BY BOB BRAXTON AND MARLA PUZISS
TEPOZTLAN, Morelos, Mexico - The first thing you notice is the barricade of paving stones blocking vehicles from using the main street into the town. When you finally do arrive at the main square, the front of City Hall is covered with murals denouncing the country club and celebrating Emiliano Zapata, peasant hero of the Mexican revolution. No policemen or police cars are in sight; City Hall is guarded by an old woman fixing tortillas. Welcome to Tepoztlán.

For the last two years, the citizens of this small rural town of 15,000, about 45 miles southwest of Mexico City, have been engaged in a hard-fought struggle to prevent the construction of a country club on 500 acres of communal land abutting the town.

In late 1994 the Kladt Sorbino group (KS), a consortium of Mexican and international investors headed by U.S.-based GTE and VISA, announced their plan to build a $54 million tourist megaplex here. Centered on a professional-caliber golf course, the development was to include 800 condominiums, a five-star hotel, and an executive conference center. With investors including prominent associates of then president Carlos Salinas, the plan immediately won the support of the governor of Morelos, who, like Salinas, is a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Despite KS promises to create jobs and generate tax revenues, opposition in Tepoztlán grew quickly as it became clear the proposed country club would be built on communal lands guaranteed by the Mexican constitution. Illegally acquired decades earlier by cartel investors, these communal lands are vital for the livelihood of some 800 area families. Further studies revealed that the country club would drain the scarce water supplies of area farmers.

Citizens formed the Tepoztlán Unity Committee (CUT), which held almost weekly marches, demonstrations, and meetings against KS and the country club through 1995. In an interview, José Antonio Rodríguez, a member of the town's city council in 1994-95 who opposed the project, summarized the majority's attitude as one of "defense of our rights, a fight for defense of our ancestral lands and to use our own natural resources." Despite overwhelming opposition, the municipal president and a majority of the city council - members of the PRI - met secretly in the lobby of a hotel and authorized construction of the golf course on Aug. 22, 1995.

The reaction of working people of Tepoztlán was immediate. The next day, 8,000 outraged Tepoztecos stormed City Hall and expelled the municipal president and council majority from their posts for betraying the people's wishes. Barricades blocking the main entrances to the town were erected and citizen guards were established. The defense guard, made up of older male and female volunteers, kept a 24-hour watch on the municipal offices; other guards (the vigilancia), composed of younger male volunteers, functioned as a makeshift police force in the town's eight barrios.

A month later, on Sept. 24, 1995, Tepoztecos held new municipal elections, unsanctioned and unrecognized by the state government. Political parties were not allowed; candidates ran not as party representatives but on the basis of their own actions and reputation. CUT activist Salvador Guzmán Zapata pointed out to us that "under Zapata, people were elected in this manner. It's an example of direct democracy." More than 6,000 voters, the largest number in the history of Tepoztlán, elected a new town government firmly committed to fight the country club.

State unleashes violence
The and federal authorities refused to recognize the new city council, cut off all state and federal funds going to Tepoztlán, and insisted that new, state-sponsored elections be held. Activists and newly elected officials were served arrested on trumped-up charges.

On Jan. 18, 1996, CUT leader Gerardo Demesa Padilla, a teacher, was violently arrested in the offices of the teacher's trade union in Cuernavaca and jailed for murder - a frame-up charge stemming from an incident in Tepoztlán the month before. On Jan. 26, 1996, 20,000 teachers demonstrated in Cuernavaca protesting Demesa Padilla's arrest.

Working people of Tepoztlán mobilized, marching on the Morelos capital of Cuernavaca as well as Mexico City, joining regional and national demonstrations for land rights, and carrying on a multitude of other protest actions. These have included 40 marches in the last two years, according to Antonio Rodríguez. Committees supporting the people of Tepoztlán were set up in Mexico City, throughout Morelos state, and elsewhere. The Tepoztlán struggle also received solidarity and delegations from Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and various human rights and indigenous peoples associations around the world.

State violence culminated April 10, 1996, in a police attack on a multi-car caravan of Tepoztecos traveling to Tlaltizapán to commemorate Emiliano Zapata. The caravan was stopped and assaulted by police in the village of San Rafael. Dozens of townspeople - including old people, women and children - were wounded, 32 were arrested, and 20 vehicles were damaged. One activist, 65-year-old Marcos Olmedo Gutiérrez, was killed by a bullet in the neck.

Struggle results in victory
In the national uproar following this unprovoked attack, KS announced it was canceling the country club project.

But the struggle in Tepoztlán continues. According to Antonio Rodríguez, the citizens of Tepoztlán insist that the cancellation of the KS country club be put in writing, that communal lands be formally restored to the community, and that the four political prisoners be released. "One hundred fifty- six legal charges have been brought against our citizens, many of which are still pending," Antonio Rodríguez pointed out, "and there are still four political prisoners." Demesa Padilla remains in jail on murder charges; three others are awaiting trial for kidnapping cops.

At the time of our visit, the CUT had adopted a new tactic and was supporting a "People's Slate," composed of CUT activists, for Tepoztlán town council in official statewide elections. The slate, running on a platform opposing the country club, was overwhelmingly elected March 16.

"The most important thing about our struggle," emphasized Guzmán Zapata, "is that we have won back our dignity as a people. By taking power back into our own hands, we have recovered an important part of our culture."  
 
 
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