Fernando Luna was six years old playing in a mountain side cave with his brother in the beautiful indigenous village of Acteal, Chiapas when they heard the thunderous footsteps and shouts of paramilitaries running by on the land above their heads.
For the past two weeks in Cancun, Mexico parallel conferences on climate change have taken place. One gathered behind closed doors and police barricades in a luxury beach side resort. The others met in downtown Cancun bringing together members of civil society, indigenous communities, environmental groups and campesinos from all over the world in encampments of shared food, housing and informational forums.
Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid crashed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and rendered extinct 70% of all life on Earth. In December of 2010 in Cancun, a mere geological stone’s throw from the Chicxulub crater that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, a conclave of political and corporate leaders presided over a conference that failed to slow down the next great extinction event on this planet.
“Central America demands a climate where peace, social justice, and environmental sustainability flourish,” states the most recent communiqué from the Mesoamerican Climate Justice Campaign. And now is their chance to bring this demand to the global negotiating tables. […]
On Dec. 1 Gabino Cue Monteagudo became the first non-PRI governor of the state in eight decades. Local and national guests witnessed his oath in the legislative chamber, while outside, protesters began to express what Cue can look forward to. His first challenge will be in convincing innumerable combative groups that it’s now worthwhile to try dialogue.
Following the 2006 uprising in the city of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, the official crackdown on dissidents, social movements and human rights defenders reached unprecedented proportions. Alba Cruz, a human rights lawyer working with the Comité de Liberación 25 de Noviembre de Oaxaca, has experienced the climate of fear and intimidation first-hand.
Last December, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) ordered the Mexican government to undertake a full investigation into the disappearance of Rosendo Radilla Pacheco from Atoyac de Álvarez on August 26, 1974. To date, the present government has not done so.
Copyright 2003-2018 Upside Down World