[News] Chiapas: The Reconquest of Recuperated Land

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Chiapas: The Reconquest of Recuperated Land

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2469-chiapas-the-reconquest-of-recuperated-land
Written by Mary Ann Tenuto
Wednesday, 28 April 2010 09:16

The farm truck pulled off a dirt road into the 
ruins of an old and very large former plantation. 
It parked on the expanse of crumbling tile patio. 
Twelve Chiapas Support Committee delegation 
members, plus the driver, climbed out and entered 
a building painted rust and turquoise for a 
meeting with members of San Manuel's autonomous 
council, staff of the Compañero Manuel Grocery 
Warehouse and two municipal education promoters.

The former plantation, or finca, was claimed by 
indigenous rebels belonging to the Zapatista 
National Liberation Army (EZLN) during their 
January 1994 Uprising. The rust and turquoise 
building was just one end of the plantation 
owner's jungle mansion, now used as a grocery 
warehouse by the Zapatistas of San Manuel 
autonomous county. A new farming community called 
Nueva Arena has been established on the land. The 
Zapatistas refer to the land claimed in 1994 as 
"recuperated land." Chiapas NGOs estimate that 
campesinos from several organizations recuperated 
between 250,000 and 300,000 hectares of land in 
1994. That translates into somewhere between 
600,000 and 750,000 acres of recuperated land.

It is precisely this recuperated land that is now 
in dispute between the government (fronting for 
corporate interests) and the Zapatistas. This was 
the dominant theme throughout the time I spent in 
the state of Chiapas, Mexico from March 16 to 
March 30, 2010, with a delegation of twelve people.

"It's All About Territory"

Once everyone arrived, we began to receive 
educational briefings from non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs) working in Chiapas. Our 
first talk was at the Center for Economic and 
Political Investigations for Community Action 
(CEIPAC, its Spanish acronym). The CEIPAC 
analysts focused on how one part of the current 
counterinsurgency strategy is aimed at 
re-claiming the land recuperated in 1994.  The 
government wants the land back in order to 
implement the Mesoamerica Project, a massive 
development plan stretching from southern Mexico 
to Colombia, which proposes a re-colonization of 
the land by transnational corporations. "It's all 
about territory," one analyst told us. For 
example, February 20th (20 de Febrero) community 
illustrates one method of reclaiming land.

February 20th is located in The Canyons region of 
the Lacandón Jungle, in Ricardo Flores Magón 
autonomous Zapatista municipality. Its 
inhabitants belong to different organizations. 
Some belong to the EZLN and they occupy 100 
hectares of land. Others belong to the 
Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and 
Campesino Rights (OPDDIC, its Spanish acronym). 
Still another group belongs to the Association of 
Rural Collective Interest (ARIC, its Spanish 
acronym). OPDDIC and ARIC members jointly occupy 
130 hectares. The folks who occupy the 130 
hectares went to the government's Agrarian Reform 
agency and said they occupy all 230 hectares of 
land. The government gave them title to all 230 
hectares for a new ejido called Nuevo Oxchuc. 
Why? Because they agreed to enter the ejido into 
the land-titling program called PROCEDE, a 
program for privatizing ejido land titles so that 
individuals can sell, or otherwise alienate, 
their land. Prior to the North American Free 
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), ejido land could not be 
alienated (sold, or taken by a bank for default 
on a loan). According to Article 27 of the 
Mexican Constitution, ejido land was communally 
owned, a result of the Mexican Revolution of 
1910. Article 27 was changed in preparation for 
NAFTA so that ejido land could be privatized. The 
Zapatistas refuse to enter into PROCEDE and they 
are defending the 100 hectares in question with 
an occupation by supporters from other communities.

Something similar is happening in Bolom Ajaw, a 
community with land adjacent to a virgin 
waterfall that connects to the Agua Azul Cascade 
tourist area. Bolom Ajaw is a Zapatista community 
on recuperated land. A former ranch, it was 
claimed as a result of the 1994 Zapatista 
Uprising. Approximately 200 Zapatista support 
bases have occupied Bolom Ajaw since 2001. They 
have been continuously harassed and attacked for 
the past four years or so by PRI members from the 
adjacent Agua Azul ejido. On January 21, 2010, 57 
PRI members invaded Bolom Ajaw land, carrying 
pistols, machetes and radios. They began to 
construct 3 cabins. That was just the beginning.

