:: ANALYSIS

Mexico: A Bleak Picture

The backdrop of the global economic crisis has led to predictions that Mexico is entering a stage of general economic deceleration at every level but mainly with regards to growth, consumption and employment.

Hopes for a quick recovery are unfortunately tied to the country’s dependence on the United States economy. The head of the Secretary of Social Development, Ernesto Cordero Arroyo, admitted that the deceleration of the US economy has provoked higher levels of unemployment and a drop in remittances that Mexican immigrants send back to their families (USD 53.5 million less than 2007), which will in turn “affect the Mexican families that live in poverty.” Given this context the Mexican Secretary of Finance called on families to “be prudent” and to “save for any possible event that the future may present.”

Photo: Mexican citizens protest the high price of corn - © artdiamondblog.com.

In early October President Felipe Calderón presented a new financial program in an attempt to minimize the negative impacts that the financial crisis in the US could have on Mexico.  He was also forced to adjust the 2009 national spending plan due to the crisis.

As of September 1, after submitting his second Government Report, Felipe Calderón confirmed that an “adverse external economic setting” affected the possibility of meeting national goals regarding inflation, growth and employment generation. The opposition members of the Lower House confirmed that in the first two years of the Calderón administration some 1 million 300 thousand Mexicans have left the country due to a lack of employment. That same day, campesino, social and labor organizations took to the streets in several regions of the country “to demonstrate the growing discontent and frustration of the labor force” with the government’s economic, labor and energy policies.

The “War on Drugs” Maintains Priority in Government Policy

According to the Second Government Report: “Since the inauguration of the current administration, some 46 high impact operations have been carried out (…) with an average participating force  per month of 45 thousand soldiers.” The Calderón approach is much more aggressive than that of the previous administration making it a truly “new strategy of the National Defense Secretary in the war on drugs.”

Despite these efforts, the numbers of executions carried out by organized crime syndicates had continued to increase in the first semester of 2008 reaching 2,673 deaths, equal to the total number of deaths during the whole of 2007. In early December the Federal Attorney General had already cited 5,400 deaths to the date and he assumed that the number would rise before the end of the year.

Photo: Mexico is the second largest source
of heroine for the US market - © vanguardia.com.mx

In late August, the federal government admitted to the existence of an “institutional and structural deterioration” in the fight against organized crime, as well as the corrosion of channels used to reverse the “high level of impunity” and “territorial control” that criminal organizations currently possess. In this light Calderón presented the National Accords for Security, Legality and Justice which by means of 75 points attempts to purge and reinforce the police and prosecutorial institutions.

One of the first major questions brought before the National Accords was the lack of obligatory implementation or sanctions for those who fail to comply with the accords. Specialists also confirmed that the Calderón government initiated the call for a “war on drugs” without sufficient civil or military intelligence work in addition to the fact that he did not predict the “violent dimension that the narcotraffickers’ response has taken on” or the corruption and infiltration that would surface within the police forces (La Jornada, Sept 29, 2008).

In October the initiation of Operation Clean Up made clear the level of narco infiltration at the highest levels of government. The Federal Attorney General confirmed that since 2004 organized crime elements had been co-opting high ranking officials within the organized crime unit of the Federal Attorney General’s Office (SIEDO, Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada). Several of these individuals have been selling classified information to the Beltrán Leyva cartel.

In late November, 100 days after the signing of the Accords, the federal government assured the public that it had complied with the obligations implied in the Accords along with the reassigning of resources within the proposal, the reinforcement of civil society, the adapting of the model to the institutional coordination in addition to the presentation of the reform package to Congress. The administration congratulated the Congress on its approval of an increase of some 35% to the spending plan for security, almost doubling the funds destined for social development next year.

Deputies and senators from the PRI (Partido de la Revolución Institucional) and PRD (Partido Revolucionario Democrático), as well as representatives from a number of diverse churches argued that the results expected  as put forward by the National Accords at the end of the 100 day period  would be “meager and insufficient.”

