CCH Vallejo Students Occupy Director's Office

On April 10, 2008, about thirty students and members of the Regeneracion Radio collective occupied the director's office of the Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades Vallejo (Vallejo Sciences and Humanities High School, CCH Vallejo in its Spanish abbreviation), part of the UNAM system in northern Mexico City. Students and radio activists continue their round-the-clock occupation and closure of the avenue outside the director's office, which was sparked by the expulsion of six students. The students want a meeting with the school director to discuss their demands. School authorities' response has been to rally other students to physically attack the occupation.

The director of CCH Vallejo, Lucia Laura Muñoz Corona, seeks the students' expulsion for their participation on April 8 in an on-campus kermesse, a political-cultural fair where students sold food and held a ceremony in which they mocked the institution of marriage and passed out condoms. In retaliation for the kermesse, school authorities and campus security disrupted the student's weekly chess games on April 10. José Refugio Tellez, chief of campus security, threw the chess boards to the ground and threatened to expel the students who were setting them up.

Students organized the kermesse in part to raise funds for Regeneracion Radio. The radio station has had financial difficulties ever since May 2007 when CCH Vallejo banned the on-campus sale of candy in an attempt to bankrupt the Regeneracion Radio collective.

The CCH Vallejo authorities have every reason to want to kick Regeneracion Radio and its student members off campus. The radio was founded as Radio Pacheco in 1999, just before the infamous National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM in its Spanish initials) student strike against tuition increases mandated by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Students started the radio (then just a microphone and a set of loudspeakers) to facilitate student communication during anti-tuition hike organizing and the subsequent strike, which was successful despite brutal repression. Regeneracion Radio has maintained a permanent presence on the CCH Vallejo campus ever since, constructing a permanent radio station where they stream their programs over the internet and broadcast over loudspeakers.

Students continue to use the radio as an organizing tool, fighting for students' rights and democracy on campus. The Regeneracion Radio collective has been instrumental in the constant struggle against porro organizations, which persist in CCH Vallejo and all over the UNAM system despite the fact that they're banned. Porros are a phenomenon that came out of student organizing in the 1960's as a way to circumvent laws that prohibit police presence on campus without the rector's permission. Porro leaders are paid by the government through the time-honored Mexican tradition of budgeting much more money than necessary for public works projects and then using the excess money for politically illicit purposes. These paid leaders then organize students to spy on and attack student organizations. While the lower-level student porros aren't paid, the government offers them legal protection in the form of a virtual get-out-of-jail-free card, allowing them to rob with impunity. Porros roam the streets outside CCH Vallejo, mugging students as they enter and leave campus, often beating them in the process. Porros have also attacked Regeneracion Radio, destroying their radio equipment on several occasions.

Regeneracion Radio and student allies are refusing to vacate the director's office until the following demands are met:

1. No reprisals against students, workers, and professors who participate in or join the movement.

2. The firing of Director Lucia Laura Muñoz Corona for her inability to resolve the community's problems and necessities, and a democratic process to elect a new director.

3. The firing of José Refugio Tellez, chief of campus security, for his inefficiency, arrogance, authoritarianism, and the attacks that diverse sectors of the community have suffered on his behalf.

4. Porros out of CCH Vallejo. The authorities have not done enough to definitively eradicate this group.

5. An internal council with a democratic process for electing councilmembers, where student councilmembers enjoy full representation.

6. That the PAE (Programa de Apoyo al Egreso or Expense Support Program) be applied beginning in the second semester, and that the necessary groups are created so that students in whichever semester (second up to the sixth) can pass their classes and quickly graduate from the CCH.

7. Direct enrollment in UNAM without any restrictions. The 1997 reforms that, among other things, set a timeframe for the completion of studies at the bachelor level should not apply because they are not valid due to the results of the 1999-2000 student strike. The agreement was that the timeframe would not apply until a University Congress was created, which has still not happened.

8. The creation of a Popular Eatery as an alternative to the cafeteria's high prices. The school should provide the space and infrastructure.

