CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTIONSOLIDARITY WITH CHIAPAS:

Saturday February 16th, 12 noon

Federation Square

Melbourne

:
RESPECT FOR INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY AND A HALT TO THE REPRESSION IN CHIAPAS

We call on all fellow adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon
Jungle and those struggling and resisting from below and to the left to join
us on February 15th, 2008, for an international day of action against the
repression in Chiapas and for the respect of indigenous autonomy.

In recent months, aggressions against the Zapatista communities have
drastically worsened. The low intensity war has acquired a dimension not
seen since the Acteal massacre ten years ago. At the same time, media
coverage remains low. We believe that it is crucial that we make it clear to
public opinion in Europe that we have not forgotten the conflict and
resistance in Chiapas. We will show the Mexican government that here in
Europe we are closely watching the worrying situation in Chiapas. For this
reason, we are calling for an international day of action on February 15th
in front of Mexican Embassies and Consulates. The date coincides with the
12th anniversary of the San Andrés Accords. (The anniversary is actually on
February 16th, but this is a Saturday, so embassies will be closed on the
day).

The San Andrés Accords negotiated between the EZLN and the Mexican
government had as their objective to guarantee indigenous autonomy. Amongst
other things, they included indigenous autonomy and self-management of
natural resources by the indigenous inhabitants of the area. However, the
EZLN broke off the negotiations due to the fact that the government neither
fulfilled nor respected the Accords. We are in solidarity with the
realization of indigenous autonomy.

The situation of the indigenous communities in resistance has worsened since
the implementation of Plan Puebla Panama and other neoliberal mega projects,
which require access to Chiapas' biosphere reserves for infrastructure and
tourist purposes.

In August 2007, four communities were violently displaced in the biosphere
reserve of Montes Azules in the Lacandon Jungle. Over the last year, the
number and intensity of paramilitary attacks carried out by OPDDIC
(Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights) against
Zapatista communities has increased in the area of Agua Azul, the most
visited and well-known waterfalls in México.

Since September 2007, OPDDIC has issued several threats and carried out
attacks against the Zapatista settlement Bolom Ajaw due to the fact that the
people are located in the road to some waterfalls, which are currently still
inaccessible to tourists. In cahoots with the state government OPDDIC is
planning a new tourist project for which it intends to displace the
community. Now that the community has refused voluntary resettlement, it has
suffered numerous attacks and death threats, as well as threats of rape, at
the hands of OPDDIC. Furthermore, some houses were burnt down in Bolom Ajaw.
The perpetrators of these deeds were inhabitants of the ejido Agua Azul,
nearly all of who belonged to OPDDIC. For this reason, both local and
international organizations are calling for a tourism boycott until the
aggressions against Zapatista communities cease.

In the community of Vetel Yo'chib, near to Agua Azul, on December 29th,
2007, on the road to his milpa [plot of land], compañero Pablo Silvano
Jiménez received a bullet in the leg from two policemen and a member of
OPDDIC. From then on, he has had to go into hiding and can no longer work to
feed his family. In the last week of January an international observation
brigade that was in Vetel received death threats and also threats of rape.
On February 1, 2008 members of OPDDIC and the police shot at compañero
Eliseo Silvano Jiménez and his son. Afterwards they were arrested in an
OPDDIC truck. In prison they were tortured and forced to have photos taken
of them holding arms. Currently they are still in prison in Palenque and
there is no media attention.

WE DEMAND:

1. The suspension of all forms of aggression against the Zapatistas and
other communities in resistance.

2. The suspension of the counter-insurgency war against the indigenous and
zapatista communities and the withdrawal of the military bases from the
indigenous region of Chiapas.

3. The release of Eliseo Silvano Jiménez and Eliseo Silvano Espinoza as well
as all other political prisoners.

4. A total halt to the violent evictions in the indigenous territory of
Chiapas.

5. The end of cooperation between paramilitary organizations such as OPDDIC
and the federal army and police, as well as the legal recognition of the
crimes that this organization has committed.

6. Respect for Indigenous Autonomy.

Saturday February 16th, 12 noon

Federation Square

Melbourne - Australia

More Info:

Tristan: 0448 575 108, epstein@riseup.net

Lucho: 0400 914 944, lucho@latinlasnet.org

Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET), www.latinlasnet.org

6th declaration of Lacandona Jungle:

Mexico-Australia Solidarity Network (MASN), www.masn.org.au

Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) Comunique

http://www.tierradentro.org.mx/?q=node/120

Comunique’ read by Comandanta Kelly, Sixth
Commission, Zapatista Army of

National Liberation (EZLN).

Sisters and Brothers of Mexico and the World:

Here in Chiapas we face a new offensive against the indigenous zapatista
communities, carried out by paramilitary groups affiliated with the PRI and
with the PRD, supported by the State government (PRD), the Federalgovernment
(PAN), by their land and agrarian offices, by the ex-landowners—who originally
stole their lands from our peoples—and by themilitary and police forces, in a
clear conspiracy to evict the zapatista communities from the land and
territories that were recovered with heart,blood, and death in 1994.

Here in Chiapas, though the struggle of thousands of compa~eras andcompa~eros,
members of zapatista militias and of our bases of support, we carried out a
genuine agrarian reform and agrarian revolution, based onthe Revolutionary
Agrarian Law of 1993. Thanks to this revolutionary recovery of land and
territories, today there are thousands of zapatista and non-zapatista families—who
before 1994 had been evicted from their land, their lives and their autonomy—who
now have land to work, land tobuild community, land for a better future. For
indigenous, peasant and other rural peoples, land and territory are more than
just sources of workand food; they also signify culture, community, history,
ancestors, dreams, future, life, and Mother Earth.

But today in Chiapas, just as in many other parts of Mexico and the world, Power
and neoliberalism are imposing a true counter-agrarian reform and counter-revolution.
Just like in Mexico and many other countries where agrarian reforms have been
carried out—whether from above, by revolutionary governments, or from below, by
social movements, or wherever

peoples defend their territories against privatization—they try to evict
communities from their lands and recovered territories, with their armies,
paramilitaries, privatizing laws, judiciaries and agrarian authorities,
political parties, false conservationist and environmental discourses,
biopiracy and GMO contamination, among other methods, all with the objective of
turning land, territories, biodiversity and life itself into mere commodities.

Here in Chiapas, as in the entire world, wherever
indigenous peoples,peasants, artisanal fisherfolk and other rural peoples
defend their right to land and territory, or wherever landless peoples struggle
for land and territory, we are under attack from Power.

In the whole world, it is the same story. Our struggle is your struggle. Gathered
here today in San Cristo’bal de las Casas, this 25 of March of 2007, we, the
Sixth Commission of the EZLN, with local, national and international members of
the Other Campaign, and national and international sister organizations, call
on and invite all organizations in Mexico and the world, to help us launch the
Global Campaign for the Defense of Indigenous, Peasant and Autonomous Land and
Territories in Chiapas, Mexico and the World.

We call for a global campaign of mutual support between rural peoples and other
peoples who support our rights and our struggles for the right to life and
dignity, and we call on all of us to join forces with each other, for example
mutual support between the Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform of La Via
Campesina and this Global Campaign for the Defense of

 Indigenous, Peasant and Autonomous Land
and Territories in Chiapas, Mexico and the World.

Sisters and brothers, we invite you to add your local, national and international
names to this campaign, and to take on the commitment to carry out joint actions
of mutual solidarity.

The struggle for the defense of land and territory is the struggle for life and
dignity.

Behind us-you, stand you-we. [”Detras de nosotros, estamos ustedes.”]