A-Infos (en) Mexico, Chiapas, La Otra Campamento Cucapa

The Zapatistas' Sixth Commission, the arm of the Zapatista Army of 
National Liberation (EZLN) with the responsibility of participating in 
Mexico's Other Campaign, is preparing its next steps...as are many other 
Mexican and international adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the 
Lacandon Jungle . One of these initiatives is being dubbed "La Otra 
Campamento Cucapa". Check the call-out below to see what Other Campaign 
adherents in Mexico's northwest and the USA's southwest, along with the 
EZLN and members of Mexico's National Indigenous Congress, are preparing 
for '07... --- La Otra Campamento Cucapa -- On Oct 15 - 20, 2006, The 
Other Campaign, a transnational initiative spearheaded by the EZLN, made 
stops in San Quintin (Triqui & Mixtecos), San Jose de la Zorra (Kumiai), 
Ensenada, Tijuana, Mexicali and El Mayor (Cucapah), all cities and 
communities in Baja California. After witnessing the neglect, abuse, 
mistreatment and systematic isolation of indigenous communities in Baja 
California, Subcomandante Marcos (aka Delegado Zero) announced that 
after carefully analzying the situation in Baja, something, anything had 
to be done to stop the overall extermination of indigenous communities 
in Baja at the hands of the Mexican Government.

During Delegado Zero's visit, on Oct, 17, 2006 to San Jose de la Zorra, 
a Kumiai community, he along with members on the CNI (Indigenous 
National Congress) and elders of the Kumiai proposed the first 
Intercontinental Indigenous Gathering for Oct. 12th of 2007 at a 
location in northwestern Mexico (that is still to be determined). 
Delegado Zero said the following:

   Let's invite the indigenous people of Canada and the United States 
and let's invite the indigenous people of South America and Central 
America, and let's come from all parts of the continent to this 
indigenous zone in the Northwest to say that we are here, and let's tell 
our story. And it doesn't matter if they pay attention to us or not, 
because we're going to pay attention to each other.

Consequently, he arrived on Oct 20th, 2006 in the Indigenous Community 
of El Mayor, home to the Cucapah, an indigenous group native to the 
Mexicali region of Baja California. After listening to members of the 
Cucapah community speak of abuses by the Mexican Government, Delegado 
Zero made another proposal similar to the one proposed in San Juan de la 
Zorre. This last proposal during his trip in Baja California discussed 
the ways in which the Cucapah have been stripped of their ancestral 
rights to fish, one of the last traditions they still hold. Many of 
their customs have been killed off by the capitalist machines from the 
U.S. and Mexico. For instance, the rivers near the Cucapah are drying 
out because of dams that have been built on the US side of the Colorado 
River, which in turn, water NAFTA's cash crops in the US and are 
eventually sold back to Mexico at a much higher cost than if they would 
have been grown in Mexicali. Flora & fauna that once fed the Cucapah no 
longer exist because the river no longer provides nourishment for the 
land. Due to this, fishing in the area has been privatized and sold off 
to corporations who abuse the waters and over-fish protected areas. 
Ironically, it is the Cucapah who are used as scapegoats and blamed for 
the mistreatment of the waters and thus denied their indigenous rights 
to work the land and fish the waters they have occupied for thousands of 
years.

The government has systematically tried to kill off their culture by 
imposing an educational system that denies the preservation of their 
culture and traditions. The Mexican and Baja governments have also 
raided the natural resources of the communities by supporting and 
imposing so-called community leaders that have periodically sold off 
communal land to foreign companies to strip it clean of it's natural 
resources with no benefit to the Cucapah.
Extremely high electricity rates are forced onto the community even 
though a Geothermal electric plant exists on Cucapah land, again the 
community doesn't benefit from these neoliberal mega projects in or near 
their land.

Twenty years ago after a dam on the US side broke and flooded the rivers 
& valleys, the Cucapah were forced to relocate to where they now live 
and were given by the government cancerous materials to build houses and 
due to that many of the Cucapah now find themselves with cancer and 
respiratory problems from the asbestos lined materials. Some have sadly 
died from this as well. The biggest insult of all, is that the 
government of Baja claims there are no indigenous communities in Baja 
and some of those with "Indigenous Certificates" claiming indigenous 
rights and land are not indigenous.

The struggle of the Cucapah encompasses as a whole the struggle of the 
indigenous communities throughout Mexico and it is because of this that 
Delegado Zero, along with the Cucapah Indigenous Community of El Mayor, 
proposes inviting adherents to the sixth declaration of the lacandon 
jungle to come to El Mayor and set up camp. A camp that will help 
preserve and revitalize traditions and customs that are almost extinct 
within the Cucapah and other communities such as the Kiliwa who recently 
announced a "death pact" of no longer bearing children because their 
culture and people had been exploited to the brink of extinction by the 
Mexican Government. Along with that the camp will serve as a safe space 
in which humanitarian brigades will accompany the Cucapah and assist 
with fishing. This will be a camp that will reach out to other 
indigenous communities and help with establishing the ways and means for 
self-sufficiency, autonomy and prosperity.

You are no longer being asked to stand in solidarity with the indigenous 
people of Mexico. Now you are being asked to play an integral role in a 
bi-national effort that will no longer consist of only resisting but 
also help these communities exist and live as they have for thousand of 
years. To help reestablish the networks and relations that existed 
before borders separated families and communities, and to help expose 
these atrocities to a world that has avoided looking at the price of 
it's excess, comfort and luxury.

For more information and to participate in the Cucapa Camp please go to 
the official blogspot of the Cucapah and La Otra transfronteriza at 
pecesenredcucapa.blogspot.com

Que Viva los Pueblos Cucapahs! Que Viva los Pueblos Indigenas de Baja 
California y de Mexico! Que Viva el Congreso Nacional Indigena! Y, Que 
Viva La Otra Campana!
http://zapagringo.blogspot.com/2007/01/other-campaign-07-part-1-cucapa-camp.html
--
the ankle bone, connected to the thigh bone ;)
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