CPT in Mexico

• Read the report of the latest Chiapas delegation from Feb 2001.
• View English and Spanish liturgies that express solidarity with Las Abejas. Or download them in Rich Text Format (works with any Windows word processor): English | Spanish

Purpose

CPT Mexico functioned as a violence reduction presence within the low-level conflict that typifies Chiapas. Like all CPT projects, we worked to engage systems and policies of oppression with truth and nonviolent action. The team was established in May 1998 and operated out of the southern-Chiapan city of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Project Conclusion

In mid-December, 2001, CPT suspended its full-time presence in Chiapas, Mexico.

When CPT established a team in Chiapas in June, 1998, immigration and military checkpoints dominated the roads. Two hundred internationals had been expelled from Chiapas earlier that year. During Lent 1999 CPTers carried candles to those checkpoints asking personnel to pray with us for the peace of Chiapas and the opportunity for all those displaced by violence to return home. There are now no checkpoints operating in the zone where CPT worked.

About one third of the people of Chenalhó Municipality had fled their homes because of paramilitary threats and violence, seeking refuge in neighboring communities. One month after CPT's arrival in 1998, renewed threats aborted the planned return of 1100 displaced members of the pacifist Christian group Las Abejas to the communities of Yibeljoj and Los Chorros. Starting in August 2001, CPT and other groups provided accompaniment to more than 2500 Abejas whom, after living in refugee camps for nearly four years, finally returned to 14 different communities. Nearly all the Abejas are now home. As prominent players in the drama of Chiapas, the Abejas have political leverage which provides them a great degree of security.

With Chiapas being the most militarized state in Mexico, and Chenalhó being one of the most heavily militarized municipalities, pressure on the Abejas was extreme. Now, at least four of the military bases in Chenalhó are closed and armed paramilitaries no longer make appearances. Currently the greatest pressure on the indigenous people is economic.

CPT has witnessed the transforming power of nonviolence in the changes that have occurred since 1998 and will look for ways to continue supporting such efforts in the coming months and years.

Background

Mexico's poorest and southern-most state of Chiapas was thrust into the world spotlight on January 1, 1994, when an armed resistance movement calling themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) made up of mostly poor, uneducated indigenous Mayan farmers donned ski masks and took over a number of Chiapas' major cities. The goals of the Zapatistas ­who took their name from Emiliano Zapata, a major leader of the 1910 Mexican Revolution ­ were not unlike the goals of the original Revolution decades ago: adequate education, land reform that was fair and didn't favor the wealthy, and equal rights for Mexico's indigenous people.

The armed movement did not have as it's goal the overthrow of the Mexican government and the implementation of a new system; it was not a political revolution. As the eloquent Subcommandante Marcos - the masked yet charismatic spokesperson and figurehead of the EZLN - explained, "the political system can't be a product of war. The war should only be to open up space in the political arena so that the people can really have a choice."

The organizing of the indigenous into the EZLN actually began in the early 1980s and came out of decades of government repression of the indigenous. The public inauguration of the movement on January 1 was symbolic; it coincided with the official implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into which Mexico had entered with the US and Canada.. The indigenous movement projected that free trade would mean privilege granted to international business and continued economic subjugation for their people.

The Mexican government -- the Institutionalized Revolutionary Party (PRI) which has held a strangle-hold on political power for over 75 years -- responded harshly, sending armed troops to engage the Zapatistas. For two weeks a hot war raged until a cease-fire was negotiated. Eventually the government agreed to dialogue with the EZLN and listen to their demands.

After three years of negotiation, both sides signed the San Andreas Accords in 1996. Soon after, the government refused to honor the agreement, arguing that the government representatives did not in fact represent the government, and proposed to start the negotiations over. The EZLN refused, demanding that the government honor the agreement it had already signed.

For over three years no negotiations have been held. The EZLN-supporting communities set up what are called "Autonomous Zones" which are in effect under EZLN control and do not accept help or other services from the government. Water and electricity are appropriated. They are autonomous.

Since 1994, the Mexican government has been militarizing Chiapas to a high degree. In addition to establishing large military bases, another tactic has been to place so-called "Social Labor" camps that house soldiers and equipment, but also offer social services like dental care, food service, and haircuts, to the indigenous. The government argued: if the concern is we don't provide enough, here it is -- via the armed military.

The short-lived hot war transitioned to a cold low intensity war characteristic of other conflict-ridden countries in Central America. Anti-Zapatista paramilitaries were formed composed of PRI government-supporting indigenous who seek the power and privilege that comes with allying with the government. It is widely understood that the Mexican military helped form these paramilitaries to divide the indigenous communities. Today communities are split along these lines: PRI-supporting groups who receive government aid on a weekly basis, and Zapatista autonomous or Zapatista-sympathizing communities who are under a state of quiet siege. Often these communities are side-by-side, in some cases communities themselves are literally split down the middle. Psychological warfare and threats of attacks buttressed by occasional actual violence function to keep communities in check.

CPT's Role

It is in this context of Low Intensity Warfare divided communities, and a military that is trying to construct a mask of social legitimacy that Christian Peacemaker Teams operates as a general violence reduction presence, attempting to address physical, systemic and psychological violence. For a more specific description of our work, please see our Goals. Our biggest challenge is operating in the midst of an under-the-table war. It is one thing to place a violence reduction team in the middle of "hot" conflict, more typified by the conflict in which our team in Hebron operates. It is quite another thing to place a team in the context of LIW. For example, to date we have yet to personally witness a case of physical violence. We have, on the other hand, seen the daily effects of the psychological warfare waged here. The divisions of this conflict are very complicated and complex.

Other Resources

For further resources, please check our Bibliography. In addition you can peruse these suggested web sites on Chiapas for additional background and continued updates on the conflict:

Linking Organizations that work in Chiapas: English

Buying fair trade coffee is a great entry point for northerners wanting to do something about economic globalization. Find out more at http://www.transfairusa.org/

SIPAZ, (Servicio Internacional para la Paz) - Peacebuilding in Chiapas, Mexico

Global Exchange

Witness for Peace - delegation opportunities

Linking Organizations that work in Chiapas: Spanish

CIEPAC - Centro de Investigación Económica y Política y Acción Comunitaria in Chiapas, Center for Economic and Political Research and Community Action

Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, A.C. (colloquially referred to as FrayBa.)
For Spanish: http://www.laneta.apc.org/cdhbcasas/
For English (more limited, outdated presentation): http://www.laneta.apc.org/cdhbcasas/pres-eng.htm

Enlace Civil - Civilian Link

Links to Background and Current Information

Essays and Analysis on neo-liberal economic policy: http://www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm. En Espanol: http://www.zmag.org/Spanish/index.htm

Melel Xojobal, Provides Spanish-language daily news summary from major Chiapan and Mexican newspapers.

Chiapas95 a series of "lists" which distribute news and debate about Chiapas culled from other lists on the internet

"Mexico: Victory For Democracy or Neoliberalism?" is located at: http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=1251

Mexico solidarity network: weekly news summary, http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/news_archive.html

Autonomy and Global Capital in Chiapas (October 2000)
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/comment/auto_global_cap_oct00.html

AP article on Salazar and Fox, from December 8, 2000:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/mexico/news/ap120800.html

Global Exchange Mexico campaign updates
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/mexico/update.html