October 20, 2009
The Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group is one of many groups across the world 
which support the Zapatistas in their struggle. Our main purpose is to raise awareness of the Zapatista struggle and to give practical help wherever possible.
We aim to do this by organising talks, film showings, benefit gigs, street stalls and direct actions as well as publishing articles. We import Zapatista produce such as coffee, clothing and jewellery for sale with the money going directly back to the communities.
In Spring 2004 the Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group and the Glasgow Zapatista Solidarity Group twinned with the '16 de Febrero' Zapatista autonomous municipality. The municipality is in a poor, rural community which lacked access to basic medical care and education. We have raised funding that enabled the community to build a health clinic in their area and further help is now needed to purchase medical equipment and supplies.
*** Supporting autonomous health care in the communities - Appeal for donations ***
The EdinChiapas group is part of the 'UK Zapatista Network'.
Mitziton: A community in Chiapas resisting the government road
March 2010
On Sunday 28 February, a major conflict took place in the
Chiapan community of Mitziton, when around one hundred members of the evangelical ‘Army of God’, widely seen as a paramilitary group, attacked Other Campaign supporters in the community. Over 200 police attended, in ten police lorries, and the road between San Cristobal and Comitan was closed for many hours. Each side took three members of the other side hostage, and several people received bullet wounds from the guns of the Army of God or were beaten up. Huge fires were lit, and ambulances were prevented from getting in to treat the wounded.
A statement from the community assembly tells how Other Campaign adherents were tied to poles blindfolded and left like this for twelve hours, “they were brutally beaten and tortured while they poured gasoline over them, saying "we are going to burn you alive"”. Agents of the State Preventive Police “were already in place, but when they heard the shots did nothing. They only approached when the aggression was over”. Government officials who were present “did nothing, only gave statements to the press to confuse people”.
The incidents were grossly misrepresented in much of the press, despite the presence of human rights observers to monitor the situation. What had happened was presented solely as a conflict over timber, as it was precipitated by one of the evangelicals illegally cutting down five trees. He did this without gaining the permission of the community authorities, necessary because trees are protected in Mitziton.
Twinned Zapatista municipality celebrates continuing resistance
February 2010
Despite the current tense and repressive climate in Chiapas, the annual celebration by Zapatista Autonomous Municipality 16th February went ahead on this famous date when the San Andres Accords were signed by the Mexican government and the Zapatistas. A delegation from Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group was present on this important day for the 40 villages of our twinned municipality
One of the delegation reported: "It is inspiring to see the indigenous peasant farmers, who make up the Zapatista movement, continuing their resistance in the face of so much hardship and government oppression. International solidarity is more vital than ever, and every penny given to our special appeal for the autonomous health clinics will not only help save lives but will strengthen the autonomous health service."
<< Annual Municipality Celebration, 16-02-10
Indigenous Health Clinics - appeal for donations
February 2010
Thank you to all those who have supported the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group in 2009 and best wishes to everyone for 2010!
In March this year some members of the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group will be traveling to the autonomous Zapatista communities in Chiapas to visit the communities and see how their struggle for a dignified life is progressing, to observe the current state of human rights in Chiapas, and to discuss how we here in the UK can continue and improve our support for the Zapatista movement of Mexico's indigenous south.
THANK YOU to all who have donated to the group in the past. To date over 23,000 pounds has been raised for the Zapatista health service and the autonomous health clinic of '16 de Febrero', which is up and running and serving no less than forty villages of that autonomous municipality. The construction of the clinic is a great achievement but funds are still urgently needed for medicines and medical equipment etc. so we are asking you, if you can, to make a donation to the group, before 10th March 2010 so that your donations may be given in person, directly to the communities Health Promoters by members of our group on their visit in March this year. ALL donations will then be spent on the health clinic in '16 de Febrero', along with the 11 other autonomous health clinics in the Highlands zone of Chiapas (one of the five Zapatista areas in Chiapas).
Further attack by OPDDIC on Bolon Ajaw community
February 2010
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| More info on the boycott of the Agua Azul falls (spanish only) |
The Zapatista Council of Good Government (Junta de Buen Gobierno), based in Morelia, clarifies what happened in the past few days in Bolon Ajaw, Chiapas:
The Council of Good Government 'Heart of the Rainbow of Hope', Caracol
IV 'Whirlwind of our Words', Morelia, Chiapas, Mexico.
11 February 2010
To the Alternative Media
To the companeros of the Other Campaign in Mexico
To the companeros of the Sexta International
Sisters and Brothers
Companeros and Companeras
We the Council of Good Government denounce and clarify what happened on the Saturday 6th February 2010, on the land controlled by the village of Bolon Ajaw, autonomous municipality Comandanta Ramona.
The provocateurs, members of OPDDIC, inhabitants of Ejido Agua Azul, aggressively came onto the land where our companeros and companeras live, in order to work there on Thursday 20th January 2010.
Eviction and destruction of the indigenous community of Laguna San Pedro
February 2010
Zapatistas denounce the eviction and destruction of an indigenous community and accuse the government of aiming to set up ecotourism centres.
‘Reforestation’ is the pretext used by the authorities to perform the operation against the EZLN support bases.
San Cristobal de las Casas, Jan 30. The Good Government Council (JBG) ‘the way ahead’ (el camino del futuro), based in the Caracol of La Garrucha, on Friday denounced the eviction and destruction of the indigenous community of Laguna San Pedro, in the autonomous municipality of Ricardo Flores Magon, which took place on 22nd January. The government's explicit intention is to "reforest" the area and establish private ecotourism centres in the Montes Azules, within the area of the biosphere reserve.
