Campesinos organized by the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) blocked four central highways in Mexico's southern Chiapas state Nov. 10, including the Panamerican Highway and the coastal frontier highway, in solidarity with the Popular People's Organization of Oaxaca (APPO) and to demand the withdrawal of federal police from the embattled neighboring state.

The mobilization also commemorated the death of the founder of the Clandestine Revolutionary Workers Movement-Union of the People (PROCUP), Hector Eladio Hernandez Castillo, who was killed in a confrontation with the police in the streets of Guadalajara on Nov. 10, 1978. The Chiapas FNLS said the action was part of a "Day of Action to Rescue the Historical Memory of Our People" (Jornada por el Rescate de la Memoria Historica de Nuestro Pueblo) called by the group's national leadership at a meeting in Guadalajara earlier this month.

The blockades of the coastal highway in the Soconusco region were led by the FNLS' local affiliate, the Coordinator of Independent Democratic Organizations-Ricardo Flores Magon (CODI-RFM), named for the famous Oaxacan anarchist who was an early leader of the Mexican Revolution.

The blockades on the San Cristobal-Ocosingo road through the Highlands were led by the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ), as well as members of the Section 7 teachers' union.

In a third blockade at Altamirano, OCEZ was joined by members of the Popular Resistance Movement of the Southeast (MRPS).

The fourth blockade, near Tila in the Zona Norte of Chiapas, was led by the MRPS and the People's Union in Defense of Electric Energy (PUDEE), which demands greater public control over the state's grid and hydro-dams. (APRO, Nov. 10)

Meanwhile, the Chiapas command of the clandestine Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) issued a communique condemning the crackdown in Oaxaca. In addition to attacking President Vicente Fox and Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, the statement warned that Chiapas' new Gov. Juan Sabines will continue the "fascist and repressive" policies of his predessor Pablo Salazar.

"Pablo Salazar, with his fascist and 'modernizing' policy, will only clean the facade with the construction of more bad roads, 'modern' airports, commerical and tourist centers that do nothing to benefit the poor; football teams to try to relieve social discontent, wasting the money of the public treasury in 'works' that do not benefit the exploited class and do not resolve the social surplus," the statement read. (APRO, Nov. 8)

All sources archived at Chiapas95

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