“Those of us who have made war know how to recognize the paths by which it is prepared and brought near,” Marcos said. “The signs of war on the horizon are clear. War, like fear, also has a smell. And now we are starting to breathe its fetid odor in our lands.” Marcos’s assessment supports what Arronte and his fellow researchers at the Center of Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations have been tracking with their maps and charts. On the fifty-six permanent military bases that the Mexican state runs on indigenous land in Chiapas, there has been a marked increase in activity. Weapons and equipment are being dramatically upgraded, new battalions are moving in, including special forces–all signs of escalation.
By Naomi Klein. Read on. Remember also that this is January 11.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
How can liberation movements stand up to such might?
From my tiny corner of the universe, Mexico is the place where my relatives go to play in winter. All I get from them are the usual banalities about the country. And all I know of Chiapas is that it’s where the cheap labor comes from, and once upon a time, many of my ESL students.
Now that family obligations have eased up somewhat, I plan to travel to Mexico and see things for myself.
Isn’t Naomi Klein wonderful? Makes me wish I could start all over again and become an investigative journalist. She gives me some hope.
Klein has the job I want and just saying that gives me clearer ideas and more hope.
Chiapas is beautiful and oppressed / oppressive, and the current situation is worrisome. You might like Rosario Castellanos’ lyrical novel The Nine Guardians, set there.
If you fly into Mexico City the place to stay is the Red Tree House. They have a website and they speak English. Co-owners are a former airline worker and a professor of theatre at Ashland, Oregon.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for news from Chiapas, feeling something in my bones, dreading what I was waiting to hear…
Thanks for the tips. Of course I do plan to learn more Spanish before I go down there.