journal #1:
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6 dec 2003
san cristobal
chiapas
mexico

I forgot to mention last time that on our way down to chiapas, we stopped in tabasco (a state just north of chiapas) to visit with two zapatista political prisoners. They are a father and son, both accused of the same crime and railroaded into prison in the midst of police and judicial misconduct. The two men were community leaders from a Ch'ol indigenous community on the border of Chiapas and Tabasco. Their people had been involved in a land dispute with a group in Tabasco for the past 65 years, and they were finally at the point of reaching an agreement on the land. But someone sabotaged the peace plan by murdering a person from the Tabasco side of the conflict -- and the murder was blamed on the one who was LEAST likely to have committed the crime -- Angel Gutierrez Perez -- the man negotiating the agreement. He wasn't even in the area at the time. But he was accused and, just for good measure, the accusation included his father, too. And the two were convicted on false evidence and coerced testimony, and sentenced to 26 years each. Another blatant example of the misuse of the judiciary to attain political ends. Meanwhile, these two are suffering away in a tiny cell with five other men -- Angel's father has kidney stones, and no way to have it treated, as well as heart trouble (he is quite elderly). They spend their days making hammocks, along with the other prisoners, but have no place to sell them. So if you have any ideas on fair-trade hammock importers, maybe we could get them a market (and a FAIR price for hammocks that take at least 40 hours to make by hand).

Here is the transcript of the talk given to us by Angel during our visit to the prison (we weren't allowed to record it, so I tried to transcribe the talk as he went along):
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Also, here is a description of our meeting with the Zapatista committee of good governance, written by another person on the caravan:
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So I wanted to explain just briefly about the committees of good governance -- what they are, how they came about, what that means....

Basically, in 1994, several months after the Zapatistas launched their revolution, the government of Mexico launched peace talks with the Zapatistas in a place called San Andres Larrainzar (or San Andres Sakamch'en de los Pobres, in the Zapatista nomenclature). The Zapatistas used this opportunity to launch dialogues and round table discussions about indigenous rights with groups and organizations all over the country, including all of these groups' perspectives in the negotiations. This was the first time something like this had happened, and many groups participated in the dialogue. What they eventually came up with, after weeks of negotiating, then returning to their communities to discuss the issues, then returning back to the negotiating table, was a list of indigenous rights that the government needed to respect. The agreement reached, based on that list, was called the San Andres Accords. That list became a piece of legislation known as COCOPA -- the indigenous rights bill. But when it came before the Mexican Congress, the list of indigenous rights was gutted from the bill, and when it finally was passed in 96, to much back-patting by the establishment, it did not IN THE LEAST resemble the original list decided on two years before in San Andres.

So the Zapatistas decided to launch a march to Congress to push for the full adoption of the San Andres Accords. This took place in 2000, and hundreds of thousands of people from all over Mexico participated. They flowed into Mexico City from all over, and filled the zocalo (main square of the city), while members of the Zapatista commandancia entered Congress to plead for the adoption of the Accords, as they were agreed to six years before. Again, there was a lot of rhetoric and nice-sounding words from the government, but as soon as the Zapatistas left Mexico City, it was the same old story -- just words, no action.

Remember that these good-faith efforts on the part of the Zapatistas were being taken at the SAME TIME that the government of Mexico was filling Chiapas with over 150 military bases, funding paramilitaries that threatened, tortured and killed Zapatista sympathizers, expanding military bases into peaceful villages whose only crime was that the villagers supported the idea that they actually had rights as indigenous people. During this whole period, from 1994 on, the Zapatistas have never fired a shot. And this is in the midst of MASSIVE militarization, oppression, massacres and killings by the government and its agents.

So basically, after all this time of trying to get the government to live up to its word, exhausting all the legal options available to them, the Zapatistas decided, on August 9 of this year, 2003, to simply go forward with the San Andres Accords that the government's negotiators had agreed to way back in 1994. There is a provision in the San Andres Accords that says the Zapatistas, and all indigenous people in Mexico, have a right to self-rule and autonomous self-government. And so that is what they are doing when they create these committees of good governance. They are simply carrying out a provision of the San Andres Accords. But the government considers these committees to be dangerous. Why? Because they are providing an alternative to the Mexican government in the regions where they exist. And that is dangerous, because people in the area, both zapatistas and non-zapatistas, are beginning to go to the committees of good governance when they have a problem, and NOT to their local Mexican government representative. Instead of going to the Mexican police when there's a dispute or a crime in a village, people have been going to the zapatista committees of good governance to help facilitate their problems. and the committees have shown themselves to be fair and honest, so far, in resolving conflicts -- in one long-standing land dispute between a group of zapatistas and a group of non-zapatistas, the committee ruled in favor of the NON-zapatistas, after hearing all the evidence on both sides. those serving in the committees are not politicians -- they do not take campaign money and do not run campaigns at all, but are simply selected by their communities to serve a term as representative. and the community can choose to revoke that at any time, if the person is not being fair or representative of the region.

