Zapatista Supporters Deliver Peace Ballots
Supporters of Zapatista rebels delivered 15,554 symbolic ballots to the Mexican Consulate on Wednesday as part of a worldwide referendum in support of the uprising in the state of Chiapas.
The balloting took place on all continents, organizers said. The referendum addressed the Mexican political system, military, and the rights of 10 million indigenous Mexicans.
“The people here in the U.S. are not going to sit quiet about indigenous rights in Mexico,” said Jennifer Sanchez of the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico. “We want an end to the war of extermination.”
The conflict in the southern state of Chiapas has been ongoing since January 1994, when an insurgent army came forward to assert the rights of Mexico’s Maya Indians and to rail against the emerging global economy.
Mexican Consul General Jose Pescador Osuna promised to deliver the ballots to the Mexican government, which last week declared the vote “absurd. “
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