Listen to 35-minute Spanish-language Proceso “Surviving Violence” podcast on Peace Brigades International in Mexico

Published by Brent Patterson on February 12, 2025February 12, 2025

Proceso notes: “Episode 2. With the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas in 1994, international brigadistas began to arrive in Mexico. Empathy with the indigenous rebellion led many to want to know directly about social injustices and protect – even as human shields – the Indigenous peoples who have taken up arms. 30 years have passed since then and international observers are still active on Mexican soil. Their task has changed. Now they observe, accompany and seek to make the whole world aware of the human rights crisis in Mexico. And for many Mexican organizations, their presence is essential to be able to carry out their work under a cloak of a certain security.”

To listen to this 35-minute podcast in Spanish, click here.

“Surviving violence. Mexico, international urgency. Brigadistas”

As has been noted on the PBI-Mexico website: “PBI’s activities in Mexico began in 1994 when, following the Zapatista uprising, it received requests for an international presence in the state of Chiapas. In 1996 PBI started working with Mexican organizations as a member of the International Service for Peace (SIPAZ) coalition.”

Presently, one of the organizations that PBI-Mexico accompanies is the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water (FPDTA) that opposes the PIM megaproject and seeks justice for the murder of Samir Flores.

As NACLA has explained: “Flores was a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and land protection, a member of the FDPTA and the Indigenous Governance Council (CIG), a Zapatista-affiliated organization of Indigenous groups across Mexico.”

On April 10, 2021, PBI-Mexico accompanied the Peoples’ Front on a march on the 102nd anniversary of the assassination of Emiliano Zapata, killed by soldiers in Ayala, Morelos in 1919, from whom the Zapatistas took their name.

For more about PBI-Mexico, please see their website.