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Att'n: Spoken Word/Public Affairs Programmers,
Campus and Community Radio Stations of North America
From: the Mexico Solidarity Network of Canada,
c/o Global Community Centre, Waterloo, Ontario
Re: Radio Documentary on Origins of Zapatista Conflict in
Mexico, to be simulcast February 9, 1995
Date: December 7, 1995
_________________________________________________________________
February 9, 1996 will be the first anniversary of the invasion of
the Lacondon jungle in Chiapas, Mexico by the Mexican federal
army. To commemorate this, the Mexico Solidarity Network of
Canada is producing a one-hour documentary of the orgins of the
armed uprising in Mexico and the Zapatista-led struggle for
change since. We would like to see as many radio stations across
the continent request a copy of this program and air it
simultaneously, at 4-6pm (local time, depending on where you are)
on February 9. Please consider this notice as a request that you
partcipate in this campaign by requesting our tape and sending us
a donation ($10 suggested) to cover our costs of copying and
sending it out.
A small group of volunteers in Waterloo, Ontario will be
producing the one-hour program in early January, using tapes of
different Mexican speakers who have visited Canada. We hope to
have it ready to distribute by mid-January, so that stations can
have a chance to pre-listen to it and run promotional carts for
the show which will accompany the tape. Also, if you know of
quality audio material that would be appropriate for the program,
please let us know or send it to us as soon as possible. We hope
to produce a list of participating radio stations across the
country to add to the tape and promotional material so listeners
can get a sense of the amount of cooperation that went into the
program. We are also producing a promotional poster for the
radio program which will be sent with the tape so that interested
volunteers in your community can further promote the event.
The radio program is part of a two-pronged strategy that the
Mexico Solidarity Network is planning to commemorate last year's
February 9 invasion. The following day, February 10, 1996, we
are encouraging groups in cities throughout the continent to plan
demonstrations in front of Mexican Consulates and Embassies or
other events to draw attention to the invasion anniversary if the
communities fon't have an embassy or consulate. The radio
program and promotional cart and poster will make reference to
this, leaving space for the input of local information on the
local event, if any.
The February 9, 1995 invasion of the Mexican army was a brutal
violation of the January 12, 1994 ceasefire between the Mexican
government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The
invasion displaced over 30,000 (mostly) Mayan people living in
communities previously occupied by the Zapatistas, forcing them
to flee to the mountains without food for days and eventually to
return to find their crops and homes destroyed and their valuable
farm implements stolen. Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
justified the invasion by saying that he was going in to arrest
Zapatista spokesperson Subcommander Marcos, whose identity had
supposedly been revealed by intelligence forces days earlier.
Marcos was never arrested, but the objective of terrifying the
local population and harrassing Mexican and international human
rights activists was achieved. An underlying motivation for the
invasion was revealed shortly afterwards when an internal memo of
the Chase Manhattan Bank written in January was discovered,
urging President Clinton to make the multi-billion dollar bailout
loan for the devalued peso conditional on Zedillo's elimination
of the Zapatistas as a way to restore investor confidence in
Mexico.
In summary, please:
1. Request a copy of the tape by contacting the address below.
2. Plan to air it on your station between the hours of 4 and
6pm, your time, on Friday, February 9, 1996.
3. Spread the word to local activists to get them to organize
an event on Saturday, February 10 and to promote both the
radio show and event.
4. Tell us about, or send us, any quality audio material you
have on the Zapatista conflict.
5. Keep us informed of your community and radio station's
activities related to the project.
Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN)
c/o Global Community Centre, 89-91 King Street North, Waterloo,
Ontario, Canada N2J 2X3 phone: 519-746-4090 fax: 519-746-4096
email: gccwat@web.apc.org
Please send a copy of your requests to: ggrierson@trentu.ca
P.S. If anyone knows how to access a similar list of public and
campus and community radio stations, please let me know, or post
it to the list yourself and tell me. --Marc Xuereb, MSN