Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group
The Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group is one of many groups across the world which support the Zapatistas in their struggleand is part of the 'UK Zapatista Network'. Our main purpose is to raise awareness of the Zapatista struggle and to give practical help wherever possible.
We 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.
Organising meetings are now held at 7pm on the 1st Monday of every month at The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh - all welcome. Facebook / edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk
Freedom for Alberto Patishtan
In April protests, letters and phone calls were made to the government of Mexico by people from many parts of the United Kingdom calling for the immediate release of the iconic indigenous political prisoner and human rights defender Alberto Patishtán Gómez, who has now served nearly thirteen years of a sixty year sentence for a crime he did not commit.
Urgent - Risk of forced displacement in San Marcos Avilés
Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Centre
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
February 22, 2013
Urgent Action No. 1
According to information documented by this Human Rights Centre, there exists an imminent risk in San Marcos Avilés ejido, municipality of Chilón, that for the second time a forced displacement of the support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (BAEZLN) may be carried out by inhabitants of the same ejido who are affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and the Green Party of Mexico (PVEM).
After 13 Months in Prison, the Tzeltal accused of Homicide is freed for Lack of Evidence
** “They know that I am innocent, that they made up my crime,” the Zapatista says as he leaves
** Sántiz López denounces that a PGR public servant confirmed to him that he was forced to apprehend him
[Francisco Sántiz López upon leaving the prison, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Photo: Moyses Zúñiga Santiago]
By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, January 25, 2013
Francisco Sántiz López, support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN, its initials in Spanish), was released from the San Cristóbal prison this afternoon, due to the absence of evidence for the charges that kept him in prison for 13 and a half months.
The father of eight and grandfather of 12, Tzeltal campesino and businessman, who has been an active member of the Zapatista support base for more than 20 years, declared, upon taking his first steps on the other side of the bars: “We are going to continue the struggle there in the EZLN, to follow the path, we are going to win.”
The demand for his freedom had generated an international solidarity movement in close to 30 countries, which was expressed throughout 2012 in public places and in front of Mexican consulates and embassies in the five continents. In these mobilizations the freedom of Alberto Patishtán Gómez, adherent to the Other Campaign, who has been in prison since 2000, was also demanded.
Communique from the EZLN
Communiqué from the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee – General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army
Mexico.
December 30 2012.
To the People of Mexico:
To the People and Governments of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
Compañeros and Compañeras:
In the early morning hours of December 21, 2012, tens of thousands of indigenous Zapatistas mobilized and took, peacefully and silently, five municipal seats in the southeast Mexican state of Chiapas.
In the cities of Palenque, Altamirano, Las Margaritas, Ocosingo, and San Cristóbal de las Casas, we looked at you and at ourselves in silence.
Ours is not a message of resignation.
It is not one of war, death, or destruction.
Our message is one of struggle and resistance.
More than 40,000 Zapatistas Mobilize in 5 Chiapas Municipalities
- In silence, they occupy the central plazas of Ocosingo, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Palenque, Altamirano and Las Margaritas
- Later they disappear in an orderly way
By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy
Ocosingo, Chiapas, December 21, 2012
More than 40,000 Zapatista support bases filed silently this morning in five Chiapas cities, which results in the most numerous mobilization of said organization since the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s (EZLN) armed uprising on January 1, 1994.
Coming from the five Zapatista Caracoles in the Lacandón Jungle, Los Altos and the Northern Zone, the Maya peoples in rebellion (Tzeltales, Tzotziles, Choles, Tojolabales and Mames) and Zoques of Chiapas occupied the central plazas of Ocosingo, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Palenque, Altamirano and Las Margaritas; in each case, in complete silence.
At 6:30 in the morning, about 6,000 indigenous Zapatistas, the majority young, concentrated near the University of the Jungle, near the Toniná archaeological site. From there they marched to the central park of Ocosingo, where they stayed for a space of three hours in front of city hall, which the EZLN’s insurgents and milicianos took over with arms 19 years ago upon declaring war on the Mexican government.
On this occasion the action was civilian and peaceful, and the only ones that spoke were the raised left fists of all the Zapatistas, who filed in order onto a platform that they installed for that purpose. Toward 10:30 AM, the last of the demonstrators abandoned the plaza, on their way back to the Jungle.
PROTEST AT THE MEXICAN EMBASSY IN LONDON
International Campaign: “Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas”
Today, being the first day of the second phase, “From Truth to Action, Stopping the Repression”, of the “Worldwide Echo in Support of the Zapatistas” campaign, and also the Day of Indigenous Resistance, a protest was organised at the Mexican Embassy in London, England, by activists from Bristol and Dorset, against the attacks by the bad government of Mexico against the Zapatista communities. News had just broken of a new attack on the community of Guadalupe los Altos, and the imprisonment of 6 Zapatistas.
The following document was delivered to the Embassy:
Alberto Patishtán loses his sight due to neglect by the Mexican State
Report from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center:
Roberto Barrios JBG denounces attack on Comandante Abel community
Report from the caravan of observation and documentation to the Zapatista community of Comandante Abel
From the Free Media Centre:
Thursday 20 Sep: The displacement of Comandante Abel resulted in two women and two young children missing.
Days later they were found in the cornfields of a nearby community in solidarity.
Officials and former officials, and military and former military members are driving the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia in Sabanilla.
The Zapatistas from Comandante Abel community resist the attacks from the Government counterinsurgency.
Today the caravan will meet another group of displaced people from Union Hidalgo.
"The Mexican State, repressor of justice against EZLN support bases"
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
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
Or click here for our Facebook page
The EdinChiapas group is part of the 'UK Zapatista Network': ukzapatistas.wordpress.com
