Mexico Week In Review: 01.29-02.04

[Milt Shapiro]

Mexico Week In Review: 01.29-02.04
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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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PROTEST AS TORTILLA CRISIS HURTS CALDERON

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Mexico City to
protest a surge in tortilla prices that has put President Felipe
Calderon under intense pressure. Soaring U.S. demand for ethanol has
sent corn prices to their highest level in a decade, pulling up
prices of Mexico's national food staple. Protesters held up ears of
corn and complained that Calderon, a conservative accused by leftists
of stealing the July 2006 presidential election, was failing to
protect them against foreign market forces. "Calderon isn't just a
thief, he's a murderer because he wants us to die of hunger," Elvira
Acevedo, 62, said at the march.

Calderon's leftist election rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is
using the surge in tortilla prices to snipe at the government and he
joined the protest march. "The right dehumanizes everything. We are
living the consequences of the imposition of a government dominated
by white-collar criminals. They are a danger to Mexico," the
firebrand former mayor of Mexico City told supporters in the vast
Zocalo square.

Corn tortilla prices rose as high as 15 pesos ($1.36) for a kilogram
(2.2 pounds) -- roughly 35 of the flat corn patties -- in recent
weeks as the corn market tightened. Mexico imports corn from the
United States to top up its domestic production. Calderon responded
this month by persuading producers, makers and retailers to cap their
prices so tortillas would sell at no more than 8.50 pesos a kilogram,
but local media say some vendors are still charging up to 12. Before
the crisis, tortillas sold at around 5 pesos per kilogram.

Calderon has won praise at home and abroad for sending out thousands
of troops to hunt down drug cartels since he took office on December
1, but what is being dubbed a "tortilla crisis" for the half of
Mexico that lives on $5 a day or less is stealing headlines.

Source: Reuters: 02/01
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GOVERNMENT ENACTS LAW ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

President Felipe Calderon praised a new law that obligates federal
and local authorities to prevent, punish and eradicate violence
against women, and he promised a "relentless" fight against
gender-related abuse. The law - enacted with its publication in the
federal register - does not drastically change how violators are
currently punished. But it symbolically underscores the government's
recognition of a scourge that is widespread but often ignored in this
traditionally macho society.

Officially, the law is the first federal measure combating domestic
violence and other abuse against women, though similar statues were
already on the books in many cities and states. The law aims to
guarantee women's "access to a life free of violence, that favors
their development and well-being according to the principles of
equality and nondiscrimination." Among its objectives is to have the
government-backed National Women's Institute conduct education
campaigns focusing on women's rights and informing women of the
institutions and laws they can resort to for protection. It also
spells out authorities' obligations to issue "emergency protection
orders" to help victims of violence, including removing aggressors
from homes in domestic violence cases, suspending attackers' visits
to children and freezing assets to guarantee alimony payments.

The law was initially proposed in 2005 by a legislator from the
opposition Democratic Revolution Party of presidential runner-up and
former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Earlier this
year, the leftist Convergence Party, which also supported the law,
accused the president of dragging his feet on the measure and
expressed fear that it ultimately would be killed. But Calderon, who
took office in December after winning election by the slimmest of
margins, praised the measure. "I said it during my campaign and I
repeat it today that I will be a president who is relentless in the
fight against gender-related violence," he said during a ceremony at
the presidential residence. "I am worried and hurt by intrafamily
violence and, of course, murders for reasons of gender." The law also
calls on states and cities to modify their criminal and civil codes
to impose harsher punishment on those who perpetrate violence against
women.

Source: Associated Press: 02/01
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INTERIOR SECRETARY DISCREDITS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Maria del Carmen Diez Hidalgo, head of the human rights department of
the Interior Secretary, discredited a report issued last week by the
International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights
(CCIODH), claiming the group is not "recognized" and does not have
the "respectability of non-governmental organizations like Amnesty
International."  The CCIODH issued a preliminary report based on 420
first-hand interviews that found a deplorable human rights situation
in Oaxaca.  The Commission accused Oaxacan authorities of carrying
out a "judicial, police and military strategy ... whose objective is
the control and demobilization of the civil population in zones where
they have developed civil organizational processes and movements of a
social, non-party character."

Meanwhile, a federal judge sentenced Magdalenda Garcia Duran to
prison.  Garcia Duran was taken into custody during police actions on
May 4 last year in San Salvador Atenco.  The judge issued the ruling
over the strenuous objections of Amnesty International.  In a letter
to Federal Attorney General Eduardo Medina, Amnesty International
called the charges against Garcia Duran "without basis and they
constitute a case of arbitrary detention."  The Attorney General
ignored the letter from the internationally recognized human rights
organization.

Source: Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News Summary: 01/22-28
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CHIAPAS: VATICAN INCOMPREHENSION STYMIES PASTORAL PLAN

Felipe Arizmendi, the Catholic bishop of the southern Mexican diocese
of San Cristóbal de las Casas, birthplace of the indigenous Zapatista
guerrillas, claims that the Vatican, which has imposed restrictions
on him, does not understand his pastoral plans or the particular
characteristics of his mainly indigenous flock. "I regret the
misunderstanding with the Pope, but we shall insist on clarifying
that we are not promoting an autonomous church here, but an
autochthonous (authentically inculturated) one, as fully accepted by
the Second Vatican Council," the bishop said in an interview with IPS.

According to Catholic Church authorities in Rome, there are
"ideological" problems in this diocese in the Mexican state of
Chiapas, as their understanding is that an autonomous church is being
encouraged. On these grounds, the Vatican recently reiterated its
2001 ban against Arizmendi ordaining new indigenous deacons. "We have
already explained our plans several times, and have made changes to
them, but they do not understand us. We shall continue to plead our
case, although I know that the distance and the different realities
do not favor good communication," said the bishop by telephone from
his offices in the colonial-era city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

A letter sent to Arizmendi by the prefect of the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Francis
Arinze, was published in the latest issue of Notitiae, the official
bulletin of the Congregation. It said that the diocese of San
Cristóbal's plans contained "grave doctrinal and pastoral
ambiguities" that should be corrected. Among these ambiguities, the
letter said, was the implied intention of allowing the ordination of
married indigenous deacons, a claim that Arizmendi denies. As a
prelate he "fully supported" celibacy for those who wish to be
priests, Arizmendi stated. "I went to the Vatican in October and
explained my position. But if they sometimes don't understand us in
Mexico City, imagine what can happen at the Vatican," he said.

Arizmendi has been bishop of San Cristóbal since May 2000, when he
succeeded Samuel Ruiz, whom the Vatican also criticized repeatedly
for his liberation theology tendencies. Ruiz was dubbed the "red
bishop" by local ranchers.

Arizmendi, who constantly speaks out against poverty and the human
rights violations suffered by indigenous people, and is also critical
of the present political system, said he would continue to pursue
approval of his pastoral plans. What the bishop basically wants is
for the Vatican to lift its ban on ordaining more indigenous deacons.
"We have 330, but many are old and sick and unable to support the
Church, so I hope we can ordain another 200 or more, which is what we
need," he said.

The diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas is spread over an area of
37,000 square kilometers in Mexico's poorest state, and has a
population of 1.5 million, the great majority of whom are indigenous
people. "For this whole area, where roads are bad or non-existent, we
only have 330 deacons, 84 priests and 8,000 catechists, which is
obviously insufficient," the bishop said.

In February 2001, the Vatican ordered the suspension of ordinations
of indigenous people on the grounds that those already ordained
appeared to lack "solid and balanced" training. Deacons are ordained
church ministers one step below priests. They can assist at religious
sacraments and carry out missionary work in the name of the Catholic
Church. Unlike priests, they may be married, in which case they
remain as permanent deacons, that is, without the option to go on to
be ordained as priests.

Religious expert and columnist Bernando Barranco said that the
Vatican's mistrust about possible links between sectors of the clergy
and the insurgent Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) may lie
behind the ban, as well as the pro-indigenous rights policies that
the Church has applied for 50 years in the San Cristóbal diocese.
Several indigenous former catechists and missionaries are known to
belong to the leadership of the EZLN, which took up arms in the state
of Chiapas in January 1994, only to lay them down a week later to
become a non-violent group advocating political change and indigenous
rights in Mexico.

Bishop Ruiz, who was in charge of the diocese of San Cristóbal de las
Casas for 40 years until he reached mandatory retirement age,
promoted the training of indigenous deacons and priests, following
the principles of the "Autochthonous Church" called for by the Second
Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II), the conclave carried
out in 1962-1965 which revolutionized Catholicism. Ruiz's work
encouraged indigenous social organization and their demands for
better living conditions. The Zapatistas built on this legacy for
their armed uprising, against express opposition from the San
Cristóbal diocese. Advisers of the late Pope John Paul II who had
questioned Ruiz's work decided to put an end to the ordination of
indigenous deacons in order to "normalize religious life" in San
Cristóbal. Under Pope Benedict XVI, the same attitude has prevailed.

Arizmendi, who has continued along the same theological lines as
Ruiz, is still requesting that the prohibition against ordaining
deacons should be lifted. In Chiapas, deacons are nominated by the
indigenous communities, although the bishop has the final word. The
number of deacons in San Cristóbal de las Casas is the highest among
Mexico's Catholic dioceses, and the Vatican considers it to be
excessive. According to Arizmendi, this opinion stems from a lack of
knowledge of the reality of his dioceses, where many indigenous
communities are isolated from urban centers and from roads. The
bishop stated that the rapid growth of "other (Protestant) religious
denominations" among the indigenous peoples of Chiapas is due to the
shortfall of Catholic Church ministers, including deacons.

Source: IPS: 01/29

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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: 01.29-02.04
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