Whether or not they were connected with organized crime, two events reinforced the general perception of insecurity in Mexico. The first took place September 15 during the Independence Day celebrations when two explosions went off in the main plaza of Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, leaving 7 dead and 132 injured.

The other event took place on November 4 when the Secretary of the Interior, Juan Camilo Mouriño, and the former head of SIEDO, José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, were killed in a plane crash in Mexico City. The crash left 15 dead and 40 injured. Both Mouriño and Vasconcelos were two major anti-narco strategists within the Calderón administration. While Mouriño was very close to Calderón, Vasconcelos was according to several media outlets the individual most trusted by both the Mexican army and the United States. Although the official version affirms that there was no evidence of foul play in the crash, it has continued to be a controversial issue as public opinion continues to be open to the idea that the incident was connected to narcotrafficking.

Photo: José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and Juan Camilo Mouriño
were killed in the plane crash that took
place November 4, in Mexico City - © AP

International Support in the Fight Against Organized Crime

In 2008, Mexico moved from 4^th to 2^nd place in Latin America in terms of military and policing assistance from the United States, following Colombia. The Merida Initiative, which consists of some USD 400 million in assistance to Mexico for 2008, is intended to create deeper integration in terms of security between the United States and Mexico. The Mexican government was expecting the assistance as early as September, however it was not until December 3 in a low profile ceremony that a Letter of Agreement was signed and the first USD 197 million of the USD 400 million already approved by the US Congress.

Mexico also solidified several other international agreements.  In October, together with the government of Brazil, Calderón signed an agreement to strengthen a partnership in the exchange of information, programs and experience to reduce crime. He also met with representatives from the European Union to discuss the Strategic Alliance between the two entities that will permit further collaboration on the themes of climate change, organized crime, the fight against poverty, human rights and immigration. In addition Calderón met with Argentine president Cristína Fernández de Kirchner to discuss a partnership against transnational organized crime, drugs and money laundering. 

Photo: Cristína Fernández de Kirchner and Felipe Calderón Hinojosa during the Mexican president’s trip to Argentina - © El Siglo de Torreón

The Energy Reform Approval

Mexican opposition congress members celebrate the approval of the energy reform initiative - © La Jornada

After 8 months of analysis and negotiations, which included several forums with the participation of more than 100 experts, the energy reform was finally approved by the Mexican Congress on October 23. The reform will give Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX, nationalized since 1938 and a symbol of national sovereignty) more budgetary and procedural autonomy, modernize its institutional design and loosen its acquisition and public works contracting process.

The opposition to the possible privatization of PEMEX was organized through the National Movement in Defense of Petroleum and the Popular Economy headed by the ex-presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Meanwhile, left leaning legislators had pointed out that although they were in favor of the reform in general terms, they felt that some aspects needed clarification. The day of the approval, the congressmen took the stage after AMLO met with legislators from every party and asked for the inclusion of a clause that would expressly prohibit concessions for exploration or production of crude oil to foreign companies. This caveat however was never approved.

Although the initiative was ultimately quite different from that proposed by Calderón (which, for example, would have allowed private companies to build and operate refineries), he did state that the approval of the reform was a “historic” achievement and asserted that “with the reform, both the national economy and the Mexican people win.” The only people who did not express approval were Mexican entrepreneurs and foreign investors as they felt that the reform was extremely limited.

The reform integrates several of the proposals brought up by the Broad Progressive Front (FAP, Frente Amplio Progresista is a coalition of the major parties from the left in Mexico: the Democratic Revolution Party [PRD, Partido de la Revolución Democrática]; the Worker’s Party [PT, Partido del Trabajo]; and Convergence [Convergencia]). However, the approval left several factions of the PRD and FAP further divided. In mid November, after eight months of a tumultuous internal process in defining the election of its national director, the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF, Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación) revoked the nullity of the internal PRD elections which took place in March and recognized Jesús Ortega Martínez as the new national president of the party.  It has been noted that Ortega Martínez represents a tendency within the party that is more distant from AMLO.

