Before 1994
1821
Mexican Independence.
1823 Chiapas separates from Guatemala and joins with Mexico.
1910-1920
Mexican Revolution.
1917
Proclamation of the constitution still enforced.
1919 (10 April)
Assassination of Emiliano Zapata.
1929
Foundation of National Revolutionary Party (future PRI).
1934-1940
Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas. Nationalization
of petroleum and railroads. Intensification of Agrarian Reform.
1946-1952
Presidency of Miguel Alemán. Industrialization of the
country and strengthening of a capitalist economy.
1968
The student movement’s largest protests end on the second
of October with the massacre of Tlatelolco.
1970
Presidency of Luis Echeverría. New period of populist
reforms.
1972
In Chiapas, the creation
of the “Lacandon Community.” In
a decree, the government grants to 66 Lacandon families a territory
of 600,000 hectares, displacing 2000 Tzeltal and Chol families
from 26 communities.
1974
Indigenous congress
in San Cristóbal de las Casas
the first public
demonstration of
the rising Indigenous
movement.
1976-1982
Presidency of José López Portillo, which ended
in a large financial crisis.
1982-1983
100,000 Guatemalan
refugees
arrive in Chiapas,
the majority
of whom
are indigenous,
fleeing
the massacres
carried
out by
the Guatemalan
army.
1982-1988
Presidency
of
Miguel de la
Madrid.
Beginning
of
the
policy
of
neoliberal modernization.
1983 (17
of
November)
Foundation
of the
Zapatista Army
of National
Liberation (EZLN).
September
of 1985
Earthquakes
in Mexico
City.
1988-1994
Presidency
of Carlos
Salinas de
Gortari, resulting
from controversial
elections. Acceleration
of neoliberal
policy.
1989
Fall
of the
price of
coffee.
1992
Reform
of Article
27 of
the constitution,
relating to
agrarian reform.
The reform
signifies a
weakening of
the ejido
system and
communal land.
Demonstrations against
the celebration
of the
500 years
anniversary of
the discovery
of America.
1994
1st of January
Forceful entry of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Armed uprising of the Zapatistas: the
EZLN occupies various cities of Chiapas, including San
Cristóbal de las Casas, Las Margaritas, Altamirano,
Ocosingo. Through the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle,
they declare war against the federal government and its army,
and demand liberty, justice and democracy for all Mexicans.
3rd of January
The EZLN takes as a prisoner of war the general Absalón
Domínguez, ex-governor of the state of Chiapas.
10th of January
President Salinas names Manuel Camacho Solís, then secretary
of International Relations and before that governor of Mexico
City, commissioner for peace and reconciliation in Chiapas.
12th of January
The government decrees a unilateral cease-fire and announces
its intention to look for a negotiated solution with the
rebels. The estimations of the deaths during the war are
from 145 to 1,000. A large protest for peace is held in
Mexico City.
16th of February
The EZLN frees the ex governor Absalón Castellanos.
In exchange for this, the government frees hundreds of incarcerated
Indigenous Zapatistas.
21st of February – 2nd of March
Peace Dialogue in the Cathedral of San Cristóbal de
las Casas between the leaders of the EZLN (Subcomandante Marcos
and 18 commanders and members of Clandestine Revolutionary
Indigenous Committee, CCRI), the commissioner for peace, Manuel
Camacho Solís and the mediator Samuel Ruiz, bishop of
San Cristóbal. A document of 34 agreements on the part
of the government was presented that the EZLN accepted to take
for consultation with their support bases.
23rd of March
Assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio, PRI candidate for
president of the Republic, in Tijuana, Baja California.
The EZLN declares
a red alert and suspends the consultation process.
12th of June
The EZLN rejects the government proposals born of the Cathedral
dialogues (by a vote of 98%). Manuel Camacho resigns from
his official position. The EZLN decides to maintain the
cease-fire and opens up dialogues with Civil Society. Through
the second
Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, they convene the National
Democratic Convention.
6-9th of August
6,000 representatives of popular organizations from all over
Mexico meet to participate in the National Democratic Convention
in Guadalupe Tepeyac, the first Zapatista “Aguascalientes” (a
place of meeting for the Zapatistas and civil society).
21st of August
PRI victory in the presidential elections. Ernesto Zedillo
Ponce de León is elected.
28th of September
Assassination in Mexico City of José Francisco Ruiz
Massieu, Secretary General of the PRI.
1st of December
Ernesto Zedillo takes possession of the presidency.
19th of December
The Zapatistas break the military cordon and passively establish
positions in 38 head municipalities declaring them rebel
autonomous municipalities.
19-20th of December
Financial crisis:
devaluation of the peso (40%), continuation of an economic
recession marked by the disappearance of thousands of businesses
and of a million jobs. The IMF, the United States and other
countries decide to rescue Mexico by means of a total of
50 billion dollars in loans.
24th of December
The EZLN and the federal government accept the National
commission of Mediation (CONAI), presided over by Bishop Samuel Ruiz,
as mediators.
1995
1st of January
In the third Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, the EZLN
proposes to civil society the formation of a Movement for
National
Liberation.
Mid-January
Meeting between the General Command of the Zapatistas and
the then Secretary of the Interior, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán
9th of February
The government reveals the supposed identity of Subcomandante
Marcos and orders the detention of the Zapatista leaders.
More than 20,000 campesinos flee to the mountains in
fear of the
Army. A strong military presence is established in the
conflict zone. In Mexico City, thousands of persons
show their opposition
to the military offensive.
11th of March
The Congress of the Union passes the law for the Dialogue,
the Reconciliation and Dignified Peace in Chiapas. The
law defines a framework for taking up again the peace process,
and, for as long as the dialogues last, to suspend the
orders
of arrest and the military operations against the Zapatistas.
The Peace and Reconciliation Committee (COCOPA) is created
and is made up of legislators from all political parties
represented in congress, with the objective of facilitating
this new dialogue.
9th of April
The first meeting between
the Zapatistas, the CONAI and the government delegation at
the ejido of San Miguel, in the
municipality of Ocosingo. The negotiations will be prolonged
for months, with many interruptions, in a populated area
of Los Altos, Chiapas, San Andres Larráinzar, which
the Zapatistas renamed Sacamch'en de los Pobres. The negotiations
should have been realized in six rounds of work:
- Round 1:
Indigenous Rights and Culture,
- Round 2:
Democracy and Justice,
- Round 3:
Well-being and Development,
- Round 4:
Reconciliation in Chiapas,
- Round 5:
Women’s rights,
- Round 6:
End of Hostilities.
27th of August-3rd of September
The EZLN launches a national and international consultation
to define the future of their struggle. More than a million
people respond, the majority supporting the transformation
of the EZLN into a political force of a new type.
1996
1st of January
Simultaneously in all five newly constructed Aguascalientes,
the EZLN announces the creation of the Zapatista Front
for National Liberation (FZLN), a new political force that
intend
to be independent, peaceful and not affiliated with any
political party (Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle).
4-8th of January
A National Indigenous Forum takes place, which is convened
by the EZLN and attracts more than 300 indigenous representatives
from at least 35 Indigenous communities. The participants
agree to call for the formation of the National Indigenous
Congress.
30th of January
First Declaration of La Realidad against Neoliberalism and
for Humanity. It calls for the holding of continental meetings
and the first Intercontinental meeting for Humanity and
against Neoliberalism.
16th of February
After five months of negotiations, the government and the
EZLN sign the first agreements on Indigenous Rights and
Culture
in San Andres.
4-8th of April
First Continental
Meeting for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism,
organized by the EZLN in la Realidad.
30th of June to 6th of July
Special Forum for State Reform held in San Cristóbal
as part of the second round of negotiations.
27th of July-3rd of August
The first Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against
Neoliberalism is held, organized by the EZLN in Chiapas,
also known as the “Intergalactic Meeting.” Close
to 5000 people from 42 countries participated.
3rd of September
The EZLN decide to
withdraw from the negotiations so long as the conditions deemed
necessary for the credibility
of the
process are not complied with the liberation of all Zapatista prisoners, a government
commission with the capacity for policy decisions and respect
for the
Zapatista delegation, the installation of the Commission
of Verification and Follow-up (COSEVER), serious and concrete
proposals for the 2nd Round on “Democracy and Justice,” and
the end of the climate of military and police persecution of
the Indigenous communities.
12th of October
Participation of Commander Ramona in the National Indigenous
Congress in Mexico City.
29th of November
COCOPA presents a proposal of constitutional reform based
on the San Andres Accords to the delegation of the EZLN
and
the federal government. It was to be accepted or rejected
without modifications.
December
The EZLN accepts the proposed law, the government attempts
to make changes to it.
Throughout 1995 & 1996
Violence in the Northern Zone (assassinations, displacements,
ambushes, roadblocks, etc.) The majority of the actions
are attributed to the group ‘Paz y Justicia’ (Peace
and Justice) and to ‘Los Chinchulines’ in the
area of Chilón-Bachajón.
1997
11th of January
The EZLN rejects the government counterproposal and announces
that it will not return to the negotiating table until
the San Andres Accords are fulfilled.
16th of February
More than 10,000 Indigenous Zapatistas march in San Cristóbal
to demand the compliance with the San Andres Accords accepting
the COCOPA initiative.
14th of March
In San Pedro Nixtalucum (Municipality of El Bosque), in a
repressive display, the state police assault civilians
sympathetic to
the EZLN, resulting in 4 deaths, 29 wounded, 27 detained
and 300 displaced.
25th of April
200 displaced Choles from the Northern zone of Chiapas break
the siege of “Peace and Justice” with the caravan “Wejlel” (Liberty,
in the Chol Language) and march to the state capital to demand
solutions for the situation in their region. They made a
stand for 87 days before the Government Palace without being
heeded by the state government.
6th of July
In the national elections, the PRI looses the majority in
the House of Representatives. In Mexico City, the PRD wins
the
position of mayor. In Chiapas irregularities, violence
and strong absenteeism are reported.
8th of September
1,111 Zapatista delegates march to Mexico City to attend
the second National Indigenous congress and demand the
fulfillment
of the San Andres Accords. They participate in the Congress
of the Foundation of the Zapatista Front for National Liberation.
4th of November
Attack on the bishops of the Diocese of San Cristóbal
de las Casas near Tila, Northern zone of Chiapas.
29th of November
Ten thousand Indigenous Mexicans from different regions of
Chiapas hold a march in San Cristóbal to demand the
fulfillment of the San Andres Accords.
End of November
More than 4,500 Indigenous (from “Las Abejas” and
Zapatista sympathizers) have fled the violence in the municipality
of Chenalhó.
8th of December
Mexico and the European Union sign an agreement that will
open the way for negotiating an area of free trade to start
in
the following year.
11th of December
The authorities of the municipality of Chenalhó and
of the autonomous municipality of Polhó agree to put
a definitive stop to the aggressions between the two parties.
They begin a series of meetings, an initiative that fails on
the 19th of December because of mistrust on both sides.
22nd of December
Terrible massacre by paramilitaries of 45 people, the majority
of whom are children and women belonging to the civil group “Las
Abejas,” refugees in Acteal, municipality of Chenalhó.
End of December
A number of people are detained for presumed participation
in the massacre at Acteal; between them there is a commander
of Public Security and the PRI president of the municipality
of Chenalhó.
1998
Beginning of January
Francisco Labastida replaces Emilio Chuayffet as Secretary
of the Interior. Julio César Ruiz Ferro is replaced
by Roberto Albores Guillen as interim Governor of Chiapas.
The latter solicited the resignation of 15 functionaries
of the state implicated in the Massacre at Acteal.
11th of January
The CONAI spread a communication entitled “For a Strategy
of Peace with Democracy,” where it denounces the low
intensity war that is going on in Chiapas. The Secretary of
Interior, Franscisco Labastida Ochoa, announces the creation
of the coordination of Dialogues for Negotiation in Chiapas,
with Emilio Rabasa Gamboa at the front, in place of commissioner
for peace, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell.
22nd of February
The COCOPA and CONAI
pose 10 “indispensable conditions” for
the resumption of dialogues, among them:
- fulfillment of the San Andres Accords,
- respect for the
Law for Dialogue,
- Reconciliation and Peace,
- reduction
of military
presence,
- disarmament of paramilitary groups,
- punishment of the authors of the Acteal
massacre.
Mid-March
The PRI and the PAN present a legislative initiative on Indigenous
rights and culture. President Zedillo finally hands over
a project similar to the initiative of the PRI.
11th of April
The autonomous municipality Ricardo Flores Magón is
dismantled in a police and military operation in the community
of Taniperlas, municipality of Ocosingo. Nine Mexicans are
detained and twelve foreigners are expelled from the country.
1st of May
In a police and military operation the autonomous municipality
of Tierra y Libertad, with its municipal seat in Amparo
Agua Tinta, is dismantled. 53 people are detained.
25th of May
The coordinator for
Dialogue and Negotiation in Chiapas, Emilio Rabasa Gamboa,
presents the strategy of the federal
government
for supporting the process of peace in Chiapas:
- meet the social demands of the Chiapanecan people;
- set aside more social spending for the municipalities
which are
the most marginalized;
- look to validate the rule of
law;
- establish a policy of intercommunity
reconciliation;
- reinforce this policy in Chenalhó and in other
municipalities where there are displaced families;
- propel the legislation
on the Indigenous peoples and communities;
- reiterate
the position of Zedillo of looking for a peaceful
end to conflict.
28th of May
The Mexican government releases the new regulations to which
the foreign organizations must comply for international
observation. Among the new conditions, observation groups
must have a
maximum of 10 members, with a presence in the country of
10 days. Moreover, the organizations must present an application
30 days beforehand and have existed for at least 5 years
or have recognition by the UN.
3rd of June
In a joint police and military operation, more than a thousand
members of the security forces enter Nicolás Ruiz.
The police detain more than 100 community members.
7th of June
The Bishop Samuel Ruiz announces the dismantling of the CONAI
in the face of the government attacks against his person,
the Dioceses of San Cristóbal and the CONAI. He demands
that the federal and state governments end their current
strategy of war and demonstrate with actions their willingness
to resolve the conflict.
10th of June
In a military and police operation to dismantle the autonomous
municipality of San Juan de la Libertad, located in El
Bosque, 8 civilians and 2 police are killed.
8th of July
The Secretary of the
Interior, Francisco Labastida, and the government representative
for the dialogue, Emilio Rabasa,
present before the COCOPA the government’s détente
proposal, which consists of 5 points:
- the legal and constitutional integration of the autonomous
municipalities;
- greater aid for displaced persons;
- handing
over to the COCOPA all of the reports regarding
the investigations of Acteal and El Bosque;
- actions and intensive
measures
for social and productive development
projects;
- the
presence of the Mexican Army and at the same
time the search for a dialogue
with the EZLN.
17th of July
The EZLN release the Fifth
Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, in which it announces a National Consultation for the Recognition
of Indigenous Peoples and for the End of the War of Extermination.
3rd of August
The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
Center for Human Rights releases a report that says that in
the last 6 months in Chiapas
there were registered 57 summary executions, 6 political assassinations
and more than 185 expulsions of foreigners. It denounces that
in these times there were in the state a number of cases of
grave torture, dozens of attempts on the lives of Human Rights
Defenders; and against civil organizations and social leaders;
and hundreds of military and police actions in the conflict
zone.
20th of August
The UN Human Rights
Commission’s Sub Commission for the
Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities asks the Mexican government to fight to end human rights violations
against indigenous peoples and to do what is necessary to reinitiate
the peace dialogue in Chiapas.
28th of September
The Interamerican
Human Rights Commission (IHRC) recognizes
that there have been a number of democratic advances in
Mexico, but denounces the militarization in various states
of the
country and holds the government responsible for the violation
of the human rights of indigenous people.
4th of October
The PRI wins the municipal presidential and local congressional
elections in spite of a voter abstention of 54%. Observers
and opposition parties accuse the PRI of election fraud
and confirm many irregularities.
20-22nd of November
Three thousand citizens participate in the encounter
between the EZLN and civil society, in which the preparation
of the
National Consultation is discussed. The Zapatista delegation,
composed of 29 people, also meets on two occasions with
the COCOPA.
1999
20th of February
6 members of the alleged paramilitary group Los Chinchulines—based
in Bachajón—are set free.
24th of February
State Congress approves the Amnesty
Law for the Disarming of Civil Groups in Chiapas, presented by Governor Albores
Guillen.
It excludes from amnesty any person or member of a civil
organization whose structure, training, or discipline is
similar to those of the army; and members of the EZLN.
12-14th of March
Five thousand Zapatista delegates leave the five Aguascalientes
in Chiapas to visit municipalities of Mexico’s 32 states
to promote the National Zapatista Consultation planned for
the 21st of March.
21st of March
More than 2.8 million people living in Mexico and 48,000
Mexicans living outside the country participate in the
National Consultation
for the Recognition of Indigenous Peoples and the End of
the War of Extermination.
April, May & June
Handing over of weapons of supposed Zapatistas in return
for government economic aid. The EZLN qualifies these acts
as “a
farce and theater.”
8-9th of May
Second encounter between civil society and the EZLN in La
Realidad in the municipality of Las Margaritas, with the
aim of analyzing
the results of the National Consultation.
The first two weeks of June
Significant increase in military and police incursions in
Zapatista communities; arbitrary detentions of presumed
Zapatistas;
harassment by military personnel at the military bases;
and concentration of troops. Each of the incursions involves
the participation of between 100 and 1000 military and
police
personnel. State authorities cite the application of the
Law of Firearms and Explosives, the fight against drug
trafficking, the detention of delinquents, and the protection
of inhabitants
that have asked for help as the pretext for the operations.
20th of June
77 social organizations participate in the Second State Forum
of Zapatista Consultation, held in San Cristóbal.
15th of July
The State Congress of Chiapas approves the creation of seven
new municipalities in Chiapas, in spite of strong opposition
protest.
17th of July
The UN Human Rights Committee states that the recurring issues
in Chiapas-the administration of justice, violence against
women, increasing militarization, and impunity-continue
to cause “worry” and “profound consternation.”
30th of July
Chiapas State Congress approves the law initiative of Governor
Albores regarding Indigenous Culture and Rights. The opposition
protests that the law does not respond to the demands of
the EZLN, nor does it comply with the San Andres Accords.
12th of August
Approximately 500 military troops arrive by ground and parachute
into the community of Amador Hernández (Selva). Official
sources argue that the objective of their presence is the
protection of topographers that will be making measurements
for a road. The inhabitants of the community are opposed
to the construction of said road.
26th of August
Confrontation between the army and Zapatista support bases
in the community of San José la Esperanza, municipality
of Las Margaritas. Three indigenous people are detained and
7 military personnel receive machete wounds.
8th of September
Secretary of the Interior,
Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano,
presents the new government proposal for dialogue in Chiapas,
in which the immediate resumption of negotiations with the
EZLN is proposed. Carrasco assures that he is prepared to
head the negotiating committee, whenever and wherever it might
be.
The new government proposal consists of the following 6 points:
- It proposes to the Senate of the Republic that it
reopen the issue of constitutional changes regarding indigenous
rights and culture, and that it receive proposals for
the
EZLN, from
the government itself, and from other groups involved
in the conflict.
- It asks the EZLN to propose dates
for which the
government can measure its progress in achieving
what was agreed upon in San Andres regarding social development
in the indigenous
communities of Chiapas.
- It requests of the courts
of Procurer of Justice that it free the Zapatista prisoners
that are not
implicated in cases of murder or rape.
- It commits
itself
to analyze the charges of human rights organizations
regarding the harassment of indigenous communities in
Chiapas.
- It accepts the creation of a new civil and
non-partisan commission of intermediation.
- It commits to
sending a special government
commission to negotiate that has decision-making
capacity.
6th of October
The General Procurer [of Justice] of
the Republic installs
a special office in Chiapas in order to investigate the
armed groups that operate in the state.
24th to 27th of November
During her visit to Mexico, Mary Robinson, High
Commissioner of Human Rights for the UN, comments that the impunity,
the militarization, and the poor administration of justice
in
Chiapas worry her. She mentions that among the factors
that have contributed to the creation of a climate of impunity
is the growing militarization of functions of public security.
30th of December
The Apostolic Nuncio Justo Mullor announces the nomination
of Don Raúl Vera, the coadjutant bishop of San Cristóbal
to the Saltillo diocese.
2000
30th of January
In Europe, President Zedillo affirms that the Zapatistas
do not have “one gram of good faith,” although he
adds that whether or not the Zapatistas decide to reinitiate
negotiations “it is a very minor part of the solution” of
the conflict in Chiapas where the most important issue to
resolve is the problem of development and poverty in the
state.
4th of February
The Reporting President
of the Working Group on Indigenous People of the UN, Erika Irene Daes, upon concluding her
visit to Mexico, asks the Mexican government to respect
the San
Andres Accords.
1st of May
The new bishop of San
Cristóbal de las Casas:
Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, successor to Monsignor
Samuel Ruiz, takes office.
1st of July
The free trade agreement with the European Union takes effect.
2nd of July
Vicente Fox, National
Action Party (PAN) and Mexican Ecologist
Green Party (PVEM) candidate, wins the presidential elections
with 43.3% of the votes.
20th of August
Pablo Salazar, of Alliance
for Chiapas, wins the governorship
of Chiapas with 535,860 votes (51.5%).
17th of October
More than 96 families of displaced people, members of Las
Abejas, relocate near the community of Naranjatik Bajo,
municipality
of Chenalhó. They are displaced persons from the community
of Yibeljoj, who since November of 1997, have lived in the
Xoyep encampment.
18th of October
President Zedillo expropriates 3.5 hectares of the ejido
Amador Hernández, a Zapatista community in the municipality
of Ocosingo, to build new military installations.
28th of October
The Procurer General
of the Republic detains 11 members of
the alleged paramilitary groups Peace and Justice and Campesino
and Indigenous Farming, Livestock, and Forestry Union (UCIAF, split
from Peace and Justice) in the Northern Zone, accusing
them of terrorism, possession of arms exclusively used
by the Army, delinquent association, injury, harm, and
plundering.
13th of November
The community of Miguel Utrilla, municipality of Chenalhó,
violently prevents the Procurer General of the Republic from
carrying out an operation composed of 150 federal judicial
police and 20 agents of the Public Ministry the goal of which
is to look for firearms in the hand of paramilitaries.
28th of November
President elect Vicente Fox announces his cabinet. Luis H.