the other thing that happened on august 9 of this year, at a gathering in oventic attended by tens of thousands of members of civil society, was the creation of 5 caracoles (conch shells), which would replace the 5 aguascalientes, or cultural and community centers, that the zapatistas had created up to this point. the caracoles will serve as doorways for civil society and those from the outside to enter the zapatista communities. in this way, the zapatistas can remain autonomous, and not allow civil society to dictate what they should do within their own communities. for there has been an influx of civil society influences over the last few years, many well-intentioned, but often ending up causing more harm than good. the example was given, at this august 9 meeting, of aid caravans that end up dumping unnecessary junk on the indigenous communities -- non-working computers, high-heeled shoes, barbies.....so the zapatistas made it clear on august 9 that they do not want our leftovers, our scraps from the wealthy table. they will accept aid with dignity, or not at all. if it comes in a spirit of solidarity, and is something they have requested and need, then they will accept it. if not, don't even bother. (hence the list I included in the last journal entry).

if you can listen to audio files, try listening to the talk given to us by Comandante Moises of the CCRI -- Clandestine Committee of Indigenous Revolutionaries. He explains a bit more about the August 9 declaration and the creation of the caracoles and committees of good governance:



10 dec 2003
subirana village
orlanche municipality
honduras

well, we left chiapas without too much trouble -- just a couple more military checkpoints...but the border wasn't much trouble, surprisingly enough. we passed through guatemala, just passing through really, but were there long enough to have one bus broken into and a few of our bags stolen. grrr. I could be mad about the stuff I lost, some of it personal and irreplaceable, but I figure it is better to just build a bridge, get over it.....move on, and understand that when a bunch of gringos come into a poor country where people don't have ANYTHING, it's understandable that they would take what they can get from us. I just wish they'd target tourists instead -- with the stuff they took, they're unlikely to make any money at all. Whereas if they targeted rich tourists, at least they'd get something more valuable than journals, writing and clothes! I also wonder about the fact that the bus that was broken into didn't have anything written on it, whereas the other bus clearly says 'pastors for peace humanitarian aid caravan'.

one thing I did notice about guatemala were some signs left over from the election campaign. Efrain Rios Montt, the conservative that has been ruling the country this term, was defeated in the primaries in november, and more than one of his billboards had been defaced with red paint, blotched across his smiling, lying face. the country has elections on dec. 28, and the incumbent won't even be a candidate (hey maybe the US can use this as an example for the election coming up ..... who says g.w. even has to be a contender in the race?)

so we arrived in honduras monday the 8th, and spent the night in the fast and busy capital city, tegucigalpa. we stayed in the headquarters of SITRAINA, a farmer's organization, and heard the brave but disturbing tale of the people of Tacamiche, who used every means they could to non-violently resist the seizing of their land by none other than multinational giant Chiquita Banana. Chiquita's predecessor, United Fruit Company, OWNED the country of Honduras during colonial times -- remember, colonization was corporate rule, and it was not too uncommon for a company to take over an area, then negotiate with a European government for its ownership (and to use the European government's military to control and pacify the natives). so that's what happened in honduras, when the United Fruit Company took over the land base and established banana plantations -- the people lost their land and became slaves on the banana plantations. now it is bananas, pineapples and african palms, with chiquita, dole and delmonte at the forefront, but the issues remain the same. now, honduras is one of the poorest countries in central america -- the biggest source of revenue here is people sending money home from the US. it's so sad, because those people who go to the US to be fruit pickers and construction laborers don't WANT to be there -- they'd rather be home in honduras, but the companies that bought out this country have made it impossible for a small farmer to make a living or even subsist on the land.

the other thing I wanted to mention about honduras' history is that it has been used by the US for many years as a base for attacking nearby countries (ie. nicaragua, el salvador and guatemala). during the contra war in the 80s (remember that?? something about trading arms for hostages in iran in order to send the arms to the contras in nicaragua?? a little scandal during reagan's term, called iran-contra?), in which the US was backing brutal, repressive military factions who were trying to overthrow a democratic, land-based people's party in nicaragua, many of the troops were stationed in honduras. the US has a REALLY unsavory history in this area -- contributing to the brutal deaths of hundreds of thousands in guatemala, and tens of thousands in both el salvador and nicaragua, not to mention the hundreds of thousands displaced and brutalized by the land takeovers and displacements right here in honduras! even now, the US still has at least three major military installations in honduras, and dozens of smaller ones. so you'd think that we'd be pretty unpopular -- US citizens, visiting these bloodied lands with the blood of our government's actions on our hands. but the people are able to get beyond that, and see that we are NOT our government, that we come as brothers and sisters, not as conquerors -- so they forgive us for our citizenship in the country that has contributed the most to their oppression and suffering.

but back to the story of tacamiche. we were told this story by edgardo cabrera molina and didier carias, two community leaders from tacamiche. tacamiche was an indigenous community of people who were living traditionally on their ancestral land, farming peacefully, not bothering anyone. but it was decided by the execs at united fruit company that this area was part of the land that needed to be turned into a banana plantation -- it was rich, fertile land, and would do well to grow bananas. so they hired their armed thugs, the honduran military, to carry out the dirty work of displacing the indigenous inhabitants. the struggle of these indigenous hondurans began in 1886. Up until 1950, they were working in basically slave conditions -- on their own ancestral land! in 1954 the farmers finally gained the right to organize unions and the right to retire, after a long hard struggle. but they continued to be treated poorly until in 1992, the company -- Chiquita banana, the heir to United Fruit -- decided the land was no longer fertile (after 100 years of exploiting it), and left. the workers who remained, descendants of the original indigenous inhabitants of the land, decided that they would stay on that land rather than chasing poverty-level jobs, and farm it as their ancestors did. There were over 8,000 people who decided to stay, and they each had their own plot, as well as 1500 hectares that they decided to farm communally. They grew corn, beans and yucca, and began to produce enough to subsist upon after a couple of years of recuperating the land.

by 1995, they were well on their way to returning to the traditional indigenous lifestyle of their grandparents. but Chiquita decided that maybe this land WAS worth something after all, so again, they hired their armed thugs, the honduran military, to displace the indigenous inhabitants. the people appealed first to the honduran government, arguing that they were entitled to the land under the international indigenous rights bill. but the government ruled in favor of chiquita, the multinational corporation, over the indigenous people -- once again, the people were abandoned by the very government that was, by law, supposed to help protect them. it soon became very clear who the government was REALLY working for, as the honduran military came in with arms to forcibly displace the people from their land. the military first attacked in 1995, but the people of tacamiche fought back. though they had no weapons, they had farm tools like machetes and hoes, and so when the soldiers came to their land with tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets, they used the tools they had to fight back. they formed a battle line, with the youth at the front throwing stones, the middle aged men in the middle filling buckets with stones and passing them forward, and the women and children at the back tending to the wounded and preparing vinegar-soaked scarves for those at the front to better withstand the tear gas. the army was not prepared for such resistance, and they fell back.

but the next year the military returned again to tacamiche. during that year, the chiquita company had sent tractors and bulldozers to destroy the crops of the people of tacamiche, and the people of tacamiche had launched their own battle -- for public knowledge of their situation. they had created a theater piece and songs about their situation, and had contacted various organizations in honduras to help publicize their plight. but that didn't do them m
uch good when the military sent thousands of troops with helicopters, vehicles, tons of tear gas and hundreds of rubber bullets to displace them. again they fought valiantly, and again pushed back the military. but this time the military was there to stay, and were prepared to take the land no matter how the people fought them. so they surrounded the village, and maintained a constant vigil over the people living there. they also took the liberty to destroy homes and crops whenever they could. but the people snuck out, a few at the time, to make a last-ditch appeal at a meeting of central american presidents taking place in the capital of honduras at that time.

the people of tacamiche made their way to the capital, and to the presidential palace where the meeting was taking place. but their peaceful protest outside the president's meeting was met by lethal fire from sharp-shooters who killed three community members, one a catholic missionary and another a 19-year old girl. the people ran when they realized they were being fired upon by live ammunition, and most escaped, managing to return to their besieged village intact. the people who made it back told of seeing their land, smelling the plants, hearing the birds, and knowing in their hearts that this would be their last stand -- that they were going to lose this land. while those returning from the protest in the capital tried to share the horrible tale of the deaths of their three comrades with the rest of the village, the army that surrounded the village decided to begin an offensive. so the people, scared for their lives, thought their best option would be to hide in the two churches in the town. they knew that, according to the geneva convention on human rights, churches should be held as sacred ground and those within them should not be harmed. so they squeezed the people into the catholic and protestant churches in town, 1500 people in each, and the military began to invade the town. as the soldiers discovered the houses were empty, they began to destroy them. they couldn't figure out at first where all the people had gone. eventually they realized that the people were in the churches.

the army invaded at 5 am. after a sleepless night of running, the people of the village spent a day without water, packed like sardines into two tiny churches, surrounded by thousands of military. they sang, practiced their theatrical presentation, and shared stories. but there was no communication between the two groups, because the churches were on opposite ends of the village. so the people in one church asked the head of the military if they could send a delegation to consult with the people in the other church. instead, the military made everyone in one church move to the other, where there was no room inside. so the people were all now in one church, and around the church in the yard. surrounding them were lines of soldiers, in a circle around them, ten deep. the tension escalated, children cried, people grew hungrier....finally the community gave in, sending representatives to sign a 'compromise' that would mean the losing of their land. the indian treaties of the 1800s continue.....

so the people of tacamiche were moved to a place called El Porvenir, where there were no services, no water, no buildings, no health center -- nothing, nothing but bare land. and there, they had to start over. since 1996, when they were moved, they have built community and health centers, have planted the land, and have tried to make do as best they can. but in so many ways, the story of tacamiche represents the story of so many indigenous people throughout the americas -- pushed off their land and onto reservations so that companies can steal the resources off the land that was once theirs.


after the visit with the farmworkers union, we headed off to a community of peche people high up in the hills of honduras -- six hours down a dirt road, no electricity, and only one tap for the village of 800 folks. they greeted us by candlelight, and we had an incredible visit with the whole village in the morning....so many smiling, giggling children.....

their struggle is like that of so many indigenous people -- losing their traditional language, living in extreme poverty with few resources and little education to defend themselves from 'legal' attacks on their land. but they also live on a piece of reclaimed land, that was once a plantation until they took it over about 15 years ago. of course, before it was a plantation it was their ancestral land.....hence the REclaiming.

11 dec 2003
sambo creek community
la seiba municipality
atlantic coast of hunduras

wow. after a ten hour drive through the mountains, we arrived late last night in the garifuna community of sambo creek, on the atlantic coast....it feels like a whole different country here! from the rather reticent and subdued indigenous culture of the maya and peche people, we arrived into this community overflowing with exuberant energy. we arrived really late at night, and as soon as we got here, all these people jumped up on the bus, greeting us, cheering, shaking everyone's hands (waking everyone up who was sleeping, of course), and being generally boisterous and fun. these are the garifuna people, african-descended inhabitants of the caribbean coast -- speaking their own indigenous language, with a culture and tradition completely separate from the mayan-descended people of the central and western parts of the country. everyone here is black -- we might as well be on one of the caribbean islands, the culture is so similar. the dance they held for us was awesome -- drummers and conch shells, tambourines and maraccas and lots of hip-shaking -- during the dance, a woman leaned toward me and said 'the dance is to figure out who you should go to bed with -- that's the point.'

yes.....very different from the modest, quiet folks we saw yesterday. but the struggles are the same. land, always land is the struggle of the people. the garifuna people of sambo creek (named that by spaniards who called the mixed garifuna/miskito people 'sambos') have recently occupied a 13 acre piece of land near this village, and are farming it communally, growing yucca, banana, hibiscus, echinacea and other medicinal plants and crops. we hiked around the land, and up to the river, a beautiful, clear mountain stream that hasn't been contaminated by factory waste or garbage.....they say that is because they control the river, and know that it is a communal resource for all. but right next to their land is a huge, unused plot of fertile land owned by a ladino (rich landowner) who owns dozens such plots and leaves them fallow -- but they aren't allowed to farm that land, which is a much bigger area and much more suited to farming than the 13 acres which they now have, for the owner has a lot of political power. it just seems so damn sick and twisted to me that one man can own a hundred acres and do nothing with it, while 160 people are farming communally a measly 13 acres. just think of what they could do with a hundred!

but their struggle is a legal one, for the most part. they hold popular assemblies, conduct workshops, elect leaders in their traditional way, but they are also trying to gain a legal footing for the rights of garifuna people within the legislative assembly of the state. they managed to have one minor success several years ago, when they got a piece of legislation passed forbidding harassment and arrest of their community leaders during the negotiation of land struggles. up to that point, one of the main problems they had when negotiating with the government is that their leaders would be arrested at a crucial moment in the negotations, rendering the negotiations useless and causing a great deal of trouble for the leaders...(sound familiar? remember angel gutierrez perez in tabasco, mexico?) after the legislation was passed, they still haven't been able to PREVENT the arrests of their leaders, but they have been rather successful at getting the leaders OUT of jail within 24 hours of their arrest.

it's so beautiful here.....the moon was full a couple nights ago, peering out yellow and huge over the honduran mountains....now, looking out over the caribbean sea with the waves rolling in and the breeze gently blowing through this palm-thatched hut, it seems so calm and pleasant....hard to imagine the centuries of hardship these people have had to endure. and even now, it continues. this past year in honduras, four indigenous activists were killed by unknown civilians (probably paramilitaries) -- their killers never found, justice never served.....and yet they continue, all over this country, in the struggle for land and dignity.