Mexico Week In Review: 12.25-12.31

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 12.25-12.31
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Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS).  CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas.  CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To view newsletter archives, visit: 
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
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ZAPATISTAS BEGIN INTERNATIONAL MEETING

Everything is ready for the Zapatista Meeting with World People 
beginning December 30, confirmed a press release sent by the meeting 
organizers. According to the document, delegates from 30 countries 
confirmed their presence in the event so far, to be held in Oventic, 
one of the autonomous territories of the Zapatistas in Chiapas. By 
using the www.zeztainternazional.org web site, internet uses will 
have the possibility of interchanging ideas and experiences, reading 
reports, stories, viewing pictures and accessing the current 
documents.

Additionally, the press release indicates that for the first time in 
the history of the movement representatives of the rebel government 
of the Zapatista communities will gather to dialogue on challenges 
and problems facing their struggle.

Source: Prensa Latina: 12/27
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CHIAPAS: SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO PROBE 1997 MASSACRE

The government said it has created a special prosecutor's office to 
investigate a 1997 massacre of 45 Indian villagers. It also announced 
an office to look into the killings of three journalists in the 
1990s, which will call former Governor Patrocinio Gonzales Blanco to 
testify based on claims by some of the victims' relatives that he was 
involved in the killings, Attorney General Mariano Herran said.

On December 22, 1997, paramilitaries with alleged ties to the 
government attacked a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists who 
sympathized with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the 
hamlet of Acteal. The assailants killed 45 people, including children 
as young as two months old. Twenty-four of the attackers were each 
sentenced to a little more than 36 years in prison, and 51 others 
still face trial.

But activists say most of those arrested and tried are Indian 
farmers, and that former state officials    allegedly responsible for 
the killings have gone largely unpunished. Activists say that the 
massacre was part of a government campaign against the Zapatistas who 
staged a brief armed uprising in Chiapas in 1994 to demand greater 
Indian rights. Federal prosecutors, who will be aided by the new 
state prosecutor's office, are handling the case.

The federal government also has a special prosecutor's office to 
investigate crimes against journalists, which have risen 
significantly in the last two years. Since 2004, at least 13 
journalists have been killed in Mexico, presumably as revenge for 
unfavorable reports on criminals, drug traffickers and corrupt 
government officials.

Source: Associated Press: 12/28
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OAXACA UPDATE:  DEMOS IN 37 COUNTRIES

On Dec. 22 thousands of supporters of the Popular Assembly of the 
Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) marched in Oaxaca city, capital of the 
southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, to mark seven months of militant 
protests against the state government. The march followed after a 
crackdown, which started on Oct. 29 and included the arrests of 
hundreds of APPO leaders and members. "This is a movement of the 
grassroots, not of leaders," APPO negotiating committee member Juan 
Sosa Maldonado told the marchers. Government authorities trying to 
break the movement by arresting leaders "have made a big mistake," 
Sosa said, "and the people will condemn them."

The Oaxaca protests started on May 22 with a strike by 70,000 
teachers and staff in Section 22, the state branch of the National 
Education Workers Union (SNTE). After Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz 
Ortiz attempted to rout a sit-in by teachers with a massive police 
operation, the strike grew into a much broader movement that 
paralyzed much of the state capital. On Oct. 29 some 4,500 agents 
from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) seized control of the city's 
downtown area and began the crackdown against the movement.

The rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), based in the 
neighboring state of Chiapas, declared Dec. 22 the International Day 
of Mobilizations for Oaxaca; the date also marks the anniversary of 
the massacre of 45 indigenous campesinos in Acteal, Chiapas, in 1997. 
EZLN solidarity activists and others held demonstrations in 37 
countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Peru and the US, to 
demand respects for Oaxacans' human rights and the removal of Gov. 
Ruiz.

Some 200 people marched in the center of Barcelona in a heavy rain; 
Spanish activists also demonstrated in Salamanca, Seville and 
Valencia. Among the hundreds of marchers in Paris were a number of 
Mexican immigrants; undocumented immigrants had been occupying a 
university in the Paris region for several days. There were also 
protests in Grenoble, Lille, Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse. About 
100 people held a sit-in outside the United Nations offices in Rome 
to protest the violation of activists' human rights in Mexico. In 
Germany activists protested in Bremen, Cologne and Wuppertal. Other 
protests were held in Athens, Greece; Brussels, Belgium; and Vienna, 
Austria.

