Zapatistas vow to remake Mexico

MEXICO CITY

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation Army (EZLN) has vowed to continue its campaign to change Mexico’s political and economic system.

The Zapatistas, as part of a larger movement known as “The Other Campaign,” say that they will renew their efforts to organize “a civil and pacifist insurrection” across Mexico to transform the country’s political and economic system. The Other Campaign is a loose coalition of individuals and groups that includes the Party of Mexican Communists, one of the country’s left-wing parties.

The primary goals of The Other Campaign are to abolish capitalism, which it says has led to widespread poverty, and to dismantle the country’s repressive political system.

Subcomandante Marcos at first public meeting of The Other Campaign, 2006 in Chiapas. www.ucimc.org.

According to EZLN leader Subcomandante Marcos, in a recent interview posted on the web site Radio Zapatista, while armed struggle to change the economic and political system is still an option, The Other Campaign has ruled this out. He predicted that the Zapatista-led campaign could succeed in transforming Mexico before 2010.

Zapatista commanders, including Marcos, have launched a new tour of Mexico to build opposition to the government of President Felipe Calderon. The EZLN is also initiating a solidarity campaign, in Mexico and worldwide, with the indigenous communities in Chiapas, an impoverished state in the country’s southeast.

Marcos said, “We [the EZLN] do not want to take power and from there decide the transformation of society.” He said the Zapatistas reject the traditional Mexican and Latin American revolutionary model of popular movements overthrowing repressive states, taking power and then “imposing another tyranny.” The EZLN only wants to initiate a grassroots movement to overthrow the existing order, he said.

Unlike other left-wing guerilla groups in Latin America, such as FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia), the EZLN and The Other Campaign operate openly with little apparent fear of arrest. The masked, pipe-smoking Marcos and other masked Zapatista commanders travel across Mexico, speaking openly at public meetings. EZLN supporters set up information tables in open-air markets to distribute campaign material and sell Zapatista memorabilia.

After Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s center-left movement, The Other Campaign is the second largest opposition group working for change in Mexico. However, both movements are bitterly opposed to each other.

During the 2006 election campaign, Subcomandante Marcos toured the country urging people not to vote for either the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) or Lopez Obrador’s coalition For the Good of All (now called the Broad Progressive Front). Marcos charged that Lopez Obrador and his coalition, if elected, would pursue the same right-wing policies implemented by PAN and PRI.

As a result, a bitter rift has emerged between supporters of the EZLN and Lopez Obrador, some of whom charge that Marcos helped PAN and PRI secure more votes by encouraging people who might have been inclined to vote for the left to abstain from voting. Given the history of election rigging in Mexico, The Other Campaign refuses to take part in electoral politics.

The EZLN first emerged on the world stage in 1994 from the jungles of Chiapas in an uprising aimed at rectifying injustices suffered by the indigenous people, fighting the Mexican army to a standstill. The military maintains a cordon around Zapatista-controlled territory in eastern Chiapas, where 100,000 indigenous people reside. Zapatista-controlled local governments run the region.

Since 1994, there has been no further fighting. Recently, the EZLN charged that paramilitary forces are encroaching on Zapatista territory and trying to drive farmers off lands seized by Zapatistas 13 years ago. The EZLN announced it will resist the paramilitaries with force if necessary.

The EZLN, named after Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919), represents a long tradition in Mexico of people taking up arms to overthrow the government. Other smaller guerilla movements such as the Popular Revolutionary Army continue to operate in states such as Guerro. The Other Campaign came out of a Zapatista-organized conference in Chiapas in June 2005.

Mexican Marxists Split, But Confident of Success - New Zeal BLog

Mexico is facing two communist infiltrated mass revolutionary movements, the "Broad Progressive Front" of failed presidential candidate Lopez Obrador and the Zapatista dominated "Other Campaign".
Both want to bring Latin American socialism to the US border.

From the Communist Party USA's Peoples Weekly World

MEXICO CITY — The Zapatista Army of National Liberation Army (EZLN) has vowed to continue its campaign to change Mexico’s political and economic system.

The Zapatistas, as part of a larger movement known as “The Other Campaign,” say that they will renew their efforts to organize “a civil and pacifist insurrection” across Mexico to transform the country’s political and economic system. The Other Campaign is a loose coalition of individuals and groups that includes the Party of Mexican Communists, one of the country’s left-wing parties.

The primary goals of The Other Campaign are to abolish capitalism, which it says has led to widespread poverty, and to dismantle the country’s repressive political system.

Lula’s Trip to Washington Today Marks Brazil’s Next Giant Step to Becoming a Heavy Player

• Washington still unclear on how to negotiate with its robust neighbor
• Will the second meeting be any more eventful than the first one, several weeks ago, when Bush met Lula for a mystifying pow-wow?
• How will Washington’s positions towards the Brazilian claims be influenced by the “ethanol factor”?

Brazil’s President Lula da Silva’s arrival in Washington tonight is surrounded by high expectations, but also with considerable trepidation. President Lula will be President Bush’s guest at Camp David, his presidential refuge in the nearby Maryland mountains, just outside of Washington. The White House invitation to Lula represents the most singular honor that has not been bestowed on any Latin-American leader since 1991, when Mexico’s President, the crafty rogue leader, Carlos Salinas visited Camp David as a guest of President George Bush Sr. The preferential treatment being accorded to Lula may simply be an initiation of the White House’s efforts to make 2007 the “year of engagement in Latin America.” However, other, decidedly less fluffy reasons may exist for Bush to roll out the red carpet for Lula’s visit.

Almost a Regular Event
The March 31st meeting will be the second gathering of the two presidents in a matter of weeks. On March 9th, Bush and Lula met in Brazil during the first stop in the U.S. leader’s swing across the region. As a result of that meeting, Condoleezza Rice and Brazil’s Minister of Foreigner Affairs, Celso Amorim, co-signed a cooperative agreement for promoting ethanol production. Just a few weeks earlier at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S. and Brazilian officials had launched an international forum for promoting the biofuels market. It is obvious that U.S.-Brazil relations have been growing markedly tighter and that ethanol is today the dominant elixir fueling the two nations’ ongoing conversation.

But, to get matters straight about ethanol, it is necessary to address the big picture. First, burning ethanol releases less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than burning fossil fuels, whether the base is sugar-cane, corn or cellulose. Thus, ethanol can be seen as a very effective means for addressing global warming. Second, the increased production of ethanol diversifies fuel portfolios and in this way can be a powerful determinant in lowering fuel prices in the international market.

Although both countries have professed great concern about global warming—an issue that only recently has begun to pull more weight in the U.S. politics—both Washington and Brasília appear to have their eyes primarily focused on the potential ample economic returns of ethanol production, sales and distribution. However, while Washington clearly sees ethanol as an avenue to strengthening its energy security tabulations, Brasília sees it as a way of consolidating its position as an emerging political power broker.

Ethanol Could Change the World
Washington’s game seems to be based on lowering the economic costs of its ethanol production and consumption. Washington also says that after questions relating to the economy of scale are addressed and the land available for production is assessed, it will get down to dealing with the factors involved in bringing such production to Central America and the Caribbean. With both Brazil and this array of small Caribbean Basin Countries with their legacy sugar-cane plantations puts them on the right side on this issue, the U.S. could begin weighting thoughts of championing a sort of “green OPEC.” That would entail the decrease in oil-dependency in the Western hemisphere and, at the same time, contract the bargaining power of politically fractious OPEC members like Venezuela and Iran.

