Insurrection in Mexico

[Nachie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/americas_mexican_mutiny/img/8.jpg

This could be it! Mexico has been on the verge for decades, and frankly enough things have happened in the past few years and days that.... oh oh oh! Just look:

+ San Salvador Atenco in Mutiny! Mexican Pigs Invade Liberated Town (http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060504130530945)
+ Zapatista Red Alert: The Other Mexico on the Verge of an Explosion from Below (http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060504124629827")
+ Mexican police retake riot town (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4974116.stm") (biased BBC report)
+ Zapatistas Announce Red Alert, Suspend Activities of La Otra Campaña (http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060504051823649")

The way the Zapatistas are reacting to this is particularly interesting.

[bcbm]

I was listening to news about all of this on the radio today, and just hoping everything would boil over. There were blockades all over Mexico City today, some of them 500 people strong.

[BattleOfTheCowshed]

Awesome news! Wow, a thoroughly anti-authoritarian near-revolt, amazing.

[Nachie]

Originally posted by "Selective from above articles"
The Zapatistas have gone on Red Alert, the Other Campaign is suspended, and Marcos is heading to the scene of the crime to confront the Mexican State.

“To the death, if that’s what it takes,” as he said two days ago during a mass meeting in front of the national palace.

Marcos referred to the police raid underway in Texcoco: “If those above think that they are going to continue repressing us, they are mistaken. The Other Campaign is not just a movement of words. It is also a movement of action.” He announced that meeting with campaign adherents in downtown Mexico slated for six o’clock would be suspended to deal with the conflict underway, less than an hour from Mexico City.

He announced that the guerrilla troops of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation were now on Red Alert; that the Good Government Councils of Chiapas were closed for tomorrow; that the events of the Other Campaign were cancelled until this situation is resolved; and he offered, if the people of San Salvador Atenco ask, to come physically to their aid tomorrow.

Nobody doubts that the people of Atenco will call him — and the rest of the Other Campaign — into battle.
This is of historical importance regardless of how far this uprising goes because it is validating the Other Campaign in the eyes of the world, it's showing that they are for real and embrace insurrection as true struggle. Frankly if they had not immediately called off organizing and given all support to the people of Atenco and Texcoco, they would have lost credibility with me.

However, Marcos is still calling for a “civil and peaceful” rebellion, which is some shitty language but may be the only rational thing to prevent a massacre at this stage.

Those not in Mexico can still help by spreading information about La Otra, the riots underway, and participating in the Virtual Sit-In Against the Mexican Government (http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060504152745613).

[Matty_UK]

edit: nevermind

Any sign that the Zapatista's have been invited into battle by the protestors? I have no doubt they will, but it's good to see events develop.

When was that article written? When do you think the Zapatista's will come to the physical aid of the protestors?

[Nachie]

San Salvador Atenco had been autonomous in 2001-2002 when the residents managed to stop the building of an airport on their land, took police hostage, blockaded roads, etc.

At the time it was the happen'ist thing in Mexico but it didn't spread. It looks like what's at stake here is the spreading of the revolt to Texcoco, but in the meantime the cops have been able to make a push and re-take Atenco. If this is true it is a massive defeat for the movement to lose that town, but since they were so successful in the struggle to defend it originally I am thinking that if they lost it now it is either because they sent militants to help Texcoco or because the state has seriously made a much more aggressive push to supress everything before it spreads.

Even if Atenco is lost in the short term it may be OK if it allows the rebellion to really take root in Texcoco and spread throughout the country.

The Zapatistas are definitely not going into battle, they'd be crushed. The Red Alert is only a defensive measure. Who knows in the future, though? Also Marcos is right there in the heat of the action so we may see him take on a symbolic role outside of the main body of the EZLN.

Anarchists from all around the country flocked to Atenco in 2000-2001 to help defend the blockades and I'm sure it'll happen again, now.

Here is an AP article, still no real updates though: Police take control of Mexican town after clashes (http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060504135111285)

But one thing is for certain, the situation is not "under control". Not yet, anyway.


