Protest for EZLN in front of Mexican Consulate

1st Picture: Que Vivan Los Zapatistas

Group demands were: No Plan Puebla Panama. No evictions of Indigenous Peoples from Montes Azules. Implement the San Andreas Accords

On November 17, the EZLN, Ejercito Zapatisto de Liberacion Nacional (Zapatista National Liberation Army) will celebrate its 20th anniversary of existence fighting for the rights and dignity of indigenous peoples in the southeastern state of Chiapas, Mexico.

This demonstration is part of Rebel Magazine’s EZLN, Fire and Word 20 & 10 celebration. 20 years of Zapatistmo and 10 years of Resistance and Rebellion. Solidarity groups around the world are celebrating the 20th Birthday and the 10th Anniversary of the Uprising in Chiapas.

The Mexican government for last 3 years has been trying to implement Plan Puebla Panama in order to pave the way for CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. This agreement will further erode the livelihood and way of life of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas as well as the rest of Central America from the Mexican state of Puebla to the Nation of Panama. The Plan Puebla Panama has been resisted by indigenous people as a threat to their way of life, from projected Dams flooding indigenous valleys to Railways cutting through centuries old villages, this Plan will not be tolerated by the native peoples of the region.

In accordance with the Plan Puebla Panama indigenous people living in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve are facing the threat of eviction -- by force if necessary. Many of these people are living in harmony with the environment with no threat to their surroundings. Organizations like Conservation International are trying to use the environment’s safety as an issue against the indigenous people of the Montes Azules Villages. On the other hand Conservation International sees no problem in allowing large transnational firms to harvest the bio-diversity of the Montes Azules for their own private means.

Through all these struggles, current and past, the indigenous peoples of Chiapas have fought hard for their basic dignity and human rights. The most clear and concrete step toward achieving justice for these indigenous peoples is to implement fully the San Andres Accords. These Accords were brought before the Mexican congress and cut down into a shadow of itself, but their full acceptance as originally written would be a great step in assuring dignity and respect for the many indigenous peoples of not only Chiapas, but the whole of Mexico.

November 17 is considered by many as the birth of the EZLN. It is when the first commandantes of what would become the EZLN entered the jungle surrounding the indigenous peoples of Chiapas to join them in their struggle and in the process become changed by that struggle for land, justice and dignity. 10 years later this movement of indigenous people shook the world when they took Chiapas’ state capitol on New Years Day to protest the implementation of NAFTA, which endangered the livelihood and centuries old cultures of the indigenous people of Chiapas.