Photo: Protests continued in Mexico City against
the energy reform initiative - © La Jornada

After the approval of the energy reform, AMLO announced a new stage of the National Movement in Defense of Petroleum and the Popular Economy. He warned that the legions of citizens who make up the movement will not disband but rather will continue the struggle against the high cost of living and in defense of better wages.

Human rights: “good intentions” in the face of the same concerns

At the end of August, the new National Program for Human Rights 2008-2012 was published in the Mexican Official Newspaper of the Federation. This document raises the possibility of a gradual withdrawal of the armed forces from public security tasks and proposes “to initiate reforms in matters of management and implementation of military justice in accordance with international human rights agreements ratified by the State of Mexico.” It also discusses the creation of guidelines for the use of force with respect to human rights. Civil organizations have questioned this program as being a “list of good intentions.”

Photo: The UN Human Rights Commission - © CINU

One of the most worrisome tendencies continues to be the criminalization of social protest in the face of growing militarization in the country. In October, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) denounced that up to this point in the Calderón administration they have received 983 complaints of human rights violations against the armed forces: “the militarization of public security has provoked torture, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, and sexual abuse on the part of the military; nevertheless, the payment of more than 45 thousand in cash for public security projects has not succeeded in stopping the amount of violence.”

A new platform for human rights will open in February 2009, when Mexico will undergo an examination by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN), as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which all member nations must undergo.

In September, more than a hundred organizations presented in Geneva, Switzerland, a special report in which they denounced that “Mexico has not fulfilled its international compromises” and that torture, forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, limits to freedom of expression, and impunity still exist. The report included 60 cases of criminalization of social protest in 17 states in Mexico.

Photo: The struggle continues for justice in the case of Atenco - © Blog Zapateando

At the end of November, Mexico presented its report to the UPR. It stated that the use of the army for fighting against organized crime is a provisional measure to re-establish minimal conditions of public security “with full respect for human rights.” As an example they proposed the creation of an Office of Human Rights within the Department of National Defense (which currently does not have proposed funding for 2009). The Mexican human rights organizations demanded that the Mexican government attach a date to the withdrawal of the armed forces, which is also stipulated in the document.

In November, the Department of External Affairs (SRE) stated that Mexico was chosen to be a Member of the Board of the Assembly of States, Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for 2009-2011. The naming of Mexico illustrates the intense international activism on the part of Mexico in the area of human rights, which according to NGOs working in the area of human rights, is in contrast to the actual situation in Mexico.

Chiapas: impunity and new conflicts

In November, two years after the killing of indigenous people in the community of Viejo Velasco (north of Montes Azules), the deaths of the six individuals continue to go unpunished.

On October 3 of this year, a violent operation carried out by federal and state police left a toll of six dead (4 were executed according to the testimonies of community members), 17 wounded, and 36 detained, almost all residents of the ejido Miguel Hidalgo, located in the municipality of La Trinitaria, Chiapas. On September 7, the members of the ejido took control of the ruins of Chincultik which are located directly across from the community, with the intention of administering the archeological site themselves.

Photo: Police agents arrest a campesino in Chinkultic - © FrayBa

The state and federal authorities have opted to pay 35 thousand pesos for funeral expenses and 75 thousand pesos for economic support for those who lost family members. The Chiapas state government has also accused 5 police of being responsible for the massacre and has promised to punish those who are convicted of excess in carrying out their duty. After these events and after the Chiapas Secretary of Government recognized that there had not been an eviction order, the State Congress unanimously approved an eviction protocol for the state and municipal security forces, which attempts to regulate the use of public force.

The International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights (CCIODH) stated that this is a clear example of the government policy of criminalization of social protest in which the state seeks to put aside the possibility of dialogue and political solutions to the conflict and instead attempts to limit institutional responsibility by appeasing the community through reparations. The Human Rights Center Fray Bartolomé de las Casas has also stated that “There exists a great risk that the massacre of Chinkultic, like others, will remain unresolved and that the punishments of those responsible will only be carried out against low level public servants.”