While they were burning the houses of the indigenous people, the JBG relates, the Zapatistas were forced to board official helicopters to be transferred to the city of Palenque, where they endured "hunger and cold" in a hostel until they received attention from independent civil organizations.
As has happened before, the raid was preceded by an opportune "application" on behalf of the Lacandon authorities based in Lacanjá Chansayab, the legal owners of six hundred thousand hectares of the forest, who are habitually pressing for the expulsion of the inhabitants of Montes Azules.
Before the eviction, forces sent by “the bad federal and state (PRD) Government of Juan Sabines Guerrero, and the municipal president of Ocosingo, (PAN), Carlos Leonel Solórzano, conducted an operation using federal police, accompanied by officials of the Federal Procurator of the Environment (Profepa)” who with four helicopters flew over the village of Laguna San Pedro “to terrify the population”, said the JBG.
Chiapas Anti-Mining Organizer Murdered
December 2009
Mariano Abarca Led a Growing Movement to Kick Canadian Mining Companies Out of Mexican Communities
Mariano Abarca Roblero, one of Mexico's most prominent anti-mining organizers, was shot to death on the evening of November 27, 2009, in front of his house in Chicomuselo, Chiapas. He left behind a wife and four children. Another man was wounded in the shooting.
The incident comes just days after Abarca filed charges against two Blackfire employees, Ciro Roblero Perez and Luis Antonio Flores Villatoro, for threatening to shoot him if he didn't stop organizing against Canadian mining company Blackfire's barium mine in Chicomuselo. According to a formal complaint filed by a government employee who works in the Chicomuselo municipal building, Roblero Perez arrived at the municipal building to say that he had gone to look for Abarca to "fuck him up in a hail of bullets." He also reportedly said that Abarca and other people were on a list of people Blackfire management wants to hurt. Blackfire public relations manager Luis Antonio Flores Villatoro was mentioned in the government employee's complaint as one of the people responsible for the list.
Ejido* authorities from the Nueva Morelia ejido in Chicomuselo county took the complaint seriously and helped Abarca launch an investigation. The day before the murder, Roblero Perez and Flores Villatoro were summoned to testify regarding the alleged death threats, but they failed to appear.
"political pressure from the movement" frees OCEZ prisoners
November 2009
The Chiapas government arrested Jose Manuel "Don Chema" Hernandez Martinez on September 30, 2009. It sent him to federal maximum security prison in Nayarit.
On October 24, the Chiapas state government detained and allegedly tortured Rocelio de la Cruz Gonzáles and José Manuel de la Torre Hernández.
All three men are leaders of the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization - Carranza Region (OCEZ).
On November 24, the three men enjoyed their first day of freedom since their controversial arrests. They celebrated their freedom as any community organizer would: they got back to work. The political prisoners held a press conference and then joined their compañeros in a protest encampment.
Film Screening Edinburgh - Acteal 'A Massacre Foretold'
November 2009
A MASSACRE FORETOLD
(documentary film, 58 mins, 2007, Nick Higgins)
(documentary film, 58 mins, 2007, Nick Higgins)
This documentary by Scottish film-maker Nick Higgins reveals the truth behind the 1997 massacre in the village of Acteal in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. 45 indigenous women, children and men were murdered by paramilitaries with the aid of state forces. Those killed were from a pacifist organisation called Las Abejas, who sympathise with the aims of the Zapatistas.
FPDT STATEMENT ON ATENCO HUNGER STRIKERS
October 2009
Brothers and sisters of Mexico and the world:
We’re sending you all the information we have as of now. On Thursday, October 15, 2009, our comrade Ignacio del Valle told us in a brief phone call that he and other comrades are on hunger strike in the maximum security prison where he has been kidnapped by the Mexican state.
This extreme measure is being taken to demand an end to the subhuman prison conditions to which our political prisoners are subjected in that dungeon: physical attacks, degradation, threats, humiliation, unjustifiable punishment, suspension of phone calls, suspension of visits, destruction of mail, theft of art and design materials and other measures characteristic of fascist regimes. The comrade has not been allowed to re-establish communications with his family members or lawyers.
We hold Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Enrique Peña Nieto, and the prison warden responsible for the physical integrity, health and life of our political prisoners Felipe Álvarez, Héctor Galindo and Ignacio del Valle.
THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE, LOVE IT AND DEFEND IT!
ZAPATA LIVES, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!
PEOPLES’ FRONT IN DEFENSE OF THE LAND
ATENCO PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE
October 2009
At least 12 inmates held in maximum-security prison El Altiplano, including Ignacio del Valle, leader of the People's Front in Defence of the Land(FPDT) from San Salvador Atenco, started a hunger strike last Friday to protest against mistreatment and violations of individual rights at this federal prison, located in the town of Almoloya de Juarez.
Although officials of the Ministry of Public Security (SSP) claimed that the protest had ended on Saturday, activists denounced yesterday that the fast that started on the 15th October continues because their restrictions have been increased in recent weeks.
Monica Hurtado, head of the Human Rights Association of the State of Mexico, said relatives of Ignacio del Valle, sentenced to 112 years in prison, were told that he is one of the inmates who remains on hunger strike. The activist has requested that the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) follows up the complaints made by the people of Atenco.
Get Involved
We invite you to join our email list (sign up here) and to attend our regular organising meetings.
Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group,
c/o 17 West Montgomery Place
Edinburgh
EH7 5HA
Scotland
Email: edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk
The EdinChiapas group is part of the 'UK Zapatista Network': ukzapatistas.wordpress.com