Alvarez is named Commissioner for Peace in Chiapas. The
EZLN will later define him as a “valid interlocutor.”
1st of December
President Elect Vicente Fox is sworn into office. He affirms
that he will combat corruption and impunity, and commits
himself to resolving the conflict in Chiapas. Fox orders
the withdrawal of 53 military bases in the conflict zone
and the end to army patrols and fly-overs.
2nd of December
The EZLN asks for three
signals from the Executive Office to reinitiate the dialogue fulfillment of the San Andres Accords through the approval
of the COCOPA law, liberty for all of the Zapatista political
prisoners, the closing of seven military encampments “of
the 259 that it presently maintains in the conflict zone.” It
announces the Zapatista caravan to Mexico City to demand of
Congress compliance with the San Andres Accords.
5th of December
President Fox turns over to Congress the law initiative of
the COCOPA.
20th of December
The recently elected governor, Pablo Salazar, disbands the
State Commission for Remunicipalization, created by Governor
Albores Guillen, and which founded seven new municipalities,
primarily in Zapatista zones.
22nd of December
The army withdraws from the Amador Hernandez (Selva) military
base. The federal government returns the land expropriated
by ex-president Zedillo in October of 2000 to the community.
23rd of December
President Fox eliminates the previously required permission
to be a human rights observer in Mexico.
31st of December
The Mexican army withdraws from the second military encampment
of Jolnachoj, in the San Andres Larrainzar municipality.
2001
10th of January
The army abandons the Cuxuljá military encampment in
the municipality of Ocosingo.
17th of January
The military base in the community of Roberto Barrios, in
the municipality of Ocosingo, is dismantled.
24th of February
23 commanders and Subcomandante Marcos leave from five points
in Chiapas towards Mexico City. Approximately 20 thousand
people receive the caravan in San Cristobal.
5th of March
The five thousand participating delegates in the Third National
Indigenous Congress agree to carry out a peaceful national
indigenous uprising to demand the approval of the COCOPA
law. They turn over their representation to the EZLN. A
commission of the CNI will accompany the Zapatistas to
the Congress
of the Union.
12th of March
After visiting 12 states in Mexico, the Zapatista delegation
is received by more than 100 thousand people in the Center
of Mexico City.
19th of March
President Fox announces the withdrawal of the army from the
Zapatista community Guadalupe Tepeyac.
28th of March
After long debates regarding the use of the tribunal, 23
commanders of the EZLN finally arrive to speak in the Congress
of the
Union. Commander Esther makes it known that the EZLN will
not make any military advances on the positions recently
vacated by the army and also that Fernando Yañez has
been designated as the official messenger of the Zapatistas
before the government. Yañez meets with the Commissioner
for Peace, Luis H. Alvarez, to initiate discussion concerning
compliance with the Zapatista conditions.
19th of April
11 members of Peace and Justice are exonerated of serious
crimes and set free on bail. NGOs denounce the action as
a political
decision and a crime against justice.
25th of April
The Senate of the Republic approves a constitutional reform
on indigenous matters.
26th of April
The National Indigenous Congress affirms that the indigenous
law approved by the Senate ignores important points of
the San Andres Accords.
27th of April
The Chamber of Deputies approves the Law of Indigenous Rights
and Culture, with 386 votes in favor and 60 against.
29th of April
Zapatista communiqué: “
The EZLN formally rejects the constitutional reform on indigenous
culture and rights. It does not take up the spirit of the
San Andres Accords, nor does it respect the COCOA law initiative,
and it completely ignores the national and international
demand
for recognition of indigenous rights and culture.” In
consequence, it breaks dialogue with the government.
From April of 2001 to December of 2002
The EZLN remains silent.
A communiqué from the Peace Commissioner:
the reform approved “contains unprecedented advances
that are without a doubt important for our nation. But it
also has been recognized that it should be deepened in some of its
central issues.”
14th of June
“
The Zapatista issue is not by any means the issue of Mexico.
One must place it in its just place, and additionally there
is a very firm process of conflict deactivation. In fact, there
is no conflict, we are in blessed peace.” (Fox in El
Salvador)
22nd of June
Rodolfo Stavenhagen is named as special reporter to the UN
for the human rights situation and fundamental liberties
of indigenous peoples.
3rd of July
1,400 writers, intellectuals, religious, academics, and human
rights defenders; as well as Mexican and foreign NGOs call
on the state congresses not to approve the indigenous law.
11th of July
“ The Call from the South: the legislative and executive powers of Oaxaca and Chiapas
call on the state congresses that have not yet voted to reject
the indigenous law.
18th of July
After its approval
in a majority of state congresses, the indigenous reform goes
into effect. The Presidency makes
known its stance
a few hours later complete respect facing Congress.
30th of July
Thousands of indigenous block the principal highways of Chiapas
to make known their rejection of the indigenous law and
the PPP.
14th of August
Publication of the indigenous reform in the Official Newspaper
of the Federation.
24th of August
Signing of agreement between Las Abejas and the municipal
authorities of Chenalhó. The majority of the displaced Abejas
then begin to return to their communities (until October).
July to October
A total of 330 constitutional controversies are presented
to the SCJN.
11th of September
Black Wednesday in the US. Military forces step up their
vigilance in Chiapas, especially along the Guatemalan border,
in the
Northern Zone, and in strategic areas.
8th of October
Mexico becomes a member of the UN Security Council after
20 years of absence.
The PRI retains its majority in the Chiapas Congress with
48% voter absenteeism. It triumphs in 21 of 21 districts
(PRD 2,
PAN 1), and en 72 of 118 mayoralties (PRD 19, PAN 11).
19th of October
The assassination of Digna Ochoa, lawyer and human rights
defender. More than 80 NGOs demand an expeditious investigation
of
the assassination of Digna Ochoa.
1st of November
The Network of Community Defenders of Human Rights brings
to the ILO a petition, with 13 thousand signatures, against
the reforms on indigenous issues.
21st of November
A federal judge exonerates of all charges six of the 87 indigenous
implicated in the massacre in Acteal. The state government,
indigenous organizations, and COCOPA legislators make known
their disagreement with this decision, as it sends out
a message of impunity.
7th of December
During the year, the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center
for Human Rights has documented 45 cases of human rights violations
in Chiapas. It declares that it is an important decrease in
terms of past governments, but at the same time the fact that
there have not been forceful responses to the denunciations “opens
the door for more violations to continue to be committed.”
2002
27th of January
Twenty social, political, and religious organizations of
El Limar in the municipality of Tila, with the exception
of
the presumed paramilitary group Peace and Justice, sign
an accord of reconciliation.
2nd of February
More than 60 thousand people from some 150 countries participate
in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. They show solidarity
with the Zapatistas making “a call to the Mexican
government and Congress to comply with the three conditions
that will
make possible the reinitiation of dialogue and to suspend
all type of intimidating and harassing actions towards
the Zapatista communities."
15th of February
One of the principal leaders of Peace and Justice, Diego
Vázquez
Pérez, is detained in Chiapas for crimes committed in
1997. He is accused of bodily harm and illegal privation of
liberty. Police vigilance over his sympathizers is increased.
18th of February
168 deputies bring the COCOPA initiative back to floor of
the Federal Congress “in order to repair the
error of having last year approved a reform that did not
respond to the demands
of the indigenous peoples.”
6th of March
The Executive Office presents the Official Plan for the Developments
of Indigenous Peoples.
- Objective 1:“ contribute to the
construction of a new relationship between the State, indigenous
peoples, and the whole of society.”
- Objective
2:
improve the quality of life of indigenous peoples.
- Objective
3:
guarantee effective access for indigenous peoples
to the state justice system. It calls for the reforms
approved by Congress.
19th of March
The ILO allows the denunciation of unions against the indigenous
reform for not observing Convention 169 on indigenous and
tribal peoples.
April
According to the Sub-secretary of Agrarian Development of
Chiapas, Arturo Luna, there are 342 critical areas in which
there
have been registered disputes between Zapatistas and members
of social organizations.
3rd of April
The Network of Community Defenders of Human Rights asks that
the CIDH take measures in favor of the indigenous communities
located in Montes Azules.
22nd of April
Mexico signs with the UN Office of the High Commission of
Human Rights the second phase of the technical cooperation
program,
that will include the opening of an office of this organ
in Mexico and the carrying out of a diagnostic of the human
rights situation in the country.
26th of June
Second Week for Biodiversity and against the imposition of
the PPP in Guatemala. 40 organizations agree to stop the
actions of bio-prospecting and bio-piracy in indigenous
territories, as well as the introduction of transgenic
corn.
5-7th of July
National Encounter for Peace with Justice and Dignity in
San Cristóbal de las Casas, with more than one thousand
participants.
31st of July
The autonomous municipality Ricardo Flores Magón denounces
that a group of 40 armed paramilitaries from the PRI community
San Antonio Escobar, attacked the Zapatista support bases in
the La Culebra ejido.
7th of August
José López Santiz, tzeltal campesino and EZLN
supporter, is executed on the outskirts of the community 6
de August, of the autonomous municipality 17 de November.
16th of August
18 thousand indigenous protest against the PPP. In a pilgrimage
through the streets of San Cristóbal they also ask
that the Vatican permit the ordination of deacons.
23rd of August
The Representative of the Secretary General of the UN for
Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng, on a visit
to Chiapas, affirms
that the Mexican government should reinforce its actions
to achieve peace in the state.
25th of August
At the Amaytic Ranch, armed PRI supporters kill two Zapatista
authorities of the autonomous municipality Ricardo Flores
Magón (Ocosingo). Another Zapatista is assassinated
in the autonomous municipality of Olga Isabel (Chilón).
2nd of September
Declarations from the Attorney General of Justice of Chiapas,
Mariano Herrán Salvati on the death of four Zapatistas
last August
conflict about “traditions and customs or bands of delinquents.” "There
have been found in these conflicts no undertones of an ideological
order.”
6th of September In a session of the SCJN the constitutional controversies
presented against the indigenous reforms are declared inadmissible.
It
recognizes that it does not have the faculty to review
constitutional reforms.
12th of September
In Chilpancingo, Guerrero, the National Encounter of Indigenous
Peoples begins. It condemns the “judicial offensive” of
the SCJN.
6th of October
Interview with Rodolfo
Stavenhagen, reporter to the UN for the rights of indigenous
peoples: “
The Court acted in a strict judicial sense but not in justice.” With
respect to the signals of the Fox government that there is
peace in Chiapas: “ The technocrats and secretaries
of State that manage the finances see it as such, but for
the people that live within the anxiety,
within the repression, within the daily violent discrimination
it is different.”
9th of October
Beginning of the 1st Chiapanecan Encounter on Neoliberalism
in San Cristobal.
11th of October
The reflective workshop of the CNI agrees to continue with
the “policy of silence” and return to its communities “not
defeated, but rather to reinforce the defense of our territories
and identity” and to construct in reality autonomy
against the “cascade” of reforms behind the constitutional
reform that prevent it.
16th of October
27 members of Peace and Justice are sentenced to the Cerro
Hueco prison, accused of robbery, illegal privation of
liberty, carrying of arms restricted solely to use by the
Mexican
army, bodily harm and injury, and criminal association.
15th of November
275 Italian parliamentarians from all of the political parties
make public a letter directed to Mexican legislators in
which they demand the approval of the COCOPA law proposal.