Originally posted by "Article"
Television images from helicopters overhead showed residents repeatedly punching and kicking the semiconscious officer in a beating that continued even after he had been put inside an ambulance that was trying to drive him to safety
There's another good example of the dictatorship of the proletariat! :lol:

[Matty_UK]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 03:51 PM
It looks like what's at stake here is the spreading of the revolt to Texcoco, but in the meantime the cops have been able to make a push and re-take Atenco. If this is true it is a massive defeat for the movement to lose that town, but since they were so successful in the struggle to defend it originally I am thinking that if they lost it now it is either because they sent militants to help Texcoco or because the state has seriously made a much more aggressive push to supress everything before it spreads.

Even if Atenco is lost in the short term it may be OK if it allows the rebellion to really take root in Texcoco and spread throughout the country.

The Zapatistas are definitely not going into battle, they'd be crushed.
Surely the Zapatistas could retake Atenco? If Marcos and the Zapatistas turned up to the action like a black calvary the pigs would turn and panic for sure, and then it would be easy to make the town defendable.

[Nachie]

Marcos and any other reps he has with him are not there as part of the EZLN, but as part of the "Other Campaign" (La Otra). It is also my understanding that they are unarmed, or at least not armed for open military confrontation.

The main EZLN body remains in Chiapas, on the other side of Mexico, and is only interested in defending the Zapatista communities, as it should be. Anything else is totally beyond its ability at this point, so not only is it geographically impossible for them to retake Atenco, but it would open them up to a severe reaction from the state. The EZLN has no chance in open warfare against the Mexican state. Strategically it is more important to hold what parts of Chiapas they already have, plus that is their only mandate.

This isn't going to be decided by the guerrillas but by the communities in struggle themselves.

[Nachie]

More Resources:

+ Indymedia Mexico (http://mexico.indymedia.org/tiki-index.php?page=ImcMexico)
+ Indymedia Chiapas (http://chiapas.indymedia.org/)
+ Narco News on La Otra (http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/en.html)

Right now the only news I'm getting is of demonstrations outside Mexican consulates all over the US. Mexican University students have also blockaded some large avenues in the capital, but these will probably not pass for more than symbolic actions unless more people get involved.

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2006-05-04T201745Z_01_MEX04D-_RTRIDSP_2_MEXICO-RIOT_articleimage.jpg

[Nachie]

Shit, right now all the reports are saying that the rebellion has been crushed. Time will tell...

New information:

+ Approximately 217 people arrested, San Salvador Atenco has 17,000 residents
+ Approximately 30 pigs injured, one rumored to have died
+ Ignacio del Valle, a major leader of the 2002 movement and supporter of the flower vendors, is among the arrested

[FinnMacCool]

What idealogy do the Zapatistas affiliate with? I know they are radical leftists. . .

[Jesus Christ!]

WO wo wo I did a report on the EZLN last year and the last I heard the armed part of it had been faded out and they became a reform group when did they get back to gether?

[bcbm]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 03:23 PM
What idealogy do the Zapatistas affiliate with? I know they are radical leftists. . .
I don't think you could pigeonhole them into any ideology. They grew out of the Marxist urban guerrillas from Mexico city who moved to Chiapas in the 1980's, but from that period until they rose in 1994 a lot of indigenous elements entered into their ideas. As it stands, they're fighting for autonomy and various basic human rights, with a fairly socialist-communalist vision of what Chiapas should be.


WO wo wo I did a report on the EZLN last year and the last I heard the armed part of it had been faded out and they became a reform group when did they get back to gether?

The "armed part" has never gone away, it just hasn't engaged in military action.

[which doctor]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 04:23 PM
What idealogy do the Zapatistas affiliate with? I know they are radical leftists. . .
The EZLN have their own unique ideology.

[Cult of Reason]

Is it a Libertarian ideology?

[Nachie]

Nope what happened is that they announced the start of an "Other Campaign" which was going to try and unite a massive non-electoral popular movement in Mexico to re-write the Constitution. How they would accomplish this fundamentally reformist demand without participating in politics is beyond me, but who knows.

Zapatista "ideology" is probably closest to autonomist Marxism or anarchism. The legend of Marcos is that he was a Maoist(?) professor in Mexico City who went into the jungle looking to start an insurrection and instead ended up changing his views to suit the needs of the indigenous peoples, and did this. For over 12 years now Zapatista communities in Chiapas have been governing themselves via a system of rotating, recallable representatives.

The best (critical) article out there about them is A Commune in Chiapas? (http://libcom.org/library/commune-chiapas-zapatista-mexico) by the UK anti-state communists of Aufheben. Autonomist Marxist Harry Cleaver has also written a lot about them, some of which you can find here (http://"http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~hmcleave/zapsincyber.html).