Brasília’s plan is quite different and may be far more democratic in its inspiration. Brazil is the most advanced country in the world in the production of ethanol, and the current administration seems willing to share its relatively uncomplicated sugar-cane ethanol technology with the Caribbean basin nations, as Washington is requesting it to do. But Brasília is also interested in sharing its technology beyond the hemisphere’s borders, for equally compelling geopolitical reasons. If ethanol had a broader production base, sugarcane—an agricultural commodity now widely produced by poor countries located in equatorial regions around the globe—would enjoy an increase in demand in the international market, which could have a transformative impact on the economies of many of these countries. If these poor countries are able to develop their own ethanol production capacity, they can import less oil and the competition between fossil fuels and biofuels will most likely bring their prices down. Thus, with a little imagination, Brasília’s move to share its ethanol technology globally might be seen as the generative spark behind a massive, if humble, methodology of poverty alleviation. Brasilia is interested in the potential geopolitical gains resulting from such a development, in line with the longstanding desire of Lula to be seen as global leader: the ‘spokesman for the developing world’.

Based on these considerations, we may expect that during his present U.S. visit, Lula will try to reinforce his image as world-class leader by putting Bush in the corner and pressuring him to demand that the U.S. Congress reduces import tariffs on ethanol. In addition, Lula has always nursed a fixation of wanting to be seen as the protector of the underprivileged. Lula is willing to use Brazil’s sugar-cane ethanol capacity became a wedge into influencing the U.S.’s position in the current World Trade Organization discussions on agricultural subsidies (the “Doha Round”). He has been one of the leading voices among a group of developing countries (G-20) whose main objective is precisely to work for the reduction of agricultural subsidies in developed countries. Earlier this month, over his regularly featured radio show, Lula said he would come to U.S. not only to discuss investment in ethanol research but also to talk about the need to make progress in the Doha Round. The question here is what kind of negotiation Bush can try to carry out with a leader who seems to have an increasingly strong hand at the table.

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Thomaz Alvares de Azevedo e Almeida

Venezuela to Introduce Local Currencies

by Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a Center for ideological formation, where he announced the idea of introducing local currencies in Venezuela. Credit: ABN

Caracas, March 30, 2007

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that his government would like to introduce local currencies in communities, so as to help their development and to alleviate poverty. Local currencies would allow people to exchange goods and services without needing the national currency to enable such transactions.

Chavez said such currencies “can improve life and above all for the construction of a new social, economic, and political system” by creating an “alternative system of commerce.” Such systems have been applied in many places, according to Chavez, such as “in northern Brazil and in some localities of Mexico.”

Such as system would allow “the poor to possibility of acquiring products via exchange with an intermediary currency that could circulate, for example, in a determinate territory or would have validity for a determinate time,” explained Chavez.

The implementation of local currencies would require a set of rules, said Chavez, which could be passed as a law-decree, under the enabling law, according to which Chavez may pass law-decrees for 18 months, beginning in January of this year. Chavez asked Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez to present a law proposal for this project.

Local currencies have been used in many parts of the world, often in times of economic crisis or in areas with depressed economic activity. In addition to Mexico and Brazil, they have also been used during Argentina’s economic crisis, in the U.S., and in Europe.

The best known example in the U.S. is the “Ithaca Hour,” in Ithaca, New York, which establishes that one hour of work is equal to one Ithaca Hour. The currency is issued locally every time someone provides a service for someone else. As such, it does not require an influx of money from outside the community for transactions within the community to take place and ensures an equal hourly wage, no matter the type of work. Also, such a system can make inflation and inequality based on capital ownership practically impossible.

In Britain, Australia, and in many other countries around the world similar systems, which are not necessarily based on one hour of labor, are known as “Local Exchange and Trading Systems” (LETS).

Brazil rainforest internet plan

A move to provide free internet access to native Indian tribes to help protect the Amazon rainforest from illegal logging has been announced in Brazil.

Environment Minister Marina Silva said land protection was the key aim of the plan, which will provide satellite access to 150 isolated regions.

Indigenous communities were the true protectors of their areas, she said.

Brazil has struggled to protect the Amazon forest from illegal activities, including mining and ranching.

More contact

Under the plan, the central government will provide the satellite internet access, but state and local governments must first provide the necessary computers.

Thirteen areas have been chosen by the Environment Ministry, the National Indian Foundation (Funai) and the environmental protection agency, Ibama.

The internet helped us bring in the police [when we had illegal logging in our area] Benhi Piyanko

They include the Pantanal wetlands, the largest remaining wetland in the world largely unaffected by human activities.

"It's a way to open communications between indigenous communities, former slave villages, coconut crackers, river fishermen and the rest of society," Ms Silva said, after signing the agreement.

Since taking office, she has taken an active role in defending the rainforest and its estimated 20 million inhabitants.

Environment ministry official Francisco Costa said the goal was to encourage indigenous peoples to join the authorities in the environmental management of the country.

He said the government intended to strengthen a four-year-old digital system for monitoring and protecting the forest called the Forest Peoples' Network.

Mixed views

Indigenous leaders have expressed support for the programme.

"The internet helped us bring in the police [when we had illegal logging in our area]," Benhi Piyanko, a member of an Ashaninka indigenous community in western Acre state, said.

"We managed to spread the message widely. We even reached the president."

Others fear that the arrival of computers might erode indigenous culture.

"I don't like computers but I don't like planes either," Ailton Krenak, a member of the Krenak people, said. "What can you do?"

Violence Has Gotten Oaxaca Deeper into Polarization

by Barbara Lopez‚ Beyond Chron (reposted)
Thursday Mar 29th, 2007 10:03 AM

I just got back from Oaxaca in Mexico, where I grew up as a small child and visit every two years. My father’s family is in Oaxaca City, Tlacolula, and Tehuantepec and to me they are a fascinating slice of Oaxacan culture. Some are business owners, others intellectuals, and the older generation still work selling meats in the market place, preserving the Zapotec native dialect.

Oaxaca is a very diverse state, with about 18 different ethnic groups and Oaxacans are known for their cultural pride and resiliency. Corruption or mordidas are an ongoing part of life since there hasn’t been a democratic election process in over 80 years and it is the poorest state in Mexico. Oaxaca needs social reform and change and last summer, many marched with the teachers as a demand to change. Today, Oaxacans are critical of APPO (the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) or the coalition of groups seeking change, as the last eight months have been painful.

APPO Needs to Purge Itself of the Violent Elements:

Currently, APPO is having reflective meetings to make decisions on its agenda and membership. These meetings are extremely critical. While there are very positive elements to APPO such as the Indigenous rights group and NGO’s, APPO has also included very violent elements such as anarchists from the U.S., Mexico City, and Puebla and many street children and drug users who are rightfully angry, but whose actions have hurt the movement.

I did not meet a single Oaxacan who hasn’t had a violent confrontation with APPO – except for those very involved. My cousin, a single mother who lives near the television station, was told by a group of drunken “APPO leaders” to provide food and money or they would harm her and her children. The same group dictated to her when she could leave the house or not.

My aunt who owns a restaurant downtown was forced to give $22,000 pesos or her restaurant would be burned down. My uncle was stoned in his car because he had government plates (ironically he has them just so he can sell trinkets in the airport). Our housekeeper was also coerced into giving whatever money she had and a bus was burned in front of her house, scaring her and her family.

More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4354#more

Venezuela’s Electoral Council Initiates 19 Additional Recall Procedures

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council approved requests to initiate recall procedures against 19 more elected officials. Also, the Council announced that signatures in support of recall referenda will be collected June 16 to 18.

With the approval of these new requests for recall procedures, the total number of elected officials that could face a recall referendum is now 46. Last week the National Electoral Council (CNE) had already approved recall processes for four governors, 20 mayors, and four state legislators.

Among the new officials that citizen groups would like to recall are Freddy Bernal, the mayor of the largest municipality of Caracas, Libertador, and the governor of Yaracuy state, Carlos Gimenez. Together, the new batch of possible recall candidates includes 11 mayors, one governor, and 7 state legislators.

This means that on June 16, 17, and 18, the CNE will organize a signature collection process, whereby the groups initiating the recall process must collect signatures from at least 20% of registered voters in each of the elected official’s district. The signatures will be collected with the help of fingerprint scanners, so as to accelerate the process of verifying the signatures.

The recall process against President Chavez, where opposition groups collected signatures in December 2003, suffered tremendous delays due to conflicts over the validity of the signatures. The presidential recall referendum was thus not held until eight months after the signatures had been collected. This time the CNE hopes to have referenda organized in a much shorter time span.

“We are doing everything necessary to guarantee that the recall referenda are realized,” said Sandra Oblitas, one of the five CNE directors. She conceded, though, that the timing would be tight because the terms of governors and mayors expire on October 31, 2008 and if the referenda are held towards the end of 2007, successful referenda would mean that officials are removed from office a mere ten months before the end of their term.

Several party leaders have said that their parties would not participate in the recall process, since it makes little sense to remove officials so shortly before there is a new election. Enrique Marquez of the opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT – A New Time) said, “It is better to wait a year instead of spending hundreds of billions [of bolivars] on this.” Similarly, leaders of the pro-government parties PCV (Communist Party), PPT (Fatherland For All), and MVR (Movement for a Fifth Republic) said they would not support the recall effort, even though they support the citizen right in principle.

So far, the recall referenda have been initiated by a wide variety of pro- and anti-government citizen groups.

If the 20% of registered voters’ signatures are collected in favor of a referendum, then at least as many voters have to vote in favor of the recall as originally voted for the candidate. In some cases, such as Caracas Mayor Freddy Bernal, the number of votes needed to recall him is extremely high, since he won with 74% of the vote in October 2004. Also, for the vote to be valid, at least 25% of registered voters have to participate in the referendum.

Supermodels 1, Ulises Ruiz 0: Miss Universe Cancels Oaxaca Events of 2007 Pageant

Ruiz Dishonestly Blames Donald Trump as Models Move on Mexican Consulates in New York and Elsewhere with the Demand: “Federal Police Out of Oaxaca!”

By Cha-Cha Connor

Spokesmodel, Popular Assembly of Models for Oaxaca (APMO)

March 29, 2007

The international models movement Supermodels for Oaxaca (APMO, in Spanish) claims its first victory today, with the cancellation by the Miss Universe pageant of its scheduled competition in the Mexican state of Oaxaca that had been announced for May.

The true credit for this victory goes to the heroic peoples of Oaxaca and their Popular Assembly (known as APPO, in its Spanish initials), which has continued to demand the removal of the fraudulent and illegitimate dictatorship of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

APMO “well done” bouquet to Donald Trump

Today, pageant owners Donald Trump and NBC pulled the Miss Universe Contest out of the ancient indigenous site of Monte Alban, Oaxaca, just three weeks after the APMO announced that models were mobilizing to protest in solidarity with the social movements of Oaxaca. With the pullout of Miss Universe from Oaxaca, models have preserved our dignity as workers and as agents for peace, justice, and democracy, and as workers we will continue stand in solidarity with the peoples of Oaxaca against the dictatorship.

The last time the Mexican government attempted to impose a major international spectacle on a people during a time of public repudiation of the regime, prior to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, protests were met by brutal police repression, causing the massacre of Tlatelolco Plaza on October 2, 1968 where more than 1,000 protesters were assassinated and many more wounded and imprisoned. A similar bloodbath was waiting in the wings with the traditional costumes contest of Miss Universe, but models have stood up and declared that we will have no part in repression.

The dangers that the repressive dictatorship of the Ulises Ruiz government poses for the movements of Oaxaca, including the Popular Assembly of Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), are far from over. In particular, since November 2006 the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) have committed human rights violations, including rape and assassinations, against the people of Oaxaca which have been documented by many human rights organizations and authentic journalists. (see “Offensive by the Federal Preventive Police Against the People of Oaxaca,” November 25, 2006, Narco News.)

In addition to the repressive nature of the Ruiz regime, the disgraced governor revealed his dishonesty and singular lack of intelligence this week when he told the daily Excelsior of Mexico City that the event was cancelled because Miss Universe owner Donald Trump supposedly demanded $1.5 million dollars from the state. That is obviously untrue (even the president of the state restaurant association in Oaxaca admitted to the daily Noticias de Oaxaca that it was the continuing “social conflict” in the state – its ungovernability – that sealed the event’s fate).

Far from blaming Mr. Trump and the Miss Universe organization, the APMO models thank and praise him for his foresight to avert a bloodbath this May in Oaxaca, and for removing the Miss Universe models from harm’s way and the indignity of supporting a dictatorial regime. To show our thanks, Supermodels for Oaxaca has sent this beautiful yellow-and-violet floral bouquet to Mr. Trump at his Fifth Avenue offices: where we had planned to protest, we now send flowers.

A “thank you” card accompanies the deluxe “well done” bouquet sent to Mr. Trump. It contains the following message:

Thank you, Mr. Trump, for pulling the Miss Universe pageant away from the violent hands of Oaxaca dictator Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Your decision is a victory for human and indigenous rights.

Supermodels for Oaxaca
models@narconews.com

The first stage of the project thus completed, in solidarity with the workers of Oaxaca, the models of the APMO announce an escalation of our protest: we will move to the second stage of our organizing efforts, and will continue preparations for red carpet pickets in New York and elsewhere. For these actions, the APMO will target Mexican consulates in the United States and all over the world in solidarity with the demands of the APPO for the end of the illegitimate dictatorship of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. We will continue our actions, as an international models movement, until the Mexican government removes the Federal Preventative Police from Oaxaca and ceases to recognize and prop-up the Ruiz dictatorship.

Federal Preventative Police out of Oaxaca NOW.

END the illegitimate dictatorship of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz!

TO AUDITION FOR THE UPCOMING SUPERMODELS PROTESTS AT MEXICAN CONSULATES: Send Applications to be part of APMO by Sunday, March 31st, 2007 by midnight, to models@narconews.com.

