In this edition’s newsbriefs:

20 families are displaced by paramilitary violence in northern Chiapas; Latin American rice producing countries prepare to denounce the US before the WTO; López Obrador supports a controversial dam proposed in Guerrero; and Bush pledges to provide more resources to secure the US border with Mexico.

Forced Displacements Continue in Northern Chiapas

On August 15 the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (FrayBa) held a press conference in San Cristóbal to highlight the case of 20 families forced to flee their homes in Andrés Quintana Roo, in the municipality of Sabanilla, northern Chiapas. The families first abandoned their community in June after receiving constant threats from individuals linked to the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice).

The displaced families all belong to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which caused a conflict in the community, where the great majority belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI has long had ties to Paz y Justicia, and, in the interest of having a 100% PRI community, the paramilitary group began threatening the PRD families.

On June 8 of this year, a family of 10 fled Andrés Quintana Roo after members of Paz y Justicia shot up their house in the middle of the night. The following day 21 other families also sought refuge in the mountains, leaving a total of 122 people without homes. Torrential rains dousing the highlands forced them to return to the community on June 15.

A community member is quoted in FrayBa’s press release as saying “...this is not the first nor the second time that they have treated us like this, but rather for many years they have been screwing us.”

The Commission for Reconciliation of Communities in Conflict in Chiapas intervened in the case, but was unable to facilitate a compromise that would ensure the safety of the PRD families. As a result, 16 families fled the community once again on July 15 and 17.

The most recent displacement occurred on August 2, when four families left Andrés Quintana Roo under threats of violence. All of the families have relocated to Tapijulapa, Tabasco, where they subsist on meager government provisions of rice, crackers and sugar. The cost of living in Tapijulapa is very high for the families, and they worry they will soon run out of resources to provide food, clothing and shelter for themselves.

A representative of the families stated that they no longer wish to return to their homes and are waiting for the government to relocate them, a process that will likely drag on for some time. 20 families, totaling 117 persons, remain permanently displaced due to the conflict.

According to the FrayBa testimony of the account, “(we fled) because of what we saw on June 8 when (Paz y Justicia) fired upon the house of a compañero. Because of this all of us who are now (in Tapijulapa) are still very afraid of them...”

The presence of regional police and military units has done nothing to deter the assailants. “If soldiers arrive, if public security comes, they only dedicate themselves to womanizing, to getting drunk. Just as right now they are once again in Quintana Roo, they say they are they’re drinking along with those from Paz y Justicia, who are their drinking partners,” said one compañero in a statement.

FrayBa ended the press conference by demanding immediate actions by the government to guarantee the safety of the 20 families; an investigation of the attacks and threats reported by the residents of Andrés Quintana Roo; the disarming of Paz y Justicia paramilitaries in the region; and humanitarian aid and assistance for the 117 displaced persons in Tabasco.

Unfortunately, the state government has been slow to react to the situation: “...the government of Chiapas knows what it wants, they say they want solutions to problems, they say when there are deaths, two, three, or four people, then they say ‘Yes, it is a problem,’ and then they will solve it. That is the response of the government. But for us, the solution we have, the solution we have thought of, is that justice must be done, that the guilty must pay...”

Source: Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center

Rice Producers to Denounce US before the WTO

The Latin American Confederation of Rice Producing Countries is preparing to file charges against the government of the United States through the World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to force the US to reduce the amount of subsidies it provides to domestic growers of the grain. While heavily subsidizing its own rice production, the US, which is the third largest exporter of rice in the world, demands that it’s business partners greatly reduce or eliminate subsidies to their producers.

In 2003 the US government provided $1.3 billion in subsidies to rice producers, an amount that covered 72% of the cost of production of the rice crop that year. As a result of continued subsidies, US farmers are able to sell their rice at below-market prices, a practice known as dumping, and one that gives US farmers an unfair advantage over their foreign competitors.

In fact, this practice is technically discouraged under international financial agreements and institutions such as NAFTA and the WTO. This technicality has done little to discourage the US government from continuing to subsidize agricultural production, including that of rice.

Pedro Díaz Hartz, vice president of the Confederation declared that these unfair practices carried out by the US have decreased the value of rice production in countries such as Mexico and Uruguay by up to 50%. Díaz Hartz claims that the drop in prices has caused farmers to abandon their fields and forced many to migrate in search of work. The dumping of US rice in Latin American markets has left 500,000 producers facing bankruptcy.

According to Díaz Hartz, the Confederation was formed on August 3 of this year and is made up of 20 rice-producing countries. The Confederation seeks to protect local production of rice in its member countries, as almost all of them have become rice importers, accepting the grain from Asia and rich nations such as the US.

Sources: La Jornada, The New Farm

AMLO Supports Controversial La Parota Dam Project in Guerrero

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), PRD pre-candidate for the Mexican presidency, is in favor of La Parota, a controversial dam proposed in the state of Guerrero. In a press conference at the end of August, the ex-Mayor of Mexcio City declared his support for the hydroelectric project because it is a “public work that is necessary for the country.” AMLO went on to say that he doesn’t have all the information on the venture, but that he will study the subject.

Members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to La Parota (CECOP) expressed their disapproval of AMLO’s support for the dam. Representing 30 communities from the Parotillas region that will be affected by La Parota, CECOP recently began collecting signatures to demand the annulment of the San Marcos Assembly, which approved the initiation of the expropriation of 42,000 acres for the project.

Marco Antonio Suástegui, spokesperson for CECOP lamented that “just as they keep President Vicente Fox misinformed, we see, with sadness, that now they also want to mislead the ex-Mayor of the Federal District (Mexico City).” Suástegui went on to speculate that AMLO’s support for La Parota could lead to abstentions among the group’s constituents in next year’s elections.

Community opposition to La Parota has been strong, and there have been several marches to protest it. Members of the affected communities maintain five roadblocks in the Parotillas region to impede the passage of personnel from the Federal Electricty Commission (CFE) and also state and federal police agencies.

Suástegui himself was arrested in the municipality of Acapulco on July 27 of this year by the Judicial Police for his activism against the dam. He was detained just days after Victor Hugo Chávez Chávez, President of Social Affairs for the CFE in Acapulco, threatened to arrest those who oppose La Parota Dam.

On July 28, the one-year anniversary of the resistance movement against La Parota, CECOP issued a press release detailing Suástegui’s arrest, and the detention of three other campesinos in the community of La Garrapata some weeks earlier. The document also professed knowledge of outstanding apprehension orders against six members of the group Social and Ecologist Activists Against La Parota Dam.

The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), an armed group active in Guerrero, urged those campesinos living in the areas affected by the dam to defend their lands from expropriation by the CFE. In a two-page communiqué, the EPR command stated that the approval of the La Parota project in the San Marcos Assembly was illegal.

The document continues: “La Parota is nothing more than authoritarian, it is the continuation of the plan of privatization by the national oligarchy, it is the continuation of the plundering of the few lands that the campesinos still possess.”

For his part, AMLO professed confidence in Guerrero Governor Zeferino Torreblanca, stating “I know (Torreblanca) will secure a settlement, an agreement, so that there will not be affectations and at the same time this work that is necessary for the country will continue.”

Sources: Chiapas Indymedia, La Jornada, El Universal, El Sur (Acapulco). 29 de agosto del 2005, López Obrador, a favor de La Parota

Bush Pledges to Reinforce US Border with Mexico

George W. Bush interrupted his vacation last week to give speeches in Arizona and California, where he pledged to establish stricter controls along the US border with Mexico. Although he did not mention them specifically, Bush’s remarks were certainly prompted by the declaration of a state of emergency along the border by the governors of Arizona and New Mexico three weeks ago, as well as the criticisms of anti-immigrant groups such as the Minuteman Project.

“I understand the challenge of securing our border,” he stated in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. “My promise to the people of California is that the federal government will work closely with state and local governments to provide resources, personnel and detention centers to fulfill our duty, which is to be sure that our border is secure.”

Bush failed to touch upon his embattled proposal for migration reform, nor did he make any reference to the need for a guest worker program. He limited his statements to the theme of border security, which many see as evidence of the success that anti-immigrant groups have had in defining the terms of the debate. They have shifted the focus away from proposed legislation that recognizes the needs and contributions of immigrants and towards the narrow scope of the need for beefing up security at the frontier zone.

Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico, and his counterpart in Arizona, Janet Napolitano, claim they issued their declarations to draw attention to the lack of action by the federal government in a crisis that they are unable to solve at the state level. The major factors of this crisis are the surge in crime-related violence along the border and the operation of gangs involved in trafficking immigrants to the US. Given Bush's remarks, it appears that his proposed solution is to merely increase the militarization of the already heavily fortified border.

According to the National Forum on Migration, a network of groups that support migration reform, "the declarations of emergency have given urgency to the debate. Governors Napolitano and Richardson, together with migrant communities and Americans who are in favor of the bill want to see a realistic and just immigration system. Now is the time for Congress to realize this and push the reform forward."

Despite the violence that plagues the frontier, Ernesto Derbez of the Mexican Tourism Department stated last week that the flow of tourists visiting the country has actually increased. He also claimed that the US is now convinced of the need to cooperate with Mexico to resolve the problems at the shared border. According to Derbez, the two nations are launching the Oasis program, a joint project to combat the criminal organizations that traffic immigrants from Central America and Mexico to the US.

Sources: La Jornada:  http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/08/31/018n1pol.php
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/08/31/019n1pol.php