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Youth Activists Target Chiapas
by Angry Ron and Babs de Azul
Pittsburgh Youth Activists for Global
Equality started in late 2001 after three members
went into the autonomous indigenous communities
of Chiapas as international observers. Members of PYAGE decided that they wanted to do more
than act as observers and to start direct solidarity
work with the Chiapan people.
PYAGE was developed to create a way
in which youth activists from Pittsburgh could perform actions in solidarity with other social
activist groups and see direct results. PYAGE desires
to start its work in Chiapas to directly combat
the negative results that globalization and free
trade have had upon the native peoples of Mexico.
The first major project is to work in
conjunction with the Chiapas Media Project and
ETAPAS, two groups located in San Cristobal De Las
Casas, Chiapas. The project will help develop a village water system.
Most of the indigenous communities
of Chiapas get their water from fresh springs high
in the mountains, often many miles away. It is usually the task of the women to make the long
walk up the mountains and carry fresh water back. Many illnesses arise from consuming dirty
water or not having clean water for bathing.
The communities desire their autonomy
and independence and will not accept funding from the Mexican government due to the
compromises that are attached. To combat this
problem, ETAPAS was formed in 1998. ETAPAS, with
the help of foreign volunteers, installs gravity
water-flow systems to bring pure water from the
mountains to the communities.
PYAGE members will work under the
guidance of ETAPAS, spending ten days in June living and working with indigenous community
members to install the gravity-flow water system. The project consists of digging a ditch from the
water source to the community, building a foundation
for the water tank that will be installed in the
community and laying pipes to connect the water from
its source to the tank.
PYAGE will spend five days in the city
of San Cristobal prior to going into the
community. During this time members will meet with
various human rights groups to discuss and learn
more about the political and social climate of the
community they are entering. These groups, such as Enlace Civil, Sipaz, and the Mayan Women
Weavers, provide knowledge on the true conditions
of the indigenous communities.
Why Chiapas? On January 1, 1994, indigenous people
of Chiapas started an uprising to confront extreme poverty and inequality similar to apartheid.
The uprising began the same day that NAFTA went into effect. The free-trade agreement was
seen as a "death sentence" to Mexico's
indigenous people.
Chiapas has a population of 3.5 million,
of whom one million are indigenous Maya. Prior to the uprising, the living conditions in Chiapas
were appalling. Even though half of Mexico's hydroelectric power comes from Chiapas, only
one-third of the homes have electricity. Half have no
drinkable water; two-thirds have no sewerage
systems. Ninety percent have no monetary income.
Families will have eight or nine children,
but only three or four survive. There are seven
hotel rooms for every 1,000 tourists, but only .3
hospital beds for every 1,000 Chiapans. Each year
15,000 people die from curable illness, and 1.5 million
have no medical services. There are only 0.2
clinics, 0.5 doctors and 0.4 nurses for every 1,000.
Over half of schools do not go above
third grade, and 72 percent of children do not
finish first grade. Of 16,508 classrooms, only 96
were in indigenous zones. Hunger has become a massive problem, and 54 percent suffer malnutrition.
All of this in a state that is wealthy in
resources of coffee, timber, oil and hydroelectricity.
The Zapatista uprising was a response to
an undeclared war against the indigenous people of Mexico. The EZLN (Army of Zapatista
National Liberation) demanded the basic rights of
work, land, food, health care, education, housing,
independence, liberty, justice, democracy, and peace.
The uprising lasted 12 days until a
cease-fire was called. The EZLN and the Mexican
government agreed to a treaty known as the San
Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture.
So far, the EZLN upheld its part of the
bargain; the government has not. Military,
paramilitary and police actions have resulted in
widespread human rights abuses including the Acteal
massacre where 45 unarmed civilians were killed by paramilitary policemen while the police
watched on December 22, 1997.
Another massacre by the Mexican army
took place on June 10, 1998, in El Bosque. Both
massacres were during the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo, who is now a board member of
Pittsburgh-based Alcoa and a member of a panel of
experts advising the World Trade Organization.
The United States has been implicated in
fueling the hostilities, giving Mexico $21 million
of military id to fight the "War on Drugs."
The equiment was moved to Chiapas, an area the DEA does not classify as a drug-trafficing region.
In 1998, a U.S. military attache was detained for unknown reasons in Chiapas. After the
uprising, a flood of Mexican officers entered training
programs at the infamous School of the Americas.
Some of the tensions have died down
after the end of the PRI dictatorship and the election
of the Pan presidental candidate, Vicente Fox. However, the San Andres accords have still not
been lived up to, and the Zapatista commnities
continue their democratic struggle.
The New People
Table of Contents, May 2002
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