Sunday, January 11, 2009

Mexico's Zapatistas mark 15th anniversary of uprising

Approximately 2,000 supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN, gathered in the southern state of Chiapas to mark the 15th anniversary of the group's short-lived uprising.

The EZLN also plans to hold a meeting with its supporters from Jan. 2-4 in San Cristobal de las Casas as part of the Digna Rabia (Dignified Rage) Festival.

The gathering Wednesday night in the Chiapas highland town of Oventic provided a space for athletic games and music but little room for political speeches.

Only one Zapatista representative was in attendance, Comandante David, who slammed the last 15 years of "bad government" in Mexico and the harm it has caused the country's indigenous peoples.

He also used his message to invite the crowd to the meeting that that will begin here Friday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the uprising and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the EZLN.

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During the Festival of Dignified Rage in Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos breaks the EZLN's silence on the drug war


On the first day of the Zapatista National Liberation Army's participation in the Festival of Dignified Rage, its spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos discussed the drug violence that has increasingly plagued Mexico.  Marcos' speech marks the first time the EZLN has addressed the drug war in any sort of depth.

Marcos couldn't avoid addressing drug violence in his discussion of violence against social movements.  He says Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the corporate media "use and abuse the word 'violence'" for their own means.  "They say they condemn violence, but in reality they condemn action."  Marcos accuses Calderon of using the drug war to pacify discontent with his government.  "Mr. Calderon decided that, instead of bread and circuses, he would give the people blood."

Referencing the lack of confidence in Calderon's government, which is ridden with corruption scandals and has failed to meet its own economic benchmarks, Marcos continued, "The professional politicians are the circus and bread is very expensive.... Perhaps...[Calderon's] goal is to distract people.  The public is so busy with the drug war's  bloody failure, it could be that it doesn't even notice Calderon's failure in political economy."

In his speech to Festival participants, Marcos verbalized what many Mexicans have long suspected: "Everyone who isn't in his Cabinet knows that he's losing this war, and that the death of his significant other was an assassination, which is also well-known but not ever published."  The "significant other" Marcos refers to is Juan Camilo Mouriño, Calderon's long-time friend and Minister of the Interior until he was killed in a plane crash along with other officials.  The Mexican government, which received assistance from US experts during the investigation, has ruled the crash an accident due to pilot error, but many Mexicans believe a drug cartel took down the plane.  José Vasconcelos, Mexico's former top drug prosecutor, was also killed in the crash.

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Mexico Zapatista leader slams Obama over Gaza silence

Mexico's Zapatista rebel leader "Subcomandante" Marcos slammed US president-elect Barack Obama for failing to speak out on Israel's bombing of Gaza, in a speech on Friday marking the 15th anniversary of his rebellion.

The masked leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation -- which rose up in arms in Chiapas, southeast Mexico, on January 1, 1994 -- also critized a government clampdown on spiraling drug violence, in his first public appearance in more than a year.

Obama "supports the use of force" against Palestinian people, Marcos said in a speech to some 2,500 leftist politicians and activists from 25 countries.

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Mexican rebels stand in solidarity with Gaza

Marcos condemned the Israeli attack on Gaza as a “classic military war of conquest,” with one exception: Israel's target is not an opposing military force; its targets are civilians.  Speaking on behalf of the EZLN, he said, “According to the news photos, the 'strategic' points destroyed by the Israeli government's air force are houses, shacks, civilian buildings.  We haven't seen a single bunker, nor a barracks, nor a military airport, nor cannons, amongst the rubble.  So—and please excuse our ignorance—we think that either the planes' guns have bad aim, or in Gaza such 'strategic' military points don't exist.”

Marcos lamented the deaths of “men, women, children, and the elderly” in the attacks and commented sarcastically, “surely the hail of bullets that fell on Gaza this morning were in order to protect the Israeli infantry's advance from those men, women, children, and elderly people.”

Without specifically mentioning the word “genocide,” Marco accused the Israeli government of that crime: “The assault will seek to annihilate that population.  And whichever man, woman, child, or elderly person that manages to escape or hide from the predictably bloody assault will later be 'hunted' so that the cleansing is complete and the commanders in charge of the operation can report to their superiors: 'We've completed the mission.'”

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