Live better These are actions, not words We’ve stopped being the country’s poorest. Say the government’s propaganda campaign to hide the reality of their investments in the “development” of Chiapas. Since the January 1994 ceasefire between the Mexican state and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, (EZLN) the conflict has been called the Chiapas Low-Intensity Conflict because there hasn’t been open fire between the two sides. Nonetheless, the genocide and war continues: paramilitaries, indoctrination, and dispossession of traditional lands with money from the UN and the World Bank, las ciudades rurales.

If you ask president Felipe Calderon (PAN, electoral right-wing) or Governor of Chiapas Juan Sabines (PRD, electoral left-wing), the ciudades rurales are there to relocate poor indigenous people from risk zones–communities without electricity, drinking water, access to heath–to safe housing. Coincidentally, the officially designated risk-zones coincide perfectly with the zones that contain high-levels of exploitable natural-resources. The government moves them to the ciudad rural, and has them sign a contract which gives them a house in exchange for a commitment never to return to their original homes.

On paper, everything looks good–the government promotes increased quality of life and provides employment to the residents of the ciudades rurales, while the GDP increases due to the increased exploitation of natural resources.

But, if you go to a ciudad rural, as we did, you see the grim reality.

FULL ARTICLE: The Pioneer | Whitman news since 1896. » The UN vs. the People: A Modern Cold War.