January 06, 2003
Still tense at Rancho Esmeralda

After surviving the threat of takeover just before New Year's, Glen and Ellen remain in a tense situation with their Zapatista neighbors. Here's today's update from Ellen:

Our current situation: after almost four days of having our road open to anyone
(thanks to the press presence) the community again closed the road to everyone on Friday afternoon. Glen is being asked to meet, alone, with the Zapatista leaders from this new autonomous municipio..........to dialog and negotiate. Members of the community next to us have told us that these leaders plan to impose a "war tax" for each of the eight years we have been here.

As I wrote you earlier, state goverment officals have promised to make this a
priority this week. Emilio Zebadua's office, the Secretario de Gobernacion de
Chiapas, is the lead office on this.

Meanwhile, we are open and welcoming guests who must walk in on the trail from the ruins of Tonina to reach the ranch. It's about a 20 minute walk. People with cars must park them in town and take public transportation to the ruins entrance. We were parking guests' cars on a neighboring ranch but the Zapatistas told him he wasn't allowed to help us anymore.


Ellen

Posted by Dave at January 06, 2003 04:26 PM