The "New Chiapas"

["Jay Moore" <pieinsky@xxxxxxx>]

Mexico town becomes center of battle
July 13, 2002 Posted: 5:00 PM EDT (2100 GMT)

Riot police wait for orders two miles outside of San Salvador Atenco, near
Mexico City, Friday.

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO (AP) -- With the Zapatista guerrilla movement gone
quiet, this farming town on the outskirts of Mexico City has become the
central battleground for the leftist and anti-globalization movements that
were attracted to southern Chiapas state eight years ago.

Mexican anarchists, national farm groups, even a delegation of U.S.
university students have been drawn to San Salvador Atenco in recent months
to merrily brandish machetes and denounce the expropriation of farms to
build a new Mexico City airport.

On Thursday the anger reached a critical mass, and Atenco exploded in riots.
Protesters have barricaded themselves in the town and are threatening to
kill 12 hostages, including city officials and police officers.

Since the airport project was announced in October, peasants in Atenco, and
around the surrounding region known as Texcoco, have grown increasingly
radical in their opposition to the plan.

Outraged by the government's original offer to buy their land for as little
as 60 cents per square meter, their almost-weekly protests have become a
fixture on Mexico City's streets.

The protesters' refusal to compromise, even as the government has offered
more money to buy their land, has made their cause increasingly attractive
to leftist activists across Mexico. Buildings in the town are now covered
with murals of revolutionary heroes.

Farmers listen to a speech by one of their leaders during a standoff with
the police in San Salvador Atenco, Friday.

"This is now the center of the fight against globalization and the
multinationals," said Juan Blanchen Nieto, an activist from the southern
state of Morleos who came to Atenco to assist the protesters. "Chiapas was
the center, but by sheer activity, the movement is here now."

The Coca-Cola company -- a frequent target of anti-globalization
activists -- has taken a particularly hard beating from the farmers. This
week, several Coca-Cola trucks were hijacked and turned into barricades.
Coke bottles in the trucks were turned into Molotov cocktails.

Thursday's violence was the kind of revolt not seen since 1994, when
Zapatista rebels staged a bloody 12-day rebellion in Chiapas in the name of
socialism and Indian rights.

But the Zapatistas have lapsed into silence since a successful bus caravan
to Mexico City to address legislators in March 2001.

In April, students from Evergreen State College in Washington State wanted
to visit Chiapas during a two-month exchange program. Their professor
steered some of them to Atenco instead.

Seventeen of the U.S. students, brandishing machetes and chanting
revolutionary slogans in broken Spanish, joined Atenco farmers in a May 1
protest march, and were promptly expelled from Mexico for violating a ban on
foreigners becoming involved in domestic politics.

On Friday, demonstrators turned out for another March in Mexico City
opposing the airport. Many said they see the Atenco protest as the extension
of the Chiapas conflict.

Rodrigo Oliveras, a 19-year-old marcher with a mohawk and a black leather
jacket with an anarchy symbol spray-painted on the back, said the
anti-globalization movement "hadn't yet noticed what was happening in San
Salvador Atenco" but that they would after this week's events.

"San Salvador Atenco has now won support all of the world," Oliveras said.

Some of the farmers say they are gratified -- but a little surprised -- by
the interest shown by activists of other stripes.

Jorge, a 34-year-old Atenco farmer who, like most here, covered his face
with a bandanna and would give only his first name, said he didn't consider
himself anti-globalization until this week's standoff began.

"I'm just a working stiff, and this didn't start out as anti-globalization,"
he said. "But if the movement means survival, then I'm anti-globalization."



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