Press Release 8 September 1995
For Immediate Release
There will be a picket of the Mexican Embassy, at 43 Ailesbury Rd. at 6 p.m. on Tuesday the 12th, followed at 8 p.m. by a showing of the introductory video, Uprising 1994, upstairs in the Merrion Inn. Journalist Michael McCaughan and TCD lecturer Ciaran Cosgrove will report on their experience of the rebellion in Chiapas.
Mark Connolly of the Irish Mexico Group said:
This Tuesday Irish people will once again be taking the side of the Mexican people against an occupying army. We demand the removal of the 40 000 troops occupying Chiapas.
September 12 is the annual day of commemoration in Mexico of the San Patricio battalion, the band of Irish soldiers who left the US Army to join their Mexican brothers and sisters during the war of 1846-8 between the US and Mexico. This September 12th the Zapatista Action Project of the Irish Mexico Group will be using the date to demonstrate Irish support today for the continuing struggle of the Mexican people to achieve democracy, liberty and justice.
Mr Connolly continued as in 1848, Irish support has been welcomed in Mexico. Answering a question at a press conference, rebel spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos referred to the historical link and commented 'We like the Irish around here.'
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On the first of January 1994, as the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force, the rebel Zapatista Army of National Liberation seized four towns in the poorest southern state of Mexico, Chiapas. They demanded democracy, liberty and justice for all the Mexican people. Despite severe government repression, a second offensive captured 37 towns. Since then the government and the EZLN have been engaged in several rounds of dialogue. Meanwhile support for the Zapatistas has spread throughout Mexico, with several demonstrations of over a hundred thousand people in Mexico City. Last month the EZLN carried out a nation-wide ballot on future strategy in which over one million people took part. Ninety Five per cent of those who voted supported the goals of the EZLN and called for profound democratic reform of the Mexican state.
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