Marcos: The Zapatistas Will Defend the Cucapa and Kiliwa Peoples of Baja California

By Kristin Bricker
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Baja California

October 22, 2006

MEXICALI, BAJA CALIFORNIA: Delegate Zero announced a bold new step in the Other Campaign October 20 in El Mayor, Baja California: a Zapatista camp in the Cucapa and Kiliwa indigenous communities, located just outside of Mexicali, to protect them during the upcoming fishing season and prevent a “death pact” from being fulfilled. He also shed further light on the next phase of the Other Campaign.

The Cucapa and Kiliwa indigenous communities are facing extinction. Of the Cucapas, less then 300 remain; of the Kiliwas, 54. While the government does not concern itself with preserving their culture, traditions, and very existence, it is very concerned about the fish they rely on for their very survival. The federal government, with the support of “conservation” organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International (who are notorious for protecting endangered species by kicking endangered peoples out of their land), turned the waters they’ve fished for generations into the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California on June 10, 1993, because it was “in the public interest,” according to the official website of the government’s National Commission of Protected Natural Areas. The website also notes that 77 percent of the people who live in and around the reserve rely on fishing for their livelihoods, so it is unclear which public interest the fishing ban in the protected area serves.

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