9. That a mechanism be created to be able to pay for final exams without needing to go to the CU.

10. That professors don't condition grades on the obligatory sale of books and theater tickets.

11. That the cafeteria in the "R" building not be close to the bathrooms for hygiene reasons.

12. Respect for student spaces and free organization.

13. That the campus installations be continually maintained, including the lawns, bathrooms, and classrooms.

The situation on campus is very tense. School authorities are currently attempting to retake the director's office. They've called a student assembly, accusing the occupying students of being porros and encouraging the 2000 attendees to help the school authorities attack the occupying students and retake the office.

Letters in support of the student occupation can be sent to regeneracionradio@hotmail.com, and donations can be made at their website, www.regeneracionradio.org.

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Bishop Samuel Ruiz Intervenes in Chiapas Hunger Strike

from the Chiapas Support Committee

As of April 5, the hunger strikers and those fasting in El Amate prison ended their protest at the request of Bishop Emeritus Samuel Ruiz Garcia. Bishop Ruiz is also the president of the board of directors of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center and he instructed its staff to represent the prisoners in their legal proceedings with the state. Bishop Ruiz asked them to end their protest for “humanitarian” reasons so that there would not be irreversible damage to their bodies. The status of the hunger strikers in the Los Llanos prison in San Cristobal is unclear as of this writing (04/06/08).

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Conditional "Freedom" for Chiapan Political Prisoners

After all of Chiapan Gov. Juan Sabines' rhetoric that the freed political prisoners did not commit the crimes they were convicted of and that justice was done the day they were freed, it turns out he freed the prisoners with conditions. Strict conditions. The prisoners are out on parole, and they have to report to Tuxtla monthly to sign a ledger until their original sentences are completed. This means that a prisoner that served almost six years of his eight-year sentence must report to Tuxtla monthly for over two years.

This is an extraordinary burden on people who Juan Sabines proclaimed are innocent. These men and women were poor before they went to prison, and after being in prison for so long without work they're even poorer. One prisoner's family reported that they lost their home after their breadwinner's imprisonment. The trip to Tuxtla costs time and money that these people don't have--some of them will have to travel fifteen hours every month to comply with their parole.

There are still seventeen prisoners inside, thirteen of whom are on hunger strike, six of them for over forty days.

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Global sign-on letter for immediate unconditional freedom for Mexican political prisoners on hunger strike

WE INVITE YOU TO SIGN THE FOLLOWING GLOBAL PUBLIC DECLARATION

For ethical, humanitarian, and just reasons, the people, organizations, and networks who sign this letter express our profound rejection of the deprivation of people's liberty through the "fabrication" of crimes.

We are concerned because the criminalization of social movements is a strategy of the Mexican government to eliminate other ways of doing politics.

In this context, we demand the immediate and unconditional freedom of the political prisoners in Chiapas and Tabasco who have participated in a fast and hunger strike since February 25, and whose health condition is very grave. We declare our support for the freedom of all of the political prisoners of Chiapas and Mexico.

Life and respect for the dignity of all people are inalienable rights.

Signed,


[Please send your signature and country to laotrajovel@gmail.com with the message "Yo o mi organizacion quisiera firmar la carta por la libertad de los presos politicos"]

The original Spanish:

LES INVITAMOS A FIRMAR EL SIGUIENTE
PRONUNCIAMIENTO PUBLICO MUNDIAL

Por razones éticas, humanitarias y de justicia, las personas, organizaciones y redes abajo firmantes expresamos nuestro profundo rechazo a la privación de la libertad de personas mediante la "fabricación" de delitos .

Estamos preocupados porque la criminalización de los movimientos sociales es una estrategia del gobierno mexicano para eliminar otras formas de hacer política.

En este contexto, exigimos la liberación inmediata e incondicional de los presos políticos de Chiapas y Tabasco que se encuentran en ayuno y huelga de hambre desde el 25 de febrero cuyo estado de salud es sumamente grave. Nos pronunciamos por la liberación de todas las personas presas políticas de Chiapas y de México.

La vida y el respeto a la dignidad de todas las personas son derechos inalienables.

