Mexico

In the early hours of the morning on Thursday 9th September 2010, 170 Zapatista supporters were expelled from their homes in the Tzeltal community of San Marcos Avilés, in the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas. They were attacked by members of the Mexican political parties PRI, PRD and PVEM (the green party), in retaliation for the construction of an autonomous school. The Zapatista Good Government Junta (JBG) based in Oventik denounced the attack, which was led by Lorenzo Ruiz Gómez and Vicente Ruiz López, and said the attackers were armed with guns, machetes and sticks and broke into two houses where they tried to sexually assault two women. So as not to respond with violence to these acts of severe provocation, the Zapatista men, women, children and old people left their homes and belongings and fled to the mountain "where they suffer hunger, cold, sleeplessness and fear".

Justice For Atenco: End Mexican State Impunity

On June 30th the Mexican Supreme Court ordered the release of the 12 Atenco political prisoners. The Court determined that illegal evidence was used to accuse them of a crime they did not commit and that the Mexican authorities assessed the case politically.

Human rights defender Tita Radilla in London, November 2009

Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, a respected community leader, disappeared in 1974 after being stopped at an army checkpoint in Mexico’s Guerrero state.

In July 2009, his case became the first case of forced disappearance to be brought against the Mexican Government: the decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is due in December.

His daughter, Tita Radilla, vice-president of the Mexican Association of Relatives of the Detained, Disappeared and Victims of Human Rights Violations (AFADEM), will be in London in November to speak about her long fight for justice and against impunity for human rights abuses in Mexico.

Late on Saturday night, around 6,000 Mexican police occupied the various sites of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, central Mexico's state-run electricity company. Immediately following the occupation, President Felipe Calderón issued notice of the company's liquidation, with the termination of some 44,000 jobs.

Mexican legal experts have criticized Calderon's action as illegal, unconstitutional, and "an excessive and abusive use of power" because he by-passed Congress when he decided to close Luz y Fuerza and deploy the military and police against workers.

The government's official justification for closing Luz y Fuerza is that the company's operating expenses exceed those of other state-owned companies. However, Mexican Labor News & Analysis' Dan La Botz has a different perspective on the government's intentions...

From Kiptik:

Once again the indigenous peoples of Chiapas are cast in the rôle of defenders of the land, the environment, and natural resources against the predations of the neo-liberal system.

Massacre in Chiapas & more...
Chinkultic Archaeological Site - On October 3, state police opened fire on unarmed indigenous residents of Miguel Hidalgo ejido, ultimately killing 6, injuring 17 and leaving 36 held in police custody.

From KIPTIK:

1. ATTACKS ON ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES
There has been a change in the nature of the threats, intimidation and aggression against Zapatista communities recently. While the paramilitary groups remain active, there has been a very worrying increase in incursions from the forces of the state and municipal authorities: a recent gathering in Mexico City itemised more than 20 acts of aggression and harassment from the military and police forces that had taken place against Zapatista communities so far this year.

On May 21, the Antorcha Campesina organization, linked to the PRI political party, attempted to take over the independent union at the Mexmode (formerly Kukdong) factory in Atlixco, Mexico.

The creation of SITEMEX, the independent union at Mexmode, was a huge victory for the Mexican workers movement and was a seminal moment in the development of the international anti-sweatshop movement. One of their activists toured the UK with No Sweat and we met with workers there on our return trip. Please read on and take action below.

Read on for the latest newsletter from the Zapatista solidarity group Kiptik plus their latest water project report.

Tell Tommy Hilfiger, Guess and Dickies: Stop the firings of Mexican jean workers; support their right to a union of their choice

Action appeal and news from Tehuacan, Mexico.

Support Mexican garment workers producing for the likes of Tommy Hillfiger and Dickies, fighting to for their own union.

From the Maquila Solidarity Network via the Clean Clothes Campaign.

Urgent request for solidarity with workers at the Vaqueros Navarra garment factory in Puebla, Mexico
Take action now

August 2, 2007
Urgent request for solidarity with workers at the Vaqueros Navarra garment factory in Puebla, Mexico

Take action now

In Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico, leaders of a grassroots movement to win representation by an independent union have been fired and supporters are being harassed and pressured to “voluntarily” resign. Some workers have refused to give in to management intimidation and are continuing to press for legal recognition of an independent union. Workers are being dismissed daily under the pretext that there is a shortage of work.

Take action at:
http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/en/urgentaction/navarra#action

This is an urgent request for solidarity with workers
at the Vaqueros Navarra garment factory in Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico.

On Monday morning, April 9, 2007, 29-year-old migrant farmworker organizer Santiago Rafael Cruz was tortured and brutally murdered in the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) office in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Report on the activities of Zapatista support group KIPTIK. bringing water, electricity and solidarity to Chipas, Mexico.

Andres Aullet, a lawyer involved in a Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners of Oaxaca recently toured the UK speaking about the situation in Mexico. The tour was organised by No Sweat. Paul Hampton interviewed him.

Alongside our anti-sweatshop week of action on campuses, No Sweat has organised a speaker tour with a Mexican activist-lawyer who is involved in defending workers arrested/detained during the recent teachers’ strikes and mobilisations against political corruption in Oaxaca, Mexico.