Auditions in New York City on April 18th, 2007, at 12noon

To audition to be an APMO supermodel, please send at least 2 headshots, 2 full body photos and 2 photos of your choice, as well as a letter expressing your desires to audition, to Spokesmodel and Director Cha-Cha Connor at models@narconews.com. All photos should be professional and of you alone.

Photographers, hair and makeup stylists, fashion designers, personal trainers, manicurists and pedicurists, likewise send examples of your work along with a letter expressing your desire to volunteer in this project to Spokesmodel and Director Cha-Cha Connor at models@narconews.com.

Reporters, fashion magazine editors, theater and cinema directors, performance artists, paparazzi, voyeurs, gawkers, bodyguards and human rights observers, please contact Ms. Connor’s Press Secretary Al Giordano at narconews@gmail.com.

See also: Miss Universe 2007 Canceled in Oaxaca (Noticias de Oaxaca, en español)

VIDEO: The land belongs to those who work it (A community in Chiapas faces paramilitaries and the government)

The community of Bolon Aja'aw is located in Chiapas, close to the touristic Agua Azul waterfalls. Currently, the state of Mexico is using paramilitaries to try to displace the community and in this way it is for the benefit of business in the tourist zone. This video, recorded in 2004, clearly shows us the Mexican government's hypocrisy where it tries to disguise its interests underneath an ecological discourse. Facing this scene, the Zapatistas strip the government's facade.

The video “The Land Belongs to Those Who Work It” was made by the Zaptatisa video promotors of the Northern Zone, when the community of Bolon Aja’aw still was coordinating with the Caracol V, Roberto Barrios. Currently the community is coordinating with the autonomous Zapatista authorities of Caracol IV of Morelia.

As an informative compliment, the report below by Hermann Bellinghausen for “La Jornada” covers the same community of Bolon Aja’aw on March 9, 2007. Video, 15'

(Bajar archivo de video / Download video file (32 MB)

http://chiapas.indymedia.org

Telecom Minister: New Channel Will Be First True Public TV in Venezuela

Venezuela’s Telecommunications Minister, Jesse Chacón, said today that the TV channel that will replace RCTV, whose broadcast license expires May 27, will be the country’s first true Public TV channel, modeled after European TV.

Chacón explained that the new channel will separate the medium from the messages that are broadcast. That is, while the signal will be broadcast by the state, independent TV producers will create the programming for the new channel.

“The state, in the exercise of its faculties, has decided that the frequency of Radio Caracas Television [RCTV] will go over to form part of a new television model that we have decided to call ‘Public Service Television’,” said Chacón during a press conference today.

“With this [new channel] we break the editorial line that exists in the TV business, where the owner of the medium is the owner of the message,” explained Chacón. Each producer would have their own editorial line that they are free to follow.

Chacón invited all Venezuelans to actively participate in the discussion of exactly how this new channel should be organized, how citizens participate in it, and what its programming should be. “Hopefully the creation of this public service channel, starting on May 28, will mean the emergence of a television in Venezuela where Venezuelans recognize each other, where values are placed first, and where we truly feel that we can not only be consumers of the medium, but citizens who actively participate in the creation of the content.”

Chacón also announced that next year the government will launch a public service radio channel, which would be organized along the same lines as the new TV channel. Contradicting opposition claims, Chacón emphasized that the Venezuelan state controls not even 10% of the broadcast wavelength spectrum.

As a whole, according to Chacón, Venezuela’s media landscape has diversified and democratized a lot in the course of the Chavez presidency, so that TV channels have increased from 30 to 78 since 1999 and the number of FM radio broadcasters has increased from 368 to 617.

The expiration of the broadcast license of the oppositional TV channel RCTV has caused opposition supporters to argue that freedom of speech is being limited in Venezuela. Chavez government officials, such as Chacón, argue, though, that the non-renewal of the station’s license is a prerogative of the government. According to Venezuelan law it is under no obligation to renew the license, whose 20-year term expires this May 27th. On earlier occasions Chacón said that RCTV is free to continue broadcasting via satellite and/or cable.

RCTV is Venezuela’s oldest TV station, which began broadcasting in 1953. Chavez announced last year that he would not renew the station’s license, due to its past abuse of its broadcasting license. The station was heavily involved in the April 2002 coup attempt when it and other private TV channels claimed Chavez had ordered his supporters to shoot at an opposition demonstration, that Chavez had resigned, and when it refused to broadcast massive protests and unrest in support of Chavez’s return to office.

Numerous media owner associations, such as Reporters without Borders and the Inter-American Press Association, have strongly criticized the decision, saying it will lead to a restriction of freedom of speech in Venezuela. Government supporters, though, argue that closing RCTV will open the airwaves to more views than before.

