A-Infos (en) Mexico, Zapatistas Renew Struggle with Anger and Fire - update

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This is an article by an Irish anarchist 
currently living in Chiapas.

Zapatistas Renew Struggle with Anger and Fire.
9th Anniversary of Armed Uprising Marked by 
Biggest Mobilization So Far.
by Ramor Ryan
San Cristobal de las Casas, January 1 2003.

Defying their critics who charge they are 
divided and disintegrating, the Zapatistas 
mobilised their forces today, mustering the 
largest and most militant demonstration seen in 
San Cristobal since the armed uprising 9 years 
ago. As many as 20,000 masked militants of the 
EZLN descended on the town from all corners of 
Chiapas armed with machetes and lighting huge 
bonfires around the central plaza and 
surrounding streets. There were no injuries, and 
little damage to property, but the feisty rebels 
demonstrated in no uncertain terms that, on the 
9th anniversary of the uprising they are still 
organised, still militant and still enraged.

A Night To Remember

"I am very proud we have peace in Mexico, with 
Marcos, with the Zapatistas," said Mexican 
President Vincente Fox a few weeks ago, while 
visiting Europe.

"Fox says we have peace in Chiapas, that there 
is no conflict," said Comandante David from the 
podium. "Is the conflict settled in Chiapas?" he 
asked.

"NOOOO!" was the emphatic reply from the 
multitude, banging their machetes and sticks, 
holding up burning torches, as the black smoke 
from the multiple bonfires engulfed the town 
centre. The masked insurgents packed the 
expansive centre plaza and still thousands more 
were left chanting in the surround streets. The 
mood was combatitive and the chants, banners and 
speeches from the stage were uncompromising - 
Fox Is The Same As Zedillo, PAN Equals PRI, No 
Evictions From Montes Azules, Globalize 
Rebellion And Dignity! The rebellion in 
Argentina was lauded, and terrorism of Bush and 
Bin Laden condemned. "We came to say that here 
we are still, stronger than ever and we resist," 
said Comandante Mister. "Before a globalization 
of death imposed by the powerful, we proclaim a 
globalization of freedom..."

"Are we here to surrender?!" shouted Commandante 
Tacho, and the crowd responded with such a hell-
raising clamor that a lady next to me was 
prompted to mutter

Betrayal and Oblivion

This is the first public mass mobilization of 
the Zapatista Comandancia and rank-and-file in 
almost 2 years. The last Zapatista event was the 
hugely popular Caravan to the Capital in 
February of 2001, bringing out Mexicans in their 
hundreds of thousands in support of Indigenous 
demands, as Sub-Comandante Marcos and the EZLN 
command journeyed up to Mexico City..

The crowning achievement of that odyssey was 
presenting an Indigenous Law granting a form of 
autonomy for ratification through Congress. But 
as soon as the Zapatistas turned their backs and 
returned home to Chiapas, that Law was modified 
and watered down by government legislators, 
amidst charges of betrayal. Appeals to re-
instate the original the Law before the Supreme 
Court were rejected.

With this constitutional rejection of Indigenous 
Reform, Congress, the Federal government and the 
Supreme Court of the nation was seen to negate 
the legitimacy of the San Andres Accords, signed 
between government and rebels in 1996. 
Recognition of the San Andres Accords is the 
principle demand in order to re-start dialogue 
between the EZLN and the Federal government. 
With this failure it seemed the legal and 
political means to resolve the Chiapas conflict 
had been exhausted.

The Zapatistas seemed exhausted too, and lapsed 
into a long piercing silence lasting 20 months. 
The Fox Government worked hard to provoke 
divisions within the base communities, offering 
numerous financial incentives. The Mexican army 
remained, if a little less visible, encircling 
the Zapatistas areas, and paramilitaries upped 
the ante, murdering 4 Zapatista leaders in 
August, 2002. The EZLN did not respond to these 
provocations, remaining silent throughout the 
wave of killings, prompting rumours of their 
impotence and inner-turmoil. Marcos has fallen 
out with the Clandestine Committee, ran the 
rumour mongering and has been sent into exile. 
Rank and file are deserting the ranks in floods. 
President Fox , ever the opportunist, attempted 
a public relations coup amidst the silence, 
claiming the conflict had been resolved.

