By Loren Guerriero

The following is an account I related to my family and friends after a CAPISE brigade, it is intended for people who aren't familiar with Chiapas or the movement.

I just returned from a brigade with CAPISE (Center for Political Analysis and Socio-Economic Investigations). The brigades perform interviews in Zapatista communities and document land threats and human rights offenses. The information is then turned over the organization so they can track the activity of government and paramilitary groups and publish reports about actions normally gone unchecked. It also allows us outsiders to make a connection with the movement and communicate with people back home about what is happening here in the Jungle.

It was Thursday, visiting day in the Federal Police Station of Brasilia. The place doesn’t inspire much confidence. Police enter and leave with their distinguished expressions and uniforms. We wait our turn.

3:00PM. We go in with two bags full with 4 packets of cookies, 4 apples, 4 guayabas, 4 pears, several bottles of juice, cigarettes, 2 books, and 5 sheets of loose-leaf paper. All of this is to last until next Thursday. We enter the room where we will meet the very reason we are here. On the other side of the glass is Cesare Batisti.

Cesare is 53 years old and has been detained in Brasilia for 10 months. He has spent a good part of his life in hiding. All of this because, like us, he strives for a better world.