Firmas

Envien sus firmas con sus paises a laotrajovel@gmail.com

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Facing Escalating Protests, Chiapas Frees 30 Political Prisoners

With 17 prisoners still inside, the Other Campaign declares April 3 an International Day of Action

In what has been declared a stunning but partial victory for the Other Campaign, the Chiapas government freed thirty political prisoners last night in response to years of protests for their freedom, but not before giving some of them one last thorough beating. Seventeen prisoners remain incarcerated in Chiapas and Tabasco, thirteen of whom are on a hunger strike that has lasted 37 days so far. Prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families and supporters are gearing up for an increasingly tense battle for the freedom of the remaining political prisoners. Outside medical experts say that the symptoms the hunger strikers report and the amount of time they've gone without food has put their lives in danger, and that they may begin to die as early as Sunday. The state government, however, declared that it refuses to negotiate over the remaining prisoners.

The liberated prisoners have declared that they will remain in the plantón (permanent protest encampment) outside the state government headquarters in Tuxtla until all of their compañeros are free. They maintain their fearless resolve despite the government's best efforts to keep them away, including threats and physical violence. Police refused to allow prisoners from the Cereso #17 prison in Catazaja to see the route they were taking to arrive at the government's press conference where it released the prisoners as part of a media stunt. According to the recently released prisoners, the police beat them on the way to the press conference until their heads and arms were purple and they were bleeding. Their wrists were bound tightly with tape, cutting off circulation to their hands. After the press conference, the police loaded them back into a government vehicle, beat some of them again, and told them they were going to be returned to jail, but then released them.

Their Crime: Being Indigenous and Poor

The prisoners belong to a variety of organizations, including EZLN bases of support, adherents to the Zapatistas' Other Campaign, an evangelical Christian organization, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD in its Spanish initials). The amount of time they've spent in jail varies: the two Zapatista prisoners in Tabasco have been imprisoned for twelve years, other prisoners for one year.

The prisoners were incarcerated under a wide array of circumstances. Paramilitary organizations accused some Zapatista support bases of crimes the paramilitaries themselves committed. Antonio Garcia Flores, for example, is a member of the EZLN and participated in the Zapatista's 1994 uprising. He was arrested then in Ocosingo after members of the paramilitary organization Chinchulines turned him in, then later released under an amnesty law that freed all Zapatista prisoners. The Chinchulines later dissolved and integrated themselves into the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Opddic in its Spanish initials), an anti-Zapatista paramilitary organization with a civilian face of legitimacy. In 1999, Opddic members accused him of “robbery with violence,” and in March 2006 the government imprisoned him under those charges. After serving two years in prison for a crime he did not commit, he was released last night.

Other prisoners, such as Julio Cesar Perez Ruiz, who became an adherent to the Other Campaign in prison, were imprisoned because a crime was committed and the government needed to jail someone for it, and any poor indian would do. While Perez was working in his cornfield with his father, a homicide occurred 40 km away. Despite his alibi and witness accounts of other suspects entering the area of the homicide, the government, having no desire to do the necessary work to solve the murder of a poor campesino, decided to jail another poor campesino and wash its hands of the whole matter. Perez was not released last night and remains on hunger strike.

Most of the ex-prisoners report that they had inadequate legal defense and did not understand court proceedings because the government did not provide a translator into their native languages of Tsotsil, Tzeltal, and Ch'ol. In this sense, the common thread that links all of the political prisoners is that they are poor indians.

Years of Struggle Inside and Outside the Prison Walls

According to Jose Perez Hernandez, father of Julio Cesar Perez Ruiz, the movement within the prison began when prisoners from various organizations began to talk to each other about how they were unjustly imprisoned. In this way they became aware of the epidemic of unjust imprisonment and their common willingness to do whatever it takes to win their freedom, so they decided to organize.

Two years ago, members of the prisoners organization “La Voz del Amate” in el Amate prison began a plantón within the prison. They camped out day and night on the prison grounds in a vocal protest of their unjust imprisonment, petitioned the state government for their release, and organized outside support through their families and activists who visited them in prison. Through their various organizational affiliations and outside support, they organized across four different prisons, including the Carcel Publica Municipal in Tacotalpa, Tabasco, where two Zapatistas are imprisoned. On February 12, 2008, Zacario Hernandez Hernandez, a member of La Voz del Amate, stepped up the protest and declared a hunger strike to demand their freedom. This sparked an escalation in the prisoners' tactics, and in the following weeks dozens more prisoners in the four jails joined the huger strike and plantónes. At its peak, 37 prisoners participated in the hunger strike with twelve more joining the plantón who couldn't hunger strike for health reasons. Many other prisoners supported the plantónistas and protected them from the prison guards.

On the March 24, the 29th day of the hunger strike, families and friends of the prisoners declared a planton outside the Palacio de Gobierno, the Chiapas state house in Tuxtla. They hung signs on the walls and windows of the Palacio and left coffins on the front steps under a banner that says, “This is how the government wants us to end up.” A week later, on March 29, Other Campaign adherents from Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Mexico City marched on the Palacio de Gobierno and encircled it in protest. The following day dozens of supporters and family members attempted to visit the prisoners, but after taking their IDs and recording all of their personal information, the prison authorities suddenly declared Sunday a families-only visit day and turned away all but one non-family visitor.

On March 31 the government announced that it planned to release 137 prisoners at a press conference that evening, including some of the hunger strikers and plantónistas. In a staged media spectacle called “Freedom to Do Justice,” the government released the prisoners and unilaterally ended negotiations over the remaining prisoners due to its claim that all unjustly imprisoned Chiapans were now free. This contradicts Gov. Juan Sabines' position up until said press conference, wherein he denied that there were any political prisoners in Chiapas. In the press conference the government laid out fruit and yogurt for the prisoners, hoping that the media would snap pictures of hunger strikers accepting food and reconciliation from the government. Refusing to be pawns in the government's public relations strategy, the released hunger strikers refused all government food and only ate once they were released and joined the plantón. Family members of the prisoners protested the press conference, repeatedly interrupting government officials with chants of, “We're not all here! Other prisoners are missing!” and “Sabines! Listen up! The prisoners don't sell out!”

Journalists and activists want the list of all 137 pardoned prisoners because they suspect that the government used this opportunity to free many paramilitary members.

The Struggle Continues

When the family members declared their plantón outside the Palacio de Gobierno, they agreed that none of them would leave until all of the protesting prisoners were free, even if some individual family members were released. Upon learning that some but not all of them would be released, the prisoners met and agreed that prisoners inside the jails would continue the plantónes and hunger strike, and those on the outside would immediately join the plantón outside the Palacio de Gobierno.

The Other Campaign in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, has also vowed to continue their protests until all prisoners are freed. Given the striking prisoners' grave health situation and the notice that this might be the last week to act before prisoners begin to die of starvation, the Other Campaign will hold a march and procession of coffins to the central plaza in San Cristobal on Thursday, April 3. The Other Campaign declared Thursday, April 3, an international day of action for the freedom of the striking prisoners and calls on activists outside Mexico to stage protests and actions at Mexican embassies and consulates.

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Upping the Anti for our Political Prisoners: Global Lessons for US activists

Ask anyone who isn't from the United States to name the top five strategic and political miscalculations of the US left, and they're bound to include abandonment of political prisoners on the list. A popular Mexican protest chant explains why this
is such a grave error: “We're not all here! Our political prisoners are missing!” In order to build an effective movement in the United States, everyone who believes in justice and democracy has to struggle together, and this includes political prisoners. As long as activists allow political prisoners to languish in prison cells, those on the outside can't be truly free. Our tactics and strategies are constricted by the very real fear that when we're thrown in jail we're going to be forgotten by the movement, left alone to carry out our sentences in full. Or, as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca's exiled Dr. Bertha Muñoz puts it, we'll be “buried alive.”

Vibrant struggles for political prisoners' freedom exist all over the world. Since the 2006 police riot in San Salvador Atenco that resulted in 207 arrests, Mexico has seen a revitalization of its political prisoner support movement.

The latest of a series of actions, cultural events, and meetings in support of Mexican political prisoners, the Forum for Freedom of the Country's Political Prisoners of Conscience, took place in Oaxaca City, Mexico, from March 14-16, 2008. It brought together former and current political prisoners, exiled activists, and supporters from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Mexico City, and San Salvador Atenco. They came together to articulate and coordinate the movement to demand the release of all political prisoners in the country.

The forum consisted of one and a half days of a plantón (protest camp) and a more intimate hours-long meeting to create a plan of action for a nation-wide struggle to free political prisoners. The weekend ended with a march demanding unconditional release of all political prisoners through Oaxaca City to the military base/prison where Oaxacan political prisoners are held.

Mexico has a rich history of struggle for the release of prisoners of conscience and the presentation of disappeared persons alive. During the Dirty War in 1969-1988, for example, Mexico had 788 documented cases of disappeared persons. This large number of compañeros who were missing or imprisoned instead of organizing in the streets had a negative impact on the movement. In response, collectives and organizations organized to demand the unconditional freedom of all of their political prisoners, forcing the federal government to pass an amnesty law in 1978. Many amnesty laws also exist at the state level.

These amnesty laws are always completely insufficient because most political prisoners are not imprisoned for sedition or rebellion, but rather invented charges of drug possession, kidnapping, or murder. This meant the grand majority of political prisoners are not released under the terms of amnesty. Even more politically problematic, “amnesty” has its roots in the Greek word for “forgetting,” and amnesty laws all over the world have honored the true meaning of the word: in order to receive amnesty, political prisoners must forget about the injustices they have suffered and never seek reparations or punishment for those responsible for their imprisonment. In other words, amnesty does not equal justice. However, Mexican activists forced a painfully corrupt, brutal one-party dictatorship to pass an amnesty law, tacitly admitting that it did in fact have so many political prisoners that it merited a special law to free them rather than handling their cases one-by-one. This is an incredible testament to the power and possibilities of a sustained prisoner solidarity movement.

They're all political prisoners

In order to create a viable movement in the United States for political prisoners' freedom, its important to define the term “political prisoner.” Whether or not it's explicitly stated, there is a prevailing opinion among the US left that some political prisoners are more worthy of solidarity and struggle than others. For example, Mumia Abu-Jamal maintains his innocence in a Philadelphia police officer's death, so he is imprisoned on purely political grounds and merits marches and civil disobedience for his freedom. Environmental activist Daniel McGowan, on the other hand, admitted that he committed a crime: arson. His support committee consists mainly of his friends and family, and there aren't “Millions for McGowan” marches demanding his freedom.

In addition to activists who were railroaded through the courts as result of their lawful political activity, those who commit crimes as part of the struggle are also political prisoners. As Atenco political prisoner Pedro Rivero puts it, “The ruling class' laws don't respect us, so why should we respect their laws?” So-called “eco-terrorists” break the law because they're doing what they think will best help protect us and future generations. Whether or not their actions make a difference, and whether or not we believe what they did was the most effective tactic, they did it for us and our children. For that reason, Rivero says of Mexican prisoners who have indeed broken the law, “We demand their freedom. Give us a list of your political prisoners [in the United States] and we'll demand their freedom, too.”

Changing the rules of the game

Like many struggles in the United States, activists allow the government to restrict, weaken, and distract political prisoner freedom movements with laws that define the terms of struggle. As long as the movement continues to play by the government's rules when it comes to political prisoners, relying on the state's courts and judges to carry out its version of justice, activists will always lose. Arrested activists can't avoid the court system, but we can't allow it to dictate our struggle for our prisoners' freedom, either. Political prisoners and allies go through the court system to expose its contradictions and injustices, but not to win their freedom. The key to beating the system, Pedro Rivero argues, is to make political prisoners “uncomfortable” for the government—too uncomfortable for it to continue to deny our compañeros their freedom.

Anarchists in Ireland have had amazing success in this endeavor. Since 2000, activists from all over Ireland have come together in Rossport for a protest camp to oppose a Shell gas project that residents say would harm their environment and way of life. Five activists were arrested for their involvement in this stunningly successful camp. Anarchists from the Workers Solidarity Movement mobilized in their defense, planning protests and marches, covering buildings with “Free the Rossport 5” graffiti, and blockading Shell Oil buildings and work sites. Activists in other countries protested at Irish embassies and consulates. Importantly, their protests always demanded the Rossport 5's freedom and termination of the Shell gas project, and protests to free the Rossport 5 more often than not targeted Shell holdings even though the Irish government imprisoned the five activists. Activists used the Rossport 5 in their protests against Shell to raise awareness and righteous anger against the gas project. It became unbearably embarrassing to continue to hold the Rossport 5 as prisoners, so after 94 days in jail they were released at Shell's request. Irish anarchists discovered at future protests against immigrant deportations that the police were under orders to not arrest any activists participating in the blockades, presumably to avoid further embarrassment over Ireland's lack of democracy and political liberties. Despite street skirmishes between anarchists and police at deportation sites, there were no arrests during the blockades.