Although in the wake of La Otra it is worth checking out some newer stuff, specifically the 6th Declaration that announced the launch of the campaign. The Cuban Libertarian Movement in Exile has also written some interesting responses to the "Other Campaign".

[The Beat]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 04:00 PM
Surely the Zapatistas could retake Atenco? If Marcos and the Zapatistas turned up to the action like a black calvary the pigs would turn and panic for sure, and then it would be easy to make the town defendable.
Uh, as far as I know, there is no part of Mexico that has been "taken over" by another group where they have named it some other country. The Zapatistas run parts of the province of Chiapas, but that's about it. If we are talking about some place a few miles outside of Mexico City, then it is clearly under federal mandate.

I think subcommandante Marcos has a rather limited ability to helpe the people from Atenco. They are just being railroaded into another horrible crime committed by the government of Mexico, that's all. The government isn't anywhere near a collapse. After all, El Negro Durazo had lots of illegal immigrants build him a palace in the hills above Mexico City and then killed them all when the job was done, and no one complained. Mexico has a history of exploiting its citizens and those who live there, and then covering up its crimes with their deaths. We are just seeing a continuation of the same, that's all.

[bcbm]

Holding Up Bullet Cartridges Used by State Police in Atenco, Delegate Zero Offers Interview to Any Mass Media that Guarantees it Will Be Uncut and Unedited


By Al Giordano
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in San Salvador Atenco
May 5, 2006

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO; STATE OF MEXICO, FRIDAY, CINCO DE MAYO, 2006: Holding up a shiny bullet cartridge into the evening drizzle of raindrops, Zapatista Insurgent Subcomandante Marcos tonight challenged the Commercial Media by name, Televisa and TV Azteca, the twin antennas of disinformation in Mexico saying, We, the Zapatistas, have always told the truth.

The cartridge, said Marcos, is the proof that police forces are responsible for the death of 14-year Javier Cortés this past Wednesday, near here.

His words, evidence that the guerrilla spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials) is not going to let the truth of this story die under a wave of media and government dishonesty.

And his announcement that he will remain in Mexico City indefinitely demonstrated that he has in his hand the thread of the curtain of deceit woven by a corrupt and compromised media and intends to keep pulling until that curtain comes down in tatters.

In response to what he called the smear campaign that the two national TV networks and other Commercial Media have waged against the fighting citizens of San Salvador Atenco and their (now imprisoned) leaders in recent days, Marcos, in his first public words since Wednesday afternoon when he announced that the EZLN has gone on Red Alert, he addressed the news correspondents present amidst a crowd of more than 10,000 indignant Atenco residents, plus a multitude of students and adherents of the Zapatista Other Campaign who marched nine kilometers into town with him earlier this evening.

To the media and its workers, he said. I have seen you in Chiapas, risking your lives, suffering hunger, and I have seen how your bosses change everything. Ive seen how your photos, your videos, are disappeared into the desk drawers of your editors.

There is a lynch mob campaign against the FPDT (Peoples Front in Defense of Land, the organization of the Atenco citizens that stopped a multi-billion dollar international airport project in 2002) and its leaders, Marcos continued, indignantly. Your bosses are putting themselves at the service of lies. They are paid by those who have money, and we dont have it. Well, they are not in the streets. They are not in the factories. They are not out planting the fields. The Mass Media is dedicated to discrediting the good and noble people who fight. The members of the FPDT are adherents of the other campaign. Ignacio del Valle and other men and women went out this week to help other adherents and they complied with that work. And we will support them just the same.

And you are the camera operators, he faced into the crowd of reporters surrounding the steps of the Emiliano Zapata Auditorium. It will not be your bosses who face the outrage and insults of the people. It will be you, the camera operators, video technicians, and reporters.

Here, below, we dont believe anything that is reported because we are already familiar with how the media manages information, he said, reaching into a white plastic bag.

This is what some citizens brought to us tonight, he said, holding a shiny object into the air as the drizzle increased into a light rain, and, yet, nobody left to find cover: nobody moved. The crowd hushed silent. This is a rifle cartridge used by the state police of the State of Mexico. Televisa! Where are you? I am going to deliver a cartridge to you TV Azteca! Are you here? Here are the cartridges! Bring them to your bosses! What, you dont want to step forward? Tape it well then, asswipes!

I am gong to remain for an indefinite period of time in Mexico City to participate in the mobilizations, Marcos announced, repeating that the protests will not stop until all the political prisoners arrested this week 400 known about, and counting still are released. Workers of the media: Since we began the Other Campaign, we have not been giving interviews to anybody. We had another idea, to confront the mediocrity up above. We decided to give preferential treatment to the alternative media.

But that is about to change, he said. If our word is broadcast uncut and unedited but first you will have to present one of these cartridges to your bosses.

Returning to the priority of the day freedom for the Atenco 400 Marcos concluded his remarks, saying, We are going to mobilize all over this country. And if the government doesnt want problems it will have to free all the political prisoners today, or tomorrow at the very latest.

[Nachie]

God DAMN I love the alternative media :)

Thanks for posting that, B3G

[More Fire for the People]

IMO, the Zapatista ideology is a mixture of anti-imperialism, agrarianism, Maoism, and liberation theology. My biggest complaint against the Zapatista's is they view everything from the point of the poor (liberation theology influence). This of course is not bad but before taking such a viewpoint a class line needs to be taken.

[Black Dagger]

My biggest complaint against the Zapatista's is they view everything from the point of the poor (liberation theology influence). This of course is not bad but before taking such a viewpoint a class line needs to be taken.

There's no relationship between the poor's point of view and a 'class line'?

[More Fire for the People]

Originally posted by Black [email protected] 6 2006, 09:39 AM

My biggest complaint against the Zapatista's is they view everything from the point of the poor (liberation theology influence). This of course is not bad but before taking such a viewpoint a class line needs to be taken.

Aren't 'the poor' a class?
Poor is a relative term, poor can include peasants, proletarians, petty-bourgeosie, and some capitalists.

[Black Dagger]

See my edit.


Poor is a relative term, poor can include peasants, proletarians, petty-bourgeosie, and some capitalists.

Except the POV of the EZLN is clearly Indigenous/peasant orientated (not 'petty-bourgeoisie' or 'capitalist'), with the solidarity of the urban proletariat a broader goal.

[Djehuti]

The events in Mexico are very interesting. I will keep following them.

[More Fire for the People]

Except the POV of the EZLN is clearly Indigenous/peasant orientated (not 'petty-bourgeoisie' or 'capitalist'), with the solidarity of the urban proletariat a broader goal.
I was not aware that the EZLN advocated solidarity with the urban proletariat. However, a general union of the peasants and urban proletariat would be better.

[The Beat]

Rebellion in San Salvador Atenco

When the Mexican government announced the expropriation of 5000 hectares of farmland around San Salvador Atenco, 20 miles outside Mexico City, they presumed everyone was on board for their big airport plans. Addressing the campesinos who were about to lose their land, their communities and their way of life, President Fox gushed how they had in effect "won the lottery…" and there would be jobs a plenty at the airport.

‘Winning the lottery’ has not been sweet for Jose Espinosa, a farmer and activist from Atenco, who died in hospital July 24 from injuries received at the hands of the Federal Police at an anti-airport demonstration.

The 2 billion dollar airport project is a key element, alongside the Plan Puebla-Panama, of the Fox administrations’ plan to modernize the country and make the economy more competitive globally and specifically, within the Nafta and proposed FTAA trade zones. The issue of the officially decreed expropriation of the land was not considered to be a hurdle — the campesinos were offered a small sum for their land and promised employment at the airport as ‘janitors or security guards’.

"Even if they offered us millions for our land we would not accept it," said one Atenco campesino in response. Last November, thousands of them descended onto the Capital, many on horseback, masked like Zapatistas and wielding machetes. Fierce clashes with the Police ensued. Fox had seriously underestimated the resolve of the potentially dispossessed campesinos.

Under the Government decree 4.375 families would be forced to abandon their land. This is ejido land held communally by Indigenous Nahau communities since the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

" The land is priceless," said a 70-year-old ejidatario (communal landowner) with a small plot and 10 children. "And besides, I will not sell it. The land is our sustenance. Here we live day to day."

And this is how the campesinos frame their argument. Fox thinks of the land in terms of money, and an opportunity to attract foreign investment while they see it in terms of a way of life. The land that nourishes and sustains them, and the generations before and to come. The conflict in Atenco has become a microcosm for the broader worldwide clash between capitalist globalization and grass roots resistance.

"We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again," declared a third generation ejidatario. " We will defend our land with our lives. They are killing our people, our families. "

In their almost daily demonstrations the campesinos march behind a banner proclaiming ‘The peasants of today are combative and we have stood up to fight against the airport. We represent rebel dignity.’

Rebel dignity, the phase oft quoted by the Zapatistas. The Chiapas insurrectionaries have been quiet of late, reeling under the pressure of insidious counter-insurgency strategies set to divide their support base. Last years initiative to present demands for indigenous autonomy before Congress faltered in what the EZLN charge as a ‘betrayal’ on the part of the Fox administration.

The government may be able to curtail the Zapatistas , but other points of resistance continually sprout up like rhizomes, as if out of nowhere. Like the massive and ongoing campaign of civil disobedience in the southern coastal towns, refusing to pay increased electricity charges. Or the year long student upheaval in the National University two years ago. Or before that, the uprising in the town of Tepotzlan, in a land conflict similar to Atenco, contested militantly by the locals, and won.

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/co...rportAUG02.html (http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/comment/airportAUG02.html)

[Nachie]

Originally posted by Hopscotch [email protected] 6 2006, 04:06 PM
However, a general union of the peasants and urban proletariat would be better.
That is what has happened now with La Otra. Basically, the Zapatista communities came together and decided that if they were ever going to be truly successful, they had to stop limiting themselves to the indigenous struggle and put energy into a broad, national revolutionary movement of the excluded. It's very well-articulated in the 6th Declaration.

Anyway, over-obsessions with the "correct class line" are totally irrelevant in South America. In Venezuela for instance, up to 80% of the country is "poor" and 50% are "lumpen", self-employed street merchants and artisans exactly like the flower vendors whose struggle kicked this whole thing off in Texcoco. They are the urban proletariat.

[rebelworker]

Some of the left wing unions have recently been aproached by the Zapaitisatas for solidarity in a popular front.

As for this rebellion, I think this kind of thing is somwwhat common in mexico and the left is still very divided.

Remember there are an average of three demos a day in mexico city(so I have been told) and armed groups ll over the place, with several autonomous regions. So the revolution tis is not.

I have two brothers who just got back from Mexico, they will be doing an article on the situation there and the other campaign, I will try and get it translated and post it here.

Here is a spanish communique from some mexian comrades in the region.

OAXACA DE JUÀREZ, OAXACA, A 4 DE MAYO DEL 2006

¡¡¡ACCIÓN URGENTE!!!!
MARCHA EN SOLIDARIDAD CON EL PUEBLO DE SALVADOR ATENCO
( 5 de mayo- 9 a.m.-IEEPO)

Al pueblo de Oaxaca
A las Organizaciones Sociales y Políticas

Los que suscribimos, diversas organizaciones sociales y políticas de
Oaxaca, nos pronunciamos en solidaridad con el pueblo de San Salvador
Atenco. Exigimos alto a la represión contra sus pobladores y el retiro
inmediato de la fuerza policíaca. Declaramos nuestro apoyo total e
incondicional a la lucha que vienen librando desde el 2001. El día
tres de mayo, una vez que el Municipio perredista había autorizado a
floricultores que se instalaran en el Mercado Belisario Domínguez,
incumplió el Acuerdo y mandó a la policía a efectuar un violento
desalojo improcedente e improvisado. También el gobierno mexiquense,
con el apoyo del gobierno federal, intervino con el envío de fuerzas
antimotines. Ante estos hechos, los pobladores bloquearon la carretera
Texcoco-Lechería, teniendo como consecuencia la represión del pueblo por
las fuerzas policíacas, y la muerte de un joven a causa del impacto
de una bomba de gas lacrimógeno en el pecho. La mayoría de los medios
informativos por su parte, aprovecharon la oportunidad para presentar
a los Atequenses como violentos y llegaron a sugerir, con una
escandalosa falta de escrúpulos, que el conflicto podría estar
vinculado a la presencia del Subcomandante Marcos en la capital del
país y que además era necesaria la intervención del Ejército. Cabe
mencionar que los ejidatarios están organizados en el Frente de
Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra, adherente a la Otra Campaña. Ante
tales hechos, la Comisión Sexta del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación
Nacional ha convocado a las Coordinadoras Regionales y Subregionales
en todo el país, a que acuerden y ejecuten acciones y movilizaciones
de apoyo al pueblo de Atenco. Como respuesta a este llamado diversas
Organizaciones Sociales y Políticas en Oaxaca convocamos a una marcha
que se llevará a cabo el día 5 de mayo, 9AM, concentrándonos en el
IEEPO.

“ALTO AL ESTADO DE SITIO DE SAN SALVADOR ATENCO”
“LIBERTAD INCONDICIONAL A LOS PRESOS POLÍTICOS DE ATENCO”
“APOYO A LA RESISTENCIA HEROICA DE LOS PUEBLOS”
“ALTO AL MAL MANEJO INFORMATIVO”
Firman
Radio Plantón, Magisterio Zapatista, Promotora Nacional Por la Unidad
Contra el Neoliberalismo, Oaxaca (OIDHO, FUDI, CODEP, CODEDI, Sección
XXII, CODECI, FPR, CRENO), Red Oaxaqueña Zapatista, Universidad de la
Tierra, CECRALP, CIPO-RFM, POS, GAEM, Todos Somos Presos.



LIBERTAD A LOS/AS PRESOS/AS INDIGENAS DEL CIPO-RFM "VIVA LA AUTONOMÍA"
visite nuestra pagina: www.nodo50.org/cipo Consejo Indígena Popular de
Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magón", CIPO-RFM. Calle: Emilio Carranza 210, Sta.
Lucía del Camino Oaxaca, México. tel: +(951) 51-78183 y +(951) 51-78190
mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
PARA DONATIVOS A NOMBRE DEL CIPO-RFM: Banco Nacional de México, SA.
Domicilio Hidalgo # 821. col.Centro, Oax. C.P.68000, Sucursal Oaxaca, No.
120, Suit: Banamex: BNMXMXMM, Cuenta: 002610012077451770




---------------------------------

[Enragé]

this is awesome

the zapatistas are great. Even though this is probably far from revolution and we might all be overreacting a bit, perhaps it could spiral out of control, that is, for the government :)

[Cheung Mo]

Wait a second...Isn't this the same PAN that was part of the anti-PRI centre-left coalition in Chiapas?

[The Beat]

rebelworker,

Whatever happened to that protest. What happened on the 5th of May??

I agree with what you wrote in Spanish. I'm sure the media in Mexico never wrote the truth about what was going on, and demonized the people of Atenco.

[Nachie]

Some of the newest analysis:

Police Brutality in Atenco: Reports of Rape and Murder as the Number of Political Prisoners and Disappeared Passes 400 (http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1774.html)

Last But Not Least: National University Students Join Atenco March (http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1781.html)

Police Brutality in Mexico (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=59&ItemID=10216)

[The Beat]

Thanks, Nachie

We need to mobilize and get the word out.

How can we do that??

[Nachie]

There have been protests outside Mexican consulates in Houston, NYC, Boston, and I'm sure other places that I'm just forgetting or haven't heard about. Actions like this are the best way to get people organized around the issue and build a network of communication and support that we are going to be needing the future.

http://www.narconews.com/images/consulate_protest_nyc_texco.jpg
Protest in NYC

A report + photos (http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/68416/index.php) of the one in Boston

The 'Other Cinco de Mayo' in NYC (http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1787.html) - New Yorkers Protest Fox Government Repression of the Other Campaign at Mexican Consulate

LA Times Reporters Jump on the Coffin of 14-Year-Old Javier Cortés in Atenco to Invent an Untrue Story (http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1785.html) - LA Timesmen Sam Enriquez and Carlos Martinez Wage a Knowingly False Smear Campaign Against Political Prisoner Ignacio Del Valle

And some sweet pictures from the rebellion, mostly of injured pigs ;)

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060425/capt.momu10504252005.mexico_zapatistas_tour_momu10 5.jpg

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/rids/20060504/i/r3669257717.jpg

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060504/capt.67af4def1f034134b276f5e889fd9bd4.mexico_polic e_hostages_moev101.jpg

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/rids/20060504/i/r429769420.jpg
Check out the stolen riot shields

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/rids/20060504/i/r3779790690.jpg

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/nm/20060504/2006_05_04t002519_450x315_us_mexico_riot.jpg

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/rids/20060504/i/r683067380.jpg

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/rids/20060505/i/r608701049.jpg

[chimx]

here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQwTZwCQd0c) from the police raid on the occupied steel factory (http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=2917) in michocan mexico about two weeks back.

[Janus]

So I guess that this didn't turn out as we expected due to the numbers.

As for the Zapatistas, there ideology is quite unique and it revolves around anti-neocolonialism and minority's rights, which attracts the indigenous people in their base areas and elsewhere.

[The Beat]

It is interesting that the crowd was shouting, "Culo," to the policeman the Red Cross was putting in an ambulance. But they kept their cool. They didn't drag him and kill him. That is at least decency in the heat of the moment.

[Nachie]

Janus I don't think we've seen the end of this. Until La Otra starts up again at the point where it left off, I consider this uprising to still be going on...

[Nachie]

Mexico's Zapatista rebel leader gives rare TV interview

Associated Press
May. 9, 2006 12:20 PM

MEXICO CITY - Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said Tuesday that Mexico was in a "state of rage and social indignation" and he warned that the upcoming presidential election will do nothing to stop the discord from intensifying.

In a rare television interview with Mexico's Televisa network, the masked rebel leader said last week's deadly riot that left a teenager dead and scores injured in a town outside Mexico City is indicative of the country's brewing tensions.

He compared the current climate to the social tension that led to the Zapatistas' brief armed uprising in January 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas - but he emphasized that his rebel group is now committed to peace.

Marcos, smoking his trademark pipe, called the three major presidential contenders "mediocre," and said they offer no solutions to the country's serious problems.

"They are fighting for business and not for the direction of the country," said the rebel leader. He added, however, that the Zapatistas will not boycott the July 2 elections for the presidency, state governorships and congressional seats.

Marcos predicted that leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party, will win the race, despite recent polls showing Felipe Calderon, of President Vicente Fox's conservative National Action Party, taking the lead.

Marcos said his decision to not support Lopez Obrador cost the Zapatista leader "fans," but was the right thing to do.

He said if Lopez Obrador was elected, he would have an "administration of handouts," while Calderon would mean more of the same disappointing policies the country has seen under Fox, who took office in 2000. But the worst of all three candidates, he said, is Roberto Madrazo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

"No one trusts him, not even his family," Marcos said.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, ruled Mexico for 71 years before Fox's victory. Fox is banned by Mexican law from seeking re-election.

Marcos also denied accusations by Madrazo that the Zapatistas instigated last week's riot in the town of San Salvador Atenco, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Mexico City. The violent clashes between residents and police left one dead and dozens injured.

But he said he supports the dozens of protesters who were arrested and will remain in Mexico City until they are released.

One resident was killed in the running street battles, in which members of a radical group of townspeople kidnapped and beat six policemen after they tried to prevent vendors from setting up stands in a nearby city.

Marcos said the attack against the police stemmed from "people's furor."

"They were not beating the person, but rather what he represents."

But he condemned the abuses by police, who were filmed by television crews repeatedly beating protesters.

The rebel leader came out of his jungle hideout in January and is touring Mexico trying to forge a national leftist movement.

Marcos also talked about his personal life, saying he was no longer married and did not have children. The Mexican news media has often speculated about his love life: Last year, he appeared on the cover of a popular social magazine amid rumors of a love affair with a Mexican journalist, whom he reportedly later married.

He said he expects to die with his mask on and probably by a bullet, although "I don't wish that."
Marcos enjoyed almost rock-star popularity among many Mexicans following the Zapatistas' uprising to demand greater Indian rights.

Since then, his fight has been carried out through poetic communiques posted on the Internet, earning him support around the globe.

But his angry attacks on the presidential candidates has left many estranged.

Marcos said his popularity is not important.

"If I'm a clown or not, it doesn't matter," he said. "I'm not the one who is going to govern."

(SOURCE (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0509MexicoMarcos09-ON.html))

[Commie Girl]

:ph34r: Some video footage onDemocracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/11/1445258) Includes Marcos.

[rikaguilera]

This story needs more attention. I have looked all over the national media available, and found little to no time given for what is going on. I have contacted some friends in Mexico City, for news, as it is coming at a sparse rate from here. Any other sources of news that are reliable? I can't find much anymore..

[Sickle of Justice]

YES!!!
Finally some ACTION! i am newly motivated. i hope this works... many south american countries seem like a ticking time bomb for revolution, so maybe a rebellion in mexico will spark rebels elsewhere into action... hopefully.