[act-ma] 2/28 Indigenous Communities Confronting Globalization. Harvard Yard.

[shadowboxer at riseup.net]

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Indigenous Communities Confronting Globalization in Mexico
NAFTA, Militarization, and Human Rights

Wednesday, Feb 28th @ 6pm
Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard


We will be discussing with a Red de Defensores representative...

- the threats to indigenous communities, such as NAFTA, Plan Puebla Panama,
and the agricultural crisis in Mexico.
- the human rights abuses in Mexico, their relationship to globalization,
and how indigenous communities are working to end the abuses and impunity.
- how to promote a sustainable model of international trade based on
economic justice.
- the leadership of women in fair trade cooperatives.

Since the Zapatista uprising began on January 1, 1994, (the first day NAFTA
went into effect) the Mexican military and paramilitaries have waged a
counter-insurgency war against Zapatista communities. Thirteen years after
the uprising, human rights abuses continue and the entire state of Chiapas
is heavily militarized. The Mexico Solidarity Network presents a speaker
from the Red de Defensores Comunitarios por los Derechos Humanos
(Community Human Rights Defenders Network) to discuss the impact of this
"low-intensity" warfare, and what is being done on the ground to resist.

The Red de Defensores is a network of indigenous human rights observers
from Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. The Red, founded in May
2000, is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion and
defense of human rights. The Red developed an alternative model of human
rights work in which community members who suffer human rights abuses at
the hands of the army, paramilitaries, and the federal government assume
control of their own defense. Self-determination and autonomy are the
guiding principles of the Red de Defensores. The Red is currently made up
of 25 community indigenous defenders from eight regions. In each case, the
community chose their representative to the Red in a traditional process
that assigns "cargos" (tasks) to highly respected members of the
community. All of the defensores live in threatened communities that have
a history of suffering from human rights abuses.

mexico solidarity network // www.mexicosolidarity.org

http://map.harvard.edu/level3.cfm?mapname=camb_allston&tile=F7&quadrant=C&series=N
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