Photo courtesy Sandra Rambler By Sandra Rambler, San Carlos Apache Censored News
On March 18, San Carlos Apache Tribal Vice-Chairman Tao Etpison and Peridot District Councilman Wendsler Nosie, Sr., stand guard at Gaan Canyon at one of the most sacred and holy dwelling places of the Apache Mountain Spirit Dancers while tribal members are joined by Indigenous Peoples in occupying Chi'Chil'Bilda'Goteel (Oak Flat) in southeast Arizona, where opposition continues against Resolution Copper Mine/BHP/Rio Tinto building a $64.1 billion on sacred and holy ancestral Apache homeland.
(Sup Galeano, formerly known as Marcos, says despite military buildups, and lies in the media, Zapatistas events will be held as planned during May 2015. Check back for English translation.)
EJÉRCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL.
MÉXICO.
Marzo del 2015.
A loas compas de la Sexta en México y el Mundo:
Compas:
Me encargaron que les avise que…
A pesar del notable incremento de la actividad militar en los alrededores de los Caracoles zapatistas (patrullajes agresivos, retenes intimidatorios, sobrevuelos amenazantes) -particularmente en los Caracoles de La Realidad y de Oventik (en el primero se acaba de inaugurar una escuela-clínica, y en el segundo se realizará el homenaje a Don Luis Villoro Toranzo)…
A pesar de la creciente beligerancia de los grupos paramilitares apadrinados por el gobierno chiapaneco…
March 20, 2015 Ayotzinapa, Mexico USA Article and photos by Frontera NorteSur Censored News Dutch translation by Alice Holemans NAIS Ayotzinapa has come to the United States. Three groups of relatives of the Mexican university students who were attacked and forcibly disappeared last September by police in the state of Guerrero are currently crisscrossing El Norte as part of a campaign to raise public awareness of their ongoing struggle.
Estanislao Mendoza, father of disappeared Ayotzinapa rural teachers’ college student Miguel Angel Mendoza, judged the response on this side of the border to the parents’ cause as impressive so far.
“We’re surprised at the reception we’ve received here and on the border. It gives us a lot of pleasure to have people hearing and supporting us,” Mendoza said during a stop in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Mendoza and other members of the western leg of the Ayotzinapa U.S. tour spent most of this past week in Las Cruces and neighboring El Paso, Texas. While in the borderland, the Mexican delegation gave press interviews, addressed university audiences, participated in public meetings, and attended masses held in honor of the students.
In interviews with FNS, the relatives reiterated their positions that the investigation into the forced disappearances of their loved ones must be expanded to encompass the military and federal police, and that the Mexican government’s story about the missing 43 male students is simply not credible since it lacks physical evidence at this point.
As Mexico’s attorney general, Jesus Murillo insisted on the official version that the kidnapped students were murdered and then incinerated at a dump near the town of Cocula, Guerrero. Murillo was recently replaced by Arely Gomez.
Blanca Luz Nava, mother of missing Ayotzinapa student Jorge Alvarez, rated Gomez as “worse than the previous one.” Nava told FNS that Gomez, the second woman to be appointed as Mexico’s top cop in recent years, had not contacted the parents and no meetings with her with scheduled at the present.
On Thursday, March 19, the Ayotzinapa-Las Cruces Support Committee and other campus organizations at New Mexico State University (NMSU) held an outdoor forum at the university that was attended by more than 100 people. NMSU students and community members held pictures of the Ayotzinapa 43 while a large bilingual banner read “Justicia para Ayotzinapa. End US Support for State Terror in Mexico.” Placards read, “Corruption is a Di$ea$e and” “End NAFTA, End Merida ”
As rain threatened overhead and the sun peeked in and out of billowing crowds in a tug between a New Mexican winter and spring, Nava and Mendoza delivered emotional testimonies in Spanish that were translated into English. They recalled their sons’ aspirations and the nearly six-month long struggle of the parents to get their children back alive.
“We didn’t have Christmas or New Year. We spent it in front of Los Pinos,” Nava said, in reference to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s residence. “Instead of opening the doors to us, the president deployed a bunch of police."
"We are starting the second leg of our walk March 21 at sunrise at the Prewitt chapter house. Send us your prayers and come join us if you can as we journey from Tsodzil to Dook'o'osliid!"
Censored News Dutch translation by Alice Holemans NAIS
The Navajo Nation sits on one of the richest energy corridors in the United States, and for close to a century, we have been on the frontline on resource colonization to provide cheap energy and water to the cities in the Southwest. Since the 1920’s, our land and people have been sacrificed for energy extraction for oil, gas, uranium, and coal, which is poisoning our land, water, air, and people. Despite being at the forefront of energy extraction, our people do not see its benefits; approximately 1/4 of our people today live without electricity and running water on the Navajo Nation, while our economy functions at an unemployment rate of about 60%, and our young people are leaving due to lack of opportunity. Now our people and land are facing the onset fracking and a proposed pipeline, which will transport crude oil through 130 miles in Dinétah, the emergence place of our people, in the name of “economic development”.
As young Diné people, we realize that we can’t continue on like this. We need clean air, water, and a viable lifeway for our people and for all human beings. In facing this crisis of our future, the idea of walking to raise awareness was born.
