Eyewitness report on Chiapas revolt

By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Mike Leach, who visited Mexico in March-April, and toured the Chiapas region during the military crackdown on the Zapatista movement, addressed a Democratic Socialist Party forum here on October 18. In January 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) launched an uprising in the southern province of Chiapas, seizing land and turning it over to local peasant communities. The Mexican federal government has since waged a ruthless campaign against the Zapatistas. Leach gave an eye-witness report of the government repression, including the destruction of people's houses and their farms. He also described the moving scenes of a people's convention, held in Chiapas, which discussed the way forward for the progressive movement in Mexico.

From GLW issue 209