By Norm Dixon
MADRID — Among the thousands of activists attending the recent Alternative Forum: The Other Voices of the Planet conference here was writer Darrin Wood. Wood recently visited Chiapas, Mexico, with a team of committed film makers. The result is a powerful and dramatic documentary about the conditions of life of the indigenous people that led them, as the backbone of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), to rise in revolt against the Mexican government on January 1.
"When the Zapatista rebellion hit the front pages of newspapers all over the world, my companions and I — we are a team that makes videos for NGOs, human rights organisations, and groups fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples — were very interested", Wood told Green Left Weekly over several cups of cafe con leche. "We decided to try to make a documentary."
With financial and moral support from NGOs in Mexico — most importantly the Chiapas-based human rights group, CONPAZ — Switzerland and Spain, the team was able to start the project in May. "Our idea was not so much to tell the story of the Zapatistas. What we wanted to do was to tell the story from the point of view of an indigenous community which, as we speak, is behind the lines and encircled by the Mexican army.
"We wanted to tell the story from the viewpoint of the people themselves, the people who are suffering the most but who are the people who have the most to gain."
That community is Ejido Morelia. "An ejido is land which is owned and worked collectively following the customs of their people", Wood explained. After passing through Mexican army roadblocks, the team was able to live with the community for several weeks, filming how they live, interviewing community elders and learning the reasons behind the Zapatista revolution.
Until January 1 "the patrones — the big landowners — forced the indigenous people to work as virtual slaves, working three weeks of the month for the landowner, and only one week each month on their own land ... They would be paid just 10 pesos per day for their work which works out at US$3 for 12-hour days of incredibly hard work in the fields every day of the week." The Zapatista rebellion was seen as their liberation, Wood said.
In the first days of the uprising, army airplanes and helicopters bombed near the village, causing panic among the people. Luckily no-one was killed in these attacks.
Army abuses
"The Mexican army entered the village on January 7. They took all the men of the village and forced them to lie face down on a basketball court in the centre of the village. Many members of the village were taken to the church, interrogated and tortured. Three elders of the village were tortured very severely, and the last time they were seen, they were bleeding profusely. They were taken away by the army with 33 other people, eight of them in helicopters and the rest in trucks. All returned except for the three who were tortured the most.
"A month or two later, their bones were found near Morelia, not the complete skeletons but parts — the jaw of one man, parts of the arm of another — along with the clothes they were wearing. The killers mixed the human bones with animal bones. Losing three of their elders in this way was a very hard blow to the people."
Despite saying it "might" investigate the killings, the Mexican government has done nothing. Human rights groups in the US and Mexico have provided medical examiners to conduct forensic studies on the bones to try to positively identify the bones as those of the village elders.
Following the cease-fire between the Zapatistas and the government, the army withdrew from Morelia. However, the village remains surrounded. Tanks and artillery are stationed at the roadblock closest to the village, and there is a helicopter base nearby. These positions, Wood explains, "mark the zone between the Mexican army and the Zapatista army, although the Zapatista army is not in Morelia, being much farther south.
"Only the women can pass through the lines to get things from the outside such as medicines. The men cannot because they are afraid they will be accused of being members of the Zapatista army and tortured and killed. Even though I say the women can pass, that's not true, because in June three women were raped by 30 members of the Mexican army at the roadblock. Obviously human rights violations haven't stopped after the cease-fire.
"There has also been a lot of activity in the area by the Guardia Blancas, paramilitary death squads working for the landowners who have killed indigenous leaders and peasant leaders in the area. They are not active on the Zapatista side of the line because they are afraid of the Zapatistas."
This roadblock also provided the film makers with several hours of nervous waiting when they first sought to enter Morelia. "We had to pass through four or five roadblocks before we entered Zapatista territory. At each we had to show our papers and press passes. The worst roadblock was the last one. We all had to exit the car. The men were forced to stand against the wall and spread their legs and arms and the troops frisked us very thoroughly. The women were not frisked, which is kind of strange considering that 35% of the EZLN is made up women, including many of the commanders.
"We were then forced to empty everything that we had in the car, all of our baggage, cameras, open them and let the Mexican army look through absolutely everything — from underwear to rolls of film. We were forced to wait there for several hours in the sun while they did God-knows-what with our papers. I am a US citizen, so maybe they were calling the US embassy. My companions were Spanish citizens so maybe they were calling Madrid.
"They were very interested to know what we were doing. We told them we were just going to do some filming on nutrition programs in Morelia or some such story we worked up."
Wide support
After several weeks with the people of Ejido Morelia, Wood told Green Left Weekly, it was plain that the Zapatistas had the full support of the indigenous people and peasants of the area. "According to the Zapatistas, they have been in the jungle for 10 years preparing. In that time, they have built strong links with peasants and indigenous communities. After the rebellion of January 1 it is very obvious that the peasants and indigenous people are very much in support of the Zapatistas.
"The indigenous people speak of commandant Marcos and the Zapatistas with pride. Someone, after so many years, is finally doing something with and for them. The overwhelming majority of the Zapatistas are indigenous people, and the overwhelming majority of commanders are indigenous people. The whole political structure of the EZLN is based on the indigenous communities. Zapatista leaders are elected by the communities."
Wood said the EZLN was poorly armed. There was evidence that the US government is supplying weapons to defeat the Zapatistas, he added. Wood saw Zapatista fighters armed only with .22 rifles. "The helicopters the Mexican army is using against the Zapatistas, the indigenous people and the peasants are sent by the US supposedly as part of the campaign to combat drug traffickers."
Wood hopes that the documentary will be distributed widely throughout the world. On October 22, the film will be launched in Madrid at a function hosted by Spain's left-wing trade union federation. CONPAZ leader Roger Maldonado will attend, as will Amado Avedeno, the Revolutionary Democratic Party's candidate for governor of Chiapas.
Wood expressed the hope that independent movie houses in Australia, and possibly SBS television, would agree to screen the film. "The struggle of the indigenous people in Australia is very well known here in Spain. I'm sure people in Australia active in the indigenous struggle would be interested to see how the indigenous people struggle in Mexico."