Zapatista spokesperson discusses movement

The day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, New Year's Day 1994, a group of armed, indigenous people of Mexico shocked the world by successfully taking control of four major cities in the southernmost state of Chiapas.

While for the first time Mexico was considered part of the first world, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), with their now internationally recognized masked leader Subcommandante Marcos, became a painful reminder of the plight of Mexico's one million indigenous peoples.

"Everyone was amazed at how it happened, and what it meant," said Cecilia Rodriguez, the U.S. spokesperson for the Zapatistas, who spoke to an audience of about 40 people in the Kuenzel Room of the Michigan Union on Saturday afternoon.

The Zapatistas "declared to the world that they were a product of 500 years of history," Rodriguez said. "They said 'we have absolutely nothing, and we declare war against the illegitimate government of Mexico.'"

The indigenous people also declared war against the United States, NAFTA, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the process of globalization they feel has left their communities poorer than ever.

The Mayan people of Mexico suffer from an 80-percent illiteracy rate, high rates of malnutrition, dirt-floor houses without electricity or running water and institutionalized racism promoted by the Mexican government, Rodriguez said.

LSA senior Diana Derige, co-chair of Alianza, the Latino Student Alliance that sponsored the talk, said it is important to bring speakers like Rodriguez to campus.

"Cecilia (Rodriguez) and her message keep us connected not only to our indigenous past but to what will happen in our future," Derige said.

While the image of Mexico, popularized by the tourism industry and the international media, is one in harmony with its indigenous roots, today's Mayan people say the Mexican government ignores their adverse conditions when it forges ahead with its international economic plans.

Besides the surge of coverage surrounding the dramatic uprising and subsequent negotiation talks, the international media attention has been sporadic since '94.

Anthropology graduate student Elizabeth Enciso said she has followed the work of the Zapatistas for a year.

"Recent coverage is almost non-existent," said Enciso, who said she gets most of her information from EZLN's Website (http://www.EZLN.org) or from online Mexican newspapers.

The Zapatista movement has exposed a divided Mexico.

"The Zapatistas revealed two Mexicos, the Mexico of above and the Mexico of below" Rodriguez said.

The Mexico of above includes the few wealthy business people who benefit from the internationally expanding economy.

The Mexico of below is the 80 percent of Mexican farmers who still rely on pre-Colombian farming methods to grow their food.

NAFTA "forced corn farmers in Mexico to compete with farmers in Iowa" who have far superior farming methods and equipment, Rodriguez said.

This has pushed indigenous people off their lands, into starvation and ultimately to the sort of organization that led to the rebellion in 1994, she said.

Rodriguez spoke of how women aid the movement, characterizing women as the "pillars of Indian society because they allow life to continue."

Women often confront the Mexican army unarmed, attempting to prevent the military from entering their villages.

The tactic used by the Mexican government to not have to negotiate agreements with the Zapatistas, Rodriguez said, is to maintain three-fourths of its national troops in Chiapas.

If Americans feel adequately distanced from the crisis in Chiapas, they must acknowledge many of the Mexican army generals and troops were trained in the United States at the School of the Americas in Georgia, Rodriguez warned.

"Under the guise of the drug war the United States government ships lots of our military equipment to Mexico," Rodriguez said.

The Mexican military is both the largest client of the training held at the School of the Americas and the purchaser of $250 million worth of military equipment since 1994, she said.

The School of the Americas recently has been under public scrutiny since the U.S. government was forced to confess its use of torture manuals at the school in their training of Latin American military personnel, Rodriguez said.

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