Querid@s Compañer@s de las CASAs:

This month, we have a brief reflection from a community visit to Las Tacitas, Chiapas, and an opinion piece on foreign aid and microcredit Development Pushers: Foreign Aid and Microcredit as Modernization, Not Poverty Reduction. Here follows our news round up of events in Mexico and with CASA.

News Roundup

May Day in Oaxaca

May 1st, International Workers Day, brings some of the biggest marches of the year all over Mexico. This May Day in Oaxaca brought the usual parades of workers and students, but with added excitement as the marchers re-entered the zócalo in the city center, where protests of any kind had been virtually extinguished since the Federal Police invaded Oaxaca last October. Students from the APPO, The People's Assembly of Oaxaca, took over Radio Universidad to report on the events of the day.

Women in Resistence

The International Women in Resistance conference, which was held in Oaxaca in late April, was followed by a march that looked more like a party. Women carried hand-painted tortillas as signs and sang and danced as they chanted, "Mujeres adelante, Machismo para atrás" (Up with Women, Down with Chauvinism) and other slogans of the movement demanding the resignation of state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Despite the spirited organizing, threats and arrests also continue. One of the organizers of the Women in Resistence conference, Aline Castellanos, had her home searched and robbed on April 28th as well as an arrest warrant released against her.

Oaxacan Activist David Venegas Jailed

David Venegas, a dedicated social activist and close friend of Casa Chapulin, was arrested on April 10. Casa Chapulin members were able to visit him in jail until foreigners were denied access, and have been active in organizing protests internationally demanding his immediate release. Events have been organized in the Italy, France, the U.S., and Finland to pressure the Mexican government. Read about the circumstances of David's arrest: Wrongful Imprisonment, and a letter he wrote from prison: Letter from David.

Conflict in Chiapas

In Chiapas, aggressions continue in the communal ejido land Carrizal, in the municipality of Ocosingo. The Good Government Council of Caracol IV, Morelia, and campesino organization OCEZ-FNLS have been trying to ease the conflict since August of 2006. The latest comuniques can be read in Spanish here: OCEZ-FNLS Comuniques.

The confusion of this situation follows years of low-intensity warfare waged against the Zapatista territories and other organized communities in the state of Chiapas over the past decade. The government channeling projects into areas of conflict and  money to paramilitary groups in order to divide communities organizing for their rights to land, health, education and other basic human rights.

Atenco Oppresion Continues

Leaders of the People's Front in Defense of the Land from San Salvador Atenco were sentenced last week to 67 years in prison. This sentence comes one year after conflict broke out again in San Salvador Atenco. Last May, the people of Atenco were viciously attacked by state and federal police, dozens of women were raped, two people were killed, dozens of houses wrecked, money was stolen and dozens were severely wounded. Now it is the victims who suffer what are, in effect, life sentences. A huge international campaign for the release of all Mexican political prisoners is needed. Read more on the UK Indymedia website.

CASA News

Finnish Social Forum

Two Casa Chapulin volunteers were involved in facilitating Oaxacan participation in this year's Finnish Social Forum. Engineering student Diego Cruz Martinez and lawyer Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia who works for the Comité Liberación 25 de Noviembre spoke on topics such as indigenous rights, the statewide social movement, and human rights abuses in Oaxaca, and CASA alumnus Anna-Reetta did logistical coordination and simultaneous interpretation for the Oaxacan delegates.

Street Artists from Oaxaca

ASAR-O, a street artists collective from Oaxaca, recently opened an exhibit at a community space in New York City: ASARO Exhibit ABC NoRio, showing through the end of May. For a look at stencils and woodblock prints from the collective, visit ASARO

JustJourney to Chiapas

For those interested in traveling to Chiapas, the UUSC and the CASAs are hosting the the JustJourney, an experiential intercultural seminar that examines the interplay of human rights issues and the call to ministry in the context of a world of increasing exclusion, oppression and equality. The JustJourney to Chiapas takes place August 2-11.

The CASA Collectives urge you to get involved in solidarity events and organizations --wherever you are-- and wish you a lovely Spring.

In solidarity,

CASA Collectives
Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico