Students monitor human rights on Chiapas trip

By Sheela V. Pai

COURTESY ARACELI CAMPOS Yale students observed this military base in Chiapas, Mexico over spring break.

The students of the center will be especially well-versed in the problems in Chiapas since they will speak from first-hand experience. Over spring break, 10 members of the group travelled to Chiapas to serve as human rights monitors in the midst of low intensity warfare between the Zapatistas and the Mexican military.

For the past four years, the Zapatistas, who are communal subsistence farmers, have been involved in a resistance movement fighting for land rights and basic improvements in their standard of living, especially in the areas of education, political representation, and health care.

In retaliation, the Mexican military has intimidated Zapatista villagers with guns, vandalized their homes, stolen their tools and livestock, and burned their crops. In an effort to defend themselves in a peaceful manner, the Zapatistas put out a call for international observers in 1994, resulting in the establishment of peace observer camps.

John Pluecker, ES '01, who spent last summer in Chiapas as an observer for the San Francisco-based Global Exchange program, organized the Yale trip, and felt compelled to return to the strife-ridden region because of recent violent developments. "[The Mexican military led] a massacre in the village of Acteal in which 46 Zapatistas died while praying in a church," Pluecker said. "There was an even more intense level of militarization than there had been. I'd been there, so I decided to go back."

Pluecker advertised the Chiapas peace observer camp by posting fliers around campus and e-mailing various service and political organizations. After bringing more students on board, the group turned its attention to fundraising. By writing letters to potential donors, approaching Yale organizations, applying for Yale Mellon Funds, and organizing benefit concerts, the group raised $6,000, which was used to fund the trip and assist Zapatista charities.

On the trip, the students were placed in Zapatista villages to monitor Mexican military activity. The group went to Chiapas under the auspices of Global Exchange, but reported to the human rights center in Chiapas, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.

"We would hold cameras so [the soldiers] knew there would be documentation if they did anything and [we] kept a log of military helicopters which flew low over villages to take surveillance pictures," Jennifer Turner, SY '99, said. "We also reported back [to a human rights center in Chiapas] the health needs of the Zapatistas, since the military kept medicine at their base and the people were too scared to go there."

The students personally experienced the intimidation tactics of the military. "The soldiers would be cocky and stand a few meters away from us and stare at us for hours," Turner recalled. A Barnard student, Jenny Pasquarella, who had joined the Yale group, was illegally taken by immigration officials to Mexico City and almost deported. Grace Rollins, CC '01, explained, "[Deportation] is a way they often try to get rid of foreign observation."

Although the students are now safe within U.S. borders, they hope to continue their efforts to aid the Zapatista cause through fundraising intiatives, clothing drives, and an Amnesty International letter-writing campaign. Turner said, "People need to know letters from the U.S. carry a lot of weight with the Mexican government, and if Yalies write letters, the government will look
at them."

The students, many of whom plan to return to Chiapas to continue their monitoring work, hope other Yalies will also take an active role in promoting their cause. "I hope Yalies would spread the word about what is going on in Chiapas and get people thinking about it," Pluecker said. "People need to know there are human rights, we
all have them, and we can all stand up
for them."

The students' next step is to spread information about the plight of the Zapatistas to Yalies and other Americans through the Chiapas Action Center. "We went to Chiapas to try to bring back good solid information so people know what is going on there and how horrible it is," Pluecker said. "The conflict is really wreaking havoc on the [Zapatistas'] social fabric."

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