I am writing to you to make a very simple request: Do not forget
the Zapatistas. I know that this request sounds paradoxical, since the
Zapatistas called for the first Encuentro and gave the blessing to the
second. However, after spending two weeks in southern Mexico this month, I
see that the situation is extremely dangerous (politically and militarily)
for the Zapatistas while the agenda of Encuentro seems to be oblivious to
this danger.
Basta with tragedies!
C. George Caffentzis
address:
June 30, 1997
Militarily, the low-intensity warfare strategy of the Mexican Army
is penetrating further and further into the Selva Lacandona. Many more
troops have been introduced into the "conflict zone" since last July, and
road building is moving full speed ahead. These roads are making it
possible for the Mexican Army to carry on mechanized war deep within the
Selva even during the rainy season.
Politically, the Zapatistas are facing isolation during the
election period. Many Zapatista activists in Mexico City and throughout the
south are now concerned with the elections, like it or not. Moreover, death
squads and right-wing vigilante groups, ironically named "Peace and
Justice," are carrying on a largely unopposed, provocative campaign of
murder, ambush and massacre of Zapatista sympathizers in the north of
Chiapas, outside of the "conflict-zone" and far from the center of the
EZLN's military reach.
The Encuentro agenda, however, does not seem to be addressing this
dangerous moment in the history of Zapatismo and the EZLN. Certainly, the
mesas are full of interesting issues that an intercontinental movement
against neoliberalism should discuss. The planning meetings have done fine
a preparatory job to create a meeting that will be useful for European
comrades, but I do not see an explicit mesa or sub-mesa dealing with what
the Encuentro will do with respect to the Zapatista struggle.
Since I have been traveling for the last few weeks, I am not as
current on the development of the Encuentro's agenda as I had been, and
perhaps I am mistaken. If I am, then I happily urge you to please ignore
this letter. If not, then I urge the participants of the Encuentro to
explicitly address this question--what concrete organizational efforts will
be planned during the Encuentro to support the EZLN in the coming year.
It would be most tragic if thousands of Zapatista sympathizers are
enthusiastically discussing the struggle against neoliberalism in Spain
while the Zapatistas themselves are being crushed by the armies and death
squads of neoliberalism three thousand miles away in Chiapas.
member of Mainers for Democracy in Mexico
Dept. of Philosophy, University of Southern Maine, P.O. Box 9300, Portland,
ME 04104-9300 USA
e-mail: caffentz@usm.maine.edu
hm
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e-mail: tmcrew mail.nexus.it