Photo: The ruins at Chinkultic - © escrutiniopublico.blogspot.com

More generally, the main source of conflict is tied to social projects and for the most part, economics: highways (like the announcement of the superhighway from San Cristobal de las Casas to Palenque), tourist projects (theme parks in Palenque and the waterfalls of Agua Azul), and development projects (protected natural areas like Huitepec or the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, and mining among others; see the Focus article in this report).

EZLN: Festival of Dignified Rage (Digna Rabia)

In the first week of August, a national and international solidarity caravan documented a number of violations of human rights in Zapatista territories. This caravan also attended the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Zapatista Good Government Councils (JBG, Juntas de Buen Gobierno).

In September, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) gathered to support the movement for the liberation of the 13 people still held prisoner after the repression in San Salvador Atenco in May of 2006, all of their sentences are for more than 30 years and several leaders of the Peoples Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT, Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra) received up to 112 years. The EZLN also announced the first Global Festival of Dignified Rage, which will be celebrated the last week of December and the first days of January, 2009 in Mexico City and in Chiapas. The communiqué explains that: “Disgust in the face of the cynicism and incompetence of the traditional political parties has become rage. At times this rage gives us hope for a change in the old ways and it halts the immobilizing disillusion and the arbitrary forces which tyrannize us.”

:: FOCUS

Mining in Chiapas: A New threat for the survival of indigenous peoples

Map of mining concessions in Chiapas (click to zoom)

Until recently the state of Chiapas, which is one of the richest in Mexico in terms of natural resources (in 2001 it produced 47% of natural gas and 21% of oil in Mexico ), seemed to have been forgotten by the mining industry. However since the late 1990’s, the Federal government began to grant mining concessions for exploration and exploitation to transnational mining corporations, for the most part based in Canada².

The majority of these concessions are located in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range which begins in the north of Chiapas and extends as far as Honduras and into northern Nicaragua, regions in which these same mining companies are already workingo³.

The Mining Reforms: Paving the Way for Transnational Corporations

One of the major precursors to the increase in mining concessions was the constitutional reforms of 1993. These reforms, which played a part in paving the way for NAFTA⁴ allowed foreign corporations to hold mining concessions, which previously had been reserved for Mexican companies. Beginning with the Mineral Law of 1993 and throughout the nineties, a number of new mineral reforms were passed which facilitated mineral exploitation by foreign capital.⁵

Traditionally, the Mexican people had the right to the land, through ejidal⁶ and communal lands, while the state had the rights to anything below the soil. This ambiguity in jurisdiction between the surface and the natural resources beneath allowed the affected communities or ejidos a certain amount of bargaining power when their land was affected by mining interests. However after the mineral reforms of the nineties this issue was resolved in favor of private interests. They state that the concession grants the right to “Obtain the expropriation, temporary occupancy or creation of land easement needed to carry out the exploration, exploitation and beneficiation works”.⁷ This effectively grants mining companies the priority to the land over the people who are living on it. In addition the new laws give the company water rights in the regions they are in as well as the right to dump rock waste in addition to other waste products.

Photo: Mina Marlin, opencast mine in Guatemala - © NO A LA MINA

As the changes to the mining laws were aimed at facilitating the entrance of foreign capital into Mexico, essentially the reforms deregulated the mining industry in Mexico.⁸ This is part of the neoliberal economic doctrine which claims that growth and development will be stimulated by deregulating the economy and allowing the unhindered movement of international capital.

