On 17 October, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa inaugurated the VIII Global Meeting for Adventure Tourism in San Cristóbal de Las Casas; the meeting was also held in other places in Chiapas. According to Shannon Stowell, president of the International Association of Adventure Tourism (ATTA), more than 650 tourist operators from 54 countries were in attendance.
During the opening day, Calderón noted that the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in 1994 was a reflection of the marginalization suffered by its participants: “Look, for example, at the case of Chiapas itself. Now 17 years ago there was in this very place of Chiapas, and particularly in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a rebellion, an armed indigenous movement that at the beginning independently, of no sharing the path of violence to reach a cause whatever it may be, the truth is that it was reflected the circumstances of the peoples who for decades and centuries–I insist–had experienced marginalization and poverty.” This was the first time in years that he had referred to the Zapatista movement. He noted that the option for indigenous groups who own natural resources is adventure tourism, which represents a route that can be taken to correct the terrible inequalities seen in the country, as in the world.
In his intervention, the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines Guerrero, stressed the projects of sustainable development and ecotourism as promoted by indigenous peoples. He noted that the new Chiapas state-constitution respects the right to the free decisions of indigenous groups, who now have an opportunity for better development through use of their natural beauties.
In contrast with these official discourses, it should be noted that the first module of the Meeting was installed in the Cathedral Plaza of San Cristóbal de Lasas, in front of the sit-in of relatives of prisoners who have been fasting and on hunger strike since late September.
In a communiqué, the organization Other Worlds Chiapas affirmed that “there are many analyses and investigations that qualify tourism as an activity that negatively affects biodiversity and the communities in which this is developed; one only need think of Acapulco or Cancún.” It continues: “Tourism affects many things: it affects things when much petroleum is consumed in aerial and terrestrial transport, releasing gases into the atmosphere; it affects the construction of infrastructure in the space in which this is carried out (highways, airports, etc.); if affects because it needs many primary materials, for which mountains, rivers, jungles… so obtain these materials or energy; it affects local cultures that are asked to make themselves available to tourism; it affects the waste of millions of pesos in advertising that could be destined to schools or hospitals; it affects through the repression and militarization against communities that do no want these activities and who struggle to defend their lands and territories in search of real alternatives for survival.”
The Center of Higher Studies in Mexico and Central America has noted for its part that “toward the end of making the mentioned meeting look good, the mayor of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Cecilia Flores Pérez, together with representatives of the tourist industry, officially negotiated (we do not know under what terms) with indigenous ambulatory merchants that they locate themselves in the central park, the outskirts of the historical center and the plaza of Santo Domingo. In our encounters with children and women merchants, they commented to us that they were offered no compensation for ‘disappearing’ but rather were threatened with being arrested, their business interrupted, by use of public force. This measure was reinforced with the installation of a spectacular security-tower in the Peace Plaza in this city.”
In more general terms, the communiqué denounced that “it is carefully attempted to show that injustice and social inequality suffered by communities results from the ‘self-isolation’ taken by themselves, and that with this type of touristic activities they can be included in ‘progress.’ The official voice has indicated that these economic activities are advanced so as to supposedly combat inequality and poverty, but it is evident that we are facing a clear demonstration of a modern colonialism of adventure.” It continues: “We reject all attempts by which the natural and cultural resources of Chiapas and of the country be considered commodities, or that they serve to enrich a small group of national and foreign businesspeople, much elss that ecotourism serve as an instrument of forced integration of indigenous groups and communities into neoliberal capitalism, who have historically been oppressed by the State.”
For more information (in Spanish):
El turismo de aventura, opción de indígenas para corregir desigualdades, dice Calderón, La Jornada, 18 October 2011
Turismo de aventura, valuado en 89 mil mdd: Guevara (El Universal, 17 October 2011)
Es turismo de aventura opción de empleo: FCH (El Universal, 17 October 2011)
El Presidente Calderón en la Inauguración de la Cumbre Mundial de Turismo de Aventura (Comunicado de prensa, Presidencia de México, 17 October 2011
Movimiento indígena de 1994, reflejo de marginación: Calderón (La Jornada, 17 October 2011)
Comunicado de Otros Mundos AC sobre la Cumbre Mundial de Turismo de Aventura, 16 October 2011
Pronunciamiento del CESMECA Cumbre Internacional de Turismo de Aventura en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Centro de Estudios Superiores de México y Centroamérica (CESMECA, 20 October)
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