Twenty people have died since June 2 as a direct or indirect result 
of the crisis in Oaxaca, according to a preliminary report the 
official National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) released on Dec. 18. 
Eleven deaths, including that of New York-based independent 
journalist Brad Will, resulted directly from confrontations. A total 
of 370 people had been injured and 349 had been arrested, the CNDH 
said, and it had received 1,211 complaints of human rights violations 
by government agencies. "The parties [to the conflict] and the 
Federal Preventive Police, which intervened to restore public order, 
used violence repeatedly and excessively. As a consequence, the 
institutional, social and cultural life of the state has been hurt," 
the report charged. On Dec. 20 all but four of 95 alleged APPO 
supporters held in the western state of Nayarit since late November 
were flown back to Oaxaca: 52 were taken to the Tlacolula prison and 
39 to the Miahuatlan prison. After arriving in Oaxaca, 11 of the 
prisoners were released, although they still face charges. The 
federal government had previously insisted that all the prisoners 
were "highly dangerous"

Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater 
New York: 12/24
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BORDER NEWS: ILLEGAL MIGRANT ARRESTS DOWN

Arrests of illegal migrants along the U.S.-Mexican border have 
dropped by more than a third since U.S. National Guard troops started 
helping with border security, suggesting that fewer people may be 
trying to cross. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 149,238 fewer 
people from the start of July through November, down 34 percent from 
the same period last year, according to monthly figures provided by 
U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Mario Martinez. Arrests also had dropped 
by 9 percent for the same period from 2004 to 2005. If the downward 
trend continues, it would be the first sustained decrease in illegal 
immigrant arrests since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist 
attacks. National Guard troops started arriving along the border June 
15, and 6,000 were in place by August.

Victor Clark, a Mexican migration expert in Tijuana, says many 
migrants fear they will confront U.S. soldiers on the border. "The 
presence of the National Guard has had a big impact on migrants," he 
told The Associated Press. Border Patrol officials usually attribute 
a drop in arrests to fewer people crossing. "We have seen some 
tangible results," Martinez said. "But we'll have to see over the 
next few months if it holds up. We are optimistic."

The National Guard troops are not allowed to detain migrants and have 
been limited to monitoring surveillance cameras and body heat 
detectors, but they have freed Border Patrol agents and "have helped 
us tremendously to detect illegal migration traffic," Martinez said. 
The United States plans to expand the Border Patrol from just over 
11,000 agents to about 18,000 by 2008. The U.S. also plans to build 
700 miles of additional border fence.

Other measures may also be deterring crossers. In July, U.S. and 
Mexican officials started working together to prosecute human 
smugglers on both sides of the border. U.S. immigration officials 
also have been raiding U.S. companies for illegal workers. Earlier 
this month, 1,300 people were detained in a sweep of meatpacking 
plants in six states. Added to that, smugglers have increased their 
fees, charging as much as $3,000 to hide migrants in their cars and 
drive them across the border. Before the National Guard troops 
arrived, the price was about $2,000, migrant activists say. Still, 
border experts say the downturn may be temporary while smugglers 
search for new routes and migrants come up with the money to pay the 
higher fees.

Edgar Velasquez acknowledges it's become tougher to cross. He spent 
three days walking in freezing temperatures through the remote 
mountain country west of Tucson, Ariz., and still was caught. Agents 
found a body in those mountains Dec. 19. But that did not deter 
Velasquez, who said he planned to slip across the Arizona border 
during the holiday week when he hoped the U.S. patrols will be 
short-handed as agents take vacations. "I imagine they also want to 
be with their families," said Velasquez, resting in the border city 
of Nogales before embarking on his illegal odyssey to reach a 
construction job in Florida. Gustavo Soto, a spokesman with the U.S. 
Border Patrol Tucson sector, said smugglers often tell migrants there 
are less border agents out in the desert on holidays or when the 
weather is bad, "even though we have surveillance on the border 24/7" 
and 365 days a year.

Some migrants are simply giving up after a single try, something that 
was almost unheard of only a few years ago. Esther Ardia walked for 
nearly three days as temperatures dropped to 14 degrees in the 
Arizona desert, trying to get back to her job at a North Carolina 
pine tree farm. Ardia, 21, couldn't keep up with the group of about 
30 illegal migrants and was abandoned by her smuggler after her legs 
cramped up. She was picked up by the Border Patrol and returned to 
Mexico. "I knew it would be hard, but I thought I could make it," 
said Ardia. "It's very hard. I'm not going to try (to cross) again."

Source: Associated Press: 12/27
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NEW LAW TAKES AIM AT CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

The Mexico City Legislature approved an all-embracing campaign 
against childhood sexual exploitation linked to tourism, a problem 
that is on the rise nationally and affects at least 5,000 minors in 
the Federal District. According to the document, there are many 
factors contributing to the increase of pedophilia, such as access 
facilities, weakness of legal controls, intergenerational 
prostitution, and the huge profits obtained from this activity. 
Deputy Alejandro Ramirez declared there are municipalities in Mexico 
City that are considered paradises for childhood sexual tourists. 
According to data from System for the Integral Development of the 
Family, 50 percent of the 8,500 children on the streets in the 
capital suffer from sexual abuse. Of these 8,500, 600 are under six 
years of age and 70 percent have some type of addiction.

Source: Prensa Latina: 12/27

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The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the 
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes 
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as 
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 12.25-12.31
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