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B r e a k t h e B l o c k a d e o f S i l e n c e

Companeros,

Currently, there is an urgent need for your help as the situation in Chiapas continues to deteriorate with each passing day. Paramilitary activity against the Indigenous Zapatista communities has reached an all time high. There are attacks on villages almost everyday, and in the last week almost 5,000 Indigenous peoples have been displaced by the violence, and dozens have been killed. Full-scale war is imminent. The Mexican government is pushing its military solution to the Zapatistas and indigenous peoples cry for justice and peace through the use of these paramilitary groups and by other tactics of its almost 4 year old dirty low-intensity war. If we, civil society do not intervene, mobilize and generate some critical pressure against the Mexican government the future of the Zapatista communities and the hope for the implementation of Indigenous rights and peace in Chiapas will end in blood-shed and more misery. The only way in which this war will be stopped if national and international civil society mobilize and let the Mexican and US governments know we are aware of the situation and that we will not tolerate the denial of Indigenous rights and the war being waged against Indigenous Zapatista communities.

In response to the critical situation in Chiapas, the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico is launching a Popular Ballot for the Right to Live in Peace and we are seeking 1,111 volunteers willing to collect 100 ballots each by January 1, 1998. The ballot is 6 public opinion questions regarding conditions in Mexico and US-Mexico relations, and is intended to serve as an expression of our will for peace in Chiapas and Mexico.

The search for volunteers and the collection of ballots began on November 20th, Mexican Revolution Day. The response has been good so far but we are still far from our goal, thus the call and need for more volunteers is more urgent. Please sign up. We need each volunteer to make 100 copies of the ballot, have people fill them out and send the results back to us by email at: moonlight@igc.apc.org.

We would also like to encourage everyone to set up tables at their highschools, colleges, universities, churches, places of work, etc. in order to collect as many ballots as possible!

A public announcement of the volunteers and their progress will be made on December 10th, the anniversary of the U. N. Declaration on Human Rights, and on January 1st the tally of the ballots will be announced as well as a decision on whether the balloting will be continued.

Serving as one of the 1,111 volunteers is a statement of support for the struggle for peace, democracy, liberty and justice of the 1,111 Zapatista communities in Chiapas.

To register as a volunteer, please send your name and a means of communicating with you by phone, fax, electronic or postal mail to:

NCDM

Tel: (213) 254-9950

Fax: (213) 254-9597

Email: moonlight@igc.apc.org

You can also register as a volunteer or submit a ballot through our web page (http://www.igc.apc.org/ncdm).

Please join us in breaking the information and military blockade being imposed on the Zapatistas. Register today! We are at a historic crossroads. Help us put an end of 505 years of genocide, discrimination and marginalization of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico. Help us prevent another Vietnam in Chiapas.

In solidarity and resistance,

NCDM

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