In addition to taking the state off the offensive and putting it on the defensive, making political prisoners unbearably uncomfortable gives the movement a viable option for working outside of the government's legal system. It offers hope for jailed activists like Leonard Peltier who have exhausted all legal options. These prisoners are effectively abandoned by the movement under the false assumption that there is nothing more that can be done to win their freedom. But Pedro Rivero argues that, “To say to a political prisoner, 'Well, I was there with you during your trial and we did everything we could, but we lost and now it's over,' is to abandon those who selflessly fought for us.” The fact is that the government's laws were never meant to provide a “fair trial” for political prisoners. They were written to imprison them and repress movements for genuine justice, something that Peltier and indigenous peoples all over the world understand all too well.

A national plan of action to free all political prisoners

Because the US lacks a culture of formalized, organized, consistent support for political prisoners and a struggle to free them, we have to start from where we are, and that means starting small. Rivero argues that the first step is to create a list of all the country's political prisoners and make them part of our organizations' work. After all, prisoners don't cease to be an active part of the struggle once they are jailed. On the contrary—as Irish anarchists have demonstrated—they become symbols of the injustices we fight against. In our struggle to free our political prisoners, we must also raise the flag of the causes they fought for before their arrests.

It's necessary to cultivate a movement within movements to free our political prisoners as we continue to demand justice for the causes they fought for. In other words, the anti-war movement needs to organize to end the war, but at the same time it needs to demand the freedom of its many political prisoners. Just like the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) leaves honorary seats in their assemblies for their political prisoners and the Zapatistas invite disappeared persons to participate in their encuentros, our political prisoners are still a part of our struggle.

To say that political prisoners are always a part of the struggle means that we can't stop struggling until they are free. If the government knows that activists will stage an annual protest or only protest outside court hearings, then it knows it can wait us out, and our prisoners will never be free. Mariana de las Selvas Gomez, a political prisoner of the Atenco uprising, emphasizes that it was through the endless efforts of activists on the outside that she was finally freed after two years of imprisonment. “Despite the disappearances, the assassinations, the arrests...the struggle continued. The daily plantón and the protests to free the remaining sixteen Atenco political prisoners will continue as long as they're imprisoned.” And the Mexican government knows this.

Organizing within social justice movements for political prisoners' freedom goes beyond liberating prisoners and making movements whole again. It also presents an opportunity to radicalize and mobilize more legally compliant parts of the movement who still believe that justice is possible within the law. As Dan Berger points out in “Building a Political Prisoner Support Movement” in the June 2006 Left Turn, “Working to free political prisoners goes hand in hand with exposing the façade that the US is a country where injustice is minimal and solved through electoral politics: one point necessitates the other.” For this reason, we must work to free all political prisoners in the US: not just anarchist prisoners, not just people imprisoned against their will, but also people who having knowingly handed themselves over to the police or military in acts of civil disobedience and fully comply with the US legal system, such as SOA Watch or Catholic Worker activists. It presents an opportunity to demonstrate that the law won't liberate us; it will just repress us and our movements, so we must find another way to achieve our political goals and freedom for our political prisoners.

To fight the law and win without being constricted by the law, we must assure that no one, not activists, not the public, and certainly not the government, forgets that political prisoners exist and languish in our country's prisons. We have an unlimited supply of tactics at our disposal: dances, concerts, marches, movie screenings, protests, encampments, rallies, denouncements, declarations, forums, conferences, book discussions, graffiti, art and photography exhibitions, visits to political prisoners, street blockades... the possibilities are endless. Political prisoners of the Atenco uprising, for example, recently made prominent headlines in Mexico's nationally distributed newspaper La Jornada through the largest music festival ever held in San Salvador Atenco. Thousands of young people turned out for a ska concert with nationally-known bands like Antidoping to demand the release of Atenco's political prisoners.

Luckily, US activists don't have to start from scratch in the struggle to free our political prisoners. Pedro Rivera notes, “We've seen that there are already actions for political prisoners in your country, both for your political prisoners and for ours. These actions just need to be more formalized” and part of a long-term struggle to realistically demand the impossible: immediate and unconditional freedom for all of our political prisoners.

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Even the biggest lies are believable when they're racist

From the Committee of Indigenous Solidarity's Mexico Week in Review:

State Publishes Article Condemning Foreign Human Rights Observers

In a worrying escalation of government and paramilitary activities in the Agua Azul region, the State published a paid article in La Jornada, one of Mexico's leading daily newspapers, condemning foreign human rights observers for participating in the kidnapping of local police. "News articles" paid for by government agencies are common in Mexican newspapers, and they are easily identified in La Jornada because the headlines appear in italics. The article in question, published on Friday under the headline "Zapatistas Commanded by Foreigners Detain Journalist and Police," is particularly troublesome because it appears to be part of an orchestrated effort to lay the groundwork for the expulsion of foreign human rights observers. The article claims "a journalist and four state police were illegally detained by Zapatista base communities - under the command of five foreigners - in Agua Azul." The article continued, "The foreigners, who gave orders to 20 masked Zapatistas, detained the journalist and police - making a routine trip along the road to Agua Azul - who were relieved of their weapons and the photographer's camera equipment. It's important to note that the police, who offered no resistance, were tied up and beaten. During the course of events, the foreigners incited violence against the reporter and the police." Later press reports citing government sources clarified that the police entered the Zapatista community Bolom Ajaw heavily armed, and the "journalist" was a member of the Center for Investigation and National Security (Cisen), the army's [sic] intelligence unit, taking photos of disputed lands. Anyone who has visited a Zapatista community would quickly appreciate the absurdity of foreigners "commanding" Zapatistas.

The article appears only a week after a group of foreign human rights observers filed a formal complaint against paramilitary groups in Agua Azul who threatened them with a pistol and detained their vehicle. The entire confrontation was documented on video.

Source: Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News Summary: 02/18-24

It turns out that not only was the "reporter" actually an intelligence agent, but he was also in charge of the operation, according to Mirada Sur, a San Cristobal-based online news outlet. This means that the armed incursion into a highly volatile and hotly contested area within Zapatista territory was directed by the federal government. The Cisen is part of the Secretaria de Gobernacion, which is like the US State Department or other countries' Ministry of the Interior. The Secretaria de Gobernacion made international headlines with its shoddy attempts to act as mediator between the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) and Oaxacan governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in 2006. The Cisen is actually civilian intelligence, like the CIA, not military intelligence as reported by MSN in the above article.

State-federal government collaboration is written all over this incident. La Jornada's Hermann Bellinghausen reported that it was the Chiapas state government that paid for the fake article. Alarmingly, Palenque police say they might carry out an operation to retrieve the officers' weapons from the Zapatistas. So while the first armed incursion was federally initiated, possibly without the state government's permission, the potential second armed incursion would be decidedly sanctioned and directed by the state government.

While the claim that foreigners directed Zapatistas to disarm and brutalize the police and intelligence agent sounds absurd, it's important to understand that it fits perfectly with racist Mexican narratives about indigenous people and the Zapatistas. A lot of mestizos think indigenous people are child-like, unintelligent, and incapable of doing anything of their own volition. This means that they were incapable of organizing themselves and staging the 1994 uprising, and they're certainly incapable of running their own government in the autonomous territory. But the uprising and autonomous government are undeniable, so according to the narrative, someone must be pulling the strings. Get a coleto drunk and chances are they'll tell you some pretty hilarious stories about who it is that's pulling the strings. I've heard the French government, French mining companies, the CIA, US hippie backpackers, Guatemalan drug traffickers... So this absurd, obviously fake news article that claims that foreigners directed Zapatistas to brutalize some harmless cops and a reporter is very believable for many Mexican people. They would much rather believe that foreigners exert mind control over the Zapatistas than accept that indigenous people are highly intelligent and run their own government better than the colonial Mexican government. Because that would mean that indigenous people aren't just extinct civilizations that built huge jungle temples; rather, they're alive and fighting hard to take back what's rightfully theirs.

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