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<h1 id="reader-title">100,00 Mexican Campesinos Protest on
Emiliano Zapata's Birthday</h1>
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<p>August 8, 2016<br>
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<p>Thousands of campesinos poured into the streets of
Mexico City Monday to at once celebrate the birthday of
the iconic <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexico-Emiliano-Zapata-Murdered-96-Years-Ago-20150410-0024.html">Mexican
Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata</a> and to demand
more federal government support for infrastructure and
development in rural areas, local media reported. </p>
<p>Organized by national Autonomous Front of the
Countryside, campesinos from more than a
dozen Mexican states, rallied at Zocalo Square at the
National Palace, the city's main political hub. </p>
<p>After gathering at midday for a sit-in outisde the
federal executive offices in the main square, the march
continued toward the Ministry of the Interior, where
some protesters planned to set up an encampment. </p>
<p>With some 130,000 protesters in 3,000 buses expected to
join the march, the government deployed 3,700 security
agents to patrol main protest points, while police
helicopters also watched from overhead, La Jornada
reported. </p>
<p>Protesters flew banners with slogans such as “They’ve
taken everything from us, even fear” and blasted
President Enrique Peña Nieto for neglecting rural
communities with inadequate budgets and
government inattention to land reform, a central tenet
of the legendary Zapata's populist platform. </p>
<p>Mexico’s campesinos have suffered the consequences of
more than twenty years of the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Three-Amigos-Laud-Neoliberal-Integration-of-NAFTA-Deal-20160630-0025.html">North
American Free Trade Agreement</a> between Canada, the
U.S., and Mexico. Launched in 1994 under then-President
Bill Clinton, NAFTA has displaced 1.5 million Mexican
campesinos as a flood of subsidized, cheap U.S. food
imports undermined local markets and adversely impacted
Mexico’s agricultural sector and food security. </p>
<p>Members of the Mexican Electrical Workers union and the
CNTE dissident teachers union, in ongoing heated talks
with the government after <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexican-Police-Kill-3-in-Clashes-with-Striking-Oaxaca-Teachers-20160619-0024.html">protests
erupted in violence during a fatal police crackdown</a>
in Oaxaca in June, also joined the protest in solidarity
with the campesinos and their demands, local media
reported. </p>
<p>While the country’s campesino movements have raised
distinct complaints and demands, the underlying issues
also parallels the issues raised by striking dissident
CNTE teachers in their fight to overhaul the country’s
public education system. The union has criticized
neoliberal education reforms brought in by Peña Nieto in
2013 for <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Neoliberal-Teaching-Reform-Irrelevant-to-Mexico-Needs-Analyst-20160620-0022.html">failing
to recognize the unique education needs</a> in rural
and Indigenous communities, demanding a new approach to
public education that protects it from creeping
privatization. </p>
<p>The campesino marches coincide with the 137th birthday
of the legendary Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata,
a symbol of campesino resistance in the country and
founding father of the Zapatismo movement from which the
<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/-Zapatistas-Show-Solidarity-Deliver-Food-to-Oaxaca-Teachers-20160708-0022.html">iconic
Zapatistas of Chiapas</a> draw their name. </p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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