Vol 9 No 1 - Jan/Feb 1998
The Zapatista Dream: Part 1: from 1983 to 1993
El Sueño Zapatista (The Zapatista Dream) is a collection of interviews by Yvon Le Bot in collaboration with Maurice Najman with Subcomandante Marcos, Mayor Moises, and Comandante Tacho of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). It has been published in French by Editions de Seuil and in Spanish by Plaza & Janés (Enrique Granados 86-88, 08008, Barcelona, Spain). It details the history of the EZLN, and its political development. We hope that these excerpts will generate interest in publishing an English edition of the book.
It Takes A Whole Huey To Raze A Village: US Arms Mexican State for Dirty War Against Its People
By Christopher Day
Twice a day, every day, about 25 US-made Humvees carry about 175 nervous Mexican soldiers toting US-made M-16 automatic rifles and heavier weapons through the Zapatista village of La Realidad. La Realidad is the headquarters of the military leadership of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). The troop convoys have become a fact of life for the residents of La Realidad, including the many refugees from the village of Guadalupe Tepayac who were driven from their homes by the Mexican Federal Army in February 1995. In early October the Federal Army soldiers built a new military encampment on the banks of the Rio Euseba on the other side of La Realidad. This new encampment is the latest stage in the military encirclement of the Zapatistas and in the increasing militarization of Mexico. The rapid growth in the Mexican police state has depended on large quantities of US military aid.
Chiapas on the Brink: Forty-Five Murdered on Eve of EZLN’s Fourth Birthday
By Jessica Parsons and Christopher Day
The paramilitaries are still armed in our communities. We left because we are afraid that they will kill us like they did the others,” said Manuel Perez, a 28-year-old refugee who fled his village on December 28 with his family. As he spoke, five days after the brutal massacre of 45 indigenous refugees living in the village of Acteal by the paramilitary group “Mascaras Rojas,” the violence had not stopped. Over 3,500 campesinos had left their villages seeking refuge in the Zapatista autonomous muncicipality of Polhó.
In the weeks since the bloody masacre the Mexican state has responded to this crime, not by punishing those responsible, but by attacking the Zapatista communities. The massacre on December 22 is only the most brutal act of violence in an ongoing “dirty war” being waged against the indigenous peoples of Chiapas. Clashes between Zapatista supporters and sympathizers, like those in Acteal who are members of the civil organization “Las Abejas,” and government-sponsored paramilitary organizations have been raging for seven months, leaving at least 30 dead and over 2,000 homeless in the region of Chenalhó alone. The victims of the masacre in Acteal were a part of this refugee population who had already been burned out of their homes in nearby villages by paramilitaries.
Enemies of the State: An Open Discussion with Political Prisoners Marilyn Buck, David Gilbert and Laura Whitehorn
By Meg Starr and Matt Meyer
The government and mainstream media have used their formidable powers to prevent the circulation of any real information about political prisoners; Marilyn Buck, David Gilbert, Laura Whitehorn and others.
Small wonder. Like John Brown, these white activista took up arms against the US government in solidarity with oppressed peoples. Invisible in the social democratic or liberal histories of the 1960s is the logic of their progression from public to clandestine activism. In the following interview these three help us to understand an important part of radical history so often distorted. They are all now serving prison terms for such “unthinkable crimes” as infiltrating the Klan, robbing money from banks and giving it to Black self-defense patrols, helping to liberate Black Liberation Army (BLA) leader Assata Shakur, and bombing the Capitol in response to the US invasion of Grenada.
