Chiapas Youth Media Project Needs Your Help
The first phase of an important new project to protect human rights in the Mexican state of Chiapas was successfully completed last month despite the abduction, jailing and expulsion from the country of one of the project's founders, Tom Hansen.
Over 60% of the population of Chiapas - Mexico's southernmost and poorest state - are Indians. Many have had their land taken by rich land owners and cattle ranchers and have suffered longstanding discrimination and repression. In January 1994, the Chiapas-based Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) launched a rebellion calling for democracy and justice for all Mexicans. The Mexican government responded with military attacks and continuing low-intensity warfare on indigenous communities in the region.
Hansen and a group of 17 people from the U.S. and Mexico arrived in Chiapas on Feb. 16 for a one week trip. The group delivered 11 donated video cameras and a complete video-editing suite and conducted training workshops for two dozen young people in the indigenous communities of Morelia and Oventic. The project's long-term goal is to provide the Indians of Chiapas with the tools and training to document their culture and history as well as human rights abuses they are suffering at the hands of the Mexican military and right-wing paramilitary groups.
(The power of video was demonstrated in January when state police killed an Indian woman and wounded her two-year-old child in Ocosingo. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon, and the perpetrators usually go unpunished. However, in this case a television crew captured the murder on video. Within 24 hours, all 27 members of the police team were arrested.)
The trip took place in an atmosphere of tension brought about by last December's massacre by the paramilitary group Mascara Roja (Red Mask) of 45 Indians in Actéal. Since then, human rights groups have reported an increase in abuses by government military and security forces and private paramilitary groups. Military roadblocks and immigration checkpoints are common in the conflict zones as part of the government's effort to harass and expel foreigners.
A PATTERN OF HARRASSMENT
Hansen, who since 1995 has organized about 20 humanitarian aid and technical assistance programs for indigenous communities in Chiapas, was the fourth foreigner to be expelled from Mexico in the last two weeks.
While shopping for supplies in the town of Altamirano with other members of the group, Hansen, ex-director of Pastors for Peace, was grabbed by Mexican immigration officials. Hansen said he was interrogated for about three hours and threatened by immigration officials and State Security Police. He was given no explanation as to why he was being held, and was not allowed to call the U.S. Embassy. After spending the night in a jail cell in Mexico City, he was put on a plane for Miami. Several other U.S. members of the group were also questioned by immigration officials.
It is clear that the Mexican government wants to send a message that these kinds of projects are not welcome. Expelling Tom Hansen is part of a pattern of selective deportation of foreigners designed to further isolate and impoverish the indigenous communities of Chiapas.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The intercultural project is funded by Mexican and U.S. organizations, among them the Trusteeship for Mexican-U.S. Culture, the Peace Development Fund, and the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund. The response from several members of U.S. Congress, video makers from both countries and individuals has been enthusiastic.
Despite harassment from Mexican authorities the group was able to complete important work on this first Youth Media Project trip to Chiapas. In Morelia, more than a dozen participants from several indigenous communities attended three days of morning and afternoon workshops, combining classroom learning with hands-on camera work. The student's final assignment was to make a short narrative video. On the last night in Morelia these videos were shown to a large and enthusiastic audience of people from the surrounding communities and a 50-member delegation of the International Commission of Human Rights Observers (who were in Chiapas gathering testimony from indigenous communities about human rights abuses). When the lights went out and the first video began, U.S. and Mexican members of the Chiapas Youth Media Project were moved and thrilled to watch images made by young people who had never seen a video camera before the workshops began.
In March, a delegation of inner-city youth from Chicago trained in video skills will travel to Mexico to give a ten-day intensive course in video editing to Indian youth in Chiapas. The workshop will enable these young people to use the medium of video to express the customs, problems and hopes of both their cultures. Another U.S.-Mexican group will travel to Chiapas in late April bringing more video equipment and giving workshops.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Donate your new or used VHS camcorder. Include working batteries, battery charger and if possible, a case. Send to: The Chiapas Youth Media Project, 4834 N. Springfield, Chicago, IL 60625; phone: 773-583-7728 or e-mail: alex2051@xsite.net. If you don' t have equipment to donate consider making a tax-deductable gift to The Chiapas Youth Media Project/NNEF so that they can buy more video cameras and equipment.
Contact your elected representatives and ask them to condemn in writing the expulsion of Tom Hansen and other foreigners involved in humanitarian aid and human rights work in Mexico. Ask them to send the letter to Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Demand that the Mexican government provide the appropriate visas for people doing this kind of work. Ask for a copy of their letter and send it to The Chiapas Youth Media Project.
Become a member of a peacemaking team in one of the indigenous communities with the Michigan Faith and Resistance Peace Team. Call 517-484-3178 or e-mail: michpeacteam@igc.apc.org.
Phyllis Ponvert traveled to Chiapas Feb.16-23 with The Chiapas Youth Media Project. She may be reached locally at 662-9186.