Narconews: Reports from Other Campaign in Sinaloa

After a five-month suspension due to the Mexican government's brutal attack on the town of Atenco, Subcomandante Marcos' tour of the entire Mexican republic is back in full swing. Now, in The Narco News Bulletin, read the first reports from the Zapatista Other Campaign in the Pacific state of Sinaloa.

Al Giordano provides a "rewind" of the Other Campaign so far, discussing its victories and challenges, and reports on the meetings that took place between Marcos and the embattled fishing communities of this allegedly "conservative" state.

Giordano writes:

"...In recent decades came gigantic multi-national trawlers from the United States, from Spain, from Japan, from other countries, scraping not just the shrimp from the ocean floor, but also the plants and eco- systems that feed them and allow them to live and to reproduce. As a result, shrimp now is scarce for certain parts of the year. Instead of telling the foreign seafood merchants to stop raping the Mexican coastlines in this way, the government of Mexico created a policy called the 'veda,' the imposition of entire seasons in which shrimp fishing is forbidden (the same policy has been imposed upon those who catch others kinds of fish and seafood along other Mexican coastlines up and down the Pacific, the Gulf and the Caribbean). This, to ensure that during the seasons when the big shrimp boats come to scrape again, there will be product for them to harvest."

This attack on the coastal way of life was explained to Delegate Zero by the people who live it. Other Journalism correspondent Kristin Bricker, in her own report from the meetings, reports that in addition to the obstacles placed for fishermen, the government invests enormous sums of money in developing ritzy marinas for U.S. tourists, while allowing trash to pile up in obscene amounts in the poor town of Dautillo:

"Caravan participants noticed the stench before they even entered the town, but didn't mention it to Dautillo residents out of politeness. But they didn't need to; in the public forum, several impassioned Dautillo women stressed the need to organize for trash collection. They complained that when friends come to town for visits, they hold their noses because of the offensive smell.

"Garbage trucks never come to Dautillo to collect the waste. It sits alongside a marsh where the trash is burned, plastic and all. The result is devastating: the trash attracts flies and maggots that spread disease and make the children sick. For such an impoverished town, the increased economic burden of trash-related medical expenses is unbearable. This hardship is exacerbated by the fact that fishermen aren't entitled to social security benefits, which would help them cover medical expenses. The trash also pollutes the surrounding land and water, affecting the chickens and shrimp. This, of course, drives shrimp prices down even further."

Read both reports in The Narco News Bulletin:
http://www.narconews.com

Banned from Traveling by Sea, Subcomandante Marcos Proposes to Head to Baja California via the Mexican Mainland
&
From the Coffee Farms of Chiapas to the Shrimp Farms of the Sinaloan Coast, One Common Struggle

In addition, Al Giordano had reported late last night that "Delegate Zero" (Marcos) was banned from board the ferry that provides the only public transportation between Sinaloa and the Baja California peninsula, on an absurd pretext that the Other Journalism quickly revealed to be a lie. Now, this morning the Mexican newspaper La Jornada reports that the ferry company has softened its tone and may allow the masked subcomandante to make the voyage after all.

"What happened?" writes Giordano: "President Vicente Fox is scheduled to be in the same port of Topolobampo this afternoon at 5:30 to cut the ribbons on some development projects. Once the story hit that a problem was brewing right there, the boys upstairs got nervous and apparently decided to back down. Another victory for the Zapatista Other Campaign..."

Read a translation of that report:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/10/12/9431/5005

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com

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