Friends & Foes:

Imagine a world where there is freedom to have many worlds, a world where people are free to be themselves, have full social and economic democracy. For more than 500 years the native inhabitants of Mexico have been struggling not just for civil rights, but that their very existence would be acknowledged by the the Mexican government. The writer Paco Ignacio Taibo summed it up when he wrote, "Chiapas lies at the asshole of the world, where Jesus Christ lost his serape and John Wayne lost his horse." Subcommandante Marcos described the struggle as a "war against oblivion." After centuries of refusal, a shout was heard coming from the Lacondon jungle in the language of the ancient Maya: "Ya Basta!" ("Enough is enough!") Following in the footsteps of Poncho Villa and their namesake Emiliano Zapata, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation rose up not to ask, but to demand civil rights. Led by the charismatic intellectual Marcos, the rebels seized most of Chiapas and set up their own self-ruled communities and the movement caught the imagination of the world. Join me in supporting the proud Maya communities in Chiapas. Join the Zapatistas in their cries of "Ya Basta!"