"Fiiire, fiiire" voice the men of the communities calling each other to take up machetes, shovels and pails; the hill is on fire.
An epidemic of fires, beyond all precedent, is sweeping away the forests as well as the vegetable plots, the coffee plantations, the milpas and animals of the communities. Mostly they seem provoked. They start at places where no one burns for agriculture. They destroys forests that no one dared cut down, that were part of the communities' patromony. They do not respect ditches nor protections, because the hands that fire them do not rest, they are ubiquitous, invisible, unpunished, they have bared the surface. To see each other's faces; so that no one can hide.
Never before a layer of smoke had covered such a large extension of the Chiapas territory.
The peasants are astounded, indignant, sad and worried. Although government officials are trying all kinds of somersaults to blame the peasants (see the case of the coffee plantations set on fire in Taniperlas), they are accusations no one believes.
In the Altamirano canada there are places where, at noon, one cannot distinguish another person two meters away, as it happens in the communities 10 de Abril and San Miguel Chiptic. But there is worse: the Sierra of Corralon is ablaze, from Morelia to La Garrucha at the canada of Patihuitz. Smoke shoots up from everywhere.
Officially, up to now there are 46 thousand hectares burnt down in Chiapas. Also officially, at this moment 35 fires are being fought against. The largest at the selva and frontier regions. In the area of the Montebello lakes, between La Trinitaria and La Independencia, three thousand hectares are burning, and one thgousand two hundred at the Taniperla ejido. Between Pueblo Nuevo and Sitala, at Tila, in the northern region, the Capalna hill is ablaze. The fires have affected the Palenque National Park and large forested areas at Las Margaritas, Chanal and Comitan. At the El Bosque and Bochil, between Los Altos and the North, fires spring up when it is less expected. And in Chenalho.
These are not the traditional burnings of the agricultural cycle, it is not that the peasants have become more careless nor that they harbor evil intentions.
For the communities, the fires are an omen of hunger. Putting aside the great fires of Copainala and Cintalapa, and the fires that can be associated with urban speculation, as in Ocozocuautla, the largest concentration of fires coincides with the "conflict zone", that is, where the indigenous population lives, where there exist autonomous municipalities, where the EZLN and their suupporting bases move; hundreds of resisting communities.
Although there are no existing proofs (which is typical) the incendiary proliferation in zones of conflict is "normal" during contra-insurgency campaigns. It has been seen in Central America, in Vietnam and in Cambodia; it can be seen in Colombia and Indonesia. Why should it not be seen in Chiapas, if the mannuals are the same? And besides, there are so many fires in the Republic, there's no reason why a few more should be noticed.
The roads that lead to Morelia, to Belisario Dominguez, to the mountains, show their desolation. The inhabitants of Morelia speak with sadness of the scenery lost. Coughing, injected conjunctivitis, children's runny noses, lung pains, spitting, hurting noses. The permanent smell of bonfire on the clothes.
"The blaze appears as distributed" says a peasant. "below the trees and in bonfires near the coffee plantations. Everything is dry and as soon as the wind blows it sets all evenly afire".
"People from here it is not"', he says,"how can it be. But who does it, we don't know.".
At the environs of La Laguna, near Altamirano, there are almost no forests. At La Laguna a new air strip of the armed forces is being set up, that the peasants fear can be turned into an air base.
At the autonomous municipality 17 de Noviembre, many recently founded towns ("New Population Centers") are being affected by the absurd burnings. When the smoke disperses, the moors [smog or soot?] will remain. And if the rains, as it is feared, are delayed, the moors will last.
Translated from Spanish by Maria Elena Hope ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ NUEVO AMANECER PRESS- N.A.P. _________________________________ Registered as a Non Profit Corporation in USA,N.A.P. translates and distributes information in support of human rights in Mexico. Advisory team: Mexico. General Director:Roger Maldonado-Mexico Darrin Wood: Director NAP-Spain office. Susana Saravia: Coordinator NAP: Mexico/USA/Spain Our web page in spanish:http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm