Sparked by Zapatistas
Civil-rights movement sweeps Mexico
By Teresa
Gutierrez
Mexico City
Cati went to enormous lengths on March 23 to try and see the
Zapatistas. A 14-year-old Mestizo girl, she lives deep in the
poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Mexico City--the
colonias.
Her neighborhood is far from any Metro stop. That can be
quite a hardship when you live in a sprawling city of 20
million people.
Cati has to walk several blocks just to catch a bus to the
Metro. She is poor and has no money to travel into the
city.
But nothing could stop her from taking part in the historic
mass movement that is currently gripping all of Mexico. Defying
her family and friends, who thought she was crazy, she found
her way to the Mexican Congress where she believed the
Zapatistas would be that day.
She stood in the hot sun for three hours waiting for a rally
or a glimpse of anyone from the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation (EZLN).
Sadly, it so happened that a mass rally of several thousands
to support the EZLN had taken place there the day before.
But she was undaunted.
When she met two North Americans who were also looking for a
Zapatista rally, she attached herself to them like glue. She
showed them her wrinkled and worn notebook that held dozens of
clippings of Subcommander Marcos, pictures carefully cut out of
newspapers and magazines, in all shapes and sizes.
She stuck with the North Americans all day and late into the
evening as they made their way to the Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM), the place where the Zapatistas were camping out
during their stay in Mexico.
Her perseverance paid off.
A mass civil-rights movement
Cati is but one small example of the mass awakening now
sweeping Mexico.
Over seven years ago, the EZLN burst onto the political
arena in the southern state of Chiapas. The upsurge of
primarily Indigenous people inspired not only Mexicans and
hundreds of other Indigenous nations in the country but the
entire world.
Despite the presence of 20,000 troops in the southern part
of the country, the EZLN remains a progressive and
revolutionary force in Mexico. It has not claim ed to be a
guerrilla movement organizing for armed struggle, but has
survived heavy government repression to become a significant
and historical mass movement for civil rights in a crucial
Latin American country.
Such a movement is considered a threat by U.S. imperialism,
especially since it is right next door. This is another reason
why progressives in the United States should thoroughly support
this mass movement.
The Zapatistas' long march from Chiapas into Mexico City in
March showed once again that the Indigenous people are a force
to be reckoned with. Despite brutal repression and harsh
economic conditions, the Indigenous of Mexico, along with
millions of campesinos or farmers, have not been silenced. They
remain united and strong.
They, along with other broad sectors of Mexican society
inspired by the EZLN, proved to the new governments in both
Mexico City and Washington that a stunning mass movement has
arisen.
For this reason, the government was forced to concede to the
demand that the EZLN be allowed to address the Mexican
Congress.
Try to imagine the Congress of the United States allowing
representatives of the American Indian Movement or supporters
of Leonard Peltier to come before them. That would be a
glorious moment for Indian people in this country as well as
for the whole progressive movement.
It would be a reflection of revolutionary times in the
United States, a moment that cannot come soon enough.
On March 22 the Mexican Congress voted on whether to let the
Zapatistas address them. The vote was 220 in favor, 210
against. The Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), formerly
the government party until voted out last summer for the first
time in 70 years, voted with the social-democratic
Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) to defeat the incumbent
National Action Party (PAN).
The EZLN is expected to address the Congress on March 28.
One main issue they will take up is the 1996 San Andreas
accords, which agree on important rights for the Indigenous
peoples of Mexico.
Other Indigenous peoples
unite with EZLN
Workers World spoke to some of the Indigenous people
participating in the historic caravan who had been camping out
at UNAM.
Roberto and Joaquina are leaders in the Alliance of the
Mazahua Otomi Indigenous People. They live not far from Mexico
City in a town called San Antonio de la Laguna.
Roberto said they had been active for Indigenous rights in
their area for a very long time. Then in 1994 they heard in the
media about the uprising in Chiapas.
It sounded so much like what they were struggling for in the
alliance, he said. They felt the EZLN struggle coincided with
theirs. So they approached the Zapatistas and asked for more
information.
They have since joined with the EZLN so "we could unite our
voices, reclaim our history, our constitution, and so we can
have self-determination."
These leaders said they felt immense joy along the route
from Chiapas to Mexico City. Since 1994, they said, they no
longer feel alone.
Roberto and Joaquina look forward to seeing their rights
defended in the Mexican Constitution--one of the main demands
of the current movement. Roberto said it would be a "big
event." He said that only then can they know there is respect
for their forms of organization, their culture, language and
territory. Their biggest problem is that the government has
never taken them into account.
When asked to give a message to the people of the United
States, Roberto said: "We send the people of the U.S.
greetings. Our support is for you, too. The people there unite
with the same voices as ours to demand freedom for the
political prisoners in your country who are unjustly jailed
just for raising their voices.
"Continue struggling, continue organizing," he said,
"because it is through organizing that we change things. Don't
get discouraged, give it your all."
When the most oppressed of a society echo such words, you
know the seeds of revolutionary struggle have been planted in
fertile ground.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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