Several weeks later, on February 6, PRI members 
from Agua Azul ambushed a group of Zapatistas in 
Bolom Ajaw. The Chiapas Attorney General reported 
1 PRI member dead from a bullet wound and 11 
injured by bullets. The Zapatista Junta in 
Morelia reported 1 Zapatista shot and gravely 
injured, while the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas 
Human Rights Center (Frayba) reported 3 
Zapatistas injured by bullets. The PRI members 
are suspected of still belonging to the 
Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and 
Campesino Rights (Opddic), a paramilitary group, 
although they claimed having left that 
paramilitary grouping in a much-publicized media 
show more than a year ago. The state Attorney 
General believes the Zapatistas fired weapons, 
thus violating the 15-year truce. The Zapatistas 
are claiming that they were not armed and say 
that the PRI death and injuries were caused by 
friendly fire. According to a detailed report now 
available from Frayba, PRI members were in 
several parts of Bolom Ajaw and were shooting 
from different positions. It states that some PRI 
members were caught in the crossfire and injured 
by the flying bullets, as were 2 Zapatistas. The 
government has responded by heavily militarizing 
the area around Bolom Ajaw, thus protecting the 
PRI members who remain on the property. The 
intent of the PRI members from Agua Azul is to 
take over Bolom Ajaw's recuperated land (which 
becomes more valuable every day), privatize it, 
and then sell it to resort developers.

An elaborate plan to convert the Agua Azul area 
into a "world-class resort destination" shows the 
importance of the Bolom Ajaw property. The 
government plan includes a Boutique Hotel, a 
European 5-Star Hotel, a Conference Center with 
golf course, and a Lodge overlooking the 
waterfall on Bolom Ajaw's property. But of 
course, one would have to helicopter into the 
Lodge due to its remoteness! (The Lodge has a helipad.)

Norton Consulting, which advises governments on 
the market possibilities for resort and real 
estate development in North and Central America, 
South America, the Caribbean and Europe, actually 
has photos of the spectacular Agua Azul Cascades 
region on its web site (See, 
<http://www.nortonconsulting.net/>http://www.nortonconsulting.net). 
Norton advised the Mexican government's National 
Fund for Fomenting Tourism (Fonatur) and 
collaborated on these very elaborate plans with 
EDSA, an architectural firm in Fort Lauderdale, 
Florida. Simply stated, the Mexican government 
wants to turn the Agua Azul region into a 
world-class resort destination as part of the 
Mesoamerica Project and the Zapatistas of Bolom Ajaw are in the way.

The San Cristóbal-Palenque Toll Road

The key to Agua Azul's development as a 
world-class resort destination is the San 
Cristóbal-Palenque Toll Road. Absent a 
super-highway between San Cristóbal, Agua Azul 
and Palenque, the Boutique Hotel, 5-Star European 
Hotel and the Lodge with helipad will all be 
empty. However, the toll road has become a 
flashpoint of conflict between pro-government 
communities (in favor of the toll road) and 
pro-Zapatista communities (opposed to the toll 
road) located along its anticipated trajectory. 
Although no road construction is yet visible, the 
controversial project has already generated two 
deaths, numerous injuries, political prisoners, 
death threats, displacement and torture.

One of the communities taking paramilitary abuse 
because of its militant stand in opposition to 
the toll road is Mitzitón, an ejido that borders 
on both the current highway to Agua Azul and the 
Pan American Highway between San Cristóbal and 
Comitán. The highway to Comitán is being widened 
and that construction, also part of the 
Mesoamerica Project, is well underway. Mitzitón's 
ejido assembly voted to join the EZLN's Other 
Campaign and also voted to resist the passage of 
the toll road through its land. Other Campaign 
members in Mitzitón have experienced non-stop 
paramilitary activity, including murder and 
torture. It would not be surprising if an attempt 
were made to take their ejido land by fraud, with government complicity.

We were in the offices of the Fray Bartolomé de 
las Casas Human Rights Center as yet another 
chapter in the Mitzitón saga unfolded. One of the 
ejido's council members, Manuel Díaz Heredia, had 
been detained the night before and taken to a 
state prison by the Mexican equivalent of the FBI 
on old and false charges. The ejido assembly 
voted to hold 2 state police and 3 state 
government employees as hostages in response. 
They also voted to put up a roadblock on the Pan 
American Highway demanding their compañero's 
release. Frayba staff members were in Mitzitón, 
where negotiations with the government were 
taking place, as well as at the state prison 
checking up on the ejido authority's situation. 
The Frayba Center has decided that it will 
accompany communities in their decisions as to 
how they want to deal with situations of 
conflict. If the community wants the Center's 
participation in negotiations or conflict 
resolution, then they will help resolve 
situations in accordance with traditional 
justice.  If a community decides to mount a 
militant response to a conflict situation, the 
Frayba Center will accompany them in that 
decision and its consequences. Manuel Diaz 
Heredia was released from prison the following 
day after a judge ruled there was a complete lack of evidence against him.

