Injustice in Chiapas
Date: 03/17/2021
Time: 11:30 am EDT
Location: Zoom
Join Dr. David Bassano for Chhange's March Virtual Lunch & Learn Program!
Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment are deeply-entrenched problems in Mexico. Mexican police regularly arrest citizens without due cause, mainly to extract bribes or to silence political activists. