By Fernando A. Torres ©
The indigenous peoples of Latin America, their claims and hopes, will have a paramount place this Sunday as the 24 commanders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army and other members and supporters of the EZLN march into downtown Mexico City.
Known as the Zapatour, the march, which began last week in the jungles of Chiapas in Southern Mexico, is crossing 12 Mexican states gathering national support for a legislative initiative pending in Congress about indigenous rights, and to resume the peace talks suspended in 1996.
On Thursday the march departed from Cuautla following the same route that in 1914 legendary revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata took to get to the Capital claiming "tierra y libertad" -- land and freedom.
Mexico is the Southern Gate to the so-called Third World, and the scope of this historic march of unarmed indigenous guerrillas is transcending its own objectives. Asserting ancient indigenous claims into the political consciousness of today's corporate and cold world, the Chiapas uprising, which began on New Year's Day in 1994, has become an important example for the indigenous world.
I ask myself what would happen if the Zapatistas had started their march in the southern cone of the continent?
There is no sleeping giant there. The people are standing up across the continent.
In Paraguay, the Zapatista marchers would have received warm greetings from peasants and workers. They would have been invited to lunch, to join their Olla Popular, the popular pot luck organized by the United Workers Union toameliorate the high cost of living and to feed the unemployed and the peasants coming from
the countryside to join the protests.
Massive protests have been taking place in this small country since last month when the government, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank proposed the "Ley de La Via Rapida," law of the "fast way" to the privatization of key state-owned companies.
The Zapatistas trek would have been joined by the Uruguayan peasantry's Marcha del Pueblo, a multitudinous march scheduled to arrive in Asuncion by the end of March.
In Brazil, thousands of starving street children may have taken up the Zapatistas flags to break open the windows of the fancy restaurants in search of food. Indians would have saluted the march from their huts deep in the vanishing Amazon jungle.
In Chile, Zapatistas rebels would stop to rest under the alerces, millenary trees that stand still, vigilant but mute to the depredation of the Chilean southern forest. Pehuenches and Mapuche Indians would have welcomed them telling their stories about the on-going struggle against deforestation, the construction of dams, land seizures, alcoholism, malnutrition and other social afflictions that challenge these proud people who were never defeated by the conquistadors.
In Peru and Bolivia, the Zapatistas would have been joined by thousands of poor people forced by "new world order economics" to grow coca leafs. Their ranks would have been swelled by miners sick with lung disease, and by Quechuas and Aymaras Indian warriors.
In Ecuador the Zapatista insurgents would have been invited to join the celebration of the conclusion of the Ten Days Uprising, one of the biggest peaceful Indian demonstrations of the last 500 years. This uprising ended this
February with the signing of an agreement meeting 23 of their demands, which include: a halt to increasing heating gas and oil prices; a 50 per cent discount onpublic transportation for seniors, children and students; reorganization of the state bank for more suitable credits, loans and technical assistance for small and medium farmers, and a budgetary increase for Indigenous social and educational projects.
Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstrations, seven people died, 100 were wounded, and more than 1,000 were detained by the government of Ecuador.
Listening to the wise words of the Ecuadorian Indian leaders of the Sierras, the Zapatista combatants would have learned that without a strong and united organization, no agreement lasts forever.
The Zapatistas then could have stopped at the Universidad Politecnica Salesiana to enjoy a huge, colorful mural painted by thousand of Indians who came out of the mountains to express their deep-felt desire to change their country.
In Colombia, the Zapatour would have been greeted warmly by the U'wa people who are in the forefront of the confrontation between corporate multinational power and indigenous rights. The U'wa people are struggling to stop the desecration of their sacred lands by big oil companies, such as Occidental Petroleum. The exploration for oil on their land, and the machinery and foreigners it will bring, will damage the environment, pollute their rivers, and undermine the U'wa's culture and lifestyle.
The struggle of these ancient people gained world attention last year after the U'wa threatened the Colombian government with a massive suicide.
Joining at the vanguard of the Zapatista march there would have been the parents of the three U'wa children drowned after violent clashes with Colombian military last year.
Since the Seattle demonstration against the WTO, this Sunday's showdown symbolizes the biggest urban confrontation between two worlds. The end of the Zapatistas tour and the (rumored) possible unveiling ofComandante Marcos face could mean the beginning of a fresh continental Indigenous perspective with a new face in their struggle for respect and recognition.
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