'Other Campaign' update: 29th April – 12th May 2007

La Otra continues in the North of Mexico, trying to link up the various struggles in the North of Mexico.

Main news this week has been the sentencing of some of the Atenco protest ‘leaders’ to 67 years in jail on the pretext of a dubious kidnapping charge. One of those imprisoned, Ignacio Del Valle, has replied that “prison degrades but it doesn’t kill; the person who dies is the one who gets broken, the one who gives up”. The Zapatistas have responded by continuing their protests against the repression in Atenco meted out by State forces, against the imprisonment of political prisoners, and in support of the uprising in Oaxaca.

There has been ongoing harassment of the 6th Commission delegates in the North East of Mexico, with this denounced by the Zapatistas.

There has been an official call for a gathering of the indigenous people of the Americas to take place in October 2007 in Mexico, with the Zapatistas helping organize the event.

More news on the arrest of David Venegas Reyes in Oaxaca has been released, including that he has received a death threat from the State Governor and info on internal differences within APPO.

The first UK interview with Marcos for years has just been obtained by Jo Tuckman of The Guardian. Although it doesn’t make explicitly clear the anti-capitalist, radical and ‘from below and the left’ nature of the Zapatistas it does contain some useful information, such as Marcos’ upcoming book on social forces in Mexico (his last fiction book having just got a pretty good review in The Observer) and some rather dubious Marcos waffle about “the subconscious power of the year 2010”.

Also worth reading are the two part [ 1, 2 ] article on the Zapatistas by the Workers Solidarity Movement. Although written over 5 years ago it contains a number of elements and constructive criticisms worth considering.