On the 26th of January, a meeting of the Popular Assembly of the People of Chiapas (APPCH) was held in Colonia Emliano Zapata, a community on the hills overlooking Tuxtla Gutierrez. The APPCH, which was only recently formed mere months ago, came together to discuss the topic of political prisoners currently being held in Chiapas. The community hosting the meeting is itself a testament to the hard struggles that face this new organization, because the community of Emliano was a recuperated land settlement. The members of this community have had to beat off numerous police attempts to evict them from this land.

The meeting of the Peoples Popular assembly of Chiapas commenced with the various representatives introducing their respective organizations. Most notably in attendance were delegates from the Popular Asseembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) ,the teachers union of Chiapas (SNTE), the Peasant and Peoples front of Chiapas.

The program continued after the introductions with testimonies from the different organizations that had political prisoners incarcerated throughout the state. One woman described how the authorities came into her village and began loading loved ones into a truck and took them away to be detained. The member also of the APPO also gave an account of the police repression and detentions that occurred during the Oaxaca uprising.

Towards the end of the meeting it was concluded a joint rally would be held in both Tuxtla and San Cristobal to raise consciousness of the political repression targeting social organizations within the state of Chiapas and the people who are suffering its ill effects. The meeting convened with the agreement on the need to for future meetings to confront the social problems facing the state.

In the weeks after the meeting, the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines, has agreed to negotiate with several of the organizations comprising APPCH to free some of political prisoners currently being held in Chiapas. Some have argued that this could be a means to prevent the strengthening of APPCH and be able to stave off the social upheavals that overtook Oaxaca this fall. For more information in Spanish, see the links below:

-Planean liberar en Chiapas 300 presos políticos

-Foro en Chiapas

-Organizaciones crean la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Chiapas

~Adam Case~