Blackfire Exploration Ltd., slogan from their website - © Blackfire Exploration Ltd

NAFTA was heralded by businessmen and politicians throughout the US, Mexico, and Canada as an agreement that would bring prosperity and development. However the reality has been that since this agreement the Mexican economy has seen a loss of jobs and food prices have risen. The rural campesino population has been the most adversely affected by the agreement. The end result has been that large corporations have benefited while poverty in the country has grown.⁹

The Environmental and Social Effects of Modern Mining Practices

While the industry has undergone many changes mining remains one of the most detrimental, not only in terms of working conditions but in regards to environmental and social damage.  According to Gustavo Castro of Otros Mundos Chiapas A.C. “Mining is not new in Chiapas, what is new is the intensity and the type of extraction”.¹⁴ Modern mining practices continue to have a negative impact specifically in terms of land and water contamination, deforestation, destruction of traditional lifestyles, and internal divisions within communities.¹⁵

The most common modern mining practice is called opencast mining. According to a report published by the World Rainforest Movement, an international network of organizations that work on issues of rainforest conservation:

“Opencast mines look like a series of terraces arranged in great deep wide pits in the middle of a desolated and stark landscape, lacking any living resources. The operation usually starts with removal of the vegetation and the soil, followed by extensive dynamiting and removal of the rocks and materials above the ore until the deposit is reached, which is again dynamited to obtain smaller pieces”. ¹⁶

In addition, once these giant heaps of rock and dirt are dug up the valuable minerals inside must be extracted. This is generally done by running the raw materials through a chemical solution in order to extract the minerals. In the case of gold mining, a cyanide solution is run over the ore in order to dissolve the rock and extract the pure gold. The mining companies claim that the cyanide and the leftover debris are disposed of in an environmentally conscious manner but it is inevitable that some of these damaging chemicals manage to escape into the soil and the water supply.¹⁷ This kind of pollution is especially harmful to campesinos; not only because of the health risks associated with contaminated water but because the pollution threatens their traditional lifestyle of subsistence agriculture.

Another major side effect of this cyanide leaching process is the rock waste that it produces. According to the ‘No Dirty Gold’ campaign started by Earthworks (an American NGO that works on environmental issues) and OxFam (an International NGO which works on a number of social and environmental issues) these piles of toxic slag can reach up to 100 meters high. These toxic piles of rock not only damage the soil through the leaching of chemicals but they also physically take up land that would otherwise be used for farming.¹⁸

The entrance of mining companies into the region has a number of negative effects on a community level. Generally the companies promise some sort of payment either in the form of cash payout or infrastructure in order to placate the affected communities. Nevertheless, there is no way to ensure that the companies carry out their promises. The reality is that the vulnerability and poverty of the affected communities do not allow for fair negotiations. The money that is offered may seem like a large amount to the families who do not know what the true effects of the mining operations will be.

For example in the municipality of Chicomuselo (Chiapas), the company Blackfire Exploration has an open barite mine called La Revancha (The Revenge). According to community members, when the company entered the area in 2006 it promised the community that it would build new roads, install electricity, drainage and other infrastructure in the community. The company has never actually followed through on the agreement. Instead of building roads, installing electricity, and sewage for the entire community, the company built roads, installed electricity, and other infrastructure for the mining operation alone without constructing anything of benefit for the community.¹⁹

Building a Resistance to International Mining

The resistance to the operation of mining in Chiapas and Mexico as a whole is growing but very slowly. One of the main problems in organizing such resistance is the lack of awareness in communities about what the effects of a mine are likely to be. The reality is that in many cases people only realize the effects of the mine after it is in place and functioning, and by that time it is generally too late to stop the mining process.²⁰ The mining companies are also aware of the resistance and utilize strategies that attempt to halt it before it gets off the ground. These strategies include buying out part of the community in order to create divisions and stop any attempts at organizing. This is generally done by co-opting local authorities or community leaders with the intent of creating divisions and stifling any possible resistance.

One of the major methods utilized by communities to resist the entrance of mining corporations involves the use of a number of national and international accords that guarantee the economic, social, and cultural rights of individuals.

On a national level, the best defense for communities and ejidos affected by mining is the Agrarian Law and the rights that ejidos hold as communal bodies. The laws concerning ejidos grant the right to decide the use of the land as a communal body. However since the changes to Article 27 of the Constitution in 1992 and the implementation of PROCEDE²¹ it has become very difficult to employ these defense mechanisms.

On the international level, one of the most important tools is the 169th Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, which was established by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and ratified in Mexico in 1990. It states in particular that “In cases in which the State retains the ownership of mineral or sub-surface resources or rights to other resources pertaining to lands, governments shall establish or maintain procedures through which they shall consult these peoples, … The peoples concerned shall wherever possible participate in the benefits of such activities, and shall receive fair compensation for any damages which they may sustain as a result of such activities” (art. 15).²²

The 169th Convention has been successfully used by communities in Guatemala in resisting international mining interests. For example on February 13 of 2007, 64 communities in the municipality of Concepción Tutuapa rejected mining activity in their communities. Through the logic of the 169th convention, the people of the region voted in community consultations to reject the international mining companies.²³

Nevertheless, even though Convention 169 guarantees the right of indigenous peoples to be consulted, it does not guarantee the right to veto a project. The reality is that while the state is required to inform the population and try to limit environmental and social damage, it does not necessarily mean that the project will be stopped.

Photo: Cerro San Pedro, opencast mine in the state of San Luis Potosí - © NO A LA MINA

Another major means of resistance is organization and mobilization on a community, national, or international level. Community level organization is important because it is one of the only methods of educating people about what the effects of mining will be as well as educating and mobilizing people around methods of resistance. One of the main actors in organizing resistance to mining is the Mexican Network of Those Affected by Mining (REMA, Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Minería). This is a national network that is attempting to organize and inform people throughout Mexico about the effects and methods of resistance to mining.²⁴

Another actor in the mining resistance at the local level is the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS, Frente Nacional de la Lucha por el Socialismo). In November, the FNLS held a statewide mobilization protesting a number of issues, among them that of the transnational mining companies. It included roadblocks on a number of highways in Chiapas as well as a march on the municipal seat of Motozintla where there have been a number of mining concessions to Linear Gold Corp.²⁵ The FNLS has denounced repression against its attempts to organize resistance to the mining in the region. On November 12, 2008 they stated that “For the FNLS, the raids that were carried out yesterday on the houses of Yolanda Castro and Jaime González, represent a fascist response from the Mexican State to the public denunciation that we released on the 10th and to the Resistance against the removal of minerals being carried out by a number of transnational corporations”.²⁶

Another example of community organization as well as government repression is the case of El Carrizalillo in the state of Guerrero. In January 2007, the community organized the “Permanent Assembly of Ejidatarios and Workers of Carrizalillo”. This group coordinated a roadblock at the entrance of a mine run by the Luismin company in order to pressure them into renegotiating the contracts for use of the land. However at the end of January, 100 state and local police officers violently removed the roadblock and arrested 70 community members. Eventually the company agreed to negotiate new contracts with the community. The final accords resulted in raising the rental price of the land from 1,475 pesos to 13,500 pesos per year per hectare. In addition the company promised the construction of a number of public works including roads, a hospital, and a school. The company also promised to re-employ the workers who had been fired during the 82 days of the strike.²⁷

Photo: The sit-in strike of the community members of Carrizalillo in protest of the mining company - © CDH Tlachinollan

On November 8, 2008, the community of Cacahuatepec, Guerrero (that would be affected by the planned hydro-electric dam La Parota) held the popular gathering titled “Water, Energy, and Alternative Energy”. The theme of mining was touched on at the gathering and community members from Chicomuselo, Chiapas met with others from different parts of Mexico to share their experiences with mining, other natural resources, and methods of resistance. In the same vein, on November 15 and 16 the “Meeting of Our Voices of Struggle and Resistance” took place in Juchitán, Oaxaca. The final declaration stated: “We give a clear NO to the transnational projects of super-highways, dams, mines, and wind energy because they are not developing our communities, instead they are displacing us and stealing our land”.²⁸

The reality is that mining is not an isolated issue. It is in effect part of a much larger phenomenon of development projects being driven by international corporations and the Mexican government. These types of projects have a very profound impact on the rural campesino population, in the sense that they do not take into account the needs and desires of the people. In the end they provoke the loss of traditional forms of subsistence and subsequent migration as well as directly contribute to the loss of indigenous cultures and lifestyles. Ultimately, the processes of resistance to these various infrastructure projects, be it highways, dams, or mines, are not separate struggles but are slowly becoming unified within Mexico to create a greater resistance to a greater issue.

