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Marcha in Mex City
John Lozier (JLOZIER@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU)
Sun, 12 Feb 1995 15:59:46 EST
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"Elliott Young (Colegio de la Frontera)" <eyoung@colmex.mx>
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Yesterday, Satruday, a march was held in mexico City, from the Angel to
the Zocalo. What the Friday protest lacked in numbers and militancy, the
Saturday march made up. Virtually all of the civic organizations were
represented, including the CND, the organizacion de barrios, the
Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM), CONAI, Frente Popular Francisco
Villa, and the PRD, of course. Thousands upon thousands of people filled
the Avendia Reforma and marched, chanting "Todos Somos Marcos", "Zapata
Vive, La Lucha Sigue," "Se Ve, Se Nota, Zedillo es un Idiota," "La UAM No
Es Cuartel, Es Universidad," (referring to the invasion of the University
by soldiers), and "Duro, Duro."
Graffiti decorated the pathway all along Reforma and Calle Madero leading
up to the Zocalo. Targeted especially were the banks, expensive hotels,
jewlery stores, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Arbys, and McDonalds, and all of
the bus stops. The graffit read "Todos Somos Marcos," "EZLN," and "Fuera
Capitalismo Internacional" (especially on the US fast-food franchises).
Cornel Sanders was painted so that he looked like a masked zapatista.
the paint covered walls and also windows so that painting over it will
not be such an easy task.
The march began at 4 pm and began arriving at the Zocalo by 6pm
where a whole stage of people gave speeches. By 8 pm the enormous march
was still entering the Zocalo, which by that time was completely filled.
The regulars spoke, Cardenas, Porfirio Munoz ledo, Rosario Ibarra de
Piedra, in addition to many others, including the actress Ofelia Medina.
The speeches were even more animated than usual, with Cardenas even
working up some emotion. Rosario related information that she had on the
people who had been arrested. All of them, she said, had been forced to
sign confessions under physical and psychological torture. She described
tortures, such as electric shocks, beatings, and physical molestation of
women. Porfirio made the point that it took the government oer a year to
figure out that the movement was armed. Also, among the items the
government captured, proving that the arrested were zapatistas, were
books, videos, and posters, all of which are readily available in the
Zocalo any day of the week. Ofelia Medina held the attention of the
whole audience with her emotional speech in which she said that one drop
of Indian blood is worth more than 51 billion dollars. She also asked
the people of the US to listen and realize that their consumer life is
bought at the expense of the blood of Indian Mexicans. We are the voice
of those without voice, she continued, somos todos indios.
A representative from Chiapas announced that the UAM (Marcos'
alma mater) would now be known as La Basilica de San Marcos. A PRD
delegate informed that on Monday there would be a motion in the Che
Guevara auditorium at the UNAM to grant Marcos an honorary doctorate in
filosofia y letras for his great intellectual contribution to the
nation. He also compared marcos' qualifications to those of Alzati, the
former sec. of education, who pretended to have a doctorate that he never
had. So I guess he will be Dr. Subcomandante Marcos from Monday onwards.
The rally ended at around 8:30 pm. There was a noticeable
absence of police throughout the march. In the US, one could expect
thousands of cops in full riot gear, ready to make arrests and prrovoke
violence. The only police that I saw, there were of course undercover
cops, were about 100 riot cops in front of the US embassy (very appropriate).
On Tuesday, the CND will hold an open-air meeting to discuss
future actions at the Angel. I will do my best to keep you posted.
Ni Un Paso Atras,
Elliott Young
eyoung@colmex.mx
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