We are walking to honor the legacy of our ancestors during Hwééldi, who, a 150 years ago, were forced to walk hundreds of miles in the winter during away from our homelands in the winter to be imprisoned for four years in the name of American colonization. During this time of great suffering, our ancestors thought of our homeland, mountains, and prayed that future generations would carry on our way of life. It is in their memory and out of this profound love for the land that we are walking. It is time to heal from the legacy and trauma of colonization that we having been living under for too long.
It is our intention to walk throughout the Navajo Nation to document both the beauty of land and people and how this is being desecrated by resource extraction. We will do this through a social media campaign and a documentary films. Along our route, we will visit communities to listen to the issues our people are facing and share information about the state of water, air, land, and health, as our communities often have very little access to media or information about these issues. Our hope is that we can help to inspire our people to become engage in the care our land, air, and water, and culture so that we will have a future as Diné.
On January 6, 2015, we will start from the fireplace and doorway of Diné Bikéyah, at Dził Nahodiłii (Huerfano, NM) and Ch’ool’i’i , the emergence place of our people, which is threatened by fracking. There are over 400 proposed drill sites and within the past couple months over 100 have been started in the region. From there we will walk to communities through the Eastern Agency, and then to Tsoodzil (Mt. Taylor, Grants, NM) which also threaten by uranium mining. This first leg of our journey will be nearly 300 miles, and will take us approximately 3 weeks.
In the seasons to come, we will extend our walk to the other mountains and regions of Diné Bikéyah. To Doo’o’k’osliid (San Francisco Peak, Flagstaff, AZ) in the Spring, the Dibé Ntsáá (Hesperus, CO) in the Summer, and in the fall we will go all the way to Sisnajiní (Blanca Peak, Alamosa, CO). All combined, we will be walking over 1000 miles in 2015.
We are asking for support to cover the expenses of this journey through 2015 including gear, food, media/outreach and educational materials.
Gear – It is our intention to use as little fossil fuels as possible during our journey, so we want to carry as much as possible, therefore we are asking for funding for packs and lightweight gear including sleeping bags, tents, etc… We will also be facing extreme weather during this walk, so funding will also be used for jackets, thermals, and other cold/extreme weather clothing. We also will be needing socks, good shoes, and first aid supplies to keep us going.
Food – food to feed our walkers daily and our support crew.
Media/Outreach – a major component of this walk is to raise awareness about the issues we are facing and document the impacts of resource colonization, so we need funding for media equipment and too get the word out via internet, newspaper, radio, and television.
Educational Materials – this is to cover the expense of printing materials and documents to distribute to communities as we pass through. We want to share as much information as possible
Het Navajo volk zit op een van de rijkste energie corridors in de Verenigde Staten, en bijna honderd jaar lang zitten we aan de frontlinie van de grondstoffen kolonisatie om de steden in het Zuidwesten te bevoorraden met goedkope energie en water. Sinds de jaren 1920 werd ons land en volk geofferd aan energiewinning voor olie, gas, uranium, en kolen, die ons land, water en lucht vergiftigen.
Ondanks dat we op de voorgrond zitten van energiewinning gaan de vruchten ervan aan onze neus voorbij; ongeveer ¼ van ons volk leeft vandaag zonder elektriciteit en stromend water, terwijl onze economie keldert door 60% werkloosheid en onze jonge mensen wegtrekken om elders hun kans te wagen.
En nu staan we voor fracking en een pijpleiding die ruwe olie zal voeren, in naam van economische ontwikkeling, door 130 mijlen Dinétah, het thuisland van ons volk.
Als jonge Dine’ beseffen wij dat dit niet verder kan. Wij hebben zuivere lucht, water en een leefbare omgeving nodig voor ons volk en voor alle levende wezens.
Het idee om te stappen om de aandacht te vestigen op de crisis van onze toekomst groeide.
Wij stappen om de nalatenschap te eren van onze voorouders, die 150 jaar geleden, gedwongen werden om in de winter honderden mijlen te stappen en ver van hun thuisland vier jaar lang gevangen werden gehouden in naam van de Amerikaanse kolonisatie.
Tijdens die periode van groot lijden dachten onze voorouders aan hun thuisland, bergen, en baden zij dat toekomstige generaties verder zouden gaan met hun levenswijze.
Het is in hun nagedachtenis en uit diepe liefde voor het land dat we stappen.
Het is tijd dat we genezen van die erfenis en het trauma van kolonisatie waar wij nu al zolang mee moeten leven.
Het is onze bedoeling om door heen de Navajo Nation te stappen om zowel de schoonheid van het land en zijn volk als hoe dit ontwijd wordt door grondstoffenwinning te tonen.
Wij zullen dit doen door een sociale media campagne en een documentaire.
Onderweg zullen wij gemeenschappen bezoeken om te luisteren naar de problemen die de mensen moeten ondergaan en informatie te delen over water, air, land, en gezondheid, daar onze gemeenschappen dikwijls maar beperkte toegang hebben tot informatie en media en informatie over deze kwesties.
Het is onze hoop onze volk te kunnen inspireren om zich te engageren in de zorg voor ons land, lucht, en water, en cultuur zodat we een toekomst als Dine’ kunnen tegemoet gaan.
Op 6 januari 2015 is de mars begonnen . En in het najaar 2015 zullen er 1.000 mijlen afgelegd zijn.
Op 21 maart is het tweede deel van de mars begonnen bij zonsopgang.