Notes:

1. SIPAZ, “Chiapas en Datos: Recursos Naturales”.
2. Mexico, Secretaría de Economía, Dirreción General de Minas, Expedición de Títulos de Concesión Minera.
3. Radius Gold Inc., Exploration Projects in Southern Mexico.
4. North American Free Trade Agreement: came into effect on January 1, 1994. It basically eliminates all tariffs, quotas, and trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
5. Adriana Estrada, Fundar: Centro de Análisis e Investigación, Impactos de la inversión minera canadiense en Mexico: Una primera aproximación. D.F., Mexico. Sept. 2001.
6. Ejido: a form of communal land in Mexico that was established by the Mexican Constitution of 1917.
7. Mexico, Secretaría de Economía, Legislación Minera.
8. Estrada, Impactos de la inversion minera canadiense en Mexico.
9. Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, “The Ten Year Track Record of the North American Free Trade Agreement”, Washington DC, 2004.
10. Direción General de Minas, Expedición de Titulos.
11. Blackfire Exploration Ltd., Projects - The Payback Barite Mine.
12. Linear Gold Corp, Properties.
13. Direción General de Minas, Expedición de Titulos.
14. Gustavo Castro, Otros Mundos A.C. Chiapas, SIPAZ Interview on Nov. 20, 2008.
15. No Dirty Gold Campaign, Earthworks, Dirty Gold’s Impacts.
16. Ricardo Carrere, World Rainforest Movement, Mining: Social and Environmental Impacts, March 2004.
17. No Dirty Gold Campaign, Dirty Gold’s Impacts.
18. Ibid.
19. Elio Enríquez, “La barita, otro tesoro que no ha dejado beneficios para pobladores de Chiapas”, La Jornada, May 5, 2008.
20. Gustavo Castro, Nov. 20, 2008.
21. PROCEDE: The Ejidal Rights and Urban Lands Certification Program is a government program initiated after the reform of Article 27 of the constitution which attempts to convert communal land into private property which can then be bought and sold.
22. International Labor Organization, Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, June 17, 1989.
23. NO A LA MINA, “En Guatemala 64 comunidades rechazaron la actividad minera en una consulta comunitaria”, Feb. 19, 2007.
24. Red Mexicana de Afectados por la Minería (REMA).
25. El Justo Reclamo Blog, “¡FIN A LA CRIMINALIZACIÓN DE LA PROTESTA POPULAR!”, Chiapas, Mexico. Nov. 20, 2008.
26. FNLS Blog, “ACCIÓN URGENTE: MILITARES ALLANAN VIVIENDAS DE YOLANDA CASTRO Y JAIME GONZÁLEZ DE FNLS EN CHIAPAS”, Nov. 13, 2008.
27. El Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, “El Caso de Carrizalillo”.
28. SIPAZ Blog, Oaxaca: Realizan el Encuentro de Nuestras Voces de Lucha y Resistencia, Nov. 20, 2008.

:: SIPAZ ACTIVITIES

Early August to late November 2008

INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND ACCOMPANIMENT

Public Relations

- In early September, SIPAZ met with the Ambassador and the Secretary of the Political Section of the Swedish Embassy, as well as the Secretary of the Political Section of the Finish Embassy, in Mexico City.

- On October 10, we attended the inauguration ceremony of the newly established  United Nations office  in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.

CHIAPAS

Northern Zone

At the beginning of August and in mid October, we visited various communities and cities in the northern zone of Chiapas in order to interview various actors in the region, including members of various political groups, government officials, church members, civil authorities, and Zapatista support bases.

Highlands

- We visited Acteal and other communities in the municipality of Chenalhó in October. On November 13, we attended the Latin American Meeting for Truth and Justice which took place in the community of Acteal.

