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As the 6th Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, signatory to the Other Campaign, we are asking, soliciting respectfully the regional and sub-regional coordinators throughout the international network to execute actions and mobilizations in support of the Frente de Los Pueblos en Defensa de La Tierra [Salvador Atenco].
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The "Other Campaign" network in Chicago invites you to be part of this solidarity front. We encourage you to get informed about the Atenco struggle by joining us for a documentary screening of:

Tierra Si! Aviones No!
(in Spanish with English subtitles)
Produced by Greg Berger
Directed by Adan Xicohtencatl and Constantino Miranda

1180 N. Milwaukee Floor 2 Chicago IL, 60622
tel: 773.645.1272
www.videomachete.org

We will be holding an auction of artworks from Chicago artists, and donations are highly appreciated. All proceeds will go toward funding the release of the more than 100 prisoners of the police raids still being held at Santiaguito Jail and Amoloya de Juarez Prison -- as well as food, medicines, and legal fees for prisoners' families.

In Chicago, contact us at www.chicagotra.org/

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www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS: No one had to wait for a reaction to the events in San Salvador Atenco, where a brutal police intervention has just led to a teenage boy’s death, dozens of seriously wounded, about 200 arrested and several women's reports of rape. In San Cristóbal de las Casas, the city closest to the Zapatistas’ highland bases in Chiapas, adherents to the Other Campaign -- calling themselves the “Other Jovel,” after the indigenous name for the city -- held a demonstration on Thursday afternoon in the central Cathedral Plaza.

In a document released to the public and the media, the group report speaks of “the state and federal governments’ violent actions against the people of San Salvador Atenco, which are now registered among the systematic aggressions against the people of Atenco, starting with the federal government’s attempt to build an international airport there in 2002.”

Four years ago, Atenco’s swinging machetes caught the attention of the world’s press and townspeople were able to halt construction of the airport in Texcoco. This project would have expropriated 4,500 hectares of cultivated land for the ridiculous compensation of six pesos (about 55 cents) per square meter.

Since then, the farmers of San Salvador Atenco have come to be a living symbol of the popular struggles. They have built an autonomous municipality and adhered to the "Other Campaign", strengthening their ties to the Zapatistas. And the state and federal governments have never forgiven this, waiting until now to manifest their aggression.

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News in Spanish:

www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/05/04/
www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/05/05/
www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/05/06/
www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/05/07/008n1pol.php
www.radiopacheco.org/2005/

News in English:

www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1626665/posts
www.examiner.com/a-98591~Mexico_Police_Control_Rebellious_Town.html
cbs2chicago.com/worldwire/Mexico-PoliceHostages-ai/resources_news_html
www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1821231.php
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/71944/index.php
www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/en.html
www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php
zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx/index.php
www.ezln.org

Some background on the Atenco community:

www.salonchingon.com/cinema/atenco.php
www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/mexico/2002/0715atenco_news.htm

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In Chicago, contact us at www.chicagotra.org/