The project, marking a spirited return to hands-on solidarity linking, was conceived and organised by the Irish Mexico Group (IMG) in response to a call by Mexican NGO's and grassroots organisations for international monitoring of the increasingly volatile situation. As well as documenting the human rights situation, it was an opportunity to talk with people from all angles of the conflict and a valuable opportunity to make links with people and groups at the forefront of the inspirational struggle for real change and participatory democracy.
The response in Ireland was prompt and an 8-strong delegation was formed, consisting of a legal team (Damian Brady, Conor O Brien and Ed Brophy), Trócaire emergency officer Mary Sweeney, photo-journalist Bryan Meade, film-student Veronica Housen , IMG researcher Siabhra Durcan and co-ordinator Ramor Dagge. Support, both logistical and financial, was proffered by Comhlamh, Afri (Action From Ireland), Trócaire and a variety of individuals. The majority of the costs were carried by the individual delegates and the IMG.
8 jet lagged fact-finders hopelessly lost in Mexico City airport/ baffling heat and ultra-pollution/ 20 million people in a confined space, hell!/ cead mile failte Mexican style/ Amig@s/visit to a collective housing project, to grassroots organisations, NGO's,/ meetings, meetings, meetings, by day 2 onto third notebook/ A great change coming over the country/ everybody speaking with vigor and enthusiasm/ except Smiley, the government spokesman who appeared to be sweating uneasily at our questions/ The old order, the PRI, the dinosaur in the process of disintegration/ political, economic and social crisis/ Civil society beginning to assert itself/ fly to Chiapas/ military aircraft/ hordes of tourists buying clusters of Zapatista dollies from crowds of indian vendors/ San Cristóbal de los pinche cabrones/ terrifying interview with claw-handed Mayor who violently insisted he "loved the indians" of the Zapatistas but it was foreigners and the bishop who were to blame for their insolence/ meetings, interviews, documentation / into the mountains, Mayan communities living in very basic conditions/ children with swollen bellies and huge inquisitive smiles/ a welcome from a Mayan warrior played on an old fairground organ/ tortillas and rice and beans/ stories of 500 years of oppression and resistance/ of the Zapatista uprising and the brutal response by the military/ of killings, torture, rape and disappearances/ Of anger and rage and desire for revolutionary changes/ a new world, remaking it, today/ Deeper into the mountains/ runny-tummies and sunburn and over-dose of information and feelings and lack of sleep/ People taking control of their lives and saying Ya Basta! Enough is enough!/ Peace Camps and military camps/ an uneasy truce/ pro-government cowboys running amok/ low-intensity warfare against uprisen communities/ farmers seeking refuge in a church with death-threats over their heads from local caciques (large landowners) and their private armies/dramatic events for delegation - government officials, and local thugs surround and harass us, one goon pulling out a gun and waving it around/ "Shoot the fat guy with the gun" shouts our interpreter as Veronica whips out her camera/ The threat of the camera wins out and we make a speedy exit / close skirmish with the real face of power in Chiapas - self-appointed sheriffs, employees of the local rich men in tandem with local government officials/ meanwhile, the mountains around the town, teeming with resistance/ endless testimony of injustice perpetrated upon the campesinos, the poorest of the poor/ being handed dog-eared photos of missing people and asked... to help/ feeling powerless, overwhelmed/ everywhere people want to tell us their story, everywhere people against the state and the PRI/ The last of Chiapas, a prison full of "criminals" - Zapatistas, farmers like Zapata, off their knees demanding Land and Liberty/ Back to the big smoke/ homage to Catalunya: Tepotzlán, a town in resistance; barricades and clenched fists No al Club de Golf! Zapatismo beyond Chiapas/ meetings, interviews, notes/ the tenth notebook!/ hand worn away from hand-shakes/ a feeling of hope for the future despite the present/ time for some tequila/ Viva Zapata! amongst new-found friends, many new friends, hey even Smiley the pressurised government official wants to take us out for a drink.!../ sad farewell/ 2 frantic, exhilarating, exhaustive weeks in a country undergoing extraordinary and inspiring changes / the work begins in Ireland ....
The return of the bulk of the delegation heralded a series of public meetings, newspaper articles and radio interviews, press conferences, a photo exhibition, several briefings with TDs and the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee and an official IMG report on the findings of the delegation. Links made with people on the ground in Mexico were maintained and the profile of Mexico in general, and the Zapatista phenomenon in particular, was raised considerably in Ireland. Trócaire delegate, Mary Sweeney successfully lobbied the government which resulted in £100,000 aid to development agencies in Chiapas to supply communities with work utensils and seeds.
These were some of the fruits of the first fact-finding delegation . Much more can be done, and many opportunities to have done more over the year were lost. The initial enthusiasm and energy garnered from the visit waned after a period and delegates returned to their everyday lives. The first delegation started a process that has gained its own momentum- the concrete and grassroots-based link between Ireland and Mexico has been consolidated and continues to grow. A group of Irish people went to the Intercontinental Encounter in Chiapas last July (see Mexico Bulletin Issue 1) and a permanent link between Ireland and Chiapas is being set up at the moment.