And protests outside

The situation is tense at the fence separating downtown Cancun and the hotel zone, where the meeting is being held.

About 8 kilometres, several fence barricades and thousands of police officers separate the campesinos march from the luxury hotels and conference centre where the meeting is being held.

The march is now stopped at the fence barricades a few kilometres down the road from where it began. We have several delegates participating in the march, remaining peaceful along with the vast majority of the marchers. They have called on cell phones to tell us that some protestors are trying to topple the barricades, while the police stand by.

The situation is very tense. From time to time, people near the fence panic, and run from the fence. From our office near the convention centre we can see truckloads of troops and armoured trucks with water cannons heading toward the barricade, as well as hear the sirens from downtown.

The march began today in downtown Cancun, with a few thousand people from around the world gathered to make their voices heard. The gathering was organized by Via Campesina, a global network of farmers, the landless and indigenous people. Their march was declred to be a peaceful delivery of their demands to the WTO. An important part of their message was the delivery of some maize, an important - in fact sacred - crop in Mexico. The aim was to have the WTO recognize the importance of their crops, their land and their way of life, and the threat posed to it by the WTO-imposed trade rules.