IN FOCUS III: Summary of the Comments of CONAI on President Zedillo’s Legislative Proposal on Indigenous Rights and Culture
30/04/1998ANALYSIS: Chiapas, the War in Depth
31/08/1998
Information
- Issued an Urgent Action appeal (together with Global Exchange) on the campaign against foreign presence in Chiapas.
- Visited the refugee camps in Acteal and X’oyep two times and made several visits to refugee camps in San Cristobal in order to gather information.
- Gave interviews to Die Tageszeitung (Germany) and The New York Times (USA).
- Speaking tour of two team members in the San Francisco, California area; 7 presentations on SIPAZ and the situation in Chiapas to more than 400 persons.
Contacts and Visits
- Attended as observers the Third Ecumenical Encounter with participants from Chenalho.
- Accompanied the “Pilgrimage for Peace” from Chiapas to Mexico City, organized by the Diocese of San Cristobal.
- Attended the one-month anniversary service of the Acteal massacre.
- Accompanied the First Secretary of the British Embassy to Acteal.
- Received the following visitors, among others: a delegation of the Mennonite Central Committee, students from the Instituto de Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, and various delegations from the USA and Canada.
- Conducted interviews with, among others, the National Human Rights Commission in San Cristobal and Mexico City; members of Congress; representatives of Las Abejas.
Workshops
- Facilitated two workshops on Conflict Resolution (part of a series of 12 workshops) for non-governmental organizations in San Cristobal de las Casas; themes: “Violence and Nonviolence” and “Introduction to Peaceful Resolution of Conflict.”
- Presented two workshops on mental health and managing trauma, facilitated by mental health specialists, for people who are working with the displaced.
- Facilitated workshops as part of the Ecumenical Bible School.
- Contributed to a workshop on “Strategies for Peace” whose objective was to respond to the problem of the displaced in the Chiapas highlands.
- Participated in the preparation and attended a forum on three themes (Acteal, the State Accord for Reconciliation, and the role of the media in the Chiapas conflict) as part of International Women’s Day.
- Attended a meeting of the Mennonite network in Honduras.
