[van-announce] Globalization and the Zapatista Communities

[christine]

Globalization and the Zapatista Communities



Friday February 14th at 5:30pm
SFU Harbour Centre - 515 W. Hastings



Ruben Moreno 

(Community Defenders Network of Chiapas, Mexico)


and 


Tom Hanson 

(Mexico Solidarity Network, Chicago, U$A)

the talk is free, but donations will be gladly accepted.
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sponsored by the SFU Linguistics Student Union


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Ruben Moreno, an indigenous human rights activist from Chiapas, Mexico is a founder of the Community Human Rights Defenders Network (CHRDN), a unique network of indigenous human rights activists from Zapatista communities. The CHRDN includes over 30 men and women from communities in resistance trained as the rough equivalent of paralegals. They document human rights abuses by the army, paramilitary groups and police officials, accompany human rights cases through the legal system, and publish denouncements that are distributed internationally. Ruben is from the autonomous municipality of Nicolas Riuz, located in the central highlands of Chiapas. 

The CHRDN has a proud four year history, developing an alternative model of human rights work in which community members who suffer human rights abuses assume control of their own defense. Ruben will discuss the current human rights situation in Chiapas in light of increased paramilitary activity and the murder of four Zapatista supporters in August of last year.

Tom Hansen, Director of the Mexico Solidarity Network, will accompany Ruben. Tom has 20 years experience working in Latin America. He was expelled from Mexico in 1998 for 2 1/2 years for his activities as a human rights activist. Tom will talk about the Zapatista struggle for autonomy in the context of the predominant neoliberal economic/political model, with particular focus on Plan Puebla Panama, a Fox administration "development" plan that will lead to the displacement of hundreds of indigenous communities throughout the isthmus of the Americas.



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