[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Radio Insurgente

Tue Jan 11 00:33:49 PST 2005

>
>
>Radio Insurgente
>By Deepa Fernandes,
>
>In These Times
>Posted on January 10, 2005,
>http://www.alternet.org/story/20932/
>
>It's dark - the kind of profound darkness that a lack
>of electricity ensures in a mountainous jungle region.
>
>A dull pulse carries through the night of the
>southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas like an old
>woman's heartbeat. It's 4 a.m., and one can hear what
>has been a regular soundtrack at this hour for hundreds
>of years: a steady pounding as creased and callused
>brown hands massage dough for the day's tortillas.
>
>And for the past year, Chiapas has greeted 4 a.m. with
>another soundtrack.
>
>Fade in crackle, which quickly disappears, replaced by
>a clear and youthful female voice: "Muy Buenos
>Dias."/"A very good morning."
>
>The voice is that of an insurgent fighter with the
>Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN),
>perhaps one of the world's quietest and most powerful
>rebel armies. The world knows them as the Zapatistas.
>"Estas escuchando Radio Insurgente, la voz de los sin
>voz."/"You are listening to Radio Insurgente, the Voice
>of the Voiceless."
>
>The voice is being relayed to nearby Zapatista
>autonomous communities from a makeshift and very
>clandestine radio studio. The Zapatistas have built egg
>carton-lined studios, erected transmitters and trained
>themselves to operate a radio station. Hundreds of
>years of media voicelessness ended in August 2003 with
>daily, 16-hour broadcasts. "...voz oficial del Ejercito
>Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional."/ "...official voice
>of the Zapatista National Liberation Army."
>
>She is the official voice of the EZLN on the Zapatista
>radio network. The intimacy and immediacy of this
>uncensored mass communication is something that the
>indigenous rebel army has never before had. "Son las
>cuatro de la madrugada."/"It's four in the morning."
>
>Zapatista time. Daybreak. Fade in Zapatista national
>anthem.
>
>The EZLN has said that access to and control of the
>media are vital for its community's survival. And while
>successive Mexican governments have surrounded
>Zapatista communities with armies and allowed soldiers
>and paramilitaries to unleash terror on indigenous
>peoples, the Zapatistas have worked quietly to build
>the capacity to speak directly to their people. So
>quietly in fact, that when the Zapatista broadcasts
>first hit the airwaves, playing popular music and
>reading saludos from listeners, even government
>loyalists unwittingly tuned in.
>
>"Radio Insurgente is a radio station that is completely
>independent from the bad Mexican government," explains
>the network's Web site, radioinsurgente.org. This past
>Nov. 17, the day the EZLN celebrated its 21st
>anniversary, the station launched an Internet audio
>version of the clandestine network. From recordings of
>local indigenous musicians and story-tellers to
>political speeches by EZLN leaders, the Internet audio
>archive serves as a history of Mexico's indigenous
>people. "... transmitiendo desde algun lugar de las
>montanas del sureste Mexicano."/ "... transmitting from
>someplace in the southeastern Mexican mountains."
>
>Stories circulate about the Zapatistas' masked leader,
>Subcommandante Marcos, sitting in a mud hut in the
>jungle writing communiques on his newly upgraded Dell
>lap-top. Indeed the Zapatistas have taken full
>advantage of new technologies.
>
>Mexico's indigenous insurgents have kept close to the
>ground, expanding their FM community radio reach to
>between two and four radio stations and teaching radio
>skills to young women insurgents. Zapatista division of
>labor assigns men the technical roles and women the
>programming, on-air and reporting roles. "Las
>reporteras de radio insurgente estuvieron en el lugar
>de los hechos. Asi que podemos transmitirles un resumen
>de lo que grabaron ..."/ "Radio Insurgente reporters
>were on the spot and we bring you this summary of what
>we recorded ..."
>
>Radio Insurgente reports breaking news from Zapatista
>and indigenous communities, blending political
>education with on-the-ground reporting. Take the April
>10 incident this year in the community of Zinacantan,
>when community leaders went to see municipal
>authorities to demand access to potable water for their
>communities and were attacked en route by thugs from
>the Party of the Democratic Revolution. Reporters from
>Radio Insurgente were on the spot. They transmitted
>interviews with witnesses and those who were attacked
>about both the incident and their opinions about the
>revolutionary peasant leader Emiliano Zapata, whose
>death 85 years ago was being commemorated in Zinacantan
>when the attack occurred. That program is now archived
>on the new web site.
>
>While providing information on the Zapatista struggle
>for autonomy and acting as a lifeline to the world, the
>web site also serves as the legal arm of Radio
>Insurgente. It is archiving for posterity what has been
>broadcast to the inhabitants of the Chiapan jungles
>just in case the Mexican army shuts down the daily
>radio signal.
>
>Mexican broadcast law, similar to Federal
>Communications Commission laws in the United States,
>requires that one have a license to send out a radio
>signal. Red tape and corporate control of the media
>make it next to impossible for anyone to succeed in
>getting a license. Yet, tiny low-power wattage stations
>exist all over Mexico - all subject to threats and
>harassment by the Mexican military.
>
>In mid-September an indigenous station in the
>neighboring state of Oaxaca was violently raided by
>some 200 soldiers and police. Equipment was seized and
>destroyed, and 14 people were arrested.
>
>Fear of reprisal, however, has not daunted the
>Zapatistas. Programming has blossomed. The new web site
>makes hour-long news specials available for radio
>stations to download and play. It features public
>service announcements that educate the public about
>violence against women and advertise upcoming programs
>like a special on Che Guevara. The web site also
>archives speeches and communiques by EZLN leaders,
>blending everything with Zapatista liberation songs and
>local music. "Este programa va dirijido a todos los
>campesinos y tambien a los indigenas que luchan por una
>vida major."/"This program is dedicated to all the
>farmers and indigenous people who are fighting for a
>better world."
>
>By adding to the thriving landscape of independent
>media in Mexico, Radio Insurgente is fulfilling a
>long-held dream of El Sup (Marcos), who once noted that
>"independent media tries to save history - today's
>history - tries to save it and tries to share it so it
>will not disappear." One wonders if Marcos had any idea
>back in 1997 when he issued this communique that a
>Zapatista-controlled, internationally accessible public
>audio archive of its people's history was only a few
>years away. "Ahora vamos a escuchar a Mercedes Sosa que
>nos canta Alcen la Bandera. ..."/ "Now let's listen to
>Mercedes Sosa singing 'Alcen la Bandera.' ..."
>
>Some worry that the Mexican government may try to shut
>down the web site and the radio stations. The insurgent
>women who are responsible for the bulk of the
>programming, whose voices grace the airwaves from 4
>a.m. through the night, realize the signal could be
>squelched at any moment. But for now, with the eyes and
>ears of the world drinking in the MP3 sounds of Radio
>Insurgente, it seems like the Fox government may have
>missed its chance to silence the voiceless. "Mucho
>animos para sus trabajos y que pasa una buena noche."/
>"Keep up your spirits in your work and have a good
>night."
>
>(c) 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights
>reserved. View this story online at:
>http://www.alternet.org/story/20932/
>_______________________________________________________
>


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand