Mexican human rights activist Ernesto Ledesma will expose the serious attacks being made on the indigenous Zapatista communities in Mexico, when he speaks in Edinburgh on Wednesday 16th April. “Paramilitaries and Mexican state forces are both involved in grave violations of human rights in the indigenous villages in Chiapas, Mexico,” explained Esther McDonald of the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group, who have organised the meeting,to be held at 8pm on Wednesday in the Augustine church, George IV Bridge. Ernesto Ledesma works for the human rights organisation CAPISE. Based in the heart of the conflict zone, CAPISE not only research and document infringements of civil liberties, they also send human rights observers to the villages under threat. Ernesto will give a first-hand account of some of the many recent dramatic developments. On 1st February 2008 a father and son from the Zapatista community of Vetel Yochib were attacked by police while travelling to help build a Peace Camp for human rights observers. The police shot the father in the foot, then took them both to the Playas de Catajaza prison near Palenque. There they were tortured for seven hours. Only after vigorous protests by the Zapatista authorities and human rights groups, were they freed after a week in prison. Five armed police entered the Zapatista village of Bolon Ajaw on 21st February, firing shots in the air. The villagers mobilised, forcing them to retreat, but not before they had badly beaten two women with their gun butts. These are only two of many different attacks, some of which involve whole villages being violently evicted. The repression in Chiapas has led to many people being unjustly imprisoned. Ernesto will report on the hungerstrike by over 30 political prisoners in Chiapas, which within the last few days has led to some of these prisoners being released. “The attacks on the Zapatista villages are not isolated events, but part of a strategy coming from the highest levels of the Mexican state,” explained Esther McDonald. “Those in power are scared that the autonomous communities created by the zapatistas will encourage other oppressed people to take power into their own hands.” Following the Zapatista’s dramatic armed uprising on 1st January 1994, Zapatista civilians took over hundreds of estates owned by big landowners. There are now over one thousand autonomous “communities in resistance”, with their own health clinics, schools, and decision-making structures, all based on communally controlled land. The Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group is twinned with 40 Zapatista villages known as Autonomous Municipality 16th February, and have raised over £15,000 for their health clinic and primary schools – vital resources in a region suffering desperate poverty. The new Mexican State Attack against Zapatista communities Speaker: Ernesto Ledesma, from CAPISE human rights group, San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico. 8pm Wed 16 April at the Augustine United Church, 14 George IV Bridge, central Edinburgh Admission Free (donations welcome) More info edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk

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