Mexico's Network for Solidarity and Against Repression (RvsR [4]) is calling for international support for the Zapatista base communities in Chiapas state following attacks late last month, urging, "If they touch the Zapatistas, they touch all of us." (UDW [5], Feb. 14; Enclace Zapatista [6], Feb. 13) The Zapatista Good Government Junta at the village of Morelia announced on Jan. 31 that several communities within its zone had been attacked by a "mob" of some 300 followers of the Independent Central of Agrarian Workers and Campesinos (CIAOC [7]), who menaced residents with machetes and left three injured. (La Jornada [8], Feb. 1) The executive committee of CIAOC later disavowed the attacks, saying they had been carried out by the breakaway "CIAOC-Democratic" faction. (La Jornada [9], Feb. 15) Chiapas state police on Feb. 18 detained CIAOC leader Corazón Gómez Consuegra on charges related to factional violence within the organization in Tapilula municipality. (Es!DiarioPopular [10], Chiapas, Feb. 19)
CIOAC began as an organization of left [11], but has been increasingly riven by factionalism [12] in recent years.
