10-13-94
DECLARAN AUTONOMIA PUEBLOS INDIGENAS INDIGENOUS TOWNS DECLARE THEMSELVES
AUTONOMOUS BY DANIEL PENSAMIENTO
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS
More than 20 thousand indians and campesino workers met yesterday
in the center of San Cristobal De las Casas to commemorate 502 years of
indigenous struggle. During this rally indigenous leaders declared that
multi-ethnic areas were autonomous from the Mexican
government and that they no longer had to pay taxes. Civil disobedience has
been called for to "liberate" the indigenous people of Mexico.
The EZLN also stated that they would not lay down there arms
while injustice and anti-democracy reigned across Mexico. A statement was also
made that the EZLN was determined to maintain a break in its dialogue with the
government.
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A group of Mexican Indians tried unsuccessfully
Wednesday to tear down a Christopher Columbus monument in the center of
Mexico City to call attention to indigenous people's rights.
Witnesses said the protestors made the statue of the Italian explorer totter,
but the monument in the center of Paseo de la Reforma, a Mexico City
thoroughfare, did not fall.
The protestors also tried to take over a city bus and attach ropes to the
monument to pull it down. But anti-riot police dispersed them before they
could carry out the plan.
The protestors, demonstrating on the 502nd anniversary of Columbus' arrival
in the Americas and the beginning of the colonization of the New World by
Europeans, decried anti-Indian abuse and called for attention to indigenous
people's rights.
"We think that Christopher Columbus statues should be brought to museums,"
said Genaro Dominguez, head of the National Indigenous Peoples Commission.
Before going to the Columbus monument, the Indians, many wearing traditional
clothing, danced in front of the statue of Aztec emperor Cuauhtemoc, which is
also in the middle of Paseo de la Reforma.
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