"We have brought peace to Chiapas," he boasted.

A peace of military occupation, continuing 
extreme poverty and slow death by strangulation 
of the land. The peace of oblivion?

A Spectre Haunts Chiapas.

Chiapas is on the brink of profound structural 
change, a change that will not be wrought by a 
triumphant Zapatista return, but by a series of 
mega-projects financed by global capital called 
Plan Puebla Panama (PPP). Envisaging a series of 
colossal dams, construction of super-highways 
and the development of a vast sweat-shop area, 
the planners intend to develop southern Mexico 
and Central America into a manufacturing hub and 
production corridor. "The Plan Puebla Panama is 
a thousand times more important than any 
indigenous Zapatista community" according to 
President Fox.

Plan Puebla Panama has three goals -

a) increase the transit and industrial 
infrastructure of the region, improving the 
capacity for export industries,

b) catalyze a shift of the regions economy from 
agriculture to assembly plant maquiladoras and 
manufacturing, and

c) expand private control over the vast natural 
resources in the region.

The process is already underway. The first 
sweat-shop has opened in Huixtla. Road 
construction is currently a boom industry. Land 
ownership is changing - 11% of land in Chiapas 
is held communally (in Ejidos) and most of the 
ejidos are in the strategically important Jungle 
region under control of the Zapatistas. A 
government programme Procede offers incentives 
to communities to divide their land and 
individualize holdings. Once it is privatized, 
the land can be sold on to investors, or agents 
for foreign companies, thereby opening up the 
process of capitalist development.

The battle between bio-prospectors and the 
indigenous inhabitants of the jungle region has 
already intensified. Bio-piracy, i.e. patenting 
plants that can be turned into pharmaceutical 
drugs, pesticides or other marketable products, 
has become highly profitable - prompting the 
title Green Gold, and the current rush to patent 
rights the Bio-gold rush.

Influenced by the Zapatista struggle, 
communities of small farmers are organising 
across southern Mexico and all the way down 
Central America, forming international 
coalitions and coordinating their protests like 
the Day of Action last October 12 (Colombus Day) 
against the PPP and capitalist globalization. A 
masked protester from the Regional Co-ordination 
of Civil Society organisation, blocking a 
highway in Chiapas last October articulated 
their demands, linking them with those of the 
Zapatistas.

"We have seen that all Fox and Salazar ( State 
Governor of Chiapas) have done is for the 
benefit of the rich and in favour of the owners 
of money,... with little benefit for us, the 
farmers. We are against the PPP, NAFTA and ALCA, 
and as you can see from the banners, in favour 
of honouring the San Andres Accords."

In all Mexico about a quarter of the population, 
25 million, live off the land, and 80% of them 
in extreme poverty. Approximately 600 campesinos 
are forced to abandon the land for the cities 
every single day. The agriculture sector is in 
severe decline, and NAFTA is one of the chief 
reasons. The influx of cheap corn and wheat from 
the giant commercial farms of the US is driving 
small farmers to ruin.

And rather than promote a sustainable 
agriculture sector, the Fox government, firmly 
committed to NAFTA, and ALCA (Free Trade 
Agreement of the Americas) , encourages the 
desertion of the land. Migration is rife. 
Official figures quote 150,000 migrants from 
Chiapas to the US each year, but the growth 
industry in Bus Companies running to the US 
border - 80 new companies registered in the last 
3 years, suggest an even greater number. 
Alongside the internal migration to work in 
Cancun and the oil fields of Tabasco, a whole 
way of rural life and indigenous culture is in 
danger of disappearing.

"The PPP will respect the territorial integrity 
of the communities and promote a sustainable 
development" says Fox, which flies in the face 
of the events on the ground. 30 indigenous 
communities on Montes Azules in the Lacandon 
Jungle are currently facing violent eviction. 
This local struggle has become the front line 
for wide-spread resistance against the Plan 
Puebla Panama. The Zapatistas have sworn to 
fight eviction in Montes Azules to the death.