Ortega Government Shows Some Response to Civil Society Demands

On January 10, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega delivered his second inaugural address to an expectant national and international audience. The first one was in 1984, after being elected president of Nicaragua's revolutionary government. Then, he took office amid the lingering euphoria of the Sandinista triumph and the tumult of the U.S.-funded contra war. Much has changed in the intervening years. Headlines in Managua have been filled with speculation as to what course the Ortega administration will steer, and how the United States—historic nemesis of Ortega's party the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)—will respond. Daniel Ortega assumed the Nicaraguan presidency for the second time in January. Will Ortega's government continue recent administrations' acquiescence to the U.S.-pushed neoliberal model, in order to maintain good standing with the United States and international donors? Or will it join a growing list of Latin American countries that are rebelling against the model? Or will it attempt to do both? Will the U.S. government respect the course the Ortega administration sets? Or will it seek to punish any challenges to its free market framework? The reality is that the Ortega administration must consider how the U.S. or International Monetary Fund might respond to policy shifts. But at the same time, Nicaraguan civil society is also exerting pressure on Ortega. After 16 years of watching successive national governments restructure the economy along the classic lines of the neoliberal economic model, many Nicaraguan groups are demanding that the model be reformed, while others call for it to be wholly replaced. For years, civil society groups' concrete proposals for change have fallen on deaf ears as the government insisted on adhering to the U.S. or IMF policies that provoked popular protest. While the details of policy shifts are difficult to predict at this early point, the Ortega administration's initial action and discourse offer some indication that several civil society demands for change may now be heeded. Agro-exports vs. Family Farming One of the longest-standing demands has been for the government to invest in Nicaragua's small and medium-scale farmers. Nicaraguan economist Carlos Pacheco of the Irish organization TROCAIRE explains how the IMF and World Bank have pushed Nicaragua, like much of the developing world, to follow an agroexport-led model of development. This model eliminates subsidies, credit, and other state support for small and medium producers who do not produce for export, while fostering greater reliance on imports for Nicaraguans' own food consumption. The Center for Rural and Social Promotion, Research, and Development (CIPRES), estimates that 96% of Nicaragua's 233,000 producers are small and medium-scale farmers who are excluded by this model. 1 Nicaragua's food imports have risen to US$300 million a year. 2 Throughout the last decade, independent economists, farming associations, and health organizations have called on the government to take measures to achieve "food sovereignty," warning that such dependency on imports makes Nicaragua more vulnerable to periods of hunger and malnutrition. Some of Ortega's preliminary moves suggest that the government may finally be listening. In his first days in office, Ortega announced the creation of the Zero Hunger program. Zero Hunger intends to apply nationwide a holistic farming model that CIPRES developed in the mid-90's to revitalize small-scale agriculture. Through its revolving loan program, the model provides small-scale farming families with livestock, seed, innovative technology, low-interest credit, and technical assistance for running a farm in which waste is efficiently reused to minimize costs and maximize production. Experience has shown that the CIPRES model has resulted in increased and diversified food production, which farm families use to meet their own nutritional needs, and to sell the surplus on the local market. Of the approximately 750 families that have implemented the holistic farm program in the last six years, 80% percent have achieved financial solvency and paid back their loan. The average diet of participating families has grown by 25-30% in quantity and 50% in variety, while the quantity and price of the products they sell at local markets has also risen significantly. 3 The Zero Hunger program aims to replicate the CIPRES model by funding the establishment of 15,000 holistic farms a year throughout Nicaragua for the next five years. 4 Gustavo Moreno of Zero Hunger's national technical team hopes that by directing production-stimulating subsidies to the abandoned small farming sector, the program may "eradicate hunger and mitigate poverty" in the countryside. Moreno also predicts that as thousands of families in the program see food yields and quality increase, Nicaragua will eliminate the need to import basic foods within five years. While many organizations have applauded the government's commitment to the Zero Hunger program, some have questioned the viability of replicating CIPRES's relatively small-scale initiative on a national level. Moreno admits this difficulty, but points out that the vast operation will be administered by several hundred civil society organizations rather than the state, since the state does not have the resources to administer the program. Moreno sees the plans for Zero Hunger implementation as a "sign that the government wants to work in harmony with civil society." "School Autonomy" vs. Free Education One week after the kickoff of Zero Hunger, Nicaragua's new Minister of Education Miguel de Castilla struck another blow against the neoliberal framework by declaring the end of "school autonomy." School autonomy, a public education structure consistently foisted on developing nations through IMF structural adjustment programs, calls for most decision-making responsibility to be transferred from the government to each school's staff, teachers, students, and parents. School autonomy also requires that the responsibility for covering costs, such as school maintenance and repairs, be transferred from the government to parents through the imposition of monthly fees. Teachers' associations, economists, and human rights organizations alike have named school autonomy as part of the reason that approximately 1,075,000 school-aged children—over half of Nicaragua's school-aged population—did not attend primary or secondary schools last year.5 De Castilla has vowed to make public education free again by employing independent school monitors to ensure that students are charged no fees. While many groups support De Castilla's goal, they also ask how the Ministry of Education will get the extra money required to cover the expenses that parents previously financed through monthly fees. According to Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, the amount that autonomous schools accrued in parental contributions in one month during 2004 exceeded the Education Ministry's school maintenance budget for all of 2006. 6 In past years, the IMF imposition of a cap on Nicaragua's public spending, in addition to the government's refusal to redistribute funds, has precluded civil society's pleas to divert more resources to the education budget. According to Mario Quintana, national liaison for the Coordinadora Civil (Civil Coalition) that brings together over 600 civil society organizations, "Funding education that is accessible to the population will not happen right away. Having enough money in the budget to fund education would mean a full revamping of national priorities, and would involve renegotiation with the IMF." As the new administration now begins talks with the IMF, groups like the Coordinadora Civil anxiously wait to see if the government will successfully negotiate more education funds or once again be restrained by an IMF-imposed ceiling for social spending. Privatized Water vs. Water as a Human Right De Castilla is not the only recent governmental appointment to reflect civil society critiques of neoliberalism. In January, Ortega conveyed a clear message by choosing Ruth Herrera to head Nicaragua's public water utility, ENACAL. As the co-founder and director of the Nicaraguan Consumers' Defense Network, Herrera has served as a de facto spokesperson for the widespread movement against the privatization of Nicaragua's public services. At the urging of the IMF, which has traditionally conditioned its aid on privatization of services, Nicaragua sold public electricity distribution in 2000. In 2001 it partially privatized its telecommunications industry by selling 40% to Megatel, and then sold off the remaining shares to America Movil in 2004. While electricity privatization was sold on the premise of cheaper rates, better service, and wider coverage, since 2000 the country has seen rate hikes, power outages lasting up to 4-12 hours daily, and dismal coverage in rural areas. Last August, as neighborhood organizations organized refuse-to-pay campaigns against the Spanish private electric company Union Fenosa, the Comptroller General declared that the company's contract should be nullified for non-compliance. Herrera has been vocal not only in condemning the outcome of privatized electricity distribution, but also in denouncing quiet attempts to privatize water distribution. Along with her Consumers' Defense Network colleagues, she filed a Supreme Court appeal to halt the implementation of an Inter-American Development Bank loan to partially sell the water distribution service. Herrera helped draft a General Water Law that, if passed, would ensure indefinite public ownership of ENACAL, and lambasted the outgoing ENACAL management for intentionally mismanaging the company as a pretext to privatize. Many analysts, including the Consumers' Defense Network itself, consider Herrera's appointment to ENACAL as a sign that the Ortega administration intends to respect overwhelming civil society sentiment to keep Nicaragua's water in public hands. Investment Incentives vs. Workers' Rights The appointment of Jeaneth Chavez as Minister of Labor is another move seen as a response to civil society pressures. Chavez, in addition to co-founding the Consumers' Defense Network with Herrera, has also worked to defend labor rights for much of her life as a labor lawyer. Miguel Ruiz, International Relations Secretary of the CST-JBE, a confederation of maquila (offshore assembly plants) unions, notes that Chavez "has been a legal adviser not for big business, but for workers." Ruiz sees the appointment of Chavez as a response to years of pleas from unions and human rights groups to curb rampant labor rights violations in Nicaragua's notorious maquila sector. Angel Avalos, the recently-fired secretary general of a union in a Granada-based maquila, lists the most frequent abuses in the maquilas as repression against workers who join or form unions, unhygienic and unsafe working conditions, physical and verbal aggression, denial of maternity leave, and failure to provide legally-mandated health insurance. Despite the persistence of these violations, CAFTA now prioritizes maquila sector expansion as the neoliberal path to job growth and overall development for Nicaragua. Irela Aleman, a labor lawyer with the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, expects that as more maquilas enter Nicaragua under CAFTA provisions, Chavez will take a firm stance in bringing factories into compliance with Nicaraguan labor law. Chavez has indicated publicly that she will do so by more rigorously inspecting the plants and more assertively citing violations to be corrected. However, when past Ministry of Labor officials have attempted to enforce Nicaraguan law and persuade factories to rehire illegally busted unions or pay debts to workers, factories have publicly threatened to leave for countries with laxer labor codes. Fearing significant job loss, the Ministry of Labor has often succumbed to factory threats and allowed violations to continue unchecked. Ruiz and Aleman hope that Chavez will be able to insist on compliance with labor law but still avoid factory flight. Currently, Aleman does not foresee factory flight, arguing, "So long as workers' wages remain low, the maquilas will stay." Yet, wages themselves may become a point of contention in the near future. In late January, Gustavo Porras, head of the National Workers' Front (FNT), proposed that the minimum wage be doubled, given that the current cost of living is more than twice the average minimum wage of 1400 córdobas, or $77, per month. Chavez agreed that "the minimum wage is really behind in relation to the cost of living," and later announced that the minimum wage would be negotiated in coming weeks. 7 If a significant wage increase is adopted, and enforced by Chavez, the longevity of Nicaragua's maquila sector could hang in the balance. The minimum wage issue may reveal whether the new Ministry of Labor will jeopardize maquila investments for the sake of fair remuneration, or if it will continue offering foreign investors a supply of cheap labor. While nothing is certain about the direction of this new government, it merits attention that within the first week of taking office, the Ortega administration announced the end of the IMF-pushed school autonomy policy, the launch of a program to revitalize small-scale farming, and the appointments of an anti-privatization activist to head the public water utility and a labor rights activist to lead the Labor Ministry. At the same time, these policy shifts are not the brainchild of any one politician or political party. They are the result of a growing civil-society consensus, backed by mounting public pressure, that the U.S.-promoted neoliberal model has only further impoverished Nicaragua. The U.S. government and the IMF have so far chosen to refrain from commenting on the initial moves of the Ortega administration, waiting for more concrete evidence of the path the new government plans to take. As that evidence becomes known, Witness for Peace will continue to monitor the responses of the U.S. government and IMF in hopes that they maintain the restraint exercised over the last two months. Will the development initiatives of Nicaragua's civil society finally be respected? Or will outside interference once again attempt to quash Nicaragua's proposals for its own development? We hope and advocate for the former.

