Chiapas at War

by tessa landreau-grasmuck

“Those of us who have waged war know how to recognize the paths in which it nears and prepares itself. The signs of war on the horizon are clear. War, like fear, has a scent. And now you can begin to breathe its fetid odor in our lands.”
-Subcomandante Marcos on his last public appearance, December 2007.

Just 2 months after Marcos warned the world of the intensifying violence in Chiapas, the International Civil Commission for Human Rights Observation (CCIODH, Comisión Civil Internacional de Observación por los Derechos Humanos) announced their findings from their week in the southeast Mexican state. Chiapas remains in a state of profound inequality and exclusion, affecting a majority of the population, most gravely women and indigenous peoples, the Commission reported. Most communities have limited to no access to shelter, food, education or health care. Instead of responding to the basic needs of the state, the Commission said, the politics of Chiapas continues to implement programs which promote division and conflict in communities in Chiapas. Autonomous organizing, the only viable solution to the lack of basic necessities, continues to face severe military and paramilitary repression, while legal impunity for counter-insurgent violence remains the norm of the Chiapas justice system.

The Commission for Human Rights offered one last thing before heading to Oaxaca: a video of a father and son detained in a Chiapas prison. Eliseo Silvano Jimenez and Eliseo Silvano Espinosa, detained by state highway police and paramilitaries on February 1st, suffered severe beatings, gunshot wounds, torture by burning and were forced to sign an absurdly written confession to having attacked a tourist bus. The two indigenous Zapatista support bases received no medical treatment, legal advice or translation until the Commission and other Chiapas NGO’s worked around the clock for their release on February 9th. There has been total impunity for those responsible for the torture of the Eliseos.

Examples are everywhere. Bolon Ajaw lies in the heart of the tourist popular Aguas Azules region, brilliantly rich in natural resources. Bolon Ajaw is an indigenous community; like many communities in Chiapas it is a mix of Zapatista families and families with other political-organization affiliations. In Bolon Ajaw, members of OPDDIC (Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights) have been threatening and attacking Zapatistas in their own community since September. OPDDIC is the most brutal paramilitary group in Chiapas today, despite its seemingly benign name. Its strong presence in the region is protected by powerful state officials with almost total impunity and collusion. Teams of observers sent by CAPISE (Center for Political Analysis and Economic and Social Investigation) have been in Bolon Ajaw on and off since early December, because of the tremendous increase in threats of violence by the paramilitaries, as well as police threats of displacement. On December 30 a delegation of observers was threatened by OPDICC members on their way to the community, and the tires of the observers’ vehicle were punctured. Two Zapastista women were beaten by state police on February 21. Rocks are thrown onto the roofs of Zapatista houses daily. No one has been held accountable for the violence, as the Chiapas state government continues to threaten the Zapatista families with displacement.

Bolon Ajaw and the torture of the Eliseos are just a couple of examples of the current state of Chiapas: where organizing is brutalized, paramilitarization and police detention go hand in hand and impunity is the norm.

The “low intensity” violence in Chiapas is blaringly systematic. A highway is being built which connects San Cristobal de las Casas and Palenque. It passes right through Bolom Ajaw. The highway, as well as the expansion of the Palenque airport, are meant to boost tourism in the state. Both projects are also pieces of infrastructure of Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), the Free Trade Area of the Americas super highway, a project which has pitted powerful corporations against poor Mexican communities in their path.

For those of us who take direct inspiration from the Zapatista processes of autonomy, for those of us who stand in solidarity, who support the Other Campaign, we are offered a challenge. “Alli les encargo” “It’s in your hands.” How will we respond?

Solidarity without Borders http://deletetheborder.org/node/2403
mexicosolidarity.org
estacionlibre.org
capise.org.mx
zapagringo.blogspot.com
http://ezln.org.mx/index.html
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/communique-english

Comisión Civil Internacional de Observación por los Derechos Humanos http://cciodh.pangea.org/