Indigenous groups and opposition politicians are calling for civil disobedience in Mexico following widespread electoral irregularities during the recent elections.
Even before the election, the aboriginal Zapatista rebels of the impoverished state of Chiapas promised that if the election was marred by irregularities, the country would rise up in protest. That seems to be what’s happening now.
Anew rebel group, the Revolutionary Insurrectional Army of the South-East, has appeared in Chiapas denouncing “electoral fraud” and calling on the government to satisfy popular demands for reform.
In a communique signed by a “commandant Julio,” this new group defines itself as a “heterogenous army of peasants, natives, workers, students, teachers and other disadvantaged people pushed by the State into a revolutionary spirit.”
They demand “adequate housing, hospitals, schools, roads, electricity, credit, lands and respect for indigenous peoples.”