They
state that the approved law “has been a source of disillusionment
for indigenous peoples,” as well as a motive for reviving
violence.
17th of November
On the 19th anniversary of the EZLN, the Zapatista magazine, “Rebeldía,” is
presented in Casa Lamm.
19th of November
Inauguration of a Zapatista Aguascalientes in Madrid. The
objective is to fortify the connections between international
civil
society and the Mexican indigenous movement.
24th of November
In Cuba, the Second Hemispheric Encounter for Struggle Against
the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) begins.
26th of November
The International Forum for Building Peace and Social Development
in Chiapas, organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
and the government of Chiapas. It looks to enrich knowledge
of
and visioning about reconciliation in Chiapas.
3rd of December
Commander Emiliano, of the ERPI, announces the formation
of a national coordination between guerrilla groups throughout
the country. The EZLN will not be included.
17th of December
Twelve NGOs demand that the federal government put an end
to the violent evictions of many communities located with
the
Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve because “it runs the
risk of reactivating the armed conflict” in Chiapas.
December
Zapatista communication “An opportunity for words” referring
to the Basque problem unleashes a polemic.
2003
First of January
The EZLN breaks the silence. In the largest gathering of
the EZLN support bases up to this time, more than 20 thousand
Indigenous “take over” the city of San Cristobal.
They condemn the three principle political parties for betraying
the spirit of the San Andres Accords with their approval
of the Indigenous law. They warn the government commission
for peace that they will prevent the entrance to their territories.
Beginning in January
The EZLN release a “Calendar of Resistance,” 12
documents in which Subcomandante Marcos makes an x-ray of the
struggles taking place in the rest of Mexico (retaking the
same route that the March the Color of the Earth followed.)
30th of April
Pope John Paul II named the priest Enrique Díaz Díaz
as assistant Bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas.
8th of May
The state government and Lacandon leaders agree to take a
break in which no communities would be displaced in the
Montes
Azules biosphere. The authorities committed to benefit
the ethnic group with economic aid so long as the Lacondones
suspended their plans to expulse other indigenous groups
from the region.
5th to the 8th of May
The Hemispheric Meeting against Militarization takes place
in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, bringing together close
to 1000 people from 272 organizations in 35 countries.
11-12th of May
Continental and Global
Meeting against the FTAA and the WTO in Mexico:
the delegates of more than 150 international organizations
agree to a global agenda of mobilizations.
17th of May
More than 400 members of 92 NGOs and social organizations
participate in the Meeting of National Response and Mesoamerican
Resistance
to Neoliberal Globalization, which takes place in Oaxaca.
28th of May
With an initial investment of 75 million pesos, governor
Pablo Salazar kicks off the program Vida Mejor (Better
Life), with
which he hopes to attend to the 260 micro-regions struggling
with poverty and marginalization.
3rd of June
The Reporter to the United Nations on the Situation of Human
Rights and Fundamental Liberties of Indigenous People,
Rodolfo Stavenhagen, begins a visit to Mexico.
6th of July
Violent acts take place during the legislative elections
in indigenous regions of Chiapas, principally in San Juan
Cancuc,
Zinacantán and Chenalhó. At the federal level,
the largest rate of absenteeism was registered in the recent
history of the country.
18th to 24th of July
In Honduras, the Conference of Resistance 2003 took place.
Made up of a series of forums and meetings, it looks to
fortify the popular struggle in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean,
as
well as search for alternatives to the economic projects.
19th of July
The special investigator for the case of Digna Ochoa presents
the thesis of “simulated suicide” in conclusion
of the investigations in the death of the lawyer, a conclusion
questioned by many Human Rights NGO’s.
July
The EZLN announces a series of changes in regards to their
internal functions and relationships with national and
international civil society (the seven documents which
make up the Thirteenth
Stele).
8-10th of August
In order to create the autonomy establish in the San Andres
accords, in an act celebrated in Oventik, the command of
the EZLN announces the disappearance of the Aguascalientes,
and the creation of the Caracoles and the Juntas of Good
Government.
September
In the northern region, indigenous choles inform of their
decision to define their territory in which the Zapatista
laws would
rule the lives of all. The location of the Zapatista signs
generates tension in the region.
10th of September
An Indigenous Forum takes place, organized by the National
Indigenous Congress (CNI), in the framework of the ministerial
meeting of the WTO in Cancun. The EZLN sends several communiqués.
11th of September
The president of the Autonomous Council Miguel Hidalgo appears
before a penal judge in order to make a statement in relation
to the detention of three Zapatistas who were transporting
wood and charcoal for “domestic use” and were
accused of ecocide. The detained Zapatistas are released
a few days later.
September/October
A series of conflicts between members of the Independent
Center of Agricultural Workers and Campesinos (CIOAC) and
Zapatistas,
around the detention of Armín Morales Jiménez
by militants of the EZLN for the accused crime of abuse of
confidence. The Junta of Good Government “Towards Hope” liberates
him in the beginning of October, supposedly after the state
government paid the 80,000 pesos which autonomous council
of San Pedro de Michoacán demanded as payment for
the truck, property of a Zapatista support base, which Armín
Morales sold to another person.
12th of October
Meeting of Indigenous Nations of Mexico. Some 200 representatives
of indigenous organizations reiterated that it was “a
betrayal by legislators” to not have approved the COCOPA
law and that all that was left was to construct autonomy
through their deeds. They also make a pronouncement in favor
of the Zapatista Good Government Councils.
13th of October
Visiting Chiapas, the Secretary of the Interior, Santiago
Creel, maintains that the federal government awaits the
response
of the state congresses relating to the constitutional
reform on indigenous matters, in order to “make an evaluation” and
present a package of laws before the Congress of the Union.
On his part, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, governor of
Chiapas, recognizes that the efforts of the EZLN to create
the Juntas of Good Government are “interesting.” This
highlights that while before the state government was part
of the conflict, now it maintains a respectful distance from
the Zapatista communities.
17th of November
The 20th anniversary of the EZLN takes place internally and
behind closed doors.
8th of December
President Vicente Fox accepts the 32 recommendations derived
from the diagnosis elaborated by the Office of the High
Commission of the United Nations for Human Rights.
2004
January 1
The tenth anniversary of the armed
uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
The event was not accompanied by any political communiqué
from the Zapatista Command. It was celebrated in a private
manner in the Caracoles and was attended by national and
international civil society.
January 8
Residents of the community Emiliano
Zapata (municipality of Tila, in the northern zone of Chiapas)
initiated a series of demonstrations demanding the withdrawal
of the Army. Zapatista support bases and members of the
Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) were supported by civil
society groups and members of the Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI). The PRI had previously requested the installation
of the military base in the community, but they now began
to request its removal in light of the negative effects
of the military presence, such as the use and trafficking
of drugs and alcohol, and prostitution.
January 12
After denouncing the electoral fraud
of the most recent elections, the municipality of Tlanepantla
in the state of Morelos declared itself "autonomous,"
naming its own autonomous council. Days later the community
was brutally repressed by the state government, resulting
in the death of one protester.
January 21
Seven presumed members of the paramilitary
group Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice) were released from
prison. They were absolved of crimes against the common
law, such as homicide and unlawful imprisonment, among others.
The individuals had been held prisoner in the prison Cerro
Hueco since September 13, 2002, when they had undertaken
an operation in the community of Miguel Aleman. Twenty seven
other members of Paz y Justicia were also detained in the
operation by Public Security forces.
January 22
The houses of the community of Nuevo
San Rafael in Montes Azules Reserve were all burned. According
to the Secretary of Agrarian Reform (SRA), the inhabitants
had voluntarily decided to abandon their homes and return
to their places of origin. NGOs accused the SRA of having
divided the population so as to force residents to leave
the reserve.
January 25
Samuel Ruiz, Bishop Emeritus of the
Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas and ex-president of
CONAI (the commission that mediated talks between the Mexican
government and the EZLN), presented a pastoral letter "A
New Hour of Grace" for the first time since he
left his post. In this fashion he celebrated the 44th anniversary
of his ordination as bishop, questioning, among other things,
the process of globalization, and recognizing the important
role of the Zapatistas in the emancipation of indigenous
people throughout the Latin America.
January 27
The government of the state of Chiapas
signed an agreement with the European Union to co-finance
the "Project for Integrated Social and Sustainable
Development of the Lacandon Jungle" (PRODESIS). This
project will be executed in the buffer zone of the Montes
Azules Reserve. The EU will contribute 15 million Euros
to the project, with another 16 million coming from the
government of Chiapas.
February 12
The Center for Political, Economic
and Social Analysis (CAPISE) published a report titled "The
Military Occupation of Chiapas: The Dilemma of the Prisoner."
The report is the product of an investigation of the 91
military installations located in the so-called "conflict
zone" in Chiapas.
February 17
The Chiapas State Congress approved
the so-called "Gag Law," which modifies
the penal code with regards to crimes of slander, libel
and defamation of character. Sentences were increased to
a minimum of nine years in prison, and fines of 1,000 days
salary. Various NGOs denounced the law as grave persecution
of free expression in Chiapas that poses a risk for the
journalistic profession, as well as victims of criminal
acts as they could be sued for defamation.
March 19, 20 & 21
Third Chiapan Meeting Against Neoliberalism
en Huitiupán (municipality of Los Altos de Chiapas).
The meeting concluded with the participants demonstrating
against the construction of a dam in the municipality.
April 10
Zapatista supporters from the municipality
of Zinacantán were ambushed by members of the PRD,
leaving dozens wounded and displacing 125 Zapatista families.
The act occurred when the Zapatistas were finishing a march
celebrating the anniversary of the death of Emiliano Zapata,
and after delivering water to residents of the community
of Jechvó, who had been deprived of it for months
by members of the PRD.
April 14
While visiting Chiapas, the Secretary
of the Interior, Santiago Creel said that "Chiapas
has stopped being a headache for the federal government"
and that, despite the confrontation in Zinacantán,
"enjoys political stability." He described
the confrontation as "an incident."
April 23
The lifeless body of Noel Pável
González, student at the National Autonomous University
of Mexico and the National School of Anthropology and History,
was found in Mexico City. Elements of the investigation
point towards the involvement of the ultra-right group "El
Yunque." Noel Pável participated in projects
linked to Zapatistas communities, as were his colleagues
who also were threatened during several months after his
death.
May 15 & 16
Thirteenth Meeting of the Central-Pacific
Region of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in Unión
Hidalgo, Oaxaca. The San Andres Accords were ratified as
an "Indigenous Constitution," and it
was proposed to continue advancing the construction of autonomy
along the path of truth.
May 28
Third Summit of State and Government
Heads of Latin America and the European Union was celebrated
in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Simultaneously, civil society celebrated
the "Linking Alternatives" forum, questioning
EU policy in Latin America. The "anti-summit"
demonstration ended with 45 people arbitrarily arrested,
beaten and tortured. Eight foreigners were arrested and
arbitrarily deported.
July 4
Families from the community of San
Francisco El Caracol in the Montes Azules Reserve were moved
by the government to a "new population center"
called Santa Martha in the municipality of Marqués
de Comillas.
July 24
The ex-governor of Chiapas, Roberto
Albores Guillén, announced his candidacy to succeed
the current state governor, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía.
