OAXACA/CHIAPAS

BACKGROUNDER ON THE STRUGGLES IN MEXICO:

There's a great new article over at the Autonomy and Solidarity site on the struggles in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. The article begins with a general overview of the new Mexican government of Filipe Calderon, its continuation of the repressive policies of previous governments and its refusal to address Mexico's pressing social and economic problems. As the article says,

"Almost a year after President Filipe Calderon took office, "democracy" in Mexico continues its study of the theater of the absurd. As Calderon gives speeches on the rule of law, police and soldiers attack social movements, drug-trafficking gangsters murder with impunity killing 1,951 people since January, and femicides continue in Cuidad Juarez and spread to other states. Roughly 50 million people are dropping deeper into the wreckage of hunger and exhaustion. "

The article then goes on to tell about the recent attacks on the people's movement in the state of Oaxaca and the disagreements within the Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly (APPO) about how to respond to the August 6 state elections, in which 77% of the electorate abstained from the corrupt process and the municipal elections on October 7th. The organizations comprising the APPO basically "agreed to disagree", allowing some of them to run candidates, but not in the name of the APPO. The article then goes into the cases of 26 state sponsored murders in Oaxaca and numerous cases of arbitrary arrests and torture. It also describes the resistance to same.

The author then turns his attention to the state of Chiapas where the Mexican government is moving elite troops and planning a strategy to dispossess peasants who have occupied lands under the Zapatista leadership. The history of betrayal of accords on the part of the Mexican government is detailed as is the construction of a "super-highway through rebel territory to both connect military bases and also to aid in the dispossession of peasant communities.

All told a good backgrounder to events in Oaxaca and Chiapas. To read the full article see http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/2789