Report From Chiapas
-------------------

At the beginning of January, 1994, a new chapter began in the five 
hundred years long struggle of Mexico's indigenous people against 
colonization. Under more and more pressure - now mainly from U.S. 
imperialism - the indigenous Zapatista National Liberation Army 
(EZLN) rose up and succesfully created an autonomous zone in the 
Lacondon Forest in the Mexican state of Chiapas. This zone covered a 
large number of indigenous villages in what is one of the last 
remnants of forest left in Mexico. (Like everywhere else in the 
world, the imperialist agenda of total environmental destruction is 
nearing completion here.)

This autonomous zone existed and flourished all through 1994, giving 
everyone living there equal control over the running of their 
communities. But in February 1995, under extremely powerful economic 
and political pressure frrom the U.S. goverment, the mexican army 
was sent in to destroy it. Realizing that the high price of defending the 
zone would be paid for in indigenous blood, which has been considered 
cheap for far too long, the EZLN decided against a fight.

The Mexican army took control of the area, using standard and 
well-tested colonial techniques. With beatings, rape, torture and 
murder, they drove the indigenes out of their villages and forced 
them to seek refuge deeper in the forest. Then they completely 
destroyed all the villages and poisoned the  water supplies to 
prevent them from returning. They also set up their own camps and 
occupied the area themselves.

In April, May and again in June, the government and delegates from 
the EZLN held peace talks, which they call "dialogues", in the 
Tzeltal  indian village of San Andres Larrainzar (or San Andres 
Sacamch'en), which is near San Cristobal de las Casas, a small city 
over 2000 metres up in the Chiapas altiplano. A fourth dialoge there 
is scheduled for the 4th of july.

These dialogues are a complete farce, with the government 
deliberately setting out to confuse the Zapatistas, whose first 
lanugages are the local indigenous ones, rather than Spanish and to 
buy time in which to increase the pressure on their communities. But 
the EZLN has no choice except to try and get some positive results 
from them. Their communities want them to talk. They don't want the 
war which seems to be the only alternative. And whether or not they 
really have any faith in a government which is just another force of 
colonialism in a five hundred year long history of european 
colonization, they seem to see it as the only solution.

There might be better prospects for a positive outcome if it wasn't 
for the U.S. government, like a hungry wolf panting at the border, 
waiting for an opportunity to march in and exert military control in 
addition to the economic power they already have. It's only 150 
years since the U.S. forcibly took over half of Mexico and 
incorporated it into their country, and of course they're not happy 
with just half, they want the whole bloody lot!

The dialogue in San Andres Sacamch'en over the weekend of the 12th 
to the 6th of May was a very strange event. It struck me as being 
something that could probably only happen in Mexico. The talks took 
place in a group of buildings on one side of the Zocalo, which is 
the square in the centre of Mexican towns, including one building 
specially built for the purpose on what used to be a basketball 
court. Around this block, there were four cordons - the inside one 
made up of Red Cross volunteers, the second of local indigenous 
people, the third of other concerned members of the Mexican public 
and the fourth cordon, on the outside, was of military police, armed 
only with batons.

The Red Cross were there as an internationally recognized body, 
supposedly impartial, hoping to prevent any violent clashes between 
the two sides. The indigenous and other Mexicans, making up what's 
known as the "Cinturon de Paz", or "peace cordon", were there to 
make sure the government forces didn't try any dirty tricks with the 
EZLN delegates. And the army was there to protect the government 
representatives and show that the government was in control of the 
situation. The whole thing created a very wird atmosphere in the 
town. 

I was one of a group of twenty or so international observers, who 
were there to keep a less easily silenced eye on the conduct of the 
government and the army.

Around sunset on the first day, the EZLN delegates arrived, in two 
groups of three and one group of two, in three separate convoys of 
cars with red cross and civilians accompanying them to ensure their 
safety. The first three were dressed entirely in black, with black 
balaclavas covering their whole face except for their eyes. In a 
bizarre contrast, they were wearing a local style of brightly 
coloured hats which have multicoloured streamers hanging from the 
brims. They were greeted by loud cheering and clapping as they drove 
through they cordons and got out of their car.

The second group arrived in the same manner. They were dressed 
similarly, except they weren't wearing the coloured hats. The last 
convoy to arrive came after dark and included the ony woman in the 
group, Comandanta Trinidad, known as "Trini". She was the only one 
dressed in normal clothes, although she had a scarf over her nose 
and the lower part of her face, to disguise her features.