It's important to note that Guillén actually is the
Secretary of PRI´s National Committee and is associated
with its principal director Roberto Madrazo Pintado. Various
inconsistencies and concerns arose immediately after the
announcement.
August 4, 5 & 6
The "Compañero Manuel
" Center of Educational Promoters was opened in
the Autonomous Rebel Zapatista Municipality of "Ricardo
Flores Magón."
August 7 & 8
These dates mark the First Anniversary
of the Councils of Good Government and the Zapatista "Caracoles"
(spirals). The EZLN released a series of communiqués
called "Reading a Video" which contained
a summary of this first year of activity, examining the
mistakes and defending itself against its critics. Additionally,
each of the five Councils issued its own report describing
the management of economic resources coming from national
and international civil society.
August 16
The National Commission on Human Rights
(CNDH) presented a report on the detention of foreigners
at the Guadalajara Summit in May. It confirmed that the
authorities and public security officials of Jalisco made
78 illegal arrests, and documented 70 cases of cruel and
degrading punishment, 70 cases of solitary confinement of
prisoners, and six cases of torture.
August 17
The Chiapas State Congress approved
the temporary dismissal of the President of the State Commission
on Human Rights (CEDH), Pedro Raúl López Hernández.
Many NGOs expressed profound concern that the objective
of this dismissal was to limit the CEDH's ability to perform
its function of independently denouncing violations of human
rights.
September 1
President Vicente Fox Quezada presented
his fourth State of the Union address in the face of multiple
protests within and outside of Congress.
The Council of Good Governent in La
Realidad announced for the first time its opposition to
the displacement of communities in Montes Azules.
October 1, 2 & 3
The First National Meeting of People
Affected by Dams in Mexico took place in Aguas Calientes,
Acapulco, in the State of Guerrero. Aguas Calientes is the
home of the resistance movement against the construction
of the "La Parota" dam.
October 3
Municipal Elections in Chiapas. The
Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) negotiated with the EZLN
to guarantee peaceful elections. The Zapatistas did not
hinder the election process.
October 15
In a special communiqué the
EZLN announced the reorganization of Zapatista communities
located in the Montes Azules reserve, requesting economic
support from national and international civil society.
November 16
José Luís Soberanes began
his second term as President of the CNDH over the protests
of national human rights organizations due to the lack of
public consultation before his appointment.
November 17
The EZLN celebrates 21 years since
being founded "somewhere in the Lacandón
Jungle." Many commentaries highlighted the long
road the Zapatistas have traveled in 21 years: from the
focused guerrilla beginnings and the armed insurrection
to the establishment of autonomous governments. "In
1983 we were six; today we are thousands" declared
the Good Government Council of La Garrucha, during the internal
commemoration that also occurred in the other Caracoles.
November 27 & 28
First National Dialogue of the Project
for a Nation with Liberty, Justice and Democracy in Mexico
City, called primarily by the country's trade-unions.
December 2
Amnesty International published the
special report entitled "Disregarded Abuses in
Guadalajara: resistance to shedding light on human rights
violations only perpetuates impunity."
December 4 & 5
The forum "Against Silence
and Forgetting: The Voice of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico"
took place in Chilpancingo, Guerrero. The objective of the
forum was to present an "Agenda for the Integral
Development and Autonomy of Indigenous People in Guerrero,"
that was a product of the joint effort undertaken in
the different indigenous regions of the state through workshops
and forums that gathered the word of the people.
December 22
This date marked the seventh anniversary
of the Acteal massacre. Several human rights organizations
denounced the fact that, to this date, an impartial and
objective investigation of the massacre has not been carried
out, and that justice has not been served.
2005
January 1st
On the eve of January 1, the date that the new municipal authorities took power after the elections in October 2004, demonstrations were held, highways were blocked, and confrontations took place in Oxchuc, Tila and Sabanilla.
First two weeks of January
During his visit to Chiapas, in the Selva Lacandona, President Vicente Fox claimed that the EZLN is an issue that “now essentially remains in the past and everyone is looking forward.” The COCOPA expressed an “extreme bewilderment”, although not on an official level, due to the lack of a quorum at the emergency session that was called because of these declarations. On another hand, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, Governor of Chiapas said: “I share his point of view that Zapatismo as an armed strategy is a thing of the past. We were speaking about the new expressions of Zapatismo, which are civilian in nature, and efforts within their own territory to provide themselves with new forms of coexistence.”
January 23rd
In the municipality of Palenque, 160 Tzeltal families were displaced from the biosphere reserve of Montes Azules to the community of Nuevo Montes Azules.
February 15th
In Tila, in the Northern Zone of Chiapas, both the PRI and the Alianza PRD-PT claimed victory following the municipal elections of 2004. The Electoral Tribunal of Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) finally declared the PRI victorious. Those who opposed this decision held a sit-in in front of the municipal palace until they were violently evicted on February 15th. 54 people were arrested, according to the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center. Six houses were burned, 3 cars destroyed, and highway blockades were set up intermittently. More than 800 armed municipal police officers and State Investigation Agency (AEI) officials participated in the conflict.
April 7th
The Chamber of Deputies decided to remove the immunity of the Head of the government of the Federal District of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and remove him from his political post, so that he could be subjected to a legal process for his supposed contempt.
May 18th
Enlace Civil, an organization in charge of supporting projects in the autonomous Zapatista municipalities, received notice from the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya- Bancomer that their nine bank accounts would be closed within 31 days, because of accusations of “illicit money laundering.”
June 19th
The EZLN declared a Red Alert which implied:
- The closure of the autonomous civil structures (Caracoles), whose members were placed “under protection,” and told to continue their work in a “transient” fashion;
- The regrouping of the bases of support and the retreat of the Zapatista insurgents who were carrying out social labor in the communities;
- The departure of the national and international civil society present at that time in the autonomous municipalities.
June 20th
The Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) stated that they had carried out an operation in which they found and destroyed 44 marijuana plants in Zapatista territory. It soon surfaced that the operation had taken place outside of the so-called “conflict zone,” in municipalities that have no Zapatista presence. As a result, the Ministry of the Interior had to deny the connection they claimed to the Zapatistas.
June 20-26th
The EZLN published a series of communiqués:
- June 20th: Announcing the restructuring of the internal political and military organization of the EZLN;
- June 20th: Explaining that the Red Alert was only a “preventative measure” to protect the internal consultation convoked by the CCRI-CG of the EZLN (in February 2005, the EZLN was holding a consultation of its communities when a military offensive was launched to detain the Zapatista commanders);
- June 21st: Announcing to the national and international civil society that the next step would not be a military action;
- June 26th: Announcing that through the consultation with the community assemblies, the EZLN had decided to launch a “new national and international political initiative” which would be explained in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona (“La Sexta”).
June 29th- July 1st
In three communiqués, the EZLN presented the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona. The Sixth Declaration sums up and evaluates the history and struggle of the Zapatistas during the last eleven years: “a new step in the indigenous struggle is only possible if the indigenous join together with the workers of the city and the countryside.” This document proposes the creation of a “new front” that will construct a “national plan of action, that is clearly leftist, which is to say, anticapitalist” and to move towards the creation of a new Constitution. On the international level, it proposes the organization of an intergalactic meeting, like the one held in La Realidad in 1996.
July 11th
The Red Alert was lifted. The Zapatistas invited the national and international civil society to reinitiate contact with the civil Zapatista structure. They announced the creation of the Information Commissions within the offices of the Good Government Councils.
August 5th
The Congressional representative for the COCOPA, Fernel Gálvez Rodríguez, stated that it will be the direct responsibility of the Federal Government to provide attention, care, and vigilance in the EZLN’s tour of the nation.
August 15th
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center once again denounced the forced displacement of several families in the community of Andrés Quintana Roo, in the municipality of Sabanilla, due to aggression and threats made by people linked to “Desarollo, Paz y Justicia” (Development, Peace and Justice). In the Northern Zone of Chiapas, rumors existed of the reactivation of DP&J, a group accused of paramilitary activity.
August- September
A series of meeting were organized between civil society and the EZLN in various communities of the Selva Lacandona to prepare for the Zapatista delegations tour of the nation. In the plenary session in mid September, 2,069 people arrived at the Caracol of La Garrucha.
September 6th
There was a confrontation between Zapatista support bases and the rest of the population in the community of Belisario Domínguez in the municipality of Salto de Agua.
September 16th
The EZLN announced that Subcomandante Marcos would lead the first phase of the Other Campaign, which would begin on January 1st, 2006 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and would end on June 24th.
October 5th
In the first week of October, Hurricane Stan severely affected Chiapas, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In the southern region of Chiapas it is estimated that more than 18,000 houses and 174 schools were destroyed. The hurricane left more than 88 communities isolated, destroyed more than 20 bridges and took out many highways.
Mid October
In mid October, it was reported that members of the Organization for Indigenous and Campesino Defense (OPDDIC) was planning to dismantle the autonomous municipality of Olga Isabel, and detain the local authorities.
October 28th - November 2nd
An initiative proposed by the EZLN in the plenary sessions for the Other Campaign, the “Week for the Dead, Disappeared, and Imprisoned” was carried out in various parts of Mexico.
November 2nd
In El Limar, in the municipality of Tila in the Northern Zone of Chiapas, over 200 people from eleven communities met to commemorate the more than 120 murdered or disappeared individuals from the region between 1994 and 2000.
November 20th
In a communiqué released by the EZLN, the dissolution of the FZLN (Zapatista Front for National Liberation) was announced.
November 25th
The EZLN announced the creation of the Intergalactic Commission, which would be led by Lieutenant Colonel Moisés.
2006
January 1st:
The “Other Campaign” takes off. A number of commanders and thousands of people from the support bases of the EZLN arrived in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, to send off the Subdelegate Zero (Subcomandante Marcos) on his national tour.
March:
the government secretary, Carlos Abascal Carranza, met with legislators from the Commission of Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA, the commission created to carry out the dialogues between the government and the Zapatistas). He affirmed that “other than the exceptional circumstances in Chiapas, the area referred to as the ‘grey zone’ has ceased to exist.” He announced that the Federal Army is only working in Chiapas around issues relevant to its position as a border state.
April:
the municipal president of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Juan Sabines Guerrero, announced his resignation to the PRI. A few days later he was named as the candidate for the PRD in the state elections in Chiapas to be held in August.
May 3rd:
a conflict emerged between 8 mobile flower vendors and the police in the city of Texcoco (State of Mexico) because of the mayor’s (he belongs to PRD) prohibition of their vending in an area already designated for the construction of a Wal-Mart store. This conflict resulted in a violent confrontation. The result of the two brutal police operatives that followed were two deaths (a teenager on the same day, and another young man, in June, as a result of being hit in the head with a teargas grenade), several injuries, 211 arrests, and 5 deportations of foreigners. More than 20 women were sexually assaulted and 7 raped by state security forces while being transported to jail.
Currently, 28 of the 211 arrested remain in jail on serious charges (kidnapping of public officials).
June:
picket organized by the National Trade Union of Education Workers (SNTE) in the historical center of Oaxaca City was violently removed by security forces, with a death toll of 4. As a consequence of this, a trade union dispute that mainly demanded a pay raise for teachers suddenly turned into a much wider conflict involving different sectors and social movements of Oaxaca, .creating the APPO, (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca).
