"Mexico is afraid of giving a bad image of himself in the world, and thus losing foreign investment. Many social conflicts under way in Ireland on the mega-projects considered 'key to development', and the government is on the side of the Mexican capital and foreigners. This means that the very existence of conflict is denied by the institutions and made invisible by the media. The control of the media prevents effective dissemination of what is happening in the country. "
Pablo Romo works in Mexico City for Serapaz, Asesoria y Servicios para la Paz. In the late nineties he was director of the Human Rights Center "Fray Bartolome de Las Casa San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas. He has just presented a paper on the "criminalization of social protest in Mexico," and we reached by telephone at his home, to talk about it.
In recent years, the emergence of new social conflicts, what the typical response of the Mexican government?
is a three-step process. The first is to make invisible, to deny the conflict. This brings the movement to seek new strategies of confrontation, which almost always responds with the government attempts to co-optation, to understand what "costs" the leader. If the conflict persists, we arrive at the third stage, which is that of repression. Repression that occurs in different ways: it can be selective or mass. Today there is a very tight control of the territory, a military presence that has greatly increased since President Calderón (since December 2006, ed.)
The first phase of the criminalization of protest social changes for the denial interlocution. In this process, which followed up in the ' Observatorio Social en México sobre la conflictividad - what is the role of the media?
I think it important to distinguish between at least two different types of means of mass communication. On the one hand, there is television, which in Mexico is a duopoly that criminalizes any expression of protest. From the events of the PRD, the opposition party, the actually much more complex to the armed groups. We are seeing a total control and absolute censorship. There is no room for criticism of social movements to the status quo. It is not only to make invisible denigrate the TV, attacks, slander the movement in short, creates a stigma around the movements of criminals.
As for newspapers and magazines, there is at least one or two or taking a more critical perspective, but few people reach.
The world of radio is very different however. Most are close to the television, and the few critical voices have been silenced. The communication on environmental issues, is usually done to create fear against social organizations. However, there is a new phenomenon of community radio, pirate radio, blogs, media "flatter", which are playing an "insurgent" in the current landscape.
When will the government's strategy is successful in curbing social opposition?
happens when the movements are not ready for a confrontation that leads to the kind of repression, and government action can generate fear. For example, the activities of the Front for the Defense of Water in Cuautla, in the State of Morelos, stopped after the assassination of two leaders ..
The holding of Ignacio "Nacho" Del Valle, leader of San Salvador Atenco case is a very clear example of how the government wants to disseminate messages: "If you stand against us, will pass 60 years in prison, as 'Nacho'" . Everything that people understand that there is no point complaining. In this
so, they also try to divide the organizations, including radical, willing to do anything, and moderates. Atenco, however, they did not succeed.
A further step in the strategy of "official" bringing the complaint in court.
This responds to a very simple idea: people simply can not defend and pay good lawyers during a trial. In addition, in Mexico we can not rely on the fairness of prosecutors or judicial apparatus.
This is the latest strategy to inhibit the force of a movement.
Then there is only room for the armed suppression. When it comes time army?
Today, unfortunately, the intervention Army should be read in a broader context, which is what the global war on terrorism. Mexico must defend its territorial space because terrorists do not enter. The country must be "clean." The decision to intervene militarily, that is, not the Mexican government, depends on the orders "of the empire." the Mexican army is deployed throughout the country, not only in the area of \u200b\u200barmed conflict such as Chiapas and Guerrero. This is from Tijuana to Cancun, Cozumel. The army controls the roads, and no longer limits his task to defend the homeland, nor is fighting against drug trafficking.
is creating a work of social control, and is doing-for example, in Chiapas, in an attempt to destroy the structure of the peasant movement and the relationship between this and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
show their strength to demobilize social movements.
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