Illegal photocopying and 'propaganda'

Apparently it is illegal to make photocopies or distribute information in the hotel zone of Cancun. Ruth Ramos reports on how the police stopped and searched her bag, and then told her she could not distribute information near the conference.

Today was a photocopying day, that means first thing in the morning: go and make photocopies, last thing at night: go and make photocopies. So, this morning around 7.45 am i was outside the place where the solar truck team sleeps to meet Pepe and Arturo who were going to downtown.

We had a bunch of papers ready to be copied but on the way to our car a policeman approached us wanting to check our bags, so we opened them and he found the papers. (download the document here (PDF, 14K ) if you are outside the hotel zone of Cancun) We started to asked him what was happening andd that we were in a hurry so kindly asked him to let us leave. Maybe he just didn`t listen to us or was still sleeping, but he stared at us and said no, you cannot leave with this, so he called other policemen who quickly moved to where we were standing. One of them had a videocamera and started to film all that was going on (which was a shame, because we all had just woken up and had sleepy faces with a inappropriate hair styles).

We started to talk with the policeman (the first one), who hid the id card hanging from his neck and said we could not leave and had to remain there until he got a different order. I just couldn`t believe it, being stopped at 7.45 am because of carrying a paper which was defined as “propaganda” by a policeman who didn`t want to identify himself and was calling someone on the radio. So i phoned Mr. Pliego, who is one of the important men in charge of the security around this “restricted area” in the hotel zone, explained him what was happening and the answer was that nobody is allowed to distribute this kind of papers around that area and that he would come in a minute. After three minutes he appeared, we talked with him and he knew who we were because we have been having problems at our office as it is in a very restricted area and have contacted him several times.

He asked for a copy of our papers, read it all while the rest of the policemen stared at him and the one with videocamera was filming our faces while waiting for his decision. When he finished reading, he called someone else who would give the final and decisive order, he stared at us as he made the phone call - he explained the whole document to the person. In the end he let us go and made clear that it is not allowed to distribute propaganda (he kept calling it that although several times i told him it was just a document with information) in the hotel zone, only in downtown.

So i guess i just left my rights to express myself in mexico city.
(Here is the document that the police were concerned about: "How does the WTO affect you, and why should you care about it?" (PDF, 14K ) It has been on our website for weeks.

At noon the rolling sunlight arrived at the Oxfam fair trade fair, held in Playa Tortugas (Turtles beach, but the name doesn`t mean that there are actually turtles on the beach). A good day starts with a good coffee, so people from the fair plugged some coffeemakers to the truck and started to make coffee –fair trade and organic of course-, raspados (which are something made of crushed ice with coffee or other flavors) and give info about theWTO –by the way, they were giving the copies of the document that was supposed to be propaganda and the reason why we were stopped by policemen for 25 minutes.

A man approached the truck and tried to take one banner that explained information about the truck off, and finally he did it. So people started to go the bus and see what was happening. Arturo and Pepe, who are driving the truck, tried to talk to this guy but he refused. He was trying to take off all the banners, so a couple of policemen arrived to keep the public order.

Pepe thinks this guy was a policemen dressed as a civilian, because the policemen men treated him as someone they already knew. Nash started to tell other people what was going on, and many people from other NGOs were also there to see what was happening. After a while Pepe got the banner back with the help of a policemen. Things seemed to be fine, until two trucks with red fences arrived, the team thought they would be used to surround the truck and keep people away, but the policemen just
stayed there waiting for orders.

Tomorrow the sun will shine again.

Ruth Ramos, the logistics person for the Greenpeace delegation in Cancun, works for Greenpeace Mexico

Sounds from the street

Radio from Greenpeace in Cancun

The underbelly of Cancun
Friends of the Earth organised a tour to take journalists out to see what is going on beyond the boundaries of the rich hotel zone, in which the WTO is taking place. Cancun is one of the areas with the greatest gaps in social and economic status; the poverty level is extremely high, and in this interview Helen talks about what she saw on the tour.
765 kb
1:36 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/343

reading_from_paper.mp3
We were sitting around one afternoon in the offices of the Greenpeace delegation, and Eric, who is doing our blog here at the WTO, asked Cecilia the Spanish speaking press officer to read us the interesting bits out of the paper. So I just grabbed my mike, hit record, and so we now bring you "Cecilia reads the paper!",
06.09.2003
5.45 min
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/

steet_medic_interview.mp3
This is an interview with Aoewen at the Indymedia centre here in Cancun. She and a few others have been training people to be street medics. As I walked past, she was training a young activist on how to rinse the eyes of a person blinded by teargas. I got this interview afterwards, asked her about what it's like to be a street medic, what kind of situations they are preparing for, and what the general feeling on the street is.
2.41 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/

gerard_filtered.mp3
Gerard Greenfield went to a meeting of the Via Campesina, (the International Farmers forum) today. About 3000 farmers attended this meeting from indigenous communities from around the world. Gerard describes how the main issue of the meeting today is very much about food sovereignty and free trade. What was very interesting was that there were people from small farming communities from around the world, including South Africa and Thailand. Gerard says “The common theme that is coming out here that is very strong, in statements that are repeated throughout the meetings, especially from the campesina from the indigenous communities whose livelihoods are threatened, is the position: WTO out of agriculture, no patents on life, and yes on food sovereignty.”
2.22 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/151

Consumers Association
At the Via Campesina march today I interviewed two people from the organic consumers association. They are very concerned about genetically engineered food, and how this food, which is untested although corporations say it is, is making its way into food.

"I'm also concerned about how the WTO is concerned about corporations and profit, and not concerned about the people of the earth, or the air, the water, the land. It’s a process that destroys our beautiful planet, and I think it behoves the people to come together to say no to the WTO"
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/

Political analysis
Sebastion Risso, a Greenpeace delegate at Cancun with experience in political meetings, talks about trying to get ministers to recognise the priority of sustainable development.
00:03:34
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/436

Commentary from the Farmers march
This longer piece has a few interviews with people from on the march, asking them why they are here and describing the march itself. It ends with a statement on Lee Kyung-hae. In English.
00:24:26
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/441

Preparing for the WTO
We cover what it's like to be here on the eve of the WTO, and what Cancun is all about, touching a little on the reality of life for the Mexican people. We talk to some people here, some NGO's here. Then we talk to people from the Indymedia centre, the convergence center and the ecovillage.
00:48:50
ftp://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/first_one_hour_piece_final.mp3
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/first_one_hour_piece_final.mp3

Greenpeace interrupts US delegation on first day of Biosafety protocol
As the US delegation tried to give a press briefing today, Alehandro Cavillo of Greenpeace interrupted to say that that todaythe Biosafety protocol comes into effect. If the US pushes it's agenda, this protocol may be overridden by the WTO. One point that Alehandro made was that under this protocol governments have the right to protest their producers, consumers and biodiversity. This right is currently denied to Mexico, which suffers from the dumping of genetically modified grains from the US. The practices of ‘dumping' subsidized exports on the Mexican market has made sure that local farmers can't compete. 600 farmers a day are leaving the land and heading towards the city.
English. 00:04:25
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/action_us_delegation.mp3

Food first interrupts US delegation
While some of the press cried "GET OUT! GET OUT!" counter voices from the press corps cried out "STAY HERE! STAY HERE!". The representatives from Food First struggled hard to yell above the abuse from the floor, to say "If the WTO listened to farmers we wouldn't have to be here. The WTO should listen to farmers instead of killing them."
English 00:00:59
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/action_us_delegation_food_first.mp3

Message to the US delegation

A Greenpeace activist delivers maize to the U.S. delegation as they try to hold a press conference September 11. More photo courtesy of cancun.mediosindependientes.org

It's difficult to hold a dignified press conference, if you are the U.S. delegation

Our people are back from the action at the US press conference. It was a success - our action, not the press conference.

A Greenpeace activist delivers maize to the U.S. delegation as they try to hold a press conference September 11. photo courtesy of cancun.mediosindependientes.org

When you are taking on the rest of the world on agriculture, it is hard to hold a dignified press conference. Soon after the conference started in the packed room in the heart of the Convention Centre, the executive director of Greenpeace Mexico, Alejandro Calvillo, rose to read a statement about the maize we were delivering to the two bewildered speakers. You can read the statement below. Two other Greenpeace activists stood in front of the speakers at the front and presented them with the maize kernels. The speakers eventually recovered their wits enough to say that they would only take questions from journalists.

Security did not stop our three activists, and they moved outside to speak to the press.

Later in the conference, another NGO stood up in support of farmers. Then things got weird. One journalist started shouting at the top of his lungs "GET OUT!" at the woman standing silently at the front of the room, holding a sign.

"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! " he bellowed. "STAY!" shouted another.

Then the large individual urging exit from the room turned around and enquired if the other gentleman would like to continue negotiations outside. "Sure", replied the second "let's go. Two old men." At this point, I suspect the ridiculousness of the situation dawned on the first gentleman, who relaxed visibly. You can see the whole bizarre situation on tape at cancun.mediosindependientes.org

Statement at U.S. press conference by Alejandro Calvillo,
Executive Director of Greenpeace Mexico

"I´m Alejandro Calvillo, Executive director of Greenpeace Mexico.

I would like to announce to the United States Government that today the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety enters into legal force. This is a tool that all the governments should use to protect their consumers, producers and biodiversity.

In Mexico we want to protect our corn, our fields, our livelihood from the transgenic contamination imposed by GMO corn from the US, from Monsanto. We are the center of origin of maize. This is the maize we want, mexican maize, a commmon good for mexicans."

Protesting the US war on biosafety

The US delegation held a press conference a few minutes ago on their agricultural policy. We went to send a message to the 900 pound gorilla to stop protecting the interests of the GE seed companies and start protecting the environment from genetic contamination.

As the press conference started, three of our delegates stood up and approached the speaker. Two of them offered him small bags of Mexican maize, a crop that has been contaminated by genetically engineered strains in several areas of Mexico.

Shortly after our protest ended, another group of NGOs held a short protest against the US as well. Under other circumstances, we might feel sorry for their press people...

More in a minute, as the press conference is still going on...