January – July:
the federal elections campaign was characterized by a strong tension. Personal insults were constant and the rest of the political forces presented the favorite (by a very small difference) candidate, López Obrador (AMLO) as “a danger to Mexico”, promoting a vote of fear. Anti-AMLO interventions by the corporations, who funded an expensive campaign, and by president Fox, who ilegally interfered in favor of PAN's candidate Calderón, were strongly criticized.
July 2nd:
federal elections were held in Mexico. That night, the Federal Electoral Institute declared itself incapable of announcing a winner because of the minimal margin between the two leading candidates and postponed the announcement of the results. All the same, that night, both Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Felipe Calderón declared themselves the winners. In the following days, a district by district count was conducted and legal challenges were brought to the Electoral Tribunal of Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF).
August 5th:
a violent police operation was carried out to expel 30 Zapatista families in the community of the Ch’oles, autonomous municipality El Trabajo (Tumbalá), in the Northern Zone, that were accused of having deprived the owner of his private property.
April-August:
the electoral process in Chiapas was full of irregularities: buying, manipulation and coercion of votes by PRI, PRD and PAN; governor Salazar Mendiguchía's interfering on the process; use of social programs (including funds for the reconstruction after hurricane Stan) by the state government to favor candidate Juan Sabines and politicians constantly changing from one party to another to pursue their personal interests.
August 20th:
elections for Chiapas state governor are held. Juan Sabines Guerrero won by a very slim margin (0.55%) and by a number of votes in his favor that only represent a fifth part of the total electorate.
September 1st:
sixth and last presidential report. The Legislative Palace was sieged by the military that accounted for a presence of 8,000 elements of the Preventive Federal Police (PFP) and the Presidential General Staff, supported by tanks and snipers. Rejecting the military presence, PRD and PT congress-people occupied the Tribune. President Fox eventually decided to hand over his report in writing in the vestibule of the Legislative Palace.
September 5th:
the TEPJF unanimously declared Felipe Calderón as elected president and rejected all the denunciations presented by the Coalition for the Benefit of All (CBT). This rejection included those appeals alleging Fox’s interference in favor of Calderón as well as the illegal broadcast of messages, paid for by entrepreneurial sector, which impacted negatively on AMLO’s campaign. The Tribunal acknowledged both instances. It established however that “there was no way of determining the electoral impact – if there ever was one – from both actions”.
September 16th:
the National Democratic Convention (CND) was formed in the presence of more than one million delegates from all over the country. They proclaimed AMLO as the legitimate president and passed a Plan of 6 actions: not to accept Calderón; to empower AMLO with the right to take over the presidency on 20 November; to authorize him to form his cabinet; to undertake short-term actions of resistance and to prevent the taking over of power by Felipe Calderón on the 1st of December; to sustain the CND with periodical meetings and to integrate three commissions of coordination (regarding “National Politics”, “Civil Resistance” and “Organization of the Plebiscite and the Constituent”).
October 8th and November 30th:
the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced the reset of national tour of Delegate Zero (Subcomandante Marcos) . It had been suspended after the repression in Atenco in May.
October 29th:
the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), entered the city of Oaxaca early in the morning and took control of the central square during the night. Violent incidents were reported, with a different balance depending on the sources: APPO affirmed 4 people died, while the federal government announced no people died at all.
November 13th:
violent confrontation occured in the natural reserve of Montes Azules, in Chiapas. Hundreds of armed peasants from the Lacandona Community attack 17 families living in Viejo Velasco Suárez. As it happened in a very isolated area, this aggression brought great confusion about the number of victims and their possible belonging to EZLN. Finally the outcome was: 4 people dead (including a pregnant woman) and 4 people disappeared, probably executed.
November 20th:
López Obrador was sworn in as the “legitimate president” of Mexico.
November 25th:
PFP officers confront APPO members that were marching towards the city center. According to the newspaper La Jornada more than 140 people were wounded, 140 were arrested and several buildings and cars were set fire to.
December 1st:
Felipe Calderon was sworn in in polarized Congress, protected by a large operation of police forces and the army.
16 December:
The PFP (Federal Preventive Police) leave the historic centre of Oaxaca City. The next day 43 detainees in Nayarit State Prison – all allegedly associated with the APPO – were freed.
18 December:
The National Human Rights Commission (an autonomous national body) published a report on the violence in Oaxaca. Their statistics included 349 people detained, 370 wounded and 20 killed.
22 December:
On the 9th anniversary of the Massacre of Acteal (where 45 indigenous people were assassinated), the Governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines Guerrero, announced the formation of a special Public Prosecutor's office to investigate the case.
2007
30 December 2006 – 2 January 2007:
The First Encounter between Zapatistas and the Peoples of the World was held in Caracol 2, Oventik, the Altos of Chiapas.
January:
Amnesty International announced that the government of President Felipe Calderón “lacks a vision for the protection of human rights”.
19 January:
Several drug-traffickers, all of whom had pending arrest warrants in Mexico, were extradited to the United States. This decision was classified as necessary by President Calderón because of the vulnerability of Mexican judges to threats and corruption.
25 January:
Juan Sabines Guerrero, Governor of Chiapas, announced the creation of a Special Commission “to revise the legal situation of several people currently serving prison sentences”, with the aim of promoting reconciliation in the state. This revision, however, “would not question the reasons and circumstances which led Chiapas's justice system to hand down these sentences”.
February:
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (former presidential candidate) claimed to have “recovered” from the “blow” of the alleged electoral fraud, and affirmed that he was already considering his candidature in the 2012 presidential elections. López Obrador subsequently began a tour of all of Mexico's municipalities.
8 March:
On International Women's Day, the representative of the United Nations in Mexico published alarming figures regarding violence against women. Amnesty International also released a report in which it highlights the disturbing level of sexual violence committed by Mexican agents, particularly against indigenous women.
21 March:
The Special Representative of the United Nations on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, named Mexico as a country with a tendency to criminalize indigenous protest and permit the repressive action of the army and police force.
25 March:
The second stage of The Other Campaign got underway with the departure of three delegations of commanders, including Subcomandante Marcos. The delegations traveled the north of Mexico until the beginning of June.
April
The President of the Interamerican Human Rights Commission (CIDH), Florentín Meléndez, visited Mexico. The report on the current human rights situation submitted to Meléndez by Mexico's civilian organizations highlights that the government of President Calderón “has made no public announcement of his human rights policy”.
1 April:
Luís H. Álvarez, representative of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples and ex Government Commissioner for Peace in Chiapas, stated that “the EZLN is not an interlocutor for the Government of Felipe Calderón” as, according to his analysis, it no longer represents, nor is it conformed of, the state’s indigenous communities.
9-10 April:
The controversial Plan Puebla-Panamá is relaunched at a summit of heads of state from Central and South America and Mexican state governors held in Campeche (Mexico).
21 June:
The APPO announced that it was in a state of red alert and reported the “intensification of the low intensity warfare conducted by [State Governor] Ulises Ruiz against the people of Oaxaca”.
1 July:
One year after the presidential elections, a protest in support of López Obrador filled Mexico City’s main square.
5-10 July:
Eight explosive charges were detonated in PEMEX oil pipelines in Guanajuato and Querétaro. The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility, stating that they formed part of a campaign against the government of Felipe Calderón to demand the release of two EPR members, forcibly disappeared in Oaxaca in May 2007.
12 July:
Luis Echeverría, accused of genocide following his role as State Secretary in the massacre of Tlatelolco on 2 October 1968, was granted an indefinite stay of trial by a Mexican court.
16 July:
Violence returned to Oaxaca – for more than three hours, members and supporters of the APPO were in a confrontation with police, leaving some 42 people wounded from both sides and 60 people detained.
21-30 July:
The Second Encounter between Zapatistas and the Peoples of the World was held in three of the five Zapatista Caracoles, with the participation of more than three thousand people.
18 August:
A joint police and military operation to evict 39 families (members of the communities of Buen Samaritano and San Manuel, in the municipality of Ocosingo) was conducted in the Biospheric Reserve of Montes Azules.
1 September:
President Felipe Calderón gave his first presidential report amid a formidable police operation. In a ceremony which lasted less than five minutes, Calderón delivered his report to more than 100 empty seats, as left-wing representatives refused to be present for the event as a sign of their support for López Obrador.
24 September:
The EZLN decided to suspend the tour of Zapatista commanders through the southern and central areas of Mexico. Originally planned to continue until December, the EZLN cancelled the tour because of what they termed a new government offensive against Zapatista communities.
2 October:
More than 100 groups and organizations formed the National Front Against Repression, designed to fight what they reported as a new phase of dirty war against social organizations.
7 October:
Elections were held in Chiapas to choose representatives of 118 mayors and 40 local deputies. The PRI won the majority of these seats.
11-14 October:
The Encounter of the Indigenous Peoples of America was held in Yaqui territory (in Vicam, Sonora) amid a strong police presence. Over 570 indigenous delegates attended, representing 66 indigenous peoples from 12 countries of the Americas.
17 October:
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that Mexico was a leading nation in terms of “limiting freedom of expression” given the levels of threats and homicides against journalists.
Late October:
The Mérida Initiative (also known as “Plan Mexico”) was announced in the United States. The US government is set to contribute USD1,400 million to a joint strategy to combat drug-trafficking, a plan which will include military, legal and development components. Critics point out the limited results of the sister program, Plan Colombia, as well the high risk of an increase in human rights violations against Mexican civilians.
October-November:
Severe rainy-season floods left more than one million people homeless in Tabasco and the northern municipalities of Chiapas.
22 November:
The Solidarity Network “Decade of Impunity” reported that there are more than 500 political prisoners currently detained in Mexico.
4 December:
One year after his detention, indigenous man Diego Méndez Arcos, named a “political prisoner” by Amnesty International, was released from prison. He had been held in regards to the deaths caused during the eviction of the Viejo Velasco Suárez estate.
13-17 December:
In memory of historian Andrés Aubry, the EZLN, the magazine Contrahistorias and CIDECI-Unitierra (San Cristóbal de las Casas) held a Coloquio (conversation) with the participation of intellectuals from Mexico and overseas, together with Subcomandante Marcos. In his communiqué of December 16, the Subcomandante affirmed that he was the military leader of the EZLN and that after the Coloquio he would not be participating in public events for some time. He continued. “Those of us who have been at war know how to recognize the paths which prepare it and bring it near. The signs of war on the horizon are clear. War, like fear, has a smell. And we are beginning to breathe in its fetid odor in our lands … we should prepare ourselves for the shock.”
20-22 December:
The 10th anniversary of the Massacre of Acteal was commemorated in Acteal with a National Encounter Against Impunity (20-21 December) and a mass on 22 December.
28 December 2007 - 2 January 2008:
The event which was both the Third Encounter between Zapatistas and the People of the World, and the First Encounter of Zapatista Women “Commandante Ramona and Zapatista Women”, was held in Caracol 3, La Garrucha.
2008
January 1:
The entrance of agricultural capital through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), eliminating import taxes on basic grains like corn and beans, as well as milk and oil crops.
January 31:
The National Front in Defense of the Mexican Campo together with social organizations and unions organized a large protest in order to demand the renegotiation of NAFTA. The protest was said to be the largest that has been held in Mexico against NAFTA. The protesters denounced the entrance of agricultural capital as the “death stroke” for the Mexican campo.
The Beginning of February:
The Chair of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR), Louise Arbour visited Mexico
February 26:
More than 40 campesino organizations, unions, and civil organizations signed the Pact for Food and Energy Sovereignty, Workers Rights, and Democratic Freedom.
February – April:
Between February and April, in various jails in Chiapas and one in Tabasco, a historic protest took place by means of hunger strikes on the part of detainees who were claiming to be political prisoners and demanding immediate release. By way of this process more than 100 people were released from a number of different prisons in Chiapas.
March 12:
The Campaign No Corn, No Country brought to the Senate a letter with 438,000 citizen signatures in support of the exclusion of corn and beans from NAFTA, the establishment of permanent mechanisms of administration for import and export of these grains, and the prohibition of genetically modified crops.
March 13:
The Investigative Commission of the Supreme Court of Justice for the Nation (SCJN) concluded the first phase of hearings regarding the events that occurred in Atenco in 2006 and confirmed the “possibility of grave violations” of individual rights and the coordination of police orders “of the highest level” in the planning of the operation which resulted in the death of two persons and the detention of 207.
March 6:
The Senate approved a Judicial Reform. It included a number of improvements including oral trials and a change from an inquisitorial system to an accusatory system (innocent until proven guilty).
March 16:
Internal elections for the national presidency of the PRD. The two candidates were:
Alejandro Encinas, close to López Obrador, and Jesús Ortega, who represents the New Left. Many irregularities were denounced and the final results were withheld for a number of months, until November 13 when the Electoral Tribunal gave the victory to Ortega.
April:
The Secretary of Government decided to end the Coordination for Dialogue in Chiapas created in 1994 following the uprising of the EZLN, for reasons of austerity and because its existence was considered unnecessary.
April 9:
Felipe Calderón presented a program of energy reform to Congress which he claimed would revitalize the oil sector, the principle source of national income, and give more resources to the state oil company, Pemex. However, these modifications would allow the participation of private capital in the production process.
The end of April:
The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR, an armed group originating from the guerrilla groups of southern Mexico from 4 decades ago) asked a number of prominent Mexicans to act as mediators so that they could begin dialogue with the federal government in order to assure the appearance of two of their members who disappeared in May of 2007. The government finally agreed to meet with the mediation commission in May.
April 27:
At least 500 police violently entered the community of Cruztón, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas.
The beginning of May:
Amérigo Incalcaterra, the representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations (OHCHR) in Mexico, left his position supposedly under pressure from the Mexican government. A number of human rights organizations in Mexico demanded that the government clarify the situation, a request that was never answered.
May 27:
The Federal Attorney General of Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) informed that, supported by Federal Police, the Attorney General of the Republic, and members of the Mexican Navy, evicted two groups of campesinos who had settled on 35 hectares of the Biosphere Reserve of Montes Azules without permission.
May 28:
Amnesty International denounced that in its 18 months of administration, the government of Felipe Calderón “had not demonstrated a strong commitment to increasing protections of human rights, which is very worrisome”.
The end of May:
The Civil Organization Las Abejas denounced that the prosecutor for the case of Acteal, Noé Maza Albores threatened to jail their members if they did not stop making public denunciations on the 22nd of each month, in order to remember the massacre of 45 indigenous persons on the 22nd of December of 1997.
June 4:
A military and police incursion took place in the vicinity of the Zapatista Caracol (local administrative center) La Garrucha, as well as in the support base communities of the EZLN, Hermenegildo Galeana and San Alejandro.
June 26:
The United States Senate approved the first phase of the Merida Initiative. The final version included 400 million for Mexico in 2008 which would go toward training for the fight against narco-trafficking, support for the Judicial Reform, and the acquisition of arms.
June 28:
In Villahermosa, Tabasco, the Tenth Summit of Heads of the State and Government for Mechanism of Dialogue and Agreement of Tuxtla. The present heads of state ratified the objectives of Plan Puebla Panama, renamed Plan Mesoamerica. The final declaration reiterated the importance of fighting organized crime and the support for the Merida Initiative financed by the United States.
July 23:
The Human Rights Center Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas denounced that state police assaulted campesinos as well as observers from the Other Campaign in the community of Cruztón, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza.
July 27:
The National Democratic Congress (CND) and the Wide Progressive Front (FAP) held a public referendum on the Energy Reform in 9 states as well as the Federal District in which more than 1.5 million people participated, of which more than 80% stated that they were against the initiative presented by the President.
The end of July:
The Caravan of International Solidarity in Chiapas. About 300 activists, mainly from Europe, arrived in Chiapas in order to monitor and denounce what they consider part of the war situation.
August 21:
The federal government presented the National Plan for Security, Legality, and Justice which presents 75 points which attempt to strengthen the police and justice institutions.
August 29:
The National Program for Human Rights for 2008-2012 was published in the Federal Newspaper, it was considered by civil organizations to be a “catalog of good intentions”.
September:
As part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which all United Nations members must undergo, hundreds of Mexican NGOs presented a special report in which they denounced that “Mexico, has not complied with its international commitments, and that torture, forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, limitations to freedom of expression, and impunity continue.” The Mexican government presented its own report at the end of November.
September 15:
During the festivities in commemoration of Independence day, there were 2 explosions in Morelia and Michoacán which left a toll of 7 dead and 132 wounded, as well as a reinforced perception of insecurity in the country.
September 16:
The EZLN announced a new campaign in support of the movement for liberation of the 13 prisoners still held in relation to the events in San Salvador Atenco in May 2006, all of whom were sentenced to more than 30 years and 112 years in the case of the members of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land.
October 3:
A violent operation carried out by federal and state police left a toll of six dead (4 of whom were executed according to the testimony of community members), 17 wounded, and 36 people detained, almost all of whom were members of the ejido Miguel Hidalgo, located in the municipality La Trinitaria, Chiapas. On September 7, the community members had taken control of the Mayan ruins of Chincultik, which are located in front of their community, with the intention of administrating the archeological site. In the face of the government of Chiapas’ response to the events, the International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights (CCIODH) stated that it was an example of a government policy of criminalization of social protest, discussing the conflict, and then attempted to limit their institutional responsibility through indemnification payments.
October:
The beginning of “Operation Clean-up” which illustrated the infiltration of drug-traffickers into the highest levels of government. The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) recognized that since 2004 organized crime had co-opted high officials in the Special Investigative Office for Organized Crime (SIEDO), who were selling classified information to the Beltrán-Leyva brothers Cartel.
October 13:
Mexico signed a Strategic Association Agreement with the European Union which would allow them to work together on issues of climate change, organized crime, the fight against poverty, human rights, and migration.
October 23:
After 8 months of negotiation, an energy reform was approved by the Mexican Congress.
November 4:
The Secretary of Government, Juan Camilo Mouriño and the ex-head of the Special Investigative Office for Organized Crime (SIEDO) José Luis Vasconcelos died when their airplane crashed in Mexico City. Along with them, 2 major federal government officials in the fight against narco-trafficking died as well. Although the official version states that there was no evidence that suggests assassination, there has been major controversy over the possibility that the deaths could have been the result of sabotage, suspicions which are maintained by the public to date.
The end of November:
The Mexican Congress approved a budget supporting greater security which was a 35% increase from the year before, almost doubling the money destined for social development in 2009.
November 17:
the 25th anniversary of the EZLN.
December 3:
In a low-profile event, the United States Congress signed a letter formalizing the transfer of 197 million dollars of the 400 already appropriated as part of the Merida Initiative.
The last week of December- the Beginning of January 2009:
the First Festival of Justified Rage was held by the EZLN in the Federal District and in Chiapas.
2009
From the 31st of December 2008 to the 5th of January 2009, the First Global Festival of Justified Rage took place. The fifteenth anniversary of the EZLN’s uprising was observed in Oventic. A series of roundtable-discussions and activities occurred starting on the 2nd of January in CIDECI-University of the Earth in San Cristóbal de las Casas. They were moderated by the EZLN and focused on the theme Another world, another politics.
10 February:
Mexico was evaluated by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in accordance with the mechanism of the Universal Periodical Review (UPR). The UNHRC put forth 91 recommendations, 83 of which the Mexican government agreed to; it expressed reservations about the remaining 8, many of which represented criticisms that had previously been expressed by civil-society organizations: for example, legal impunity and the measures that should be put into place to combat such (particularly with regard to questions related to women, indigenous communities, minors, and journalists), as well as military courts, the legal concept of arraigo (pre-charge detention), and the definition of “organized crime.”
11 February:
the investigation undertaken by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) with regard to the case of Atenco (May 2006) concluded that hundreds of people suffered abuses and that individual liberties and constitutional rights had been seriously violated. The Court also found that the 2,726 public servants involved in the case behaved “justifiably” but “in a manner that was excessive, disproportionate, inefficient, and indolent.” In any case, the governor of the state of México, the Federal Secretary of Public Security, and other high-ranking officials were exonerated of all responsibility.
17 February:
In light of the limited nature of the SCJN’s resolution, the National and International Campaign for Liberty and Justice in Atenco was launched. The organization seeks to involve civil society in order tp pressure the three branches of federal government to release and exonerate the 13 prisoners in the Atenco case as well as to punish those responsible for the abuses with an eye to the larger goal of arresting the process of the criminalization of social protest.
Between the 18th and 23rd of February, three prisoners from the Voice of Los Llanos and one from the Voice of Amate were released. With this, only one of the imprisoned who engaged in a hunger strike the previous year remains imprisoned: Alberto Patishtan Gómez (incarcerated since June 2000), member of the Voice of Amate. Because his case is in federal court, his legal situation will have to follow a different process.
23 February:
The Director-General of Human Rights for the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) Brigade General Jaime Antonio López Portillo expressed his opinion that the results of the military with regard to human rights “are acceptable”—this, despite the fact that military presence in the country has increased, putatively to fight organized crime (some 45,000 soldiers are said to be deployed daily). López Portillo further remarked that “not many” reports had been filed against soldiers the previous year. Several NGOs criticized his comments, claiming that there can be no “acceptable” level of human-rights violations.
26 February:
The Good-Government Council (JBG) of Oventic denounced the incursion of federal troops into the caracol as well as helicopter and airplane overflights in the region.
7 and 8 March:
An Encounter of Zapatista women took place in the caracol of Oventic to mark International Women’s Day. The meeting was dedicated to Doña Concepción García de Corral, or "Mamá Corral."
27 March:
The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report in which it expressed its “concern because in some countries of the region military justice continues to be employed in the investigation and judgment of common crimes perpetrated by members of the armed forces and police. The IACHR repeats that the employment of military jurisdiction is to remain exceptional and should be used only for crimes pertaining to its function."
27 March:
In Chiapas, a special prosecutor’s office was created specializing in the Protection of Non-Governmental Organizations in Defense of Human Rights. The office was born at the behest of the state Executive after having accepted a recommendation advanced by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) regarding delays in investigating aggressive acts directed in October 2006 at the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (CDHFBC).
13 April:
6 indigenous Tseltals, supporters of The Other Campaign and residents of the San Sebastián Bachajón Ejido located in the munipality of Chilón, were detained by forces of the State Preventive Police (PEP). CDHFBC denounced their arbitrary arrest and the subsequent torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment to which the Tseltals were subjected as violations of their judicial rights.
15 April:
Some 3,000 Catholics from various municipalities of the Chiapas mountains demonstrated in favor of the cancellation of 56 permits for mineral exploitation that had been granted to Canadian and US firms.
