Zapatistas reclaim Mother Earth

On 6th Feb­ru­ary 230 civil­ian Zap­atis­tas took part in an action to retake con­trol of their reclaimed lands at Bolon Ajaw, Chi­a­pas, Mex­i­co, which had been invad­ed and tak­en over since 20 Jan­u­ary by the para­mil­i­tary group OPDDIC, report the human rights group Fray Bar­tolome de Las Casas. The 25 Zap­atista fam­i­lies of Bolon Ajaw, part of autonomous munic­i­pal­i­ty Coman­dan­ta Ramona, were giv­en sol­i­dar­i­ty by Zap­atis­tas from fur­ther afield.

The human rights activists of Fray Bar­tolome present a detailed report which dis­miss­es claims by the state gov­ern­ment, OPDDIC and the mass media that on 6th Feb­ru­ary the Zap­atis­tas shot at OPDDIC mem­bers, killing one and injur­ing oth­ers. On the con­trary, report Fray Bartholomew, it was OPDDIC who at least four times opened fire on the Zap­atis­tas, wound­ing three Zap­atis­tas, includ­ing a six­teen year old.

Fray Bartholomew (Fray­ba) con­firm that the OPDDIC mem­ber killed and those wound­ed were shot by mis­take by fel­low OPDDIC mem­bers, as two dif­fer­ent OPDDIC groups opened fire on the inhab­i­tants of Bolon Ajaw, from oppo­site sides of the vil­lage. OPDDIC, linked to the PRI — the Insti­tu­tion­al Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Par­ty which gov­erned Mex­i­co for many decades — have been involved in numer­ous attacks and harass­ment of Zap­atista com­mu­ni­ties over recent years.

Fray­ba give a detailed account of the sev­er­al clash­es which occurred dur­ing the day. Actions includ­ed the Zap­atis­tas repuls­ing an attempt by OPDDIC to retake the land, and the Zap­atis­tas break­ing out of an armed ambush and encir­clement by OPDDIC in order to go to the aid of the inhab­i­tants of Bolon Ajaw, who were being shot at by OPDDIC gun­men.

The Zap­atista Good Gov­ern­ment Coun­cil based at More­lia has also issued a full state­ment http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/266 . This details the attacks by the OPDDIC para­mil­i­taries, nam­ing names, and hold­ing all three lev­els of gov­ern­ment — local, Chi­a­pas state, and the nation­al fed­er­al gov­ern­ment — respon­si­ble for the attacks against the indige­nous peo­ple and their lands. The state­ment describes how on 6th Feb­ru­ary OPDDIC shot at unarmed Zap­atis­tas, seri­ous­ly wound­ing one man in the stom­ach, how they com­plete­ly destroyed a Zap­atis­ta’s home, and smashed up sacred objects in the Bolon Ajaw church.

The Zap­atis­tas stress their will­ing­ness to hold talks over the prob­lems:
‘We, the Coun­cil of Good Gov­ern­ment, have nev­er closed the door on find­ing a good solu­tion to prob­lems, we always show good will..’

HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN

The Fray­ba inves­ti­ga­tion empha­sis­es that gov­ern­ment plans for major tourist devel­op­ments at the renowned local water­falls lie behind the attacks on the Zap­atis­tas. Near­by Agua Azul Falls are already heav­i­ly pro­mot­ed, fea­tur­ing in inter­na­tion­al tourist guides such as Lone­ly Plan­et, and Bolon Ajaw counts with five more as yet unde­vel­oped Falls which are even more beau­ti­ful.

These pro­posed devel­op­ments are part of a much big­ger tourist devel­op­ment plan. Enor­mous inter­ests are at stake in the Palenque CIP project, which cov­ers six munic­i­pal­i­ties in the north of Chi­a­pas around the world-famous Mayan tem­ples of Palenque. The state gov­ern­ment of Chi­a­pas is due to invest half of the mon­ey involved, the bal­ance pre­sum­ably com­ing from pri­vate invest­ment. The Project has been in devel­op­ment since 2007, and a major exten­sion of Palenque air­port is due this year.

The CIP Project empha­sis­es spe­cial­ist and lux­u­ry tourism, and long-stay vis­i­tors. A nat­ur­al theme park is planned for the Agua Azul Water­falls, with com­mer­cial areas and sig­nif­i­cant accom­mo­da­tion for ‘eco’, adven­ture and sport­ing tourism. But, inter­na­tion­al con­sul­tants point out, ‘before attract­ing invest­ment the State must find a solu­tion to the prob­lems of acquir­ing the land and the prob­lems of access.’