Fidel Castro published article to criticize US biofuels policies

Ending eight months of silence, ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro published an article in Cuban state media Thursday criticizing US environmental policies. The article published in the Cuban Communist Party Daily Granma was the first attempt by Castro, who is recuperating from intestinal surgery, to comment on international issues since he was taken ill in July 2006.

Since the announcement of the temporary delegation of powers to his younger brother Raul July 31, Fidel Castro has only been seen in half a dozen videos and several pictures, the last ones published in March with Colombian Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

"More than 3 billion people in the world condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst," read the headline in Castro`s article, which claimed that US President George W Bush`s support for using crops to produce ethanol for automobiles in rich nations could deplete food stocks in developing countries.

Cuba had declared Castro`s health a "state secret" and has not revealed the exact cause of his illness. Over the past months, the many rumours of the imminent death of the Cuban leader have been strongly denied by the authorities. However, over the last few weeks the expectation of a "comeback" has increased, owing to several hints by Cuban and international officials.

A few weeks ago, Bolivian president, Evo Morales, announced the possibility of a public appearance by Castro on April 28. This would mark the occasion of the first anniversary of Bolivia`s joining the Alternativa Bolivariana para las Americas (ALBA), the Cuban and Venezuelan alternative to the US-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Cuba has not yet confirmed this appearance and the island is entering its ninth month without its leader of almost half a century.

In the article, Castro warned that the plans to convert products like corn or soy into ethanol for use as fuel additives could cause serious ecological damage and would adversely affect the third world population.

Castro refers to a meeting Bush had Monday with the leading US automotive groups, in which the president urged them to double the number of vehicles fuelled by alternative combustibles such as ethanol, in an attempt to combat climate change and also to reduce the US`s dependence of oil.

"I think that reducing and recycling all the electricity and combustible consuming motors is an elemental and urgent necessity for all humanity. The tragedy does not consist in reducing the costs of energy, but in the idea of converting food into combustibles," Castro says in the article.

According to the Cuban leader, even if the US dedicated its entire corn production to the production of ethanol, there still would not be enough ethanol for its fuel needs.
The Cuban president considers that instead of these policies, countries should concentrate in other ways of saving energy, as Cuba does.

"All the countries in the world, poor and rich, could save millions and millions of dollars just by changing all incandescent light bulbs into fluorescent ones, something Cuba has been doing in all homes. That would give climate change a break without starving the poor masses of the world,", considers Castro, who in the past few years has made ecology one of his major interests.

In it, he says he has been "meditating quite a bit since President Bush`s meeting with North American automobile makers".

During that meeting on Monday, Mr Castro writes, "the sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of foreign policy of the United States".

Mr Bush has set targets for an increased use of ethanol - which in the US is mainly made from corn. The US government hopes this will reduce the country`s dependence on foreign oil.

The US and Brazil recently signed an agreement to develop biofuels, and their presidents are expected to hold further talks on the matter at the weekend.
*

Related: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/marzo/juev29/14reflex.html

Other countries in the rich world are planning to use not only corn but also wheat, sunflower seeds, rapeseed and other foods for fuel production. For the Europeans, for example, it would become a business to import all of the world’s soybeans with the aim of reducing the fuel costs for their automobiles and feeding their animals with the chaff from that legume, particularly rich in all types of essential amino acids.

In Cuba, alcohol used to be produced as a byproduct of the sugar industry after having made three extractions of sugar from cane juice.

Chile: Street protest, teargas commemorate 1985 death of young Pinochet opponent

Flying rocks and teargas marked the 22nd annual Young Combatants’ Day, which commemorates the slaying of brothers Eduardo and Rafael Vergara Toledo by Augusto Pinochet’s military forces in 1985.

The Vergara brothers, active members of the often violent “Movement of the Revolutionary Left” (MIR), were peppered with bullets by military police during an anti-Pinochet protest in the low-income Villa Francia district. Eduardo died instantly; Rafael was dragged into a police van, cuffed, beaten and finally shot in the head. Their bodies were left in the street.

MIR leaders decided to designate March 29 as Young Combatants’ Day (Dia del Joven Combatiente), so that the Vergara brothers and other youth who rose up to fight military repression in the 80’s would not be forgotten.

As the years have gone by, commemorative acts on the anniversary have turned more and more widespread, and often include street violence. In 2005 a journalist and a police officer were shot during a demonstration; last year demonstrators in Villa Francia attacked police forces with fire arms.

The Young Combatants’ Day this year coincided with great public unrest related to the government’s so far disastrous effort to improve Santiago’s mass transit system. Now concluding its second month, the so-called “Transantiago system” seeks to integrate the bus and metro systems to provide more streamlined, less costly and less polluting public transit for the six million residents of the nation’s capital city.

But abysmal planning by the government and foot-dragging by a bus company controlling 38 percent of the bus routes have created a mass transit nightmare. With her poll numbers dropping sharply, President Michelle Bachelet earlier this week apologized to the nation for her government’s inept performance and replaced her transportation minister and other cabinet members in an effort to repair the damage.

Anticipating massive unrest, police Thursday evening stationed more than 4,000 officers in traditionally “problematic” districts and public areas around Santiago. The officers also took charge of ensuring the protection of Transantiago buses.

Many Transantiago bus drivers hoped to finish their shift early to avoid possible violence later at night. Protests over the Transantiago system have increased in the days leading up to the Young Combatants’ anniversary.

Commemorative acts and small protests began last Sunday with events Villa Francia. The Macul campuses of the University of Chile, the Metropolitan Technical University (UTEM) and the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences (UMCE) along Avenue Jose Pedro Alessandri also had peaceful protests on that day. Violent demonstrations started on Monday. A UTEM science laboratory was destroyed. Two private university students were arrested Tuesday for the crime and for carrying incendiary bombs. They face three to ten years in prison, but if prior experience is any guide, they won’t be prosecuted because the government prefers not to alienate the student radicals who belong communist-anarchist fringe parties that support the ruling Concertación party.

