Airborted.

[Matthew X]

Airborted In an astonishing victory for the residents of San Salvador 
Atenco, the Mexican government last week confirmed that they were 
abandoning plans to build a new international airport smack on top of the 
small farming community just outside of Mexico City. The whole saga began 
last autumn when Mexican President Vicente Fox's government approved plans 
to build a six-runway, $2.3 billion airport that would gobble up much of 
San Salvador Atenco's farming land. In October, a federal ruling offered 
villagers a mere 40 pence a square yard for the land - the land that served 
as the farmers' main source of food, income, and security. The residents of 
Atenco and the surrounding villages quickly dismissed this slap-in-the-face 
offer, and immediate protests and marches were organised. Over the next 9 
months, farmers mobilised themselves with few results - but things began to 
change on Thursday, July 11th, when a demo was organised to protest an 
official government announcement affirming the airport plans. Farmers 
travelling in a peaceful caravan to the demo were attacked by police with 
clubs, tear gas, and live ammunition. Thirty protesters were injured, 
fifteen arrested, and five hospitalised-one of whom, Jose Enrique Espinoza 
Juarez, died in hospital two weeks later. This brutal show of force 
inspired supporters in nearby Atenco to take immediate and radical direct 
action. Over the next few days, five police squad cars were burnt and used 
along with other seized vehicles (including some Coca-Cola trucks!) to 
block the nearby national highway. Thirteen government and police officials 
were taken hostage, and the Atenco farmers used these hostages as 
bargaining tools in their struggle with the authorities. On July 14, the 
last hostages were released in return for the release of all arrested farm 
workers. It has taken the government another three weeks to cancel plans 
for the airport altogether, but with last week's announcement; the Atenco 
workers' victory became certain. Many people feel that the Atenco struggle 
has been a vital test of the ability of a community-based movement to stop 
projects that only serve the interests of a few, powerful and wealthy 
businesses. The administration of President Fox has a plethora of such 
projects, including the lofty Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a plan to privatise 
the energy industry and support the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The 
PPP is President Fox's crown jewel economic project, which seeks to 
transform south eastern Mexico into an industrialised factory centre where 
maquiladoras (sweatshops) can thrive, producing yet more raw materials for 
the developed countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The plan involves 
massive construction projects and generous factory building incentives in 
an attempt to attract more foreign investment from multi-national 
corporations. But the PPP cuts right through the heart of a lot of 
indigenous land and territory in the poverty stricken southern Mexico State 
of Chiapas and beyond. Roberto Rivera, a student involved in a recent 
Atenco solidarity march, sees the protests in Atenco as "an important 
turning point, because the proposed airport is the first integral step in 
the process of implementing the Plan Puebla Panama . . . if the plans to 
build this new airport in Atenco are stopped, it will be a major blow to 
the PPP." The events of Atenco have indeed sent a clear message to 
multi-national companies and the governments that seek only to protect 
their interests. "Even if they gave us all the gold in the world," said one 
Atenco woman, "We wouldn't leave our land because that is all we have." 
http://mexico.indymedia.org/
Another much smaller but still encouraging win was in Melb this week when 
the successor to Wackenhutt,Group 4,lost validation from the 
RMIT.Grassroots action.
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=31334&group=webcast
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