Mexico – Page 8 – Upside Down World

Impunity and Dispossession in Mexico: San Sebastián Bachajón on the Anniversary of the Assassination of Juan Vázquez Guzmán

May 1, 2014 Jessica Davies 0

In San Sebastián Bachajón, Chiapas, Mexico, the impunity given to the attackers has not stopped the ejidatarios’ (common landholders’) resistance to the dispossession of their lands. In recognition of the first anniversary of the assassination of community leader and defender of the land, Juan Vázquez Guzmán, “Two Weeks of Worldwide Action: Juan Vázquez Guzmán lives! The Bachajón struggle continues!” have been called, from Thursday, April 24 to Thursday, May 8, 2014. As part of this initiative, the screening of the video “Bachajón – Dispossession is death, Life is resistance” is being promoted internationally.

[…]

Peoples’ Encounter in Resistance Against the Extractive Mining Model in Mexico

April 21, 2014 James Rodríguez, MiMundo.org 0

The Mexican Network of Mining-Affected Peoples (REMA, for its initials in Spanish) and the Mesoamerican Movement against the Mining Extractive Model (M4) organized a three-day nationwide encounter in the Northern Sierra of Puebla where hundreds of mining-affected community members from numerous states participated in talks and workshops where experiences, strategies for the defense of the territory, and socio-environmental impacts were shared and exchanged.

[…]

Va Por Kuy: Deadly “Non-Lethal” Weapons and Disappearance Under Peña-Nieto’s Reign

April 3, 2014 Andalucia Knoll 0

On December 1st, 2012, federal police fatally injured teacher and activist Juan Francisco Kuykendall Leal with a rubber bullet at a protest of Mexican president Enrique Peña-Nieto. However, Kuy’s injuries were kept quiet for 14 months, when his death finally called attention to the police brutality and impunity that marked Peña-Nieto’s inauguration and has continued under his leadership.

[…]

Canada Arms Mexico

April 1, 2014 Dawn Paley 0

Ottawa’s increased support of the Mexican army comes as the number of dead in the drug war, now in its seventh year, continues to rise. “We’re talking about 100,000 dead. Those are official figures, and then there are those that have been killed more recently—the war continues, like in the case of Michoacán, we have no idea how many dead there are,” said Javier Sicilia. “There are no trustworthy numbers of the dead or disappeared.”

[…]

Living Legacy of Machismo: Rape Victim Charged for Self-Defense in Mexico

March 26, 2014 Andalusia Knoll 0

Alleged kidnapping and rape victim Yakiri Rubi Rubio is out on bail but could spend ten years in jail for “excess of legitimate defense” – turning her attacker’s knife back on him – in a case that reveals continuing problems of unequal justice in Mexico. “If they judge us for having survived, the justice system wants us dead.”

[…]

The Zapatistas at 20: Building Autonomous Community

March 24, 2014 Melissa Forbis interviewed by Johanna Brenner 0

The Zapatistas have been very successful in organizing autonomous governance, autonomous schools, and autonomous healthcare. Their economic situation has been more difficult to work on. They have some advantages from their location in the countryside where they have been able to take over land and establish autonomous territorial governance. However, they are also embedded as we all are in neo-liberal capitalism—this is the 20 year anniversary of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

[…]

Mexico’s Oil Belongs to Its Citizens, Not the Global 1%

March 21, 2014 Yoshua Okón 0

On the anniversary of Mexico’s 1938 oil nationalization, artist Yoshua Okón argues that the “energy reform” currently underway in his country will deprive citizens of income directed toward education, health care and anti-poverty programs.

[…]

Rage, Sadness, and Determination: Journalists in Mexico will not be Silenced

February 27, 2014 Clayton Conn 0

Journalists in more than 20 cities throughout Mexico went to the streets on Sunday to demand an end to threats, systemic violence and impunity that they face. Since 2007 more than 120 journalists or media workers have been murdered or have disappeared in Mexico.

[…]

New Forms of Revolution (Part 2): The Oaxaca Commune

February 17, 2014 Gustavo Esteva 0

In excerpts from the essay New Forms of Revolution (Mexico, 2013), Oaxaca-based writer Gustavo Esteva explores the different notions of power within the popular movement in Oaxaca, and speculates on the future on the current cycle of struggles.

[…]

Zapatista Support Bases Under Attack: Call for a Week of National and International Solidarity

February 14, 2014 Jessica Davies 0

“Today, as 20 years ago, the counterinsurgency strategy against the Zapatista indigenous peoples continues: military forces, paramilitaries, ‘democratic campesino organizations,’ commercial media, ‘social programs,’ and the whole political class are part of this war of extermination, a war which is headed by the bad governments, both federal and state, who only serve the interests of a system which needs dispossession, exploitation, neglect and repression in order to survive,” says the Network for Solidarity and against Repression.

[…]