The Building Bridges in Chiapas Human Rights Observer Project

Observer Report from Donna Clark

On August 12, 1999 the Zapatista community of Amador Hernandez in the department of Ocosingo, was invaded by 500 military and 50 paratroopers.  This invasion was preceeded bey over a week of constant intimidation by lowflying planes and helicopters.

The Mexican government used the pretext that they needed to safeguard the construction of a highway through the community.  The invasion of Amador Hernandez was unique in that it completes the circle surrounding the Zapatista command.

At the same time, a heightened campaign against human rights observers both Mexican and foreign was launched.  Several observers were physically abused and one sexually assaulted by paramilitaries, for example. Tourists have routinely been given citatorios and then salida definitivas.  Tourists are being targetted in hotels.  Several campamentistas have been threatened by the military while they were in a peace camp.

I left Mexico on August 27th.  Since arriving home, it appears via internet that these same conditions apply.

D.F. to SCLC

I stayed at Hotel Texas on Ignacio Mariscal close to the Monumento a la Revolucion en el centro viejo.  It cost me 140 pesos/night!  We need a cheaper place!  70 pesos by taxi from the airport.  At the airport, buy a prepaid taxi fare at a booth before you walk to take a taxi.  In this way you will not be ripped off by a taxi driver.  You will still need to give the taxi driver an approx. 10% tip! Everybody who does anything for you, because that is the way they make their money, gets tipped!

Cristobal Colon is the name of the First Class Bus Company to SCLC. It cost 443 pesos/one way approx. $80.00 CDN.  It's a 17-hour bus ride.  Take gravol with you, for the last few hours into SCLC, if you are prone to travel sickness.

E-Mail

n.b.  There is alot of hostility between First Nation women artesans and the store owners on Real de Guadelupe.  If you are going to buy artesania try to buy it from a women's collective or from women on the street or at Santo Domingo Market, who are not middle people (coyotes). *"down" bajando means towards the zocolo   "up" subiendo means away from the zocolo

The Fray Bartolome Centro de Derechos Humanos

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Security

- you are basically a tourist at ALL times, to everybody, except for other campamentistas, NGOs, Fray Bart & Enlace. - you will always have a story you tell to people about being a tourist: i.e. the places you will be/have visiting/visited, etc. - never tell the taxi the name of the place you are going to, just the address - in August (1999), "tourists" enroute to communities were routinely given "citatorios" (see your BB Handbook) and after 3-hour interrogations were given "salidas definitivas" (definite departure dates, which is not the same as being deported - again see BB Handbook) - paramilitary had physically & sexually abused campamentistas - constant xenophobia in the press - la migra o IMN have been going to alojamiento to ask turistas for id, etc. - campamentistas were threatened at their peace camp in Ejido Morelia.

Photographs

- extra sensitivity around taking pictures is required given that often communities have new campamentistas coming in every week or two who want to take pictures.  My suggestion:  WAIT SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE YOU ASK IF YOU CAN TAKE PICTURES OF INDIVIDUALS OR BRING OUT YOUR CAMERA.  - most communities never see fotos taken again, let alone all the pictures that are constantly being taken of them - in most of the communities, people have very little understanding of how a camera works;  they have no access to cameras themselves. - I was told several stories regarding photographs, in brief: - a little boy found a picture of himself down by the river; it was scratched and torn; this scared him very much - "I don't want to be taken to Canada!" - "He took a picture of my son without me knowing." - They are also nervous of pictures for security reasons - If the military or government officials come to the community, I was told to please take pictures of them - I gave an informal workshop on how to use a camera and then left them my camera with film and batteries.

Language Schools

Given the circumstances, it is probably best not to be in SCLC unless you have to be, i.e. it may not be wise to spend time studying Spanish before your community in SCLC. Moreover, appaarently it is very difficulr to find fulltime language instructionin SCLC.  My sister campamentista found that Cuernavaca was better in this regard.  El Puente in SCLC offers language instruction for up to 3 hours/day, if you are wanting to study between communities.

Moises-Gandhi - the community

I went to the community of Moises-Gandhi.  It is a 100% Zapatista community and is atonymoous..  It has about 250 people.  We travelled 2 1/2 hours from SCLC towards Ocosingo then about 1 hour walking to get at the Civil Peace Camp (our casita).

was coupled with a 21-ear-old Swiss-German woman, Yvonne.  Fray Bart placed us there for one week.

My personal goal was to get as close to community members as possible.  In particular, I spent time with a mother and her four boys.  Fray Bart had also suggested we get as close to the community as possible in order to be able to listen to them.  Fray Bart had given us a talk on Low Intensity Warfare, part of their new ongoing work on Mental Health.

Getting close to this family was alot of fun for us all!  It worked to simply offer to work alongside the mother, Kati.  Don't be shy, if you are willing to work and listen. 

Most of our time for the first few days was spent cooking with wood, hauling water, bathing in the river, reading, eating, cleaning up and sleeping.

We brought in almost all our own food.  From time to time we received tortillas but could not rely on them.  We bought all our food at Santo Domingo market in SCLC (we bought as much as we could from the smaller-scale sellers).  I brought "Greens +" -like stuff from Vancouver because I knew that if we were in a community for a long time we would not have access to fresh vegetables and fruit.

The responsable for campamentistas is only one of many responsables in the community.  There are responsables for many aspects of the community. e.g. women.

I wrote three reports for Fray Bart: (1) conditions in the community in general, (2) mental health observations (3) on doing a camera workshop for responsables.

Fray Bart made a mistake in placing us in Moises-Gandhi for only one week.  After a week in Moises-Gandhi we had to wait another week in SCLC (this is standard procedure when changing communities). However, by the time this week was up we didn't have enough time left to go to another community! Personal Highlights

(1) "counselling" (supporting laughter in self-directed play) four-year-old Jose Alfredo for about 2 1/2 hours one late afternoon in Moises-Gandhi (2) listening to the frogs, crickets, and roosters at night and early morning (3) reading alot of material on the EZLN and Mujeres de Maiz (4) hanging out with the other campamentistas, especially the many European anarchists and feminists. Follow- up / At Home

- 4 hours briefing future campamentistas - 7 talks/discussions:  Red Eye (August 28th); America Latina A Dia (August 28th); Video In (Sept. 9th); La Quena (Sept. 10th); Pacific Cinematheque (October 17th); Pressure Point T.V. Show (November 2nd); and International of Hope (November 6th) - 2 letters to the editor:  Globe & Mail and Courier - article proposal to Georgia Straight - article for Re-evaluation Counselling Publication - article on being an ally to First Nations women for KINESIS (November issue) - exhibition of EZLN posters at La Quena (currently) - Zapatista! video for distribution and fundraising here.

El fin por fin

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