SECOND PHASE-ACTION ALERT
We want to be heard on July 25, 1997!!
We want to reclaim our memory!!
If indeed the sacrifice of Indian peoples in Mexico exposed the deteriorated
state of the Mexican political system on a national level, they taught the
peoples of the world the necessity to organize against neoliberalism and its
global squalor of poverty and oppression. for this reason we call upon the
peoples of the United States specifically, and the peoples of the world in
general to stand together, and on the opening of the Second Intercontinental
Encounter on July 25th of 1997 combat this low-intensity war by raising a
public debate about the war in Mexico. We ask all honest men and women, all
the hundreds of people who have expressed their hope and support for the
indigenous peoples of Mexico to undertake the following actions;
1. Organize a demonstration at your local Mexican consulate and/or embassy.
2. Conduct a public educational forum at your church, school, union or
community hall on the low-intensity war in Chiapas and the current situation
in Mexico.
3. Conduct a private discussion meeting with friends and neighbors at your
home in order to expose the suffering of the Indian peoples of Mexico and
the need to take action.
4. Write a letter to the editor that lets people know what is happening in
Mexico.
5. Distribute flyers with information concerning the low-intensity war in
Chiapas and the Zapatistas.
6. Recommend to your local press and other media contacts that they report
on the action alert and the current situation in Chiapas.
The political climate is in sore need of your voices. Conduct many creative
actions on this day in order to exert your beliefs and principles. Do not
let the sponsors of this war believe that they have won.
Headlines in both Mexico and the United States over the last week have
announced that Mexico is now truly a democracy with the election of
Cuahtemoc Cardenas and a new Congress. Leaders from both countries are
gleefully pointing to the arrival of the multi-party system as an indication
that the era of Mexican political corruption and instability is over while
investors are enjoying the fruits of the Mexican stock market which has
reached an all-time high. The public face of Mexico has never looked
better, nor has the neo-liberal prospects for the future looked so bright.
However, those whose cry on January 1 of 1994 demanded the move towards a
more democratic form of government are being ignored. The cornerstones of a
low-intensity conflict, isolation and amnesia, are being consolidated. The
tactic is to solidify the abandonment of the indigenous people of Mexico in
order to facilitate their gradual and silent annihilation.
Large areas all over the country where indigenous people live remain
militarized. The root cause of the conflict; the unjust distribution of
land and the terrible oppression, facts of life which have made Mexico the
country with the LARGEST OUT-MIGRATION IN THE WORLD (approximately 15
million), have not even begun to be addressed by this new configuration of
power.
THE LOW INTENSITY WAR IN CHIAPAS STILL CONTINUES DESPITE THE OFFICIAL
ELECTION RESULTS AND THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES;
* On July 8th a group of farmers who are members of the Popular Campesino
Union of Francisco Villa (UCPFV) attempted to peacefully occupy the
Liquidambar plantation in Chiapas. This large plantation is privately owned
by a wealthy German landowner. Immediately, the Federal Army and judicial
and public security police dispersed the farmers, who then fled to the
mountains. Since that time more than 600 police and 200 Federal soldiers
have occupied the area.
* The Mexican Human Rights Commission has alerted the public that 15 people
have disappeared. The State Ministry of Justice (PJE) admits to detaining 6
people. Yet as of July 11th none of the six people have been presented to
their families, nor have the whereabouts of all 15 been accounted for. The
Human Rights Commission and the families of the disappeared have expressed
their profound fears for the safety of the mission.
The atmosphere of violence, intimidation and fear continues in Chiapas and
threatens only to grow worse in light of the electoral victories. The loss
of memory, so easy given the racism against Indian people, threatens to free
the hand of those hired to maintain the status quo.
We want an end to the lie that there is no war in Mexico, that there are
only a few Indians fighting amongst themselves.
* It was the Indian peoples in Mexico in January 1994 who said !YA BASTA! to
the lies. It was their blood which awoke the conscience of the peoples of
Mexico and which began to move citizens towards the possibility of a
different political system. It is their tenacity and heroic resistance which
has held the door open and which allows the tenuous opening in the elctoral
arena. It is their moral authority which exposed the deteriorated state of
the Mexican political system.
* It was civil society of Mexico and the world which imposed reason on this
war. It is civil society once again who must speak up in many places and in
many ways to mobilize and to foment public debate about the immorality of
low-intensity war against civilians who have the right to alter their form
of government.
We must demand:
* An end to the militarization of indigenous zones in Mexico.
* An end to the terror campaigns of paramilitary groups in Mexico.
* An end to the harassment of international observers to the conditions of
Zapatista communities
* A denunciation of the low-intensity war and the death and suffering it
brings to indigenous communities.
FOR BACKGROUND MATERIALS AND/OR SPECIFIC INFORMATION;
PLEASE CALL NCDM AT (915)532-8382