"This traitorous government and the voracious 
capitalists know that this land are ours, and we 
wont abandon it," says Rosa, a fiery Zapatista 
Chol from Tumbala, "and its wealth belongs to 
those who have lived here and worked these lands 
for centuries. We resist their globalisation in 
the same way the indigenous people resisted the 
Conquest, and our corn will resist their 
transgenic corn!"

The Ninth Anniversary.

The 9 years of struggle of the Zapatistas has, 
on the ground, been both advantageous and 
circuitous. The initial armed uprising opened up 
vast swathes of occupied land taken from the 
finqueros. Thousands of campesinos continue to 
occupy and work these territories, a de-facto 
rebel zone under the authority of the 38 
Autonomous Municipalities. This is the one great 
achievement for the bases of support of the 
Zapatistas. On the other hand, the autonomous 
zones are constantly under threat, surrounded by 
the army and menaced upon by paramilitaries.

The governments attempts to buy off the rebel 
communities has been successful in some areas, 
and traditional pre-1994 Zapatista strongholds 
are often focus for the most persistent counter-
insurgency programmes. The historical Zapatista 
village of Morelia, for example, has seen the 
level of support for the insurgents fall to 
below 50% of the populace. Support in another 
Aguascalientes, Roberto Barrios has fallen to 
less than 25%. However, the younger communities 
on occupied land remain staunch, and Zapatista 
numbers swell as children of the rebellion grow 
up and form their own communities.

"We are united here," says Don Anselmo of the 
100% Zapatista village 10 de Abril, "although I 
do worry about some of the other communities..". 
5 or 6 of the surrounding smaller villages have 
dropped out of the struggle. Ex-Zapatista 
Esteban explains why he dropped out and left 10 
de Abril to live in one of the other non-
Zapatista villages - "I got tired, and I needed 
to feed my kids. The (Zapatista) Organisation 
takes up a lot of time and you get little in 
return." Taking advantage of a government 
scheme, he received some construction materials 
and his children receive state schooling. (It's 
true, the Autonomous school in 10 de Abril was 
not functioning well.) Is he finished with the 
Zapatistas? "No," says Esteban, "I'm taking a 
rest".

Renewal of Struggle

And this is the importance of the strong, 
militant demonstration on Jan 1. As rumours of 
significant desertion of the ranks, internal 
division and impotency abound, such a powerful 
manifestation of hardcore allegiance rallies the 
troops and demonstrates that the Zapatistas are 
still the only show in town. As the 
constitutional path - marked by betrayal, seems 
exhausted and the enemy takes a more global 
face, the Zapatistas appear to be changing their 
tactical direction, renewing the spirit of 
resistance and pursuing a more confrontational 
strategy.

Midnight, January 1, 2003, the night sky above 
San Cristobal is thick with pungent smoke and 
the old colonial streets are jam-packed with 
hordes of spirited masked Zapatistas, taking 
control of the town deserted of locals, and 
security forces. As Chiapas faces an uncertain 
future regarding the Plan Puebla Panama, one 
thing is sure from this insurgent demonstration 
- the conflict has entered into a new phase. The 
Zapatistas have returned from their forays into 
national Constitutional reform to once more 
address the needs and demands of their base 
constituency. From the stage, Comandante Bruce 
Lee (no, really) commanded the cadre to build 
bigger bonfires to warm the cool night air.

"This struggle has hardly begun. Let the fires 
shine bright so that the people can see how we 
have maintained our rebellion! ".

    * Speeches by the Commandancia of the EZLN 
on the ninth anniversary of the uprising

      Text of the speeches made by Zapatista 
commanders at San Cristo'bal anniversary 
protests

---

The article is online where some of the more 
obscure terms are linked to explanations and 
there are links to the texts of the speeches 
given by the CCRI on the night.  Access them at 
http://struggle.ws/new.html 



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