Mexico

Chiapas: Zapatistas expand autonomous territory

In a communiqué entitled "And We Break the Siege," signed by Insurgent Subcomandander Moisès, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas announced an expansion of their zone of autonomous self-governing territory. The statement said the EZLN has created seven new "Caracoles" (regional self-governing bodies) and four new Zapatistas Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ). These 11 new bodies add to the five Caracoles and 27 MAREZ already in existence, bringing to 43 the number of self-governing territories within the Zapatista autonomous zone. The new rebel entities are within the "official" municipalities of Ocosingo, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chilón. Tila, Amatenango del Valle, Motozintla and Chicomuselo. The Zapatistas have named their new campaign of expanding their territory in Chiapas "Samir Flores Soberanes," after the indigenous leader who was assassinated in Morelos state this year. (Photo via Solidarity)

Mexico

Mexico: new security force to Guatemalan border

Junta air-strikes killed over 170 people across Burma in January, a fourfold increase over the previous month, according to an analysis by The Irrawaddy, an independent exile-based newspaper that maintains a network of reporters on the ground. The strikes hit villages, health facilities, a prison and a gold mine in various areas held by the resistance, although most of those killed were civilians. More than 1,800 people have been killed in air-strikes since the February 2021 coup. (Image: The Irrawaddy)

Mexico

Mexico rejects US drug war aid

In Episode 264 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg interviews Kim of New York City's Chinatown Cantonese Toisan group about her efforts to promote Cantonese and Toisan language and culture. Indigenous to China's Guangdong province, these tongues are spoken by millions in a global diaspora. Thanks to the efforts of State Sen. Iwen Chu, Feb. 12 is now Taishan (Toisan) Day in New York state, commemorating the day in 1499, during the Ming Dynasty, that Toisan County was officially created—and honoring the contributions of Toisan immigrants, most notably in the dangerous work of building the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a Toisan man born in San Francisco, Wong Kim Ark, who won the 1898 Supreme Court case that established birthright citizenship as a constitutional right. Yet in China, Cantonese and Toisan are relegated to the status of fangyan (regional dialects) and officially discouraged in favor of Mandarin—leading to protests in provincial capital Guangzhou in 2010. Even in the US, the children's book Coolies, about the Cantonese railroad workers, has been banned from public libraries by local forces of intolerance. Through exhibits, social gatherings and a weekly language class, Kim works to keep Cantonese and Toisan heritage and pride alive in the New York metropolitan area. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Mexico

Mexico: double assassination of indigenous leaders

A group of 40 rights organizations issued a joint statement calling on authorities in Saudi Arabia to release all those unfairly jailed for their online activities before Riyadh hosts the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in December. The organizations stated that the detentions contradict the IGF’s stated values of advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age. They charged that Saudi authorities are subjecting citizens to unprecedented repression, including decades-long prison sentences for expressing critical views online. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Mexico

Mexico remilitarizes drug enforcement

So-called "dissident" FARC factions that have refused to accept the Colombian peace accords and taken refuge across the border in Venezuela now appear to be waging a local insurgency against the Nicolás Maduro regime. A group calling itself the Martin Villa 10th Front announced last month that it had captured eight Venezuelan soldiers during a battle in Apure state, near the Colombian border. Venezuela's National Bolivarian Armed Forces later announced that the soldiers had been freed in a rescue operation. But independent media in Venezuela report that the eight were actually released under terms of a deal negotiated in Cuba. The deal was said to have been brokered with the help of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a second Colombia guerilla group which remains in arms and whose leadership is based in Havana. (Photo of captive soldiers being released via FANB)

Mexico

El Chapo guilty: Mexico’s narco-wars rage on

Notorious narco-lord "Chapo" Guzmán was convicted by a federal jury in New York and faces life in prison. But violence in Mexico has only escalated since his capture. Few media accounts have noted how Chapo and his Sinaloa Cartel rose as militarized narcotics enforcement escalated in Mexico—a trajectory mirrored by the cartels' move from dealing in cannabis to deadly white powders. (Photo: US Coast Guard via Cannabis Now)

Mexico

Indigenous eco-activist slain in Morelos, Mexico

An indigenous environmental activist was killed in Mexico's south-central state of Morelos, three days ahead of a planned referendum on an energy development project that he opposed. Samir Flores Soberanes was a leader of the local Peoples in Defense of Land and Water Front and community radio station Amilzinko. He was slain by unknown gunmen in an attack at his home in the village of Amilcingo, Temoac municipality. He was a longtime figure in local opposition to the planned Huexca power plant and associated natural-gas pipeline, pushed by the government under the Morelos Integral Project. (Photo: Somos el Medio)

Mexico

Mexico: AMLO declares drug war ‘over’ —but is it?

Already officially studying the possibility of cannabis legalization, Mexico's new populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has now announced a formal end to the "war on drugs" that has only seemed to fuel the narco-violence over the past 10 years. However, military troops are still being mobilized for narcotics enforcement from Chiapas to Chihuahua—including marijuana eradication. (Photo: Sexenio)

Mexico

Oil and unrest in Zimbabwe, Mexico

World oil prices remain depressed despite an uptick this month, driven by the Venezuela crisis and fear of US-China trade war. Yet this month also saw Zimbabwe explode into angry protests over fuel prices. The unrest was sparked when the government doubled prices, in an effort to crack down on "rampant" illegal trading. Simultaneously, long lines at gas stations are reported across Mexico—again due to a crackdown on illegal petrol trafficking. Despite all the talk in recent years about how low oil prices are now permanent (mirrored, of course, in the similar talk 10 years ago about how high prices were permanent), the crises in Zimbabwe and Mexico may be harbingers of a coming global shock. (Photo via Amnesty International)

Mexico

Zapatistas vow to oppose López Obrador

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of their New Year's Day 1994 uprising in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, leaders of the Zapatista rebels pledged their opposition to Mexico's new left-populist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Anger was particularly directed at the planned "Maya Train" project, which would link the tourist resort of Cancún on the Caribbean coast with the Palenque archeological site in Chiapas, spearheading a new thrust of tourism mega-development. At the ceremony, held at the rebel-controlled settlement of La Realidad and dubbed the "Meeting of the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion," thousands of supporters from across Mexico gathered to watch Zapatista troops march in formation—although wielding symbolic bastónes (staffs) rather than rifles. (Photo: Pozol)

Mexico

Mexico high court strikes down harsh security law

In a move hailed by human rights groups, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled the recently enacted "military policing" law unconstitutional. The controversial Internal Security Law set a legal framework for employing the national army and navy in place of civilian police forces to combat increasing violence in the country. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed to seek constitutional reform to allow the use of the military in domestic policing actions. (Photo: La Opción de Chihuahua)

Mexico

Tarahumara leader assassinated in Chihuahua

Julián Carrillo Martínez, a Tarahumara indigenous leader at the community of Coloradas de la Virgen, Guadalupe y Calvo municipality, in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state, was assassinated by unknown assailants, according to local advocacy group Alianza Sierra Madre. Carrillo Martínez was leading an effort by Coloradas de la Virgen to recover usurped traditional lands, with a case pending before the Agrarian Tribunal for the local district 5. Community residents were also petitioning Mexico's Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) to halt logging operations in forested areas of the disputed lands. Several community residents have been assassinated in Coloradas de la Virgen since the community began its land recovery effort. (Photo: Amnesty International)