Juan Vázquez Assassinated in Bachajón, Chiapas

Bachajón Ejido Owners Demand that Juan Vázquez Guzman’s Death Not Be Left Unpunished

Juan Vázquez

** The indigenous leader “and Other Campaign” adherent was assassinated Wednesday

** They warn that the struggle over the defense of land and the natural springs “will not diminish”

By: Hermann Bellinghausen, Envoy

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, April 28, 2013

The San Sebastián Bachajón ejido owners, adherents to the Other Campaign of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, in Chilón, Chiapas, demanded that the assassination of their compañero and representative Juan Vázquez Guzmán, which occurred Wednesday, “is not left in impunity” and warned that: “after the compañero’s death, the struggle will not diminish: we will continue forward, because we know well that his death was because of the defense of our Mother Earth because the mountains and the natural springs are masters of those who care for them.”

Directing themselves to the Good Government Junta of Los Altos and the National Indigenous Congress, to which the assassinated leader also belonged, the Tzeltal ejido owners relate that last April 24, at to o’clock “hour of God” (11 o’clock, “national time”) [1], Vázquez Guzmán “was resting in his house when a person came knocking on his door and he was riddled with six high-caliber bullet impacts, and the guy fled in a red pickup truck in the direction of Sitalá.”

In the communiqué “they make known” who Juan Vázquez was: “An active member of the ejido and of the Other Campaign adherents. We walked with him for seven years after the Sixth. On April 18, 2010, he was named Secretary General of the three centers of the ejido.”

On December 24, 2011, municipal and judicial police detained him without showing him an arrest warrant, when he was entering his house, and he was taken to prison number 16 in Ocosingo.” Hours later the then Commissioner Francisco Guzmán Guzmán arrived, “carrying a file in his hand and pointing to Compañero Juan as the leader against the neoliberal project but, thanks to the mobilizations of organizations and the intervention of human rights defenders, he was released at midnight and they returned him to his house without making him sign any release paper asking for pardon and forgiveness.”

On November 26 and 27, 2011, Vázquez Guzmán, “accompanied by Compañero Domingo García Gómez, he participated in a National Indigenous Congress workshop of dialogue and reflection at San Mateo del Mar (Oaxaca).” He was in charge of following up on the case of protective order (injunction) 274/2011 “against the Neoliberalism Project” and the accompaniment of the three political prisoners from his community

He maintained his participation in the political prison forums and the mobilizations for the freedom of the political prisoners in Chiapas, in particular of Alberto Patishtán, “and in all Mexico;” also in mobilizations for the defense of land, like the one on May 7, 2011 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, and in the Tila and Mitzitón ejidos. He went to the country’s capital “in accompaniment of the liberation of the last five San Sebastián Bachajón political prisoners.” He also appeared in several video messages for distributing the community’s demands internationally.

———————————————————-

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Monday, April 29, 2013

En Español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/04/29/politica/020n1pol

 

 

 

Zapatista Store at Toniná Provokes the Government’s Wrath

Photo taken of a sign at Toniná village during March 2012 delegation. Zapatista signs are seen by tourists who visit the well-known archaeological site.

———————————————

Zapatista Artesanía Store at Toniná Provokes the Chiapas Government’s Wrath

** There is an arrest warrant out for me and I have not committed crimes: José Alfonso Cruz

** It doesn’t want anything that says EZLN during tourist events for the end of the world, accuses the property owner

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

On the outskirts of the City of Ocosingo, Chiapas, near the Toniná archaeological site, Zapatistas from Francisco Gómez autonomous municipality recently installed a store with artesanía on a piece of recuperated land. That has unleashed a governmental rejection as much from the official municipality as the state, which issued an arrest warrant against the owner of the contiguous property, also a support base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN, its initials in Spanish).

The essence of the conflict is the attractive hand painted sign that the Zapatistas put at their place, located at the Toniná entrance, a famous archaeological site where tourist activities will be celebrated next month, taking advantage of the “end of the Maya world” mode and the end of the year vacations. We’re talking about an investment of 5 to 8 million pesos by the municipal government of Octavio Elías Albores Cruz, a PRI member.

According to declarations to La Jornada from José Alfonso Cruz Espinosa, a Zapatista base that legally owns the Toniná lands up to the foot the foot of the pyramid, who resides near the archaeological zone and has repeatedly suffered harassment and attempts at plunder on the part of authorities, who have made it known that they don’t object to the store, only the sign that announces it, which only expresses that it is an autonomous store with artesanía from indigenous Zapatistas and it belongs to the Francisco Gómez rebel municipality.

“The state’s attorney general is already looking for me,” Cruz Espinosa declared via telephone. “Judicial police dressed as civilians want to search my house, and I had to take shelter in an autonomous community.” He insists that he has not committed any crime, and that his compañeros from the autonomous municipality are within their rights to establish their business and to announce it.

“The government doesn’t want anything that says ‘EZLN’ during the end of the world tourist events,” he added. Those events will be celebrated from December 21 to 23, with the participation of the resident archaeologist, and “almost owner” of Toniná, Juan Yadeum.

Weeks ago, the same Cruz Espinosa had denounced the construction of a bridge and a path inside the site, utilizing valuable archaeological material and “destroying a patrimony of humanity.” He placed responsibility on Yadeum, the current mayor Albores Cruz and principally on the former (mayor), Arturo Zúñiga Urbina, who with other associates wants to make use of the “end of the world” (events) and the expected tourist flow from such an emotional happening without the endorsement of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, which while it sanctioned the archaeologist, did not stop the work.

———————————————————-

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Monday, November 26, 2012

En Español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/11/26/politica/018n1pol

 

Commodification of Nature in Chiapas

Supposed NGOs Drive the “Commodification of Nature” in Chiapas

[A member of the musical group Los Ángeles Azules (The Blue Angels) during the community of San Isidro’s fiestas, in theMontes Azules Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas Photo: Víctor Camacho]

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

“The global strategy of ‘territorial clearing and control’ disguised as a philanthropic ‘conservationist spirit’ answers to multinational corporate interests of what’s called green capitalism, now interested in ecological conservation in the form of natural protected areas of a federal character for the purpose of commodification, appropriation and multi-million dollars in private profit” the environmental organization Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste concluded, after taking a tour, with other civic organisms, through three indigenous communities established in the Montes Azules, threatened with eviction by federal authorities.

For Maderas del Pueblo (Woods of the People), the “common natural wealth” in this and other indigenous regions (biodiversity, forest cover that captures carbon, uncontaminated water, minerals, scenic beauty), is “the invaluable patrimony of the Mexican people;” and some of the world’s most powerful corporations covet it, several already with a presence in the Lacandón Jungle and its surroundings. And it enumerates the sectors: biotechnology and agro-food (Monsanto, Pioneer, Novartis, Bimbo); pharmaceutical (Pharmacia, Bayer, Pfizer, Aventis); automotive and oil (Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Shell, International Automobile Federation); bottling (Coca Cola, Nestlé, Pepsi Cola) and mining (Cemex).

The “conservationist privatization” and the commodification of nature “is impelled by multilateral organisms, financial and for international cooperation,” like the World Bank (promoter of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor), European Union (Prodesis), the United States Agency for International Development (with the Lacandón Jungle Century XXI Project: Joint Strategy for the Conservation of Biodiversity) and, recently, by agreement of the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, for the “disastrous” program Reduction of Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation Avoided (REDD plus).

Said strategies are operated by allegedly “non-governmental” organizations [NGOs] of a transnational character like Conservation International, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, or national like the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, Pronatura and “very especially” Natural Spaces and Sustainable Development, Mexican Nature and Ecosystems and the Interdisciplinary Center of Biodiversity and the Environment (CEIBA). The latter three, the study emphasizes, are linked to former Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Julia Carabias, “who has instrumented ‘green’ businesses in the southern part of the Lacandón Jungle, which range from the commodification of butterflies and ‘environmental services for pay’ projects with funds from the National Forest Commission and Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), to hotels for ‘ecotourism’ and scientific tourism in what once was UNAM’s Biological Station at Chajul and [another] at the mouth of the Tzendales River.”

Maderas del Pueblo is clear that the current Chiapas government “has demagogically assumed the ‘ecologist’ and the ‘struggle against climate change’ discourses, utilizing the Lacandón Jungle as a spearhead” and what’s called the Lacandón Community, composed by Lacandóns (the document calls them “Maya Caribes”) and the Tzeltal “sub-comuneros” of Nuevo Palestina and Chols of Frontera Corozal as minority “associates,” to instrument ecotourism projects (“in reality, conventional scenic tourism and an elitist adventure tourism”), as well as pay for environmental services programs and the REDD. To this is added the expansion of African Palm plantations for agro-fuels in the strip that runs from Palenque to Marqués de Comillas.

After establishing the situation in the Montes Azules and in the communities threatened with eviction, Maderas del Pueblo calls on the social and political organizations with presence in the region to “construct a front in defense of land and territory.” The natural riches in the Lacandón region “are strategic to national sovereignty” faced with the “aggressive” territorial alienation underway for the purpose of commodification.

____________________________________________________________

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Saturday, June 9, 2012

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/06/09/politica/018n1pol

 

Chiapas Communities Reject Adventure Tourism Project

Photo by Moisés Zúñiga

Chiapas Communities Reject Adventure Tourist Project

 ** Foresee construction of lodging on the lakeshore

** For the indigenous, the current management of visitors is self-sufficient, they say

By: Hermann Bellinghausen

Laguna (Lake) Miramar, Chiapas, May 26, 2012

The large and beautiful lake (above) that marks a boundary of the Montes Azules is the new goal for tourism investors. Approved by the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources and by the Environment, Natural Resources and Fishing Commission of the Senate, the Miramar Live Nature Stays (Estancias Vivas Natura Miramar) project contemplates the construction of “dwellings” for lodging tourists on the banks of a body of water, a hotel that the authorities call “alternative tourism.”

Only the Emiliano Zapata ejido has been considered in the official plan; 11 double rooms and four suites, a restaurant, bar, offices, laundry and an “employees’ zone” would be built on its lands. Not all are in agreement; many have not been consulted. For years, a regular tourist flow has existed here, never abundant, but which does not seem to alter the life of the village. It (the project) has a major impact here, and worse on the neighboring San Quintín ejido, the large military base, just a few kilometers from the lake.

Emiliano Zapata, Benito Juárez, Nueva Galilea and Tierra y Libertad are the towns around Lake Miramar, although only the first one is “legal;” its residents consider themselves guardians of the lake, although others may also be, as in their fashion are the Zapatistas of Nueva Galilea that defend it without government “supports” or tourist investments, more and more private every day.

At a spot inside the lake with little islets, a hand-painted sign on wooden boards expresses their rejection: “We don’t want adventure tourism, because the government is creating the tourism of adventures from hell. This plan is full of rats and traps. It is a counterinsurgency campaign and low-intensity war. Here we want justice, liberty and democracy. Here the people govern and the government obeys. EZLN.”

Zapatista bases of support live at a corner of the lake and say they care of the last boundary, the current border between the jungle of man and one which has done without humanity through centuries of change. Seen from here, it represents the last refuge of the Desert of Solitude (Desierto de la Soledad), as the first conquistadors called it; today the Integral Reserve of the Biosphere or, colloquially, the Montes Azules “Biosphere,” which is not saying if they are mountains, and if they are blue. In the classic Maya period there were cities and communities of farmers in the heart of this jungle, now “reserved,” like Tzendales (a notable unexplored archaeological vestige, near the Río Negro), Miramar and, for sure, Bonampak in the extreme north.

Investors’ promises put the sun, the moon and the stars to the indigenous in the form of infrastructure for “nature tourism.” Here where there already are the sun, moon and stars, the best water and the biggest sky in the Lacandón Jungle, what more can hotel owners, restaurant owners, construction companies, contractors, environmental and agrarian officials meddling in tourism, senators, governors, candidates, television networks, soft drink companies and banks offer? What could be better than this?

Some communities are –and all of them should be– guardians of the jungle, the water, the territory and what it contains and nourishes, what each morning they receive from the land, called Mother in the four Mayan languages that are spoken in this principal summit of the canyons, also a convergence of the roads to Las Margaritas and Ocosingo, they even achieve looking like highways. It is the summit where the boisterous Río Perla is suddenly added to the calm and mannerly, finally navigable Jataté, a large robust basin en route to becoming the Lacantún and finally the Usumacinta, far away from that little overrun waterfall in Corralito, in los Altos, between Oxchuc and Ocosingo.

Emiliano Zapata, although majority Chol, is one of the few jungle communities where Tzeltals, Tojolabals and Tzotzils also live, one of the most “cosmopolitan.” The ejido members (not all are in Zapata) tend to disqualify the neighboring villages, which lack property titles, and particularly accuse those from Benito Juárez of destroying forests and contaminating the lake. Benito Juárez’ boat, a huge launch, is accustomed to using a motor, but it is no longer permitted. Now they have to row from there to cross to Zapata, which is the exit for residents of the lakeshore. Or it was, because the road that comes from Amatitlán, Lacantún below, already reached Chuncerro, inside of the Montes Azules.

According to César, a young Chol that guides the envoys from La Jornada around the lake, the current management of visitors is rational, sufficient and self-sufficient to a certain point, no need for a private hotel. “He who wants to come to Miramar, from anywhere, comes. Just a few days ago 20 visitors came from Comitán and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, families. They came in trucks and camped for three days, so peaceful. The Gringos and French arrive in waves. In vacation time up to 50 people camp or hang hammocks at the beach,” a modest tourism, presumably ecological (more than a hotel), sufficient for a community that eats from the land and lives surrounded by water, between two large rivers and a portentous lake.

______________________________________________________________

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

English Translation: Chiapas Support Committee

Sunday, May 27, 2012

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/05/27/politica/015n1pol

Chiapas Tourism Development Aimed At US Market

Chiapas Tourism Development Aimed at US Market

By: Mary Ann Tenuto

The photograph below suggests a story waiting to be told. It shows indigenous women next to their makeshift plastic tent on the plaza in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The women are occupying a space on the plaza in front of the San Cristóbal de las Casas Cathedral to protest the unjust imprisonment of their family members, who are on a hunger strike inside three Chiapas prisons.

In the background, on a different part of the Plaza, the photograph shows a thatched-roof structure that is part of the exposition pavilion welcoming visitors to the World Summit of Adventure Tourism, taking place in San Cristóbal between October 17 and 20, 2011.

The Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) coordinated the summit. Key sponsors were the state government of Chiapas, the government of Mexico and Eddie Bauer, a retailer of outdoor wear. To no one’s surprise, Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico, was one of the keynote speakers. He touted adventure tourism as a source of employment for the indigenous peoples of Chiapas and urged those present to create those jobs. [1] Mexico has adopted tourism development as a panacea for the country’s economic woes.

The Worldwide Tourism Industry

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. It is such a large and profitable industry that the United Nations has an organization devoted exclusively to international tourism: The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The UNWTO reports that in 2010, international tourism generated US$ 919 billion in export earnings (foreign cash). [2] The tourism industry brings much-needed foreign cash to developing countries and a quick return on investment to developers. Not surprisingly, the UNWTO encourages developing nations to invest in tourism infrastructure in order to attract tourist development and earn foreign cash. Mexico has taken that encouragement to heart.

In order to promote Mexico tourism, President Calderón made a documentary film in English entitled “Mexico: The Royal Tour,” wherein Calderón and travel journalist Peter Greenberg personally take viewers to some of the country’s most amazing tourist attractions, from the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua to the archaeological wonders of the Yucatán Peninsula and Chiapas. [3} Public television stations in the United States began to show the travelogue in September 2011. The official trailer can be viewed at: http://www.royaltour.tv/the-trailer/

On February 28, 2011, Felipe Calderón and 29 state governors signed a National Tourism Agreement, converting tourism into a national priority. The goal of the tourism agreement is to generate 40 billion dollars annually by 2018. At the signing of this agreement, President Calderón announced that: “Mexico is destined to be a world tourism power.” To that end, Calderón said he would continue to invest five percent of the country’s gross domestic product in the construction of highway, seaport and airport infrastructure to facilitate travel for tourists. [4]

You can see that infrastructure in Chiapas when you land at the new airport in Chiapa de Corzo and take the new toll road to San Cristóbal. Both the new airport and the new toll road were built to facilitate tourism and commerce. Both were infrastructure projects encompassed within the old Plan Puebla-Panamá (PPP), now renamed the Mesoamerica Project.

Palenque Integral Center

The mega-tourism project underway in Chiapas and envisioned within the Mesoamerica Project is the Palenque Integral Center, or CIP, its initials in Spanish. The CIP includes the San Cristóbal-Palenque Toll Road, a key infrastructure piece to which there is considerable resistance.

The Chiapas state government has, at least in the recent past, tolerated violence, including murder, kidnapping and torture against members of the EZLN’s Other Campaign in the Mitzitón ejido because they are resisting the construction of the new toll road through their territory. Mitzitón is in the municipality of San Cristóbal, where the toll road is to begin. The purpose of the new toll road is to facilitate tourism development between San Cristóbal, Agua Azul and Palenque. In addition to murder, kidnapping and torture, the government also uses unjust incarceration as a tactic to break the resistance. Two of the prisoners participating in the hunger strike were from Mitzitón and had family members occupying Cathedral Plaza, as pictured above.

The San Sebastián Bachajón (SSB) ejido is another area along the projected route of the San Cristóbal-Palenque Toll Road. It is slated for mega-development. In February 2011, a mixture of federal, state and local security forces arbitrarily detained 117 people, all from the SSB ejido. Although the local media portray the dispute as a fight between indigenous peoples over who gets to collect the entrance fees to the Agua Azul Cascades from tourists, the more important and underlying conflict is who will control the extremely valuable land surrounding the spectacular series of turquoise blue waterfalls named Agua Azul (Blue Water). Hotels, restaurants, a conference center and golf course are envisioned for Agua Azul, not to mention a lodge with helipad, but no local family-owned businesses. The tourist development around Agua Azul envisions transnational hotel chains and golf course developers. It would also involve taking land away from some of the indigenous population and the forced displacement of that population. That is why they protest and resist. Their peaceful social protest has been repressed and criminalized.

The current epicenter of the CIP is the city of Palenque and its archaeological zone/national park of the same name, just 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) from the city. Palenque is expanding its once tiny airport for small planes to accommodate commercial airliners. While the world-famous Palenque archaeological ruins have long been a big tourist attraction, it is projected that within two years it will enter the global market as a prime destination for “light” adventure tourism; and, by the way, specifically directed at the US consumer. Preparations for this increased tourism are underway.

A report in La Jornada reveals that there is also resistance to the tourism expansion in Palenque. An experienced tourist agent told La Jornada that government officials from different departments, with financial support from US agencies like USAID, are collaborating to make way for privatizing the natural protected areas surrounding the archaeological site. Once privatized, transnational hotel chains would then be able to build hotels and commercial centers on the outskirts of the archaeological zone and to provide tourist services within the newly privatized area. This would bypass existing businesses in the city of Palenque. New guides and new modes of transportation would replace current service providers, such as taxi drivers and tour guides, putting many out of work. (This contradicts Calderón’s claim that tourism development would create jobs in Chiapas.) The new guides are being carefully selected from within pro-government populations. No criticism or dissent is tolerated. Their training omits historic knowledge in favor of “nature tourism” and is geared to the style of US tourists. At least one entire community would be displaced. Thus, the project threatens jobs, homes and a way of life; in other words, it threatens the culture. [5] Therefore, it’s not only Zapatista and Other Campaign communities that will be resisting the mass transformation of the city and its surrounding area. Those who provide tourist services and will be displaced by the development projects are expected to join in the resistance.

Mundo Maya (Maya World)

The CIP is just one of the tourist projects envisioned within a comprehensive Mundo Maya (Maya World) concept. Mundo Maya, or Ruta Maya as it is sometimes called, is a regional plan to develop and connect, for the purpose of tourism, Maya archaeological and ecological sites throughout four Central American countries (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize) and five Mexican states (Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo). [6] Development plans in Chiapas are mirrored in other Mexican states and in Central American countries.

In Guatemala, for example, a project known as Cuatro Balam (Four Jaguar) has been in the works for several years. The project is developing a tourist corridor between El Mirador and Tikal, both well-known archaeological sites in the Guatemalan state of Petén. Forced displacement of a nearby Maya community accompanied this project. The Flores-Santa Elena Airport near Tikal has been greatly expanded and renamed Mundo Maya Airport. Highways are planned to connect with archaeological sites along the Usumacinta River, the boundary between Guatemala and Chiapas. Crossing that river into Chiapas is currently by boat, but there are future predictions of a bridge.

For anyone who follows the development of Mundo Maya projects closely, whether in Chiapas, Guatemala, the Yucatán or Honduras, there is one inescapable conclusion: governments and tourism developers are exploiting the archaeological wonders of the ancient Maya for personal or corporate profit, while evicting and repressing the modern-day Maya. _____________________________________________________________

[1]   http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/10/18/politica/015n1pol

[2]   http://unwto.org/

[3] http://www.thirteen.org/insidethirteen/2011/09/21/mexico-the-royal-tour-a-qa-with-host-peter-greenberg/

[4]  http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/03/01/economia

[5]  http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/03/25/politica/020n1pol

[6]  http://www.mundomaya.travel/en