THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF CHIAPAS : TOURIST DEVELOPMENT, MINING, “BIO”FUELS, AND NOW OIL

1. OIL

What Hermann Bellinghausen calls the ‘four horsemen of Chiapas’ have come into focus again with the announcement that Pemex are to start prospecting and drilling for oil in the Lacandon Jungle, among other areas in the Mexican South-East. In 2009, private companies will be invited to tender for this work. During her visit to Chiapas, the Mexican Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel predicted that the Chiapas oilfields could be producing 500,000 barrels of oil a day from 17,000 new wells by 2021. The Zapatistas have always predicted that this prospecting would happen, especially in their heartland area of La Garrucha, invaded by the Mexican army in June 2008. The announcement generated opposition from indigenous communities, and two days later, Ms Kessel denied her previous statement: “I never said there were going to be oil explorations in the Selva Lacandona”. When asked where Pemex’s new refinery would be situated, she replied that this was a ‘highly technical’ matter.

This article was produced for the UK Zapatista Solidarity Network for a meeting to be held at the Anarchist Bookfair in London on October 18th 2008.

We are others, the other. If this world does not have a place for us, then another world must be made. With no tool other than our rage, no material other than our dignity. We still must encounter each other more, know each other better. What is missing is yet to come...

The Zapatista communities in resistance, with their autonomous schools, clinics and decision-making structures, have been an inspiration to the anti-capitalist movement. Now Zapatista villages and lands are sustaining increasingly violent attacks by the state and paramilitaries.

ZAPATISTAS

This article was originally in published in Spanish - La Jornada 30th June 2008 by the well-respected Oaxacan activist and founder of the University of the Earth, Gustavo Esteva; he was one of the EZLN's advisors in their negotiations with the Mexican government.

We need to recognise and acknowledge the grave seriousness of the current situation, which cannot be overstated. Neither should we hide the fact that evil triumphs when people shrug their shoulders at it and return quietly to their daily activities. Now is the time to act. Only with concerted and effective mobilisation can we prevent the disaster that now threatens us.