Countywide : Zapatista Supporters Protest U.S. Actions

Orange County Chicano activists have begun a campaign in which they are calling on the public to become more aware of events in Chiapas, Mexico.

The activists, mostly from Brown Berets de Aztlan, made up of Chicano rights advocates, held a rally Saturday in front of the federal building in Santa Ana, where they denounced U.S. intervention in Mexico and urged support for the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

“We are asking for the suspension of the $50-billion loan the U.S. gave to the Mexican government because . . . of the human rights abuses against the indigenous people of Chiapas,” said Tony Garcia, an organizer who is leading the Orange County Zapatista sympathy movement.

Garcia said the purpose of the campaign is to enlighten people about the armed rebellion of the Zapatistas, who say they represent the grievances of Chiapas’ rural poor, mostly Indian population. Strong public pressure is the only way to prevent a blood bath in Chiapas, he said.

“We need to support the indigenous people because they’re being murdered and their lands are being scorched by the Mexican Army,” said Seferino Garcia, another pro-Zapatista organizer.

On Jan. 1 and 2, 1994, Zapatista rebels took control of four Mexican towns, leading to a military confrontation in which at least 65 people were killed.

Seferino Garcia labeled the Mexican government’s recent decision to send troops into Chiapas a concession to U.S. and Mexican interests behind a $50-billion loan guarantee program that has helped stabilize Mexico’s faltering peso.

Mexican authorities have said there is no connection. President Ernesto Zedillo last month called the military advance a police action designed to prevent the spread of violence, and accused the Zapatistas of conspiring to spread their revolution throughout Mexico.

The rebels earlier this month sought a law to open new dialogue for peace in Chiapas but said they will not resume talks with the government unless the army pulls back to positions it held Feb. 8, before Zedillo cracked down on the armed peasant movement.

Local Zapatista sympathizers said they are planning another demonstration next month.