- In October, together with a delegation from El Paso, Texas, we met with catequists as well as members of the Diocesan Coordination of Women (Coordinación Diocesana de Mujeres, CODIMUJ) in the community of Zinacantán.

Selva (jungle)

- In early August, we interviewed various counterparts and social organizations in Ocosingo. We also attended a meeting organized in October to inform the German Coordination for Human Rights about the situation in the region.

- In mid August, we visited the ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón, in the municipality of Chilón, where there is a continuing conflict between members of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC) and ejido members who belong to the Other Campaign over control of the kiosk at the entrance to the waterfalls at Agua Azul.

Centro

- In August, we interviewed members of the OCEZ- Carranza Region who have denounced military incursions and hostility in their communities.

CARACOLES

During this period, we visited 4 of the 5 Zapatista Caracoles at least once.

OAXACA

- From September 17 to 22, we traveled to Oaxaca. We attended the National Forum “Building Paths and Developing Plans for Political Transformation” which took place in Oaxaca City on September 19th and 20th, as well as the XXII Extended Plenary Meeting of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), which took place in the indigenous community of Cacalotepec, municipality of Santos Reyes Pápalo. We also interviewed various counterparts in Oaxaca City.

- On November 15 and 16, we attended the Gathering of “Our Voices of Struggle and Resistance” which took place in Juchitán de Zaragoza, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region in which large wind energy projects are taking place.

GUERRERO

In September, we visited the La Parota region (where the construction of a hydro-electric dam is planned), Ayutla de Los Libres (the office of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Montaña, the Indigenous Me’phaa People’s Organization –OPIM and the municipal jail in which 5 members of the organization are being detained) and the municipality of Xochistlahuaca (where a community radio is operating in the indigenous language amuzgo).

MÉXICO CITY

- On September 24, we participated in a “Workshop about the Merida Initiative and Public Security” in which various human rights organizations from Mexico and the US participated.

- On September 26 and 27, we attended the Meeting of Human Rights Defenders of Migrants which was organized by the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center.

PEACE PROMOTION

PEACE EDUCATION

- In August, we participated in an ecumenical space of prayer and reflection organized by the Ecumenical Group for Analysis of the Situation and of the Reality (GEACR), of which we form a part.

- In November, the SIPAZ team participated an introductory workshop on the theme of “Building Peace and Gender Perspective”.

NETWORKING

- We participated in the monthly meetings of the Chiapas Peace Network (Red por la Paz), which is a space for reflection and action made up of 16 organizations seeking to support peace processes and reconciliation in Chiapas.

- We held meetings with members of the SIPAZ coalition and various close counterparts such as SweFOR (The Swedish Movement for Reconciliation), Witness for Peace, Peace Brigades International (PBI), and Pax Christi- Germany.

- Between October 3 and 6, we attended the II Hemispheric Meeting against Militarization which took place in La Esperanza, Honduras.

- On October 7 through 12, we attended the III Social Forum of the Americas which took place in Guatemala City. The Chiapas Peace Network, of which SIPAZ is a part, participated in a workshop titled “Social Conflict, Land, and Territory”.

- We attended activities which were part of the IX International Congress of the Psychology of Liberation which took place in San Cristobal de las Casas in November.

- On November 24 and 25, we participated in a meeting with CMC- Holland and their counterparts who make up the Program for Peace and Reconciliation in Chiapas and in Mexico.

INFORMATION

- We received visits, delegations, students, and journalists in order to inform them about the situation in Chiapas and the work of SIPAZ.

- During the entire month of September, a member of the team conducted a tour of Sweden and England in order to inform people about the situation in Mexico and the work of SIPAZ. Between September 17 and 24, we attended the European Social Forum. SIPAZ participated in a workshop titled “Chiapas: 14 years after the Zapatista uprising” and a discussion about social movements in the south of Mexico.

:: NEW DOCUMENTS ON OUR WEBSITE

• Urgent Bulletin: “Police operation provokes confrontation and death of six indigenous people” (October 7, 2008)