In oth­er words, for the state and busi­ness inter­ests, the Zap­atis­tas and their deter­mi­na­tion to defend Moth­er Earth are ‘a prob­lem’ stand­ing in the way of the real­i­sa­tion of mul­ti-mil­lion tourist invest­ments.

These planned tourist devel­op­ments are close­ly linked to a new high­way through Chi­a­pas, which threat­ens a num­ber of com­mu­ni­ties on its route from the colo­nial tourist cen­tre of San Cristo­bal de Las Casas to the mag­nif­i­cent Mayan tem­ples at Palenque. As well as Bolon Ajaw, the com­mu­ni­ties of San Sebas­t­ian Bacha­jon http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/235 , near Bolon Ajaw, and Mitzi­ton near San Cristo­bal, both adher­ents to the Zap­atista-ini­ti­at­ed Oth­er Cam­paign, are among the com­mu­ni­ties resist­ing the new high­way in the face of state and para­mil­i­tary oppres­sion.

Fray Bar­tolome denounce the Chi­a­pas State author­i­ties for try­ing to blame the Zap­atis­tas and the Oth­er Cam­paign sup­port­ers of San Sebas­t­ian Bacha­jon for the vio­lence. They accuse the author­i­ties of ‘gen­er­at­ing the
con­di­tions for a mil­i­tary inter­ven­tion ordered by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment against the civil­ian pop­u­la­tion.’

The lands at Bolon Ajaw were reclaimed by the Zap­atis­tas in the after­math of the 1994 upris­ing. Till then they had been in the hands of pri­vate own­ers who bru­tal­ly exploit­ed the local indige­nous peo­ple. Fray­ba detail the numer­ous attacks by OPDDIC on the Zap­atis­tas since 2003.

DEFENDING MOTHER EARTH

These lat­est events at Bolon Ajaw are note­wor­thy not only for the scale of the threats fac­ing the Zap­atis­tas, but for the exem­plary sol­i­dar­i­ty, courage, self-organ­i­sa­tion and self-dis­ci­pline dis­played by the Zap­atis­tas in tak­ing col­lec­tive direct action to defend ‘Moth­er Earth and its nat­ur­al resources’.

In Bolon Ajaw, in Montes Azules http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/263 , in Mitzi­ton, in Sebas­t­ian Bacha­jon, in Chico­muse­lo http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/262 and through­out Chi­a­pas and Mex­i­co a
war is being waged by the state, para­mil­i­taries and big busi­ness to once more rob the indige­nous and poor peas­ant peo­ples of their land and destroy Moth­er Earth for mon­ey.

In Chi­a­pas, and also in oth­er Mex­i­can states like Oax­a­ca and Guer­rero, the peas­ant and indige­nous peo­ples’ resis­tance and strug­gle for auton­o­my con­tin­ues — inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty is need­ed.

As the Fray Bar­tolome cen­tre state:
‘We issue an URGENT call to civ­il soci­ety, in Mex­i­co and inter­na­tion­al­ly, to all those com­mit­ted to the defence of human rights, to come out and denounce the clear increase in the actions of vio­lence against the civil­ian, peace­ful process of auton­o­my being devel­oped by the Zap­atista bases of sup­port and their Coun­cils of Good Gov­ern­ments which are civ­il author­i­ties.’

NOTES

If inter­est­ed in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Zap­atis­tas and peo­ple of Chi­a­pas and Mex­i­co con­tact Edin­burgh Chi­a­pas Sol­i­dar­i­ty Group edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk
www.edinchiapas.org.uk
Plus UK Zap­atista site http://ukzapatistas.wordpress.com/
There have already been sol­i­dar­i­ty actions in var­i­ous towns and cities in the Span­ish State and in Mex­i­co.

Full state­ment by Zap­atista Coun­cil of Good Gov­ern­ment of More­lia on the events at Bolon Ajaw on 6th Feb­ru­ary, in Eng­lish http://www.edinchiapas.org.uk/node/266

Fray Bar­tolome site, info in eng­lish
http://www.frayba.org.mx/index.php?hl=en

Reg­u­lar reports from Chi­a­pas, main­ly Span­ish, some Eng­lish, on Indy­media Chi­a­pas
www.chiapas.indymedia.org

Full report by Fray Bar­tolome human rights group on the events at Bolon Ajaw on 6th Feb­ru­ary, in Span­ish
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/article_173362

Let­ter of protest to Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment about the evic­tion of Zap­atista com­mu­ni­ty in Montes Azules, Chi­a­pas, in Span­ish
http://www.europazapatista.org/spip.php?article2409

More info and protest let­ter in Eng­lish can be found at:
http://glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com