A civil jury ruled Nov. 22 that rancher and vigilante Roger Barnett must pay $98,000 in damages to a Mexican-American family that he illegally held and threatened at gunpoint. The family were legal residents hunting on lands near his ranch, but Barnett apparently assumed they were "illegals" coming across the border (Douglas Dispatch, Nov. 24)

Zapatista Subcommander Marcos, continuing his "Other Campaign" tour of northern Mexico, arrived once again on the US border Nov. 22 when he stopped in Nuevo Laredo, Tamualipas, a border town which has been torn by narco-fueled violence in recent months. Marcos drew attention to the ongiong social crisis on the border which has been overshadowed by media reports of spectacular violence, meeting with shanty-dwellers who work in the maquiladoras but are squatting lands near the town garbage dump, with no legal title to their homes or access to running water or other services. (La Jornada, Nov. 23 via Chiapas95)

Supporters of the Zapatista Naitonal Liberation Army (EZLN) blocked roads at 18 points in Chiapas Nov. 21 in support of the struggle in Oaxaca and to press demands for the resignation of the embattled state's Gov. Ulises Ruiz. The Chiapas state government secretary Roger Grajales Gonzalez said the blockades involved hundreds of indigenous Zapatista supporters, and were carried out in a peaceful manner.

Traditional indigenous authorities from several communities in Oaxaca's northern mountains met at Guelatao de Juarez Nov. 21 to formally inaugurate the Assembly of Zapotec, Mixe and Chinanteco Pueblos of the Sierra de Juarez, to support the popular struggle in the conflicted Mexican state. Announcing its affiliation with APPO, leaders said the organization would "seize" government offices throughout the region, and would continue the occupation of the federally-owned radio station based in Guelatao de Juarez, XEGLO, "La Voz de la Sierra," which was taken over by protesters several days earlier.

Approximately 30 armed men in civilian clothes, some with their faces covered, attacked the central camp of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) in the state capital at dawn on Nov. 21. The camp, outside the cathedral of Santo Domingo de Guzman, just three blocks from the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) police camp in the city's central square, was set on fire and the residents forced to flee. (La Jornada, Nov. 21) An APPO statement accused the attackers of being "sicarios [assassins] financed by the state government, dressed as civilians and with high-powered weapons." (APRO, Nov. 21)

The PRI-affiliated Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC), issued a letter demanding the EZLN dismantle its Good Government Juntas in the Lacandon Selva, with a barely-veiled threat of new confrontations if this fails to happen. In a letter addressed to Subcommander Marcos, President Vicente Fox and Gov. Pablo Salazar, the OPDDIC, founded by former PRI state deputy Pedro Chulin Jimenez, accused the Zapatista Juntas of provoking "grave social destabilization" in the municipalities of Altamirano, Ocosingo, Chilon, Sitala and Tumbala. These "offiical" municipalities overlap with the Zapatista "autonomous municipalities" overseen by the Good Government Juntas based in Morelia (Altamirano) and La Garrucha (Ocosingo). The letters accused the Juntas of "protecting delinquent groups."

From Milenio, Nov. 20, via Chiapas95 (our translation):

For the first time in more than three centuries, some 300 Lacandones have fled their communities for fear of new confrontations with residents of Viejo Velasco, who sympathize with the Zapatista National Liberation Army, according to the director of Na Bolom Cultural Association, Jorge Vecellio.

From El Universal, Nov. 20:

The government on Saturday released a long-awaited report that for the first time officially blames "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the early 1980s.