Migration

The current rate of migration of Chiapans to other Mexican states or to the United States is a relatively new phenomenon. Since the 1930's, communities have been relocated to the Lacandon Jungle, with the area thus functioning as an “escape valve” for social tensions created by the lack of land. Neoliberal policies initiated in 1982 (considered the introduction of globalization in Mexico) by the government of then-president Miguel de la Madrid ended protectionist policies for Mexican farmers. Later the consequences of NAFTA, in force since 1994, effectively closed the market to Mexican farm goods. This crisis has forced thousands of Chiapans to abandon their communities and their land in search of an economic “way out.”

Migration to the United States:

• Between 30,000 and 50,000 Chiapans migrate to the United States each year, of a total state population of close to 4 million.
• It has been calculated that in less than 10 years, some 300,000 Chiapas residents will have established themselves permanently in the United States.
• 65% of Chiapan migrants are peasants or indigenous people coming from Pantepec (Zoques), the Highlands (Tzotziles), the North (Ch’oles), the Jungle (Tzeltales) and the Sierra Madre (Mames).
• According to studies by the Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Southern Border College), the new Chiapan migrants establish themselves primarily in central and western states which have not traditionally received immigrants, such as Oklahoma, Colorado, and Washington State.

The Economics of Migration:

• Remittances sent to Chiapas from migrants in the United States were calculated at USD500 million in 2004, an amount equivalent to “all of the corn harvested – the principal generator of wealth in the state – in addition to the production of beans, bananas, and mangoes.”
• A migrant pays between USD1,500 and USD2,500 to a pollero to be taken “safely” to the United States. (In 1995, they paid between USD20 and USD30.)

Sources: "Mesoamerican Migrants,"
Miguel Pickard, 2005; CIEPAC 2004

Militarization

The army has been present in Chiapas for decades, acting as the identifiable face of the federal government in this remote and isolated part of Mexico. However, since the Zapatista uprising in 1994, the entire state has been militarized under the Plan for National Defense, which legitimizes the actions of the armed forces against an “internal enemy which attacks national security and sovereignty.” In February 1995, the army entered the jungle in order to detain the Zapatista Command.

During this decade, communities have denounced constant military patrols which harass the civilian population and have even caused, in certain cases, forced displacements or the violent dismantling of autonomous municipalities (in the cases of El Bosque and Ricardo Flores Magón in 1998). In other areas such as Chenalhó and the Northern Zone, the army has been accused of creating paramilitary groups in a counterinsurgency strategy designed to bring an end to the Zapatista resistance. The army has taken advantage of the political and organizational differences present in communities, arming some indigenous people as paramilitaries against others.

Number and Location of Bases:

• The VII Military Region covers both Chiapas and Tabasco and includes the five Military Zones 30, 31, 36, 38, and 39.
• Of these, the Zones 38, 39, and part of 31 cover 30 municipalities within the “conflict zone” of Chiapas in the “indigenous territories” of the Highlands, the Northern Region and the Lacandon Jungle. Zones 38 and 39 were created after the 1994 Zapatista uprising.
• In these three Military Zones, CAPISE (the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research) identified 91 military installations in a study undertaken in February 2004. According to a correction by SEDENA (the Secretary for National Defense) in 2005, there are currently 118 installations.
• According to its own information, SEDENA has acquired or expropriated 4,443 hectares for the use of the military forces. According to CAPISE, at least 57 of the military installations are situated in legally constituted ejidos.

Human Rights Violations

The Federal Army in Chiapas has been accused of human rights violations against civilian communities belonging to the EZLN or other organizations. The violations include the following:

• Harassment
• Threats
• Illegal seizure of land
• Executions
• Torture
• Forced displacement
• Introduction of prostitution, alcoholism, and drug addiction, which have fragmented and ruptured the social fabric and violated the rights of the communities to enjoy and develop their own culture in conditions of equality.

Official Arguments

The arguments the army uses to justify its presence in Chiapas are unrelated to the EZLN:

• The flow of undocumented migrants (primarily from Central America)
• The traffic of arms and precious woods
• Drug trafficking
• Attention to social needs caused by poverty and natural disasters
• Organized crime
• Conflicts and instability among indigenous communities

Sources: CAPISE 2004, 2005

Displaced Persons

Forced displacement is a decades-long phenomenon in Chiapas caused by a variety of factors, including religious intolerance and agrarian conflicts. The war of counterinsurgency implemented by the Mexican government has produced thousands of internally displaced people.

Today there are approximately 12,080 displaced people in Chiapas, the majority from the Northern Jungle Zone (the municipalities of Tila, Tumbalá and Sabanilla) and from the Highlands Region (the municipality of Chenalhó).

We can differentiate four main groups of displaced people in Chiapas:

• the displaced Zapatistas of Polhó (in the Highlands) who refuse to return until the government fulfills the San Andrés Accords;
• the relocated people of the organization Las Abejas, also in the Highlands – both groups were forced to leave their lands because of the Acteal massacre in 1997;
• the people of the Northern Zone, displaced by the violence of the paramilitary group Peace and Justice, who opted to negotiate their return with the government in the “Jolnixtié Negotiating Table”;
• finally, a group of displaced people from different regions in Chiapas, accompanied by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights.

Sources : : Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for
Human Rights, Walking Towards the Dawn, 2002.

Presence of Multinational Corporations in Chiapas

The NAFTA and other transnational trade agreements have favored large multinational companies, who enjoy an economic power superior to that of national governments. Multinationals see Mexico (as they do the rest of Latin America) as a rich and easy source for the multiplication of capital, above all through the exploitation and commodification of natural resources such as water and biodiversity. For this reason they are principally interested in southeastern Mexico.

There are three major interests driving the exploitation of natural resources in Chiapas:

• Biodiversity: Pharmaceutical and biogenetic companies view bioprospecting as a way to patent genetic material, as well as produce and distribute transgenic seeds.
• Water: Of interest to multinational bottling and hydroelectric companies.
• The establishment of “environmental services” (paying the inhabitants of natural areas to conserve the areas with the intention of preserving the carbon chain). This proposal is promoted by the governments of “developed” nations as an alternative to the reduction of toxic gases called for by the Kyoto Protocol.

Monsanto: US giant in the field of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), acquired the Mexican company Seminis in January 2005 in order to continue their research and development of genetically modified seeds. Their production center is located on one of the best access routes to Montes Azules, on the route to Montebello and the southern part of the reserve.

• Monsanto has received almost 40% of the patents for transgenics. The majority of these patents are for the cultivation of corn, followed by cotton, tomato, and soy.
• The company is responsible for 94% of the area cultivated with genetically modified seeds in the entire world.
• The unregulated dissemination of transgenics has been detected repeatedly in Chiapas, primarily in the municipalities of Las Margaritas, Ocosingo, Palenque, and Playas de Catazajá, that is, the Lacandon Jungle and surrounding areas.

Coca-Cola: Mexico consumes more Coca-Cola than any other country in the world and the state of Chiapas is one of the largest consumers in the nation.

Accusations against the company in Chiapas include:

• the purchase of water previously belonging to ejidos for Coca-Cola’s private use, depriving indigenous communities of lands and access to water. In the production of bottles alone, Coca-Cola uses the equivalent of the water consumed by 223 families;
• the contamination of water and the sale of contaminated water;
• human rights violations, including the intimidation of union workers, assassinations and torture;
• fomenting divisions and tensions within indigenous communities, which has even led to the displacement of communities and individuals;
• growth in poverty: in indigenous communities, a person spends up to 17.5% of the daily minimum wage on Coca-Cola products;
• an increase in malnutrition in communities lacking access to healthier beverages.

Ford Motor Company participates in “carbon capture,” an arrangement which allows companies – instead of reducing their own carbon emissions – to “adopt a forest” presumed to be capable of absorbing the carbon emitted by the company in its operations and converting it into oxygen.

• Ford “adopted” the Lacandon Jungle in 1998 and then has paid some USD10 million to the federal government.
• In 2000, as part of the celebration of their 75th anniversary in Mexico, Ford sent a symbolic check for USD2.5 million to the Chiapas State Government for the construction and equipping of five field stations in the Lacandon Jungle. A variety of projects are to be implemented, including ecological education, surveillance of the jungle, sustainable development and ecotourism in communities, and support for research.

Bayer: It is estimated that the pharmaceutical industry, in which Bayer plays an important role, reaps approximately USD32 billion in profits annually thanks to the incorporation of traditional remedies into formulas for its medicines. In the US alone, the total annual economic value of drugs derived from plants is estimated at more than USD68,000 million.

FUENTES: CIEPAC 2001, 2003, 2004, Ford Motor Company 2000,
La Jornada 2005, Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste 2005