SIPAZ Actvities (September – November 2003)

26/12/2003

In October the Puppet troop “Diversity“, in which SIPAZ is participating, performed in Tenejapa. In November, they embarked on two tours, one in Playas de Catazaja (Palenque) and another in Salto de Agua (the Northern zone). Also they presented plays in four neighborhoods in the city of San Cristobal.
In October, SIPAZ had meetings in Mexico City with advisors and NGO’s.

We have had meetings and conducted interviews with religious actors from San Cristobal de las Casas and from the municipality of Chenalho in the framework of the Peacebuilding exchange project between religious leaders of Chenalhó and the Peace Commissions from Nicaragua.
In the frame of the same project, we presented two educational workshops with religious actors from Chenalho.
In September, we participated in the first workshop “Paths for living together in religious pluralism” in the Institute of Intercultural and Social Studies (INESIN), in San Cristobal de Las Casas.

We continued to participate in the Network for Peace, a space for action and reflection that looks to support processes of peace and reconciliation at the level of organizations and communities in Chiapas. At the moment, the fourth Meeting on Peace and Reconciliation is being prepared and is scheduled for the end of January 2004.
We are participating in follow-up meetings for the Second Chiapanecan Meeting against Neoliberalism, held in Nuevo Huizan (Las Margaritas). A third meeting is being prepared for March of 2004.
In October and November, six days of workshops were held at SIPAZ facilities on the theme of “Nourishing the Heart for Social Transformation.” They focused on aspects of spirituality and activism, as well as active non-violent communication.
We continued to give workshops on the Culture of Peace and Human Rights with the children of CEDECOS (Center for Community Development) in San Cristobal de las Casas.

We received visitors, delegations, students and reporters that came to Chiapas to learn more about the situation in Chiapas as well as about the work of SIPAZ.
We participated in the workshop “An Introduction to Political Impact,” organized by PROPAZ-Suiza and the Center for the Activities and Development of the Population of Guatemala, and held in San Cristobal de las Casas from the 4th to the 6th of September. The objective was to strengthen the capacities of organizations to influence decision-making around specific problems.
On the 4th and 5th of October, we presented a report on our work in Chiapas during the first meeting/workshop on Active Non-violence, convened by Serpaj Mexico, Greenpeace Mexico, Cencos, Serapaz, and the Gandhiano collective “Thinking Out Loud.”
We attended conferences held during the event “The community in Debate: Reflections on the Role of Community in Contemporary Mexico” which was convened by the Program of Multidisciplinary Investigations on Mesoamerica and the Southeast (PROIMMSE), of the Institute of Investigations, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
We presented a report on “Legal Pluralism and Indigenous People” at the “Thirteenth Las Casas Conference” at the Institute of Legal Investigations, of the UNAM University in Mexico City (November).
We attended various events that were part of the EZLN campaign 10/20: The Fire and the Word, as many in Mexico City (DF) as in Chiapas.

We were present as human rights observers at the conferences of protest and the alternative forums organized against the fifth ministerial summit of the World Trade Organization, from the 7^th to the 14^th of September in the city of Cancun.
A SIPAZ volunteer participated in a meeting of the participants of CMC-Holland working in the region of Central America, held in Guatemala at the end of September.
A volunteer of the team in Chiapas has made a six week tour of the United States (see attached article), speaking on the situation in Chiapas and the work of SIPAZ.
As part of a continuation of the Hemispheric Meeting Against Militarization held in May, we participated in the conferences on demilitarization held from the 18^th to the 24^th of November in San Cristobal de las Casas.