Pastors for Peace Caravan to Chiapas, Mexico

RESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Pastors for Peace Caravan to Chiapas, Mexico

To Visit Sacramento March 2nd
 
Community Potluck Dinner, March 2nd, 2005, 6:30 pm
Co-Housing Common House (5th & T Streets)
 
For more info, contact:  Mario Galvan
Zapatista Solidarity Coalition
(916) 443-3424 or zapa [at] zsc.org
 
Since the Zapatista Uprising of  January 1, 1994 a struggle for social and economic justice has been going on in the southeast Mexican state of Chiapas. The indigenous peoples of Chiapas, descendants of the Maya who built the famous Classic Period cities of Palenque, Copan, and Tikal, have been living for centuries as strangers in their own land, marginalized and exploited by their own government, and condemned to a life of poverty and neglect. However, since 1994, under the banner of the Zapatista movement, they have been struggling to assert their rights as Mexican citizens, and to demand the equal protection of law guaranteed to all Mexicans in their constitution.
 
From their beginning as an armed movement, the struggle has transformed into a non-violent social movement that is building schools, health clinics, and providing legal services in hundreds of rural communities in Chiapas. They do this with no assistance of any kind from the Mexican government. In fact, the Mexican government has for over ten years been carrying out a low-intensity war against the Zapatista communities, posting troops outside of Zapatista communities, using government social programs to divide communities, and even sponsoring paramilitary groups to attack Zapatista groups.
 
In this context, support from outside… both in terms of moral support and humanitarian aid… has been an important factor. Pastors for Peace has been one of the most consistently supportive groups in the U.S., and this caravan continues that great tradition of a “people-to-people” foreign policy. Their arrival in Sacramento gives us a chance to support this great work!
 
There are a number of ways to help make the caravan a success:
 
- Help collect humanitarian aid for the Caravan (call the contact number above for details).
- Make a financial donation to help cover the cost of transporting aid.
- Join the caravan, and travel with them to Chiapas (returning home on March 25)
- Join us on March 2nd for a potluck dinner at Sacramento Co-Housing, 5th and T Streets, to
   welcome the caravan, and send it on its way.
 
For more information, call the contact number above.

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The Zapatista Solidarity Coalition
909 12th St. # 118
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 443-3424 phone
(916) 448-7159 fax
zapa [at] zsc.org