All the universities listed above remained closed Thursday, along with the Academy of Christian Humanism and the University of Santiago, in an effort to thwart campus violence. Several of the universities will also be closed today, Friday.

On Tuesday, four low-grade bombs were set off in different districts of the capital by unknown delinquents. In Providencia, a bomb exploded at the foot of a luxury car dealership, shattering glass. Leaflets decrying demanding “punishment of Transantiago banks” were left at the scene. Another bomb exploded in Maipu across from a McDonald’s; in Quinta Normal the entire façade of a bank building was destroyed.

On Wednesday morning a bomb threat was announced on Zenteno Street near the Armed Forces building. The Special Operations Group (GOPE) exploded a suspicious package, which turned out to be a box of UTEM publicity material. The papers contained nothing of a political or social nature.

Marches taking place Thursday were planned by the “Coordination for Popular Protest,” an organization of ultra-leftist groups that includes the Committee for Revolutionary Unity (CUR), the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), the Movement for People’s Assembly (MAP) and Radio Villa Francia, among others. The MIR did not take part in events organized by the collective.

Protests began early Thursday morning with over 300 high school students marching through downtown Santiago to protest the implementation of Transantiago as well as the reform of the Constitutional Organic Learning Law (LOCE), which will be sent to parliament shortly. The students vandalized public structures and threw rocks at the police. Some Molotov cocktails were launched, but there were not many of these.

The police tried to break up the demonstrators by launching tear gas, spraying demonstrators with water cannons, and arresting the presumed leaders. Over 150 arrests had been made by mid-day.

Most of the disturbances took place along Alameda between the Plaza Italia and the metro station Universidad de Chile, and near the Fine Arts Museum. Four metro stations—Baquedano, Santa Lucia, La Universidad Catolica and Universidad de Chile, momentarily closed down amidst the unrest.

The Metropolitan Region prosecuting attorneys asserted that the demonstrations were led by students affiliated with the FMPR, as shown by flags and leaflets associated with the group. Yet eye witnesses recounted no principal group or sign of coordinated organization amongst the turmoil.

Business owners along Alameda and nearby streets in the downtown area closed their shops and boarded the windows with plywood. Many seemed annoyed at the events. One shop owner watched events unfold, saying, “What is this for? They don’t have any reason to be doing this. No one knows why they’re here. Are they protesting Transantiago? Demonstrating about Young Combatant’s Day? They’re not doing anything.”

Another woman, who grew up with the Vergara brothers in Villa Francia, expressed concern about how the meaning of the day has changed over the years: “For one thing everyone forgets about what really happened, who they were, why what happened did so in the first place…. They were militants, they were involved with militant activities, armed activities. They were dangerous people, but you have to put it in context, they were young. Militants have two facets—one human and persona and one militant and public. Those two sides can’t be brought together. Their party declared today’s date Young Combatants’ Day, which makes you forget about their personal life, you only think about the ‘hooded ones’ (ecapuchados) and breaking things.”

For many youth, however, especially those identified with ultra-leftist and leftist politics, going out on the street to “protest” is a symbolic act that links them to the kind of anti-military, pro-human rights protests that occurred throughout the 1980’s, during the height of repression by Pinochet’s military regime. Throwing rocks at police cars, in addition to providing an escape for their young, angst-ridden energy, makes these youth feel like they’re taking an active part in changing, or a least combating, what they see as a corrupt social-political environment. The high school students on the streets today were surely trying to continue the immensely powerful and result-producing demonstrations over educational reform that their classmates led last fall.

Demonstration organizers such as the Coordination for Popular Protest, which appeared to be absent from the action taking place along Alameda in the morning, said that public demonstrations on symbolic days such as Thursday raise awareness about social conditions and provide a means to change reality. Their press release read as follows:

“Our organizations have seen that popular demands will not be answered within the system, and therefore we imbue our struggles with a political meaning of transforming reality and doing so not only by petitioning the State…. In spite of the enormous gains of the Chilean economy in recent years, the State and its leaders have failed to guarantee Chilean families quality homes, health and education, dignified salaries and protection against abusive charges for basic services.

“These are the true reasons for why protests have increased in recent years…. For those in power, the most definitive solution has been the criminalization of social protest and increased repression.

“Because of all of this, on the 29th of March we’re gathering all the Transantiago users, shantytown dwellers, students and workers, in order to organize, throughout the whole country, a popular protest.”

For Manuel Vergara and Luisa Toledo, parents of Eduardo and Rafael, the demonstrations and the excuse the date has provided to protest Transantiago have diluted the meaning of what happened more than 20 years ago. “The most important thing we have is life,” they said. “And their life was taken from them. We would like everyone’s lives to be respected.”

Mr. and Mrs. Vergara Toledo have been demanding justice for the death of their sons for the last twenty-two years. Two of the three police officers involved have already retired, the other remains in active duty.

The officers were accused of homicide on July 21, 2006, and later charged with the same crime by the Santiago Court of Appeals. The prosecutor’s office has argued that the officers’ actions before and after the event prove that the homicides were motivated by the brothers’ politics.

The defense lawyer maintains that the officers were under attack by the brothers and acted in self-defense.

A date for the initial hearings has yet to be established.

By Shannon Garland The Santiago Times

Indigenous peoples’ summit: defending their right to the land

THE fight for land and territory and opposition to neoliberalism and free trade treaties (FTAs) with the United States are the main issues at the Indigenous People’s Summit currently meeting in Iximché, Guatemala.

Several speakers agreed on the need for agrarian reforms and for extending the concept of territory, which is not only a geographically-delineated area, but also a spiritual, cultural and economic environment inhabited by communities.

“It is a question of restoring the approach to life of our ancestors, which was that being human is being part of Nature, and she cannot be offended or plundered like the transnational corporations are doing,” Guatemalan indigenous leader Daniel Pascual told Prensa Latina.

The issues of land and territory in North, Central and South America were the subject of broad panel discussions at the 3rd Indigenous People’s Summit, which began on Monday, March 26 in this city, 75 km from the Guatemalan capital.

Representatives from different groups also complained that the majority of countries do not grant full recognition of indigenous nationalities, legal systems or particular forms of social, political and cultural organization.

The need for reform in countries that often have exclusive and racist policies, and for abandoning neoliberalism, was raised by political analyst Miguel Angel Sandoval, who harshly criticized free trade agreements with the United States.

“Since their implementation, these treaties have generated more unemployment and more emigration,” he said. “It is false that they bring investment for development in our countries.”

For his part, Pascual noted that thanks to a series of mobilizations by indigenous organizations and communities, the free trade agreement between Ecuador and the United States was stopped, and in Costa Rica, there is also strong resistance.

“Where they have been approved, a general impact can be felt in economic, political and social life, above all because it is a direct attack on food sovereignty and the economies of the peoples,” Pascual added.

Mexican social movements: are they the same?

Saying that in Mexico there exists a social movement is perhaps not only imprecise but overall blind. In fact, there exist several social movements. the fact that they are not connected, makes it difficult to reach their particular purposes.

