For Immediate and Continuous Release
April 8, 1994
Contact: Priscilla Hunter
On Monday, May 9, 1994, northern California Pomo Indians and their
elders will embark on a historic journey to deliver humanitarian
aid to the Mayan people of Chiapas, Mexico. The Indian Peace
Caravan to Chiapas will begin following a spiritual ceremony and
Bear Dance at the Coyote Valley Reservation in Mendocino County,
California. The ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 7th, and
the public is invited to attend and to share their prayers for the
safety of the caravan and for the Mayan people of Chiapas, who are
struggling against great odds to ensure the survival of their
culture and the health and safety of their people.
The caravan is a spiritual undertaking - as the caravan travels
throughout the United States we will meet with Indian elders and
their supporters. Together, we will pray for an end to the
suffering of the Mayan people of Chiapas, and for continued
strength for all indian people fighting for the survival of our
cultures. As we travel south, the caravan's itinerary will include
meetings with activists and Indian elders. Ceremonies with Indian
elders will be held in Chumash territory near Santa Barbara, the
Pala Reservation outside of San Diego and in Tucson, Arizona. The
caravan will also meet along the way with supporters in San
Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles and San Diego.
We will carry the prayers of the Indian peoples of the United
States to the Indian people in Chiapas. We are travelling to
Chiapas at the invitation of the State Council of Indigenous and
Campesino Organizations of the State of Chiapas, Mexico, a recently
established coalition of over 280 indigenous and campesino
organizations.
To date, the caravan, with the support of Direct Relief
International, has collected over 700 pounds of medical aid to
deliver to the indigenous people of Chiapas. We will also deliver
ten computers for use by the indigenous organizations. We will
purchase food in Chiapas to deliver to the people in villages and
refugee camps.
The caravan will include Pomo elder Delma Eyle of the Coyote Valley
Indian Reservation; Norma Knight, a Maidu-Pomo elder from Round
Valley Indian Reservation; Priscilla Hunter, tribal administrator
from Coyote Valley, member of the International Indian Treaty
Council, and Polly Montoya-Girvin and Carolyn Fershtman,
international human rights attorneys, who will collect testimony
from Mayan people concerning human right abuses and their struggle
to maintain their land base and culture in Chiapas.
The caravan will be joined by Native American student organizers
from San Francisco State University and Evergreen College in
Washington, Che-Che Martinez, a videographer, Joseph Leon of
National Native News and the Indigenous Environmental Network, and
Nilo Cayuqueo of the South and meso American Indian information
Network.
We continue to invite the participation and support of Indian
elders and organizations within the United States and Mexico.
For the past 500 years indigenous people of Mexico have tenaciously
maintained their land base and cultures against great odds. Now,
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) threatens their
survival. Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, which legalized
the village communes (ejidos) has been part of the constitution
since the Revolution led by Emiliano Zapata in 1910. As part of
the recently ratified NAFTA agreement, the Mexican government
quashed Article 27, revoking collective ownership of land. Lands
which have been owned communally by Indians and campesinos are now
open for individual purchase, thereby paving the way for the
extinguishment of the Indian land base, the center of Indian
communal life and culture. Tzeltal Mayans fear that NAFTA will
lead to the loss of their last link to their Mayan ancestors: their
milpa, or cornfield. The Mayan religious heritage says that people
were molded from, corn by the Gods. When they plant corn, they are
connecting themselves to their Mayan ancestors, and their Gods.
NAFTA threatens the survival of the corn-based culture by
expropriating the communal land base necessary to plant and pray,
and by enabling large-scale agricultural ventures to move in and
overwhelm the fragile indigenous agricultural economy.
The Pomo people and other California Indians have a deep
understanding of this destructive process, having resisted a
similar plan to terminate their tribal status and expropriate their
lands. Today they live on communal trial lands re-established
through successful federal litigation. Having successfully
struggled to ensure the survival of their culture, the Pomos of
northers California by this caravan seek to join in support of the
Mayan Indians of Chiapas who are now fighting to preserve their
land base.
In January of this year, the Zapatista uprising opposing the
implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement brought
many of these issues to public awareness. Many Mayan people living
in villages suffered greatly when the military responded to the
Zapatista uprising by bombing civilian villages, leaving over
21,000 Indian and campesinos homeless refugees. These refugees
have been without adequate food, clothing or medical care. Many
Indian people have been living in a state of terror as the
government has initiated a witch-hunt against any person suspected
of being a Zapatista sympathizer. Amnesty International and the
International Indian Treaty Council have documented numerous cases
of disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and persons detained
without cause, since the beginning of the year.
While hope was great that the government initiated peace
negotiations with representatives of the Zapatista Army would lead
to a swift and just resolution of the conflict, recent events
indicate that this may not be the case.
According to the latest information from the EZLN (Zapatista)
forces, "there have been clear signals that the government is
preparing an attempt to find a military solution to the conflict:
on March 19, 1994, around daybreak, government aircraft bombed the
area around the road between Comitan and Altamirano... At least
four incendiary artifacts (sic) were dropped by these planes,
setting fairly large fires, as well as emitting strange gases which
make us think of chemical warfare... Since March 20, there has been
a clear increase in the number of government troops and arms ;in
the zone of conflict, they are now double the number that was here
in January". In the same communique, the EZLN "repeats to the
whole world its commitment to respect the cease fire, to not
obstruct the peaceful progress of the next elections, and to not
carry out any military offensive in all of the national territory
against the government forces, according to the conditions
established in our communication of January 12, 1994. If we are
attacked, our forces will defend...".
We have also received reports that caravans of aid organized by
Mexican students were stopped on the road in Chiapas by the Mexican
authorities, the student caravan was planing to deliver aid to the
Altamirano clinic, which serves Mayan people in the mountain
villages of Ocosingo and Altamirano. A recent letter from a doctor
at the clinic reports, "The military presence here is overwhelming.
There are literally hundreds of soldiers in this small town, almost
every vehicle that passes is military. They are not molesting us
as far as I can tell, but the people here at the hospital, workers
and patients, fear the military. If a person comes to the hospital
in the late afternoon or evening we admit them even if they are not
sick at all, because it would be frightening for them to go back to
their villages after dark with so many soldiers. It is for this
reason that many people choose not to come to the Hospital even
though they are sick..." The doctor stated, "I think the
international presence is extremely important".
This distressing news has made it clear to us that this is an
essential time for Indian people to stand in solidarity with our
Mayan brothers and sisters. We pray that the Mexican government
will deal honorably with the indigenous people of Chiapas, in what
the government has already conceded is a just and moral stand. We
pray for the survival of the Mayan people and their culture and for
a just resolution of the conflict. We pray for peace.
We give great thanks to the Peace and Dignity Coalition in Chula
Vista, California, Tonatierra in Tucson, Arizona, the International
Indian Treaty Council and to Direct Relief International, who have
helped us greatly in this venture. We owe a special thank you to
Ronnie Solomon, a grand-hearted person in New York who has helped
us immeasurably in her work to spread the word on the caravan. We
also thank the many people who have contributed greatly to this
effort and made the caravan possible, and to our funders, the
Seventh Generation Fund, the Funding Exchange, Vanguard Foundation
and the Abelard Common Cause Fund.
Further inquiries and financial donations (tax deductible made
payable to Rural Institute IPCC), can be mailed to us at the
following address:
INDIAN PEACE CARAVAN TO CHIAPAS
Post Office Box 73
Redwood Valley, California 95470
(707) 485-8723 or (707) 877-3417
(707) 485-1247 (FAX)
Antigona Martinez amartinez@igc.apc.org
mtong@igc.apc.org