15 April:
Members of The Other Campaign from the San Sebastián Bachajón Ejido set up a roadblock in the crossroads of Agua Azul to call for the release of their 6 detained comrades. The roadblock, however, was removed by the protestors two days later so as to avoid confrontations. Police then arrived and reportedly stole money and documents that the supporters of The Other Campaign had stored in a toll booth that was placed at the entrance of the tourist centre at the Agua Azul waterfalls that was recuperated on June 18 2008, and later on destroyed it.
19 April:
Miguel Vázquez Moreno, identified as a member of a Support Base of the EZLN, was detained at the crossroads of Agua Azul on the very same grounds that were used to arrest the 6 Tseltals on 13 April. Vázquez Moreno was released a few days later.
21 April:
The Committee of Mediation between the Popular Revolutionary Army (EJR) and the government declared its mission to be finished after a year. This came after its attempt to look into the status of two EPR militants who were thought to have been disappeared.
23 April:
With 287 votes in favor and 1 opposing, the House of Deputies approved a constitutional reform having to do with human rights. If it is that this move represented progress, several human-rights organizations voiced their concern that they had not been allowed to participate in, e.g., the hierarchy of international treaties ratified by the Mexican government, the repair of damages done by the State, collective entitlement to rights, the obligation to comply with international sentences and recommendations, or the elimination of military courts.
26 April:
The National Network of Civil Organizations for Human Rights “All Rights for All” presented a document that identified at least 41 cases during the last two years of police repression, arbitrary detentions, intercommunal confrontations, and harassment and assassination of ecological defenders in 13 states of the Republic, including Chiapas. The report stressed that the work of resource-defenders in the country (which includes that of water, land, forests, minerals, and biodiversity) has become increasingly risky, as such actions negatively affect the interests of governments, caciques, and transnational corporations.
Close of April:
The beginning of an emergency health situation due to the virus AH1N1 highlights the risks of the factory farming of animals, a process which is dominated by large transnational companies, as well as the structural failures of the health system in México. Within this context, the Congress approved rulings associated with the law of National Security that created in particular the “declaration of impact on internal security,” which in turn would allow the executive branch to declare states of emergency without prior approval from Congress.
17 May:
Representatives of 20 organizations from 7 Mexican states founded the National Network of Civil Resistance Against the High Prices of Electricity in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
28 May:
The Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center (CDHFBC) released its annual report, which chronicled 675 violations of individual rights in Chiapas in 2008.
11 June:
México appeared once again before the United Nations Human Rights Council, where it again refused to accept the recommendations that remained to be actualized since the February UPR—recommendations that deal with such questions as military jurisdiction, the legal concept of arraigo (pre-charge detention), the definition of organized crime, and concern for impunity.
14 June:
Release of the Ostula Manifesto, a document compiled by indigenous communities from 9 states of the Republic that attended the 25th meeting of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) in the central-Pacific region. In face of governmental and paramilitary repression against them, as well as neoliberal policies “of denigration, discrimination, destruction, and death,” the indigenous communities once again asserted their right to self-defense to protect their lands and natural resources.
20 and 21 June:
The American Meeting Against Impunity took place in the Zapatista caracol of Morelia. The meeting was attended by delegations from 15 countries of the continent as well as by Europeans and Australians. Impunity was repeatedly denounced as a common occurrence in the history and present of Latin America.
June:
The Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center, the National Front in the Struggle for Socialism, and the NGO Maderas de Pueblo del Sureste denounced several incidents of harassment of human-rights defenders as well as death-threats directed at such.
5 July:
Elections were held for 1500 public offices in the country. Voter abstention reached 55.19%, with 5.4% voting for no one at all. The null-vote movement had generated significant support in the run-up to the elections. The low participation rate notwithstanding, the results represent forms of change that can be compared with those of the close of the last decade: in spite of 12 years of loss of control over the House of Deputies, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, the party that had maintained power for more than 70 years until 2000) carried the day. Out of a total of 500 representative seats, the PRI won 237. This same day, it also won five of the six governships that were up for election.
9 July:
Five of the six Tseltal members of The Other Campaign from the municipality of San Sebastián Bachajón who had been detained near Agua Azul in April were released. Since May they had been incarcerated in El Amate Prison after having spent several weeks in precharge detention at Chiapa de Corzo.
14 July:
José Luis Soberanes, president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), said the following before Congress:
“It is worrisome that the deployment of federal forces has failed to halt the violence created by organized crime and narco-trafficking. On the contrary, indeed, there have resulted innumerable complaints regarding alleged abuses of innocent persons.” As CNDH reports, since the beginning of Calderon´s administration, there have been registered more than 1,600 complaints directed at the military for such crimes as arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, sexual abuse, arbitrary detentions, and excessive use of force and of arms.
30 July:
Supporters of The Other Campaign from the ejido Mitzitón set up a road-block to advance their grievances:
the rejection of the San Cristóbal de las Casas-Palenque highway (which is expected to cross the Mitzitón ejido), the free self-determination of communities, and immediate justice for Aurelio Díaz Hernández, who was run over on the 21st of July.
31 July:
Chiapas becomes the first state in the world to include within its constitution the necessity of meeting the United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
7 and 8 August:
The Second National Meeting of Human-Rights Defenders took place in Mexico City. The meeting’s participants identified a number of common characteristics regarding the human-rights situation in the country, among which were included “the criminalization of the activities of human-rights defenders, especially by means of the use of legal sanctions against those claiming their rights; systematic aggression directed at protestors by police; harassment” as well as “campaigns that seek to denigrate the work of human-rights defenders and social activists.”
9 August:
During the close of an EU-México-Canada summit, Felipe Calderón claimed that his government “scrupulously” honors its obligations in the realm of human rights and further commented that “whoever thinks otherwise is required to cite one example, just one example.” In response, 5 human-rights organizations sent him a letter describing 7 cases of rights-violations carried out against civilians by the Mexican military. All these cases had taken place within the past 6 years.
12 August:
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation(SCJN) granted an appeal to 26 indigenous men incarcerated for more than 11 years and convicted of the killing of 45 indigenous people in Acteal, municipality of Chenalhó in the Highlands of Chiapas, on 22 December 1997. The next day, 20 of the people in question were released from prison, while the remaining 6 will repeat the judicial process which condemned them. Demonstrating political realism, the Chiapas government attempted to prevent the return of the formerly incarcerated to Chenalhó so as to avoid confrontations; toward this end, it offered the ex-prisoners land, housing, and work elsewhere. Las Abejas denounced the limited nature of this type of resolution. Since August, they had also publicly announced that the state government had been attempting to divide their organization as well as involve them with armed groups.
17 August:
Mariano Abarca, opponent of the operation of mineral exploitation in Chicomuselo in the Sierra of Chiapas, was detained for having participated in the sit-in that had since June been inhibiting the activities of Blackfire, a Canadian-owned transnational corporation. He was released a week later, though harassment of members of the anti-mining movement has continued, as was seen at the Mexican Network of Those Affected by Mining (REMA) that took place in Chicomuselo on the 29th and 30th of August, when police officers attempted to pass themselves off as journalists.
20 August:
Confirming what many human-rights groups had been claiming for more than a decade, several official U.S. government were released by the National Security Archive detailing the direct support given by the Mexican military to paramilitary groups during counter-insurgency efforts directed at Zapatista bases in the 1990s.
2 September:
The U.S. government granted $214 million for Plan Merida, which seeks to support the Mexican government in its efforts against organized crime.
16 September:
More than a thousand members of the National Front in the Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) marched from Mazapa de Madero to Motozintla the Chiapas Sierra to express their “firm rejection of mining activity” in their territories.
18 September:
The Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center (CDHFBC) denounced an armed attack against one of its members by the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC) that occurred in the Jotolá edijo, a municipality of Chilón. This latest act, which directly jeopardized the security of one of Frayba’s members, took place within a context of vigilance and aggression by various actors and communications media against the work of the defense of human rights. Two months after the attack, the perpetrators were arrested but shortly thereafter released, due in large part to threats made by the people of Jotolá promising revenge.
13 October:
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR) in México criticized Mexican authorities for their failures to have established a political environment that reduces or eliminates risks to human-rights activists when they present reports on human-rights defenders in México. The High Commissioner claimed that, of the 128 reports on aggressions suffered by human-rights defenders in México in the past 3 years, some 98.5% had gone unresolved. The UNHCHR noted an increasing ‘stigmatization’ of defenders, especially by authorities, as they are being identified as “defenders of criminals, or they say that they are trying to de-stabilize the country; they make money of the cases and they exaggerate the problems only to gain political power.”
14 October:
The Supreme Court of National Justice (SCJN) released a report on human-rights violations on the part of Mexican authorities in Oaxaca during 2006 and 2007. With this it can be concluded that the governor of Oaxaca at the time, Ulises Ruíz Ortiz—who today remains governor—bears responsibility for these violations.
Starting on October 26th, some 150 members of the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization-Carranza Region engaged in a sit-in strike in the center of San Cristóbal de las Casas to denounce political and military intimidation in their region and to demand the release of its leaders who were arrested in September and October. On October 30th, participants in the protest occupied the offices of the United Nations in San Cristóbal.
29 October:
The Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office (PGJE) noted that it had in its possession evidences that could implicate several high-ranking officials at both state and federal levels for omission and negligence in the Acteal case.
14 November:
The newspaper La Jornada published parts of the report “Ongoing situation in the municipality Venustiano Carranza,” produced by the PGJE, that seeks to document the existence of a “subversive network” that is said to be planning acts of destabilization in 2010. and whose leader would be the Catholic parish priest of Venustiano Carranza, Jesús Landín.
19 November:
The National Front in the Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) published a report entitled “Criminalization and persecution of social movements by the government of the state of Chiapas,” wherein it details various examples of harassment it has experienced.
23 November:
Three leaders of the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ-RC) were released on bail paid for by the State government, which sought to re-open negotiations by suspending the remaining arrest warrants. An initial negociating table between OCEZ-RC and the state government was arranged for November 26th.
25 and 26 November:
On November 25th, the newspaper La Jornada published an article that claimed that “The local Congress approved an agreement that calls on the State Executive, in accordance with his powers, to consider the petitions of Good Government Councils (JBG), created by the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN). According to legislators, it was the Zapatistas who asked that the JBGs be recognized.” The next day, the JBGs announced this claim to be a lie.
27 November:
Mariano Abarca, anti-mining advocate, was killed by an unknown shooter who attacked him at the entrance of his house.
November:
Several raids and incursions into the Center (surrounding Venustiano Carranza), the Border Jungle, and the Highlands were denounced on the anniversary of the founding of the EZLN.
15 December:
Local women’s organizations reported that Chiapas had the highest incidence of murdered women in the country, at 138 during the first half of 2009. 70 of those killed were deemed to have been victims of human trafficking.
21 and 22 December:
On the anniversary of the Acteal massacre there took place in Acteal a “Forum of Hope and Conscience, Building An Other Justice.”
23 December:
After having reached agreements with the state government on political, economic, and social issues, the OCEZ-RC suspended the sit-in strike in which it had been engaged in San Cristóbal for two months.
29 December:
The local Congress approved a law on Indigenous Rights for the state of Chiapas, an act that generated considerable polemic.
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