It was a strange, but moving spectacle, watching the arrival of 
these freedom fighters who have risked their lives - and even right 
there and then were putting themselves at risk - to fight for land 
rights and equality and against colonialism and genocide. At this 
point in history, these people and the rest of their communities are 
involved in what's probably the most important strugle for land 
rights in terms of global politics. In fact it's possibly one of the 
most politically important things happening in the world today, 
although it's being heavily suppressed in the international media. 
If the indigenous peoples of Chiapas win this struggle, it can't 
fail to have a serious beneficial effect on land rights campaigns 
and fights for indigenous survival elsewhere in North America and 
all round the world. Which of course is why the U.S. government and 
multinational companies are leaning so heavily on the Mexican 
government.

The dialogue went on from the Friday evening to late on Monday 
night, with the cordons maintained continuously, in shifts for the 
whole time. They gave the whole thing an atmosphere of a vigil, with 
maybe more spiritual significance than political, encircling the 
block motionless and silent, in the hot sun of the afternoon and the 
cold mountain darkness of the night.

In the early afternoon and late evening every day, somebody would 
come out of the talks and give a report to the press, who were 
assembled on a large, covered, stage-like structure in front of the 
main building. The afternoon report was always made by someone from 
the governent team and invariably consisted of rambling,
jargon-infested, anonymous nonsense, which said absolutely nothing 
at all. This was repeated in the evenings too, but also at that time 
there would be statements from some of the EZLN delegates, masked up 
as usual and dressed in black. These were invariably clear, easy to 
follow and personally expressive accounts of what was happening in 
the dialogue - which was basically a frustrating, confusing 
runaroud, with the government totally uninterested in making any 
concessions at all.

The pressures of tiredness and the strain of having to try and deal 
with the nonsensical talking-machines representing the government 
eventually became too much for the EZLN delegates and on Sunday 
evening they stopped listening and left the conference room. At this 
point, the government ordered in two more batallions of armed 
soldiers who completely surrounded the village - presumably with the 
intention of aresting or killing the Zapatistas on the pretext that 
the talks had broken down. The soldiers in the cordon around the 
talks moved away and gathered in large groups and the Red Cross 
abandoned their cordon to congregate at the doors of the buildings. 
All the indigenous people mobilized and grouped up and the stage was 
set for what could easily have been the spark that would ignite a 
civil war in Mexico.

However, the intermediaries in the talks managed to smoothe things 
over and get the two sides talking again and nothing came of it in 
the end. But it had come very close that night, to a situation the 
U.S. governent is undoubtedly hoping will go all the way very soon.

The dialogue ended very late the next night and all the outsiders 
and foreigners on the peace cordon were taken in, in small groups, 
for a quick meeting with the Zapatistas. We moved quickly among 
them, shaking hands and mumbling inconsequential words of support 
and then left them to get ready for the long trips back to their 
comrades and communities in the Lacondon forest.

There were no agreements reached, partly because the EZLN delegates 
have no power to agree to anyting without a mandate from their 
communities. But there were a couple of small points for them to 
take back for discussion before the next dialogue.

This took place on the 7th of June and was very much the same as the 
one before. There was one addition to the EZLN team - another woman, 
Commandanta Andrea, who arrived dressed in black clothes and a black 
balaclava. Apart from this, there seemed to be no significant 
differences and no real advance in negotiations. At this point, it's 
beginning to look like an endless series of dialogues stretching 
well into the future. However, something's going to have to change 
sooner or later. It's just a case of which side takes the initiative 
and when...

Meanwhile, the work of rebuilding the indigenous communities 
destroyed by the army in February is well underway. Made possible by 
the organization of encampments of foreigners and civilian Mexicans 
who are keeping an eye on the army, all but one of the villages have 
been reoccupied. However it's a massive task to recover from the 
damage done. Rebuilding houses, planting crops and finding ways 
around the problem of poisoned water supplies is enough in itself, 
but the biggest problem is that they haven't got any food. Because 
they were driven out of the villages, they've been unable to plant 
crops and therefore there's no harvest to live off. There's a 
disatrous level of malnutrition, with a lot of the children showing 
bloated bellies as a result.

However, from what i've heard these problems are being overcome 
somewhow and the villages are being rebuilt, still along the 
political lines of the old autonomous zone. There *is* hope, but 
there's a great need for outside help. Support, both personally and 
financially from independent overseas sympathizers will play an 
important part in helping the indigenous people of Chiapas overcome 
the latest in a long series of imperialist attacks.

Anyone who is going to Mexico and wants to get information on the 
current situation and ways to help should go to: 

Centro Fray Bartolome de Derechos Humanos, 
Avenida 5 de Febrero, 
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.

If you want to go to a forest encampment, you'll have to be able to 
speak reasonably good spanish.

This report is my impression of the situation here in Chiapas. I've 
only been in Mexico six weeks and it's possible i've misinterpreted 
some aspects of the way things are. However it's entirely a personal 
view and i make no claim to being impartial.

Will Kemp, Chiapas, Mexico, June 1995.