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Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 11:48:41 -0800
From: Mexico Solidarity Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Mexico Solidarity Network Email List
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: MSN Mexico News and Analysis, Feb 27 - Mar 5, 2006
MEXICO SOLIDARITY NETWORK
MEXICO NEWS AND ANALYSIS
FEBRUARY 27 ? MARCH 5, 2006
1. SUCCESSFUL OTHER CAMPAIGN COMES UNDER ATTACK
2. DRAFT REPORT ON DIRTY WAR RELEASED
3. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS AND OTHER POLITICS
4. MSN PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS, Contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. SUCCESSFUL OTHER CAMPAIGN COMES UNDER ATTACK
While Marcos met with thousands of campesinos, students
and others in Hidalgo this week, a series of attacks
indicate that Mexico?s political class is starting to get
worried about the success of the Other Campaign. In
Chiapas, state police arrested Damaso Villanueva, who
often staffed a tent in the center of San Cristobal
promoting the Other Campaign. He was imprisoned for a
week in Tuxtla Gutierrez, but was released on Saturday for
lack of evidence. In Oaxaca, hundreds of police
surrounded the autonomous municipal government in San Blas
Atempa, a Zapotec community, firing weapons and tear gas
in an attempt to dislodge the autonomous authorities. The
Other Campaign visited San Blas in early February, and
Marcos met with six political prisoners arrested by state
authorities during the installation of the autonomous
government last year. And two weeks ago, HSBC, a British
owned bank, closed two accounts at the San Cristobal
branch used to collect hurricane relief and other
donations for the Juntas de Buen Gobierno. The accounts
are managed by Enlace Civil.
2. DRAFT REPORT ON DIRTY WAR RELEASED
A draft report on Mexico?s ?dirty war? accuses four
consecutive administrations in the 60s and 70s of ordering
the army to burn villages, execute suspected insurgents,
and use rape and torture. The report is based, in part,
on declassified military documents and was written by
Ignacio Carrillo, appointed by the Fox administration to
investigate ?dirty war? crimes. A Fox spokesperson
distanced the administration from the report, calling it
an unedited draft. Instead of prosecuting officials and
officers named in the report, the Fox administration
launched an investigation to uncover who leaked the
report. The US-based National Security Archives published
the full report on its web site, and the Mexican magazine
Eme-Equis published an article based on the report. The
report outlines crimes committed during the
administrations of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Luis Echeverria,
Jose Lopez Portillo and Adolfo Mateos. Echeverria, who
governed from 1970 to 1976 and the only named president
who is still alive, came in for particularly harsh
criticism for human rights abuses in Guerrero, where the
army maintained ?concentration camps? and ?implemented a
genocide plan.? In 1970, at the beginning of
Echeverrria?s presidency, the army launched ?Operation
Friendship? which included ?illegal searches, arbitrary
detentions, torture, the rape of women in front of the
husbands, and possibly extra-judicial executions.?
3. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS AND OTHER POLITICS
As many as 120,000 supporters turned out for a campaign
rally in Mexico City last Sunday in support of PRD
candidate Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, marking by far the
largest rally of the presidential campaign to date. Lopez
Obrador leads most polls by 5 to 10 point margins.
Reports abounded of ?acarreados,? a practice borrowed
from the PRI in which party leaders pay for busses and
offer food and other gifts in exchange for people?s
presence at the march.
On Saturday, PAN candidate Felipe Calderon fired two of
his principle campaign aides after a series of public
events failed to turn out supporters. Francisco Ortiz, in
charge of media and image, and Alonso Ulloa, head of tour
coordination, were dismissed.
Meanwhile, in Puebla, more than 30,000, and perhaps as
many as 50,000 marchers, called for the resignation of
Governor Mario Marin. Marin has been under pressure to
leave his newly elected post after recordings surfaced of
friendly telephone conversations with a known child
molester in which Marin agreed to arrest a Cancun-based
author for publishing a book that named several Puebla
businessmen as members of child molestation and
pornography rings.
4. MSN PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS, Contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
January 20 ? early March, 2006: Another Kind of Politics:
Autonomy, Community Power and Zapatismo in the US Tour on
the East Coast. The Snail's Pace Collective, formed during
the fall MSN study abroad program, will offer workshops on
grassroots resistance in the US, with lessons from the
Zapatista Movement.
February 5 - May 13, 2006: Spring Study Abroad Program.
Students and activists can earn 16 credits studying
Mexican social movements.
February 24- March 11, 2006: Historical Lessons in
Immigration Policy: Ex-Bracero/Wells Fargo Tour in
California. March 1 - 15, 2006: International Women's Day
Tour to Demand Justice for Victims of the Femicides in the
Northeast.
March 12-24, 2006: Women Confronting Globalization Tour:
Militarization, Human Rights and Fair Trade Tour in PA, NY
and Canada.
March 26 - April 8, 2006: Women Confronting Globalization:
Militarization, Human Rights and Fair Trade Tour in MN,
IA, NE, KS, and OK.
April 2 - 14, 2006: Women Confronting Globalization:
Militarization, Human Rights and Fair Trade Tour in the
Southeast.
April 17 - May 1, 2006: Socioeconomic Context of
Immigration Today: Stories from Chicago Day Laborers in
ND, SD, MN, WI, IL, IN, MI and MO.
April 24 - May 3, 2006: Immigrant Rights: Ex-Bracero Tour
in DC, MD, VA, NC, and SC.
May 28 - July 8, 2006: Summer Study Abroad Program: Earn 8
credits studying Mexican social movements in the context
of the upcoming Mexican presidential election. Alternative
Economy Internships - Develop markets for artisanry
produced by women's cooperatives in Chiapas and make
public presentations on the struggle for justice and
dignity in Zapatista communities. Interns are currently
active in Fort Collins, OR; Spokane, WA; Alexandria, VA;
Grand Haven, MI; Chico, CA; Sacramento, CA; Stonington,
ME; Lancaster, PA; St Paul, MN; Louisville, KY; San
Francisco, CA; Turner, OR; Athens, GA; Chicago, IL;
Philadelphia, PA; Guelph, Canada; Davis, CA; Tempe, AZ;
and Madison, WI.
#############################################################
Mexico Solidarity Network http://www.mexicosolidarity.org
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