Mexico at the Crossroads

Join Tanja Markus, Chiapas-based team member of Servicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ), on Sunday, April 13 at 3:00 pm. The event will be at the Santa Cruz Police Community Room, 155 Center St. in Santa Cruz and is sponsored by Three Americas and IF.

Tanja will also be speaking at an event on Monday, April 14 at 7:00 pm at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz. This event will be in Spanish and English. Information: 831 423 1626

Background Information
Tanja Markus, a team member of Servicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ), will share information about the present situation in the southern states of Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero) and the work SIPAZ is carrying out in these areas as well as the concerns that SIPAZ has around the present situation.

Tanja, who is from Lund, Sweden, is beginning her third year on the SIPAZ team. Raised in a community of political exiles, her friends were children of families that had fled dictatorships in Chile, Argentina and Nicaragua. Learning their stories and the history and struggles of Latin American called forth in her a deep commitment to human rights and justice.

Tanja holds a Masters in Law from the University of Lund with an emphasis in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. She has worked with the UN High Commissioner on Refugees in Stockholm, the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague and with Caritas in Valencia, Spain.

SIPAZ is a program of international observation that had its beginning in 1995, following the Zapatista uprising in 1994. It was formed to monitor the conflict in Chiapas, México. Today SIPAZ supports the search for nonviolent solutions that contribute to the construction of a just peace through building tolerance and dialogue among the actors in Chiapas as well as, increasingly, in other areas in México (Oaxaca and Guerrero). At the same time, SIPAZ serves as a bridge for communication and the sharing of information and experiences among organizations and networks that work toward the building of a just and lasting peace at a local, national, regional and international level.