[Announce-DAN] John Ross, Chiapas Update, Recommended Actioins

["david martin" <p_hayze@hotmail.com>]

In this email:
1. Event Announcement for "On The Road with John Ross"
2. Update on the Possibilities for Peace in Chiapas
3. Recommended Actions

EVENTS

Journalist, author, poet, and activist John Ross brings his newest
handiwork "The War Against Oblivion - Zapatista Chronicles
1994-2000", the season-by-season, six and a half year saga of the
rebellion in Chiapas, to Denver and Boulder.

A sequel to Ross's American Book Award-winning "Rebellion From
the Roots" (1995), the new volume tells the story of the Zapatista
uprising from January 1st, 1994 when the Mayan rebels rose in the
first hours of the North American Free Trade Agreement, through the
history-wrenching July 2nd, 2000 presidential elections that separated
the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) from power
for the first time in seven decades.

IN DENVER

Friday Evening - February 9th
9:30 pm - MERCURY CAFÉ - 22nd & California, Book Signing & Poetry
Night

Saturday - February 10th

1:00 - 2:00 - TATTERED COVER CHERRY CREEK BOOKSTORE - 2955 East 1st
Ave.- Presentation and Book Signing

6:00 pm - ? - THE HUMAN BEAN COMPANY - 218 South Broadway - Informal
Evening With John Ross and Friends


IN BOULDER

Thursday - February 8th
12:00 - 2:00 - FORUM ROOM - UMC - University of Colorado -
Presentation and Book Signing

7:30 pm - LEFT HAND BOOK STORE - 1200 Pearl St. - downstairs -
Presentation and Book Signing

Friday - February 9
12 NOON - UMC Forum Room - UMC- Univ. of Colorado

Ross will speak on "Globalization or Gobble-zation: Mexico's
Embattled Environment." In this free event, Ross plans to speak on
how the globalization of resource exploitation is driving human
rights, agrarian, and environmental struggles together in Mexico.

He will show the brief film "Defending Our Forests," which details
the fate of environmental prisoners Rodolfo Montiel Flores and
Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, who helped organize campesinos in southern
Mexico against the rapid deforestation of their land by U.S. logging
firm Boise Cascade, and for their efforts were tortured and jailed by
the Mexican government.


UPDATE

(Sources: www.sipaz.org and www.mexicosolidarity.org)

On December 2, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) broke
a five-month silence with a press conference. Indicating that the new
administration represents an opportunity for a new era in peace
efforts, the EZLN listed three conditions for resuming peace talks:
fulfillment of the 1996 San Andres Accords (signed but never
implemented by the Zedillo administration); release of Zapatista
political prisoners; closing of seven specific military bases in the
area of greatest Zapatista influence.

Signaling the importance he attaches to the unresolved conflict,
President Fox ordered the dismantling of 53 military checkpoints in
the conflict area on the very day of his inauguration. In most cases,
the dismantling of checkpoints ordered by Fox meant that the soldiers
simply retreated to their camps at the side of the road. Nor,
apparently, were all the checkpoints definitively removed.

However, Fox's action did result in a significant change in the lives
of many Indians who no longer had to face interrogation and
harassment on a daily basis. Fox ruled out further troop withdrawals
pending "a signal from the other side in order to restart the
dialogue."

In an interview with the La Jornada newspaper and prestigious
journalists Carmen Aristegui and Javier Solórzano, Zapatista
spokesperson Subcommandate Marcos said that he believed peace was
now "closer than it was during the Cathedral dialogues of 1994,"
largely because there has been a "very profound change in society,"
as measured by the election of an opposition government on July 2,
2000.

However, Marcos warned that of the three conditions which Fox
promised to honor for a resumption of dialogue - withdrawal of
the army from seven out of nearly 250 military positions in
Chiapas, liberation of the Zapatista political prisoners, and
implementation of the 1996 San Andrés Accords on Indigenous
Rights and Culture - only four military positions have been
dismantled, only 18 prisoners released (80 remain imprisoned),
and congressional approval of the San Andrés Accords appears
remote.

Marcos says that while Fox speaks of having "honored" the
Zapatista conditions, saying it is now "the EZLN's turn" to
respond and open negotiations with the government, in fact the
eighteen Zapatista prisoners who have been released were those
only facing charges by the state government, and were released
by Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía.  Most of the rest
face federal charges, and Fox has not lifted a finger to push
for their release, said Marcos. Nor has he, as Commander-in-Chief,
moved to dismantle the military encampments at Guadalupe Tepeyac, Río
Euseba, and La Garrucha.

And with respect to the San Andrés Accords, all Fox did was introduce
the legislative version of the accords, the COCOPA proposal, to the
Senate. He has since made no move to push for the proposal's approval,
saying instead that "I've done my part, there's the law, end of
story." The Zapatista leadership plans to march to Mexico City from
Chiapas (leaving Feb. 24 and arriving March 10) to lobby the Mexican
Congress to pass the COCOPA proposal in order to implement the San
Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture.

Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada continued his path of
contradictory declarations with respect to the Zapatista march and
the peace process in general. While attending the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he referred to rebel
leader "Subcomandante Marcos" as "Rafael Sebastian Guillén Vicente,"
a tactic often used by the past Zedillo administration whenever they
wanted to "get tough" with the Zapatistas.  But then he added that he
was "inviting" the rebel leader to sign a peace accord upon arriving in
Mexico City. "The only thing we want," said Fox, "is peace, peace,
peace."

Earlier in Davos, Fox announced what seemed to be a declaration
of support for the Zapatista march, saying investors "should not
be concerned" with the journey of the EZLN commanders and that
his administration will "make sure" that the march ends with the
initiation of a formal dialogue between the government and the
rebels.  COCOPA member and PAN deputy Fernando Pérez Noriega,
however, insisted that Fox's statement was only made to "calm"
nervous investors, and didn't in fact express Fox's true
position with respect to the Zapatista march.

In conclusion, the actions of the Fox administration have created new
momentum in peace efforts. Yet it is too early to gauge the strength
of the administration's commitment to a just and lasting peace.

RECOMMENDED ACTION

1. Write President Fox:

Express appreciation to President Fox for his initial steps on the
San Andres Accords, the release of prisoners and troop withdrawals.

Noting the lack of consensus in Congress on the COCOPA proposal,
encourage him to make the effort necessary to ensure approval of
implementing legislation that is consistent with both the letter and
the spirit of the San Andres Accords.

Recalling that he has pledged to make the needs of the poor his top
priority, call on him to act boldly and courageously to establish the
conditions necessary for renewing peace talks in Chiapas, including
additional troop withdrawals and release of prisoners.

Dialogue is the only viable means of establishing a just and lasting
peace.

Lic. Vicente Fox
Presidente de la República
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos
Colonia San Miguel Chapultepec
Delegación Miguel Hidalgo
11850 México, DF - México
Fax: (+52) (5) 515 1794

Send an email to the President of Mexico at webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx

2. Write the US Congress:

On January 30, a first step was taken towards ending a policy that
imposes U.S.-style militarized drug policies on Latin America and
offends U.S. allies.  A bipartisan group of Senators introduced
legislation to suspend the annual drug certification process and
explore alternatives to the unilateral policy.  Your vocal support
for an end to certification will be important for the success of the
bill.

Since 1986, the White House has been required to certify by March 1st
whether major drug producing and trafficking countries are
cooperating with U.S. anti-drug policy.  Any country that is not
certified faces sanctions, including withdrawal of U.S. aid not
directly related to anti-narcotics programs.

The U.S. government uses certification as leverage to pressure Latin
American countries to adopt the U.S. model of treating the illegal
drug problem as primarily a law enforcement matter and depending
heavily on the military.  Certification has been applied in arbitrary
ways, proving in effective.  In fact, it has been counterproductive.
The hypocrisy of the policy - the U.S. is the number one consumer of
illegal drugs - outrages Latin American governments and citizens and
undermines cooperation on human rights, the environment, immigration,
commerce and other key issues.

We now have a unique opportunity to change this policy.  There is
growing criticism of certification among Members of Congress, policy-
makers are developing greater trust in Latin American leaders like
President Fox of Mexico and President Pastrana of Colombia, and
President Bush has stated that one of his foreign policy priorities
is to build cooperative relationships with Latin America.

President Bush is travelling to Mexico on February 16 to meet with
President Fox.  A strong show of support for the legislation during
prior to that meeting will be critical in pushing Bush to speak out
against certification while he is in Mexico.

The co-sponsors of the bill, S.219, are Senators Christopher Dodd (D-
CT), John McCain (R-AZ), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Ernest Hollings (D-
SC). Additional co-sponsors are the best way to demonstrate the level
of support for the legislation.

Write Senator Allard:

Office of Senator Allard
513 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington , D.C. 20510
202-224-5941
fax: 202-224-6471
www.senate.gov (http://allard.senate.gov/contactme/index.cfm)

Tell him to Co-sponsor Senate bill S.219 to suspend the annual
certification process, because certification:

1. reduces cooperation and is ineffective;
2. is hypocritical and offends U.S. allies; and
3. imposes a MILITARIZED DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY

Instead of certification:

1. A multilateral policy should begin to replace the unilateral policy
2. International drug policy should help provide economic
alternatives to peasants, reform judicial systems and curb money
laundering.
3. There should be more support for programs to reduce the demand for
drugs in the United States through treatment and prevention.

_________________________________________________________________
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