The Jungle

Our delegation also received a presentation from 
Miguel Ángel García Aguirre and Moisés Hernández 
of Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, an NGO that 
emphasizes ecology with social justice and 
focuses on La Selva (The Jungle) and its several 
parts: the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, Las 
Cañadas (The Canyons), the Lacandón Community and 
Marques de Comillas. The Lacandón Jungle is an 
important "lung" for carbon exchange in North 
America. It is also enormously rich in 
biodiversity. In fact, Mexico ranks fifth in 
having the most biodiversity in the world. Mexico 
ranks sixth in the world for cultural diversity, 
having a population approximately 40% indigenous. 
Corporations covet land in the Jungle for: 
genetic material (bio-prospecting), spectacular 
beauty (tourism), vast expanses of land 
(mono-crop agriculture), plentiful sources of 
sweet water (bottling) and its oil.

The re-occupation of recuperated lands is also 
happening in the jungle, but the tactics vary by 
region. February 20th community, where PRI 
members obtained title by fraud, is in the 
Canyons region of the Lacandón Jungle. In the 
Montes Azules Biosphere, under the guise of 
"conservationism," a cabal from Profepa (the 
federal environmental prosecutor's office), the 
state police and various federal police agencies 
are green-washing the forced displacement of 
indigenous peoples. Not only do they remove them 
from their lands and homes at gunpoint, they burn 
their houses, crops and belongings, leaving them 
with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Any 
money found in homes or community stores is 
stolen. Harvested crops are confiscated or 
burned. The most recent of these forced 
displacements occurred on January 21 and 22, 2010 
in the communities of Laguna San Pedro and El 
Suspiro (also known as El Semental), both in the 
Montes Azules. I cannot erase the image photo of 
police setting fire to the humble thatched-roof 
house in Laguna San Pedro from my mind!

The history of land ownership in the Montes 
Azules is already long and twisted, but most 
recently, the government gave title to the Montes 
Azules and a surrounding area known as the 
Lacandón Community to a group of 66 indigenous 
families whose origins are in dispute and called 
them Lacandóns for convenience. In their most 
recent request, the Lacandóns asked for the 
eviction of 8 communities and the government has 
agreed. Laguna San Pedro and El Suspiro were the 
first two of the eight. The plan is to develop 
eco-tourist facilities on these lands to become 
part of the Ruta Maya, a mega-tourist project 
within the Mesoamerica Project. The Ruta Maya 
(Maya Route) is a plan to connect archaeological 
sites and places of natural beauty throughout 
Mesoamerica by developing roads and lodging for 
tourism. We're talking massive tourism here! 
While in San Cristóbal, one can see the huge 
tourist buses packed with folks from other parts 
of Mexico, or from Europe or Japan. Some say that 
the Palenque airport, currently undergoing a 
major expansion, will accommodate direct flights from Europe when completed.

Co-existence of Autonomy and Counterinsurgency

The CIEPAC analysts described the construction of 
Zapatista self-government (autonomy) in 38 
autonomous municipalities (counties) and the 5 
regional Good Government Councils. The 
development of autonomous government implies 
developing schools, education promoters, health 
promoters and health programs, clinics and 
income-producing projects to support the new 
government structures and institutions. Although 
sometimes difficult to conceive, the construction 
of autonomy is taking place amidst the resistance 
to counterinsurgency. This was dramatically 
driven home during our meeting inside the rust 
and turquoise Compañero Manuel Grocery Warehouse.

The Grocery Warehouse was an economic development 
project supported by several solidarity 
organizations. Its purpose is to bring grocery 
items from the city and make them available to 
residents of the outlying rural areas. By 
purchasing in large quantities and having a place 
to store the items, they can buy at wholesale 
prices. The warehouse then sells to the little 
community stores for a small profit. The 
community stores raise the price a little and 
rural farmers still save money because they don't 
have to pay for transportation into town to buy 
their needed items. Profits from the Warehouse 
support the functioning of the municipal 
government. It has been very profitable at times 
and modestly profitable at others. A government 
warehouse now competes with it.

The warehouse staff explained to us that the 
warehouse was supplying free food to the rotating 
guard in Casa Blanca, a disputed piece of 
recuperated land that campesinos belonging to the 
PRI would like to take over. In September 2009, 
PRI members from an adjacent ejido attacked Casa 
Blanca in an attempt to take it over. They were 
armed with guns, machetes and clubs. In the 
confrontation that followed, one PRI member was 
killed, 8 Zapatistas were injured, 8 Aric members 
were injured and 7 Zapatistas were taken 
prisoner. Those taken prisoner were brutally 
tortured for 36 hours. After this attack, San 
Manuel mounted a plantón (occupation) with 250 
Zapatistas to guard the land. That guard has now 
been reduced to 25. The problem this presents to 
the warehouse staff is that there is no money 
from sales to replenish their stock.  They are 
looking for a way to expand the line of products 
carried by the Warehouse in order to compensate 
for the counterinsurgency's drain on its profits.

It is not clear what the government wants with 
Casa Blanca. It is located in the Las Tazas 
Canyon, which is the valley of the Upper Jataté 
River. At one point, as a project within the Plan 
Puebla-Panamá (before it was renamed the 
Mesoamerica Project), the government had plans to 
dam up the river and convert the corn farmers 
into fish farmers. But archaeologists raised a 
fuss (there are remnants of archaeological sites 
scattered along the river) and it seemed like 
those plans were dropped. Perhaps those plans 
were not cancelled, just put on the back burner 
until the fuss died down. What is certain is that 
the government wants something in this canyon. It 
has fostered and protected paramilitary groups 
for at least the last eight years and there were 
once 4 military camps guarding just this one 
canyon. There are only two military camps now. 
The other two pulled out when they believed that 
they had trained enough paramilitaries to keep the Zapatistas under control.

The Jataté River is a white water river, perfect 
for kayaking. It is beautifully portrayed in 
Sacred Monkey River, a book by Christopher Shaw 
describing his kayaking experience on the Jataté. 
Perhaps the Las Tazas Canyon is wanted for 
tourism. A brand new two-lane highway to Monte 
Líbano is currently under construction. It passes 
by the turnoff for the Las Tazas Canyon. On the 
other hand, perhaps the canyon is coveted for its 
abundance of sweet water (unpolluted fresh 
water). In addition to the river, there are 
natural springs, aquifers and, according to some, 
an underground river, making it very attractive 
to corporations that monopolize water sources so 
they can bottle water for a profit. Thus it's 
hard to predict whether corporations envision a 
Jataté Hilton Lodge and Kayaking Club in the Las 
Tazas Canyon or a Ciel bottling plant. (Ciel 
bottles and sells purified water in Mexico. Coca-Cola owns it).

Rural Cities?

As the counterinsurgency continues its efforts to 
re-conquer land recuperated by the Zapatistas, it 
would seem appropriate to ask where the 
indigenous people will go if the government is 
successful in obtaining this land for corporate 
exploitation. The government and the World Bank 
have just the answer: Sustainable Rural Cities 
(SRC). Remember the "model cities" in Guatemala 
and "strategic hamlets" in Viet Nam? The Chiapas 
version of these counterinsurgency mechanisms is 
already under construction in Los Altos. The SRC 
of Santiago El Pinar is being built on the slopes 
of a mountain, right next to San Andrés 
Sakamch'en de los Pobres, the autonomous 
Zapatista municipality in which the Caracol of 
Oventik is located. Another SRC is planned for 
the Jungle and a third in the Northern Zone. They 
are intended to compete with the Zapatista 
Caracols and their eventual result, if 
successful, will be to remove the indigenous 
peasantry from its territories and disrupt its 
way of life and production, thus giving 
indigenous land to corporations and making the 
peoples dependent on those corporations to maintain a new urban way of life.

Virtually unreported in the mainstream press, 
human rights abuse and repression go unpunished 
in a low-intensity war to re-conquer recuperated 
lands and displace indigenous peoples. Some 
analysts with whom we spoke stated that the 
Lacandón Jungle is the starting point for the 
Mesoamerica Project, which will then affect 
Central American countries and Colombia. 
Throughout both hemispheres of the American 
continent and the entire world, megaprojects 
involve the four wheels of capitalism: plunder 
(theft), repression, scorn and exploitation.

Mary Ann Tenuto is a founding member of the 
Chiapas Support Committee in Oakland, California. 
She may be reached by email at: <mailto:cezmat at igc.org>cezmat at igc.org




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