CHIAPAS: ZAPATISTAS (english)
www-features 10:09am Fri Jan 3 '03 (Modified on 12:35pm Fri Jan 3 '03)
www-features at lists.indymedia.org article#226521
Twenty-Five Thousand March on San Cristobal
More than 25,000 women, children, and men of all ages, wearing masks and
brandishing machetes, came streaming into the city of San Cristobal on
January 1 [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | espanol ]. They called on the
indigenous people of Mexico to maintain their autonomy without the
permission of the government, to express publicly that the Zapatista
communities will not accept the forced removals of people living in the
zone of Montes Azules, and to emphasize the importance of a global
resistance to imperialism.
January 1, 2003 marks the nine year anniversary of the Zapatista uprising,
the initiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the day when
all Mexican tariffs against US agricultural products are removed (a
provision of NAFTA). On top of all this, the Mexican government and
military is busy conducting forced relocations of indigenous people out of
an area known as "Montes Azules."
As a result, thousands of Zapatista people from all over Chiapas have come
out of the mountains and the jungle to march into the city of San Cristobal
de las Casas, ending a period of silence that began nearly two years ago,
after the April 2001 march to Mexico City.
A blockade of the borders by a farm union was called off at the last
moment, but the fear remains that the lifting of Mexican tariffs on farm
products from the US (the third stage of the North American Free Trade
Agreement, which went into effect January 1, 2003) will devastate small
farmers, ranchers and campesinos.
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Organize for April 10-15,2003 - Washington,DC (english)
Latin America Solidarity Coalition 12:35pm Fri Jan 3 '03
comment#226542
Mobilization Against the U.S. Military and Economic Intervention in Latin
America and the Caribbean
The Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) is calling for a massive
mobilization to Washington, DC as part of an International Day of Action in
April 2003 to demand:
- No to the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement (FTAA) and all other
exploitative schemes
- No to Plan Colombia
- Close the School of the Americas/WHISC and end US military aid and training
- Close US military bases in Vieques and throughout Latin America
- Respect indigenous treaty, land, and cultural rights
- End the Drug War's assault on people of color and the poor throughout the
Americas.
- No One Is Illegal Stop the Attacks against Immigrants
The U.S. government is continuing its legacy of intervention in Latin
America and the Caribbean by imposing pro-corporate, anti-people economic
policies, by providing military aid and training to repressive governments,
and attempting to crush any movements that support alternative models. We
must stop these policies and stand in solidarity with our sisters and
brothers throughout the Americas.
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=226521&group=webcast