Oaxaca’s people struggle against assassin governor Ulises Ruiz is for example radically different from Attenco’s struggle. In Oaxaca, people ask for the governor resignation, and in return they have faced brutal violence and repression. In Atenco, on the other hand, people defended their land against occupation by federal government. By doing so, they organised themselves to avoid such injustice back in 2004, facing government revenge four years later, in may 2006.

video of the origins of APPO

In addition, there is also the Zapatista movement. It started as a guerrilla back in the 1st of January of 1994. Later on, as a bunch of letters arrived from the jungle signed by the sub-commandant Marcos, they enjoyed overwhelming worldwide support to their cause. But, what exactly is now that cause? Is it to fight for democracy? Is it the indigenous cause? It seems that nobody knows exactly now what being Zapatista means.

Videos of Zapatista movement





Finally, the post-electoral movement that has become a movement of civil resistance seems to be the only one with massive popular support and is very alive. It started right after July 2nd, when the electoral authorities determined that Calderon was the winner of that electoral campaign. Before the massive evidence of ‘inaccuracies’ between the poll stations outcomes and the results reported by the federal electoral institute, people just did not accepted the ‘official’ story.

videos of Calderon's imposition






and this of people demonstrating against Calderon (the very same day)



It was clear, that during the campaign Fox, his wife, most of the media enterprises, the church, and even governors that despite belonging to the PRI party supported both financially and politically, Calderon’s cause. On the other hand, Lopez Obrador, had and it seems that still has, and by far, the support of ordinary people. This last weekend, the movement of civil resistance celebrated the National Democratic Convention, which agglutinated a huge number of persons not only from the capital but elsewhere in the country and abroad.

As to the purpose of the civil resistance, it is clear that the ideal is to overthrown the illegitimate president Calderon. For whom at least remains the doubt as to the clarity of him having more votes than Lopez Obrador, as there is no doubt of the usage of public money in favouring him. The second purpose, and it seems to me that the movement sometimes focuses more on it, is to boycott brands and enterprises who supported the black campaign against Lopez Obrador, and also the electoral fraud.

Boycotting is somehow effective, as Walt-Mart itself has corroborated. But, at persons level it is a bit more complicated. Just now a new legislation has passed by PAN and PRI representatives. It allows Elba Esther Gordillo, the most corrupt cacique in Mexico, to use up to 20 per cent money from retirement founds of employees of the state, or bureaucrats, which means some billions of dollars (about 5.7 billion dollars). It is some say, a paying back for the favour of operating a huge structure of personnel to carry on the electoral fraud on the Election Day.

Elba Esther Gordillo, controls the National Teacher’s Union, which is the biggest in Latin America. With a territorial control of every poll station, she was able to literally put someone in every voting point, to ‘induce’, ‘put pressure on’, ‘convince’ and even ‘bribe’ voters to do as the ‘good teachers’ said: To vote for Calderon. With such a huge favour Calderon would, and will do whatever Gordillo wants him to, and there is little the civil resistance movement can do about it.

In addition, that very organisation controlled by Gordillo, actually acts as a contra social movement. It is difficult to believe that teachers can be so easily controlled, however, in a landscape full of poverty and deprivation, whatever teachers are offered means a huge improvement in their standard of life. For example, having credit to buy a house, a car, or even having access to better job conditions as ‘magisterial career programme’ which puts them at the middle or top of the pyramidal structure of the union represents a big deal. Hence, it is easy to understand how and why teachers accept such a situation that would be humiliating otherwise.

All in all, Oaxaca’s struggle against the tyrant, Atenco’s struggle in defence of their land, Zapatista struggle (for who knows what), and people’s movement of civil resistance seem to be rather disconnected. A good deal of advance was to link Oaxaca’s with Lopez Obrador, and Zapatista. However, due to the nature of each movement it was difficult to do so at the end. The best way to fight against repression and imposition by foreign governments and actors I believe is to be organised. Happily this last weekend the movement of civil resistance got together in the first National Democratic Convention precisly to do that, to get organised.

Here some videos from the civil resistance movement, it is the weekly tv program produced by Lopez Obrador Team in his legitimate presidency. This are the ones produced in March 2007.

March 27



March 20



March 13



March 6

Posted by WeT_AhUiZoTe

Pictures of a Zapatista Community

The River near the town we lived was our source for water, bath, and washing cloths. We, at times, would go to the river with a bunch of naked zapatista kids and have a hoot of a time swimming and laughing.
Nate doing a wash
Our afternoons and early evenings were filled with children.
Rosa, our german compañera, brought a little guitar along. Nate sang a song about a cow in spanish that the kids couldn´t get enough of.
We spent one afternoon with some women inspecting coffee beans before they went for sale. Nearly every wall has some sort of artwork. This one says "Our Education from the heart, our education born from the revolution."
In the mornings, children would bang on our door asking for classes. We were very careful to solely act as sources of information because we were observers and not actual members of the community. Most of the time we just counted beans and drew.
Nate hanging out with some of the kids.
Rosa in our room. She had a hammok. Nate and I slept on pieces of wood.
Counting beans.

A public ceremony celebrating the reclaimation of land. This land is very important for all the local communities. It is their source of water and was in the process of being sold. The sale would have been tragic for the livelihood of these communities. They would literally have dry up. Through much effort the Zapatistas succeeded in getting the land declared a landmark, making it safe from private ownership.
There has been much harrassment of the zapatistas. Cases of dissapearance, accidental deaths, and burning of communities is not rare. As a safety measure they wear masks. The mask, as a result has become a very important symbol in the Zapatista world.
A mural on the side of one of a building within the Junta Del Buen Gobierno, or board of the good government.
A few of the kids with whom we spent a lot of time. One of them is wearing my(Henry) glasses.
Another Mural of interest. The zapatistas have been accused of represing women, and they are working to exemplify the role of women in their culture. Women do play traditional roles, but they are not excluded from any part of decision making. More than half of the governmental officials we met were women.






(bad order)This sign was put up during the celebration of having declared an important water resource reserved. The sign basically says that this land is protected and reserved and the zapatista government systems that are responsible for the upkeep.
Christianity plays an important part in the lives of many Zapatistas.

Some quick notes about the Zapatistas

-Buisness done in the community is decided by the community. Individuals can work on their own, but anything done within the community is shared. It´s kind of like a cooperative that includes the whole town.

-Decisions done by the community and government are always done with unanamous votes. Majority does not rule. In order to make a decision everyone has to agree it's the right move.

-All of these communities are financially very poor. They are farmers that only want the freedom to feel in control of their work and their lives. Before being a part of a Zapatista community most of them were working the fields for pennies a day.

-The land on which most Zapatista communities reside are "reclaimed". Being poor farmers there is no possible way they could earn the money to buy the land, so they took it. It´s a fascinating concept and a source of much conflict. They just decided, with much strong leadership and organization, to claim land they had been working on their whole lives.

-They refuse any government services including health and education. They build their own clinics and schools for their own kids. They also refuse to pay any taxes.

Sorry... there´s a bunch more that´s burning on our brains about the Zapatistas, but we are running out of desire to sit in front of the computer. We just wanted to get something down before we headed back on the road. Wé will add more later as it gets categorized in our heads.

Posted by Nathan Toews and Henry Dick