal government disseminated plans showing that the route of the toll road would run through traditional landholdings in Bachajón and Zapatista landholdings in Bolom Ajaw.

Given the mobilizations by organized opposition groups to the toll road, the federal and state governments, starting in 2009, decided to push forward on other fronts. Federal authorities have moved rapidly to improve the access highway to the toll road – that is, the 15 km stretch of land between San Cristóbal and Mitzitón – by adding and widening lanes and building bridges designed to handle continually increasing volumes of traffic. This work is also particularly valuable to important neighbors of the road, since the wide stretch of asphalt and sturdy overpasses will improve mobility for troops and tanks from the nearby Rancho Nuevo military base.

While the federal government levels the roadway, the state government has taken on the task of “leveling” the organized groups opposing the incursion of the road. The harassment of opposition groups in Mitzitón and Bachajón has been constant for the last several years, but conflicts have intensified in the last few weeks. In Mitzitón, this was the result of the presence of armed young evangelicals, the so-called Army of God (Ejército de Dios), the shock troops of the Eagle’s Wings (Alas de Aguila) evangelical church, which reputedly has close ties to the state government. These paramilitaries have frequently attacked the majority Catholic group in Mitzitón, mostly members of The Other Campaign, who have opposed the construction of toll road on their lands, with the consequent destruction of forests, aquifers and farm land.

In Bachajón, the state government has reverted to the old tactic of wearing down the community through the arbitrary mass arrests of residents, forcing it to divert time, energy and resources into mobilizing for their release. On February 3, 2011, 117 Bachajón landholders, participants in The Other Campaign, were arrested and arraigned on charges of killing a PRI party member in a skirmish the previous day, even though only the PRI forces carried firearms. Most of the 117 were released shortly thereafter, but 10 people remain in Playas de Catazajá prison.[6] The confrontation occurred after a PRI group violently took possession of a toll booth at the entrance to the Agua Azul recreation area that was in the hands of members of The Other Campaign, because the latter had committed an intolerable act: they had begun building an ecotourism center to be run not by the government but by the local inhabitants. In the skirmish, PRI partisans destroyed the toll booth and stole building materials, including wheelbarrows, several tons of cement and assorted tools.

As one Bachajón landholder said (hear the complete interview):

What the government is doing now is jailing those who lead the movement. As an organization we are the government’s worst enemy […] because it doesn’t want us to defend what is rightfully ours […] we know the government wants [to use] violent means to seize our ecotourism center.

People in other parts of Chiapas who have demonstrated their solidarity with the groups in Bachajón and Mitzitón have suffered similar fates of repression and detention. This was the case on February 17, when people were arrested for taking part in an act of civil disobedience by intermittently blocking the Pacific Coast highway near the town of Pijijiapan. After the blockade was lifted, the state police detained 19 people of the Coast Regional Autonomous Council (also part of The Other Campaign). Sixteen were freed after a few hours, but lawyers from the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center were arraigned on charges of “rioting” and inciting violence. The lawyers say that they came to the blockade merely as observers to record possible human rights violations by authorities.

In trying to discern the “logic” of state violence, analysts have noted that acts of civil disobedience seem to be a tipping point for repression. For the government, protest actions by common citizens who break laws in order to defend collective, civil and human rights are intolerable. While this remains the case, it is now evident that the state government will also resort to repression against organized groups when their protests slow down the advance of public or public/private infrastructure projects. Whether it uses a carrot or a stick, the objective is the same: to wear down and defeat opposition groups. When dialogue or negotiations fail, the government can always use the militarized police or paramilitary groups such as “God’s Army” to repress opposition through incarcerations, harassment, or intimidation.

This is the “logic” or strategy behind the marked increase in recent weeks in repression against members of The Other Campaign in Chiapas. This repression is calculated to wear out groups resisting the Meso-American Project’s mega-infrastructure works, not only because they oppose the neoliberal privatization and commodification of everything, but also because they propose alternative, non-capitalist forms of government, education, health, and employment. This is especially the case in the Zapatista and other communities, such as Mitzitón or Bachajón, linked to The Other Campaign, which are actually working to make these alternatives reality.

Calderón and Sabines have less than two years left in their terms to achieve significant advances in the mega-projects slated for Chiapas. The increase in repression signals the start of a campaign, in this “Year of Tourism,” to clear away any opposition to making Chiapas a “green Cancún” – that is, a paradise for investors and the site of a massive resettlement experiment designed to disposses rural peoples of their land. Behind plans such as the Meso-America Project lie billions of dollars, powerful interests, and major agreements, such as the one signed recently between Chiapas and California to establish extensive “green zones” in Chiapas for the carbon credits market.[7] The people of Chiapas know little or nothing about these plans.

Translation from Spanish by the author, who gratefully thanks Carol Pryor for her editorial assistance.

Notes:

[1] For more information on the Meso-America Project, see http://www.ciepac.org/boletines/chiapas_en.php?id=583

[2] For more informaton on the Rural Citites Program, see http://www.ciepac.org/boletines/chiapas_en.php?id=571

[3] The SRC of Santiago el Pinar was launched in late March 2011 after this article was originally drafted in Spanish. The first SRC is Nuevo Juan de Grijalva [translator’s note].

[4] http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=388346&CategoryId=14091;

http://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com/noticia/mexico-firman-acuerdo-nacional-de-turismo-con-la-meta-de-estar-entre-los-primeros-cinco-dest

[5] http://www.ciepac.org/boletines/chiapas_en.php?id=578

[6] [Five people remain in prison as of this translation into English in late May 2011. (Translator’s note)]

[7] For more information on the carbon credits market in Chiapas, see http://www.ciepac.org/boletines/chiapas_en.php?id=587

REDD: Nombres para el despojo (La Jornada, 21 May 2011)

Last Saturday, after deciding in an assembly to return to their homes after 15 days on permanent guard at the community building, some compañeros who live far away from the center were received by members of the Army of God; they were beaten, attacked with knifes, and had to be taken to the Red Cross.(Descarga aquí)  

Read the communiqué by the community of Mitzitón (Spanish).

To the Other Campaign
To the Zezta International
To the People of Mexico and the World

Compas, the campaign “Thousands of rages, one heart: the Zapatista communities live!” started off on July 24, 2010 as a way to respond in an organized way to the harassment of the Zapatista communities, recognizing in this the same struggles we have everywhere, and raising the flag that says, “if they touch one of us, they touch all of us”.

Since the beginning of the campaign we have joined together as individuals, groups and organizations from across Mexico, Europe, Asia, America and Oceania, adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle proposed by the EZLN. All of us in our very different ways, places and times, have actively participated in the dissemination of the history and struggle of the Zapatista communities, and the challenge to capitalism represented by their autonomy and their initiative of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, which makes us all compas.

Now, after several months of work and confronted with the ongoing strategy of the bad government, in its federal, state and municipal levels, to harass our Zapatista compas by means of paramilitaries, armies, political parties (PRI, PAN, PRD, PT, PVerde) and through the media, we believe that the objectives of the campaign are in place and we want to reaffirm our commitment. While Power offers us the path of destruction, death and misery, the Zapatista autonomous communities and their daily struggle to solve the demands of work, land, shelter, food, health, education, information, culture, independence, democracy, justice, freedom and peace with their own hands, are a worthy benchmark for the construction of our destiny.

This is why, compas, we make the call that through the Campaign “Thousands of rages, one heart: the Zapatista communities live!” we all undertake actions on certain days to publicize specific projects that are part of the Zapatista demands, this time with a monthly theme, with actions that can be undertaken in whatever time, way, space and company each of you decides. We make a three month proposal which is open for you to alter, change, and add what you think is missing, under the umbrella of the campaign. As before, the idea is to have some common themes so we can join our efforts together, or in other words, remain open to collective construction.

The themes are:

March: The struggle of the Zapatista women

April: The struggle for land and territory in the Zapatista communities

May: Education and work in the Zapatista communities

Furthermore, we propose in this stage to link with the general struggle of the Other Campaign against plunder and repression, and with the theme of solidarity, leading to a central action on 5 May (the fifth anniversary of the acts of repression in Atenco, by the Mexican state against our compas from the FPDT [Peoples’ Front in Defence of the Land] and the Other Campaign), the day when peoples from the Other Campaign, led by compas from the Sixth Commission of the EZLN, return to Atenco, Solidarity being an action central to the Zapatista struggle.

Compas, we think that spreading information about the activities we undertake is very important, and is part of the same campaign. You are, then, welcome to send your ideas, materials, and proposals to milesderabias@gmail.com to be published on the Campaign’s blog: http://milesderabias.blogspot.com

We know that our struggle will be stronger if it is more diverse, as there are many ways to speak, to act, to raise our voice. So … fill the streets, the schools, workplaces, squares, parks, with music, dance, painting, graffiti, film, performance, photography, theatre, workshops, pamphlets, talks, fliers, sculptures, whatever. Let us express our dignified rage, let us live our tender fury, so the winds may join together and the storm may arrive.

IF YOU ATTACK THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES YOU ATTACK US ALL!

Groups, organizations and adherents of the Other Campaign
Network Against Repression and for Solidarity (RvsR)

In the last weeks, violence against organized communities that defend their territories against multinational projects in Chiapas and against human rights defenders have increased dramatically. In this program, we interview adherents to the Other Campaign in Bachajón and Mitzitón and a lawyer from the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center. (Subscribe to the podcast of Noticias de la Otra here.)(Descarga aquí)  

(Continuar leyendo…)

Given the alarming increase in repression and violence in Chiapas and the political prisoners, we interviewed today:

Representative from the community of San Sebastián Bachajón, who spoke about the events on Feb 2 and 3 and the current situation of political prisoners.(Descarga aquí)  

Lawyer from the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center, who spoke on the events on the coast of Chiapas and the situation of the three prisoners from that center.(Descarga aquí)  

Member of the community of Mitzitón, who spoke on the situation currently lived by the community after the new attack by members of the paramlitary organization Army of God. For more than two weeks, 219 men, 302 women, and many children are living in the church and the community building, fearing new attacks.(Descarga aquí)  

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Tras arrestos y procesos legales, injustificados, contra las comunidades de Bachajon y Mitziton. la desaparición del activista Gerardo González Miranda. la toma de la caseta de las cascadas de agua azul por la policía federal, los ataques del ejercito de dios en Mitziton y el silencio mediático persistente son una muestra clara de que el gobierno de Chiapas se encuentra a la ofensiva en estos momentos.

El numero de presos de la otra campaña va en aumento de manera alarmante a la par del uso violento de la fuerza publica para arrestar, sin mayor tramite de por medio, a las organizaciones adherentes de LOC. En las acciones del martes 22 de febrero fueron arrestados mas de 50 hombres, mujeres y niños y se estan abriendo acciones legales contra 27 personas, en el arresto contra las campesinos en Bachajon fue contra 110 personas y a 10 se les inculpa sin mas pruebas, que el uso de la fuerza publica.

En estos momentos parecen no importar las crecientes manifestaciones de apoyo y solidaridad en México y en Europa o al menos no han sido un factor para detener la ola de represión, mientras las redes, listas y organizaciones adherentes a LOC se organizan para hacer valer la la consigna surgida de la represión de Atenco en 2006 “Si tocan a uno nos tocan a todos”.

–o-Ø-o–

Denuncia de la Red contra la Represión Chiapas ante escalada de Violencia