Zapatista Supporters Take U.S.-Owned Land

yahoo ^ | 2/28/03

[knak]

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico - Scores of Zapatista rebel supporters seized an American-owned tourism ranch in the southern state of Chiapas on Friday.

Rebels denouncing foreign influence have said they want to drive out the American owners of the Rancho Esmerelda, and since mid-December residents of the rebel village of Nuevo Jerusalem had blocked roads leading to the ranch.

At about 7:30 a.m., about 100 intruders arrived and threw out the two caretakers who were the only people left on the 26-acre property, said Ellen Jones, who owned the ranch with her husband, Glen Wersch.

"This is a robbery with two months of advance, written notice," she said. "We just had our lives destroyed, our home taken from us, our business ruined and our life savings evaporate."

The intruders had machetes, but were not violent and did not harm the employees, she said, adding that police were summoned but that they declined to enter the property to confront the invaders.

Local reporters confirmed the takeover. The office of state Government Secretary Emilio Zebadua also confirmed the takeover but said it had no details.

The leftist Zapatistas have mingled calls for Indian rights, local autonomy and socialist economics since emerging from the jungle canyons of rural Chiapas on Jan. 1, 1994.

Recently they have begun to denounce foreign investment and tourism projects such as Rancho Esmeralda — the sort of programs that federal and state officials have encouraged in hopes of overcoming Chiapas' poverty.

The Zapatistas had told reporters they had no plans to seize the ranch, but hoped to force the Americans out. Wersch, however, said their employees had been told the rebels planned to take the property.

Since the road was closed by residents of Nuevo Jerusalem, the Americans had closed their guest ranch operation and moved to the nearby town of Ocosingo, but kept caretakers on to look after their tropical flowers, coffee plants and macadamia groves.

Jones said state officials, apparently wary of prompting a bloody clash with rebels, had told her and Wersch last week that they would not intervene to open the road.

The seizure Friday occurred a few hours before President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) arrived in Chiapas to inaugurate a program called the "National Crusade for Legal Security in the Countryside."

"He picked a bad day," Jones said.

Wersch and Jones came to Chiapas in 1993 after a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic inspired them to mix environmentally friendly agriculture with a tourist getaway. They set up cabins where guests could see coffee grow — and drink it as well.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I don't understand why anyone would invest their life savings in an area without the rule of law. The fact that the Mexican army was afraid to confront the Zapatistas should have been a tip...

[CdMGuy]

Ah yes, Vicente Fox. The biggest disappointment out of Mexico in many a year. Mr. PAN Party himself. Just as bad as all his predecessors from the PRI Party. Too bad for Mexico. Too bad for the US.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Expect the same in TX, NM, AZ AND CA.

[lady lawyer]

I wonder how the Mexicans would react if a bunch of white Americans got together and started seizing property of Mexican nationals here in the U.S.

[Servant of the Nine]

Somebody dig up Black Jack Pershing. It is time for another Punitive Expedition and all around bandit hunt.

So9

[dfwgator]

Looks like a couple of naive do-goody-good liberals just got their wake up call.

[Stopislamnow]

Just what I was about to say.

Sounds like some envirowhackos found religion (money! own your own business, be a contributor) then found out what leftism is really about.

[1rudeboy]

Amen. These property-owners are probably agitating against garden-gnomes in their own neighborhood.

[semaj]

"Sounds like some envirowhackos found religion (money! own your own business, be a contributor) then found out what leftism is really about."

What's that saying about a conservative is a liberal who got mugged?

[RightWhale]

Annex Mehico except for Chiapas.

Viva Zapata!

[johniegrad]

Mexico started out as a presumably stalwart partner of this administration touting free trade, open borders, unlimited soliditary. Now all you hear is crap like this, stealing American property, illegally immigrating for medical care, obstructing our efforts in the UN. What the hell is the matter with these people or is this simply a nation of outlaws and thieves?

[Jack Black]

Perhaps all the hard working ones appear to have jobs in the USA as gardners and fast food servers, and janitors, and meat packers...

[johniegrad]

Yeah, maybe. All the Texans I know say that this is the case. But if so, look at what's left behind. How do you become allies with that sort of stuff.

[hoot2]

"Mexico started out as a presumably stalwart partner of this administration touting free trade, open borders, unlimited soliditary. Now all you hear is crap like this, stealing American property, illegally immigrating for medical care, obstructing our efforts in the UN. What the hell is the matter with these people or is this simply a nation of outlaws and thieves? "

mexico is a cancer on the u.s.
build a canal along the border....save fuel for our aircraft carriers; n give mexico n inland waterway...

[El Gato]

What the hell is the matter with these people or is this simply a nation of outlaws and thieves?

If you are speaking of their government officials, mostly yes. If speaking of the people themselves, mostly, but hardly entirely, no.

[I got the rope]

Its already been done. Read your history about the Southwest United States.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Recently they have begun to denounce foreign investment and tourism projects such as Rancho Esmeralda ? the sort of programs that federal and state officials have encouraged in hopes of overcoming Chiapas' poverty.

Part of the Communist strategy is to keep the people in poverty so they need a "savior" like the Communists. Once "saved" it is too late. These folks do sound like feel-good-do-good liberals who just learned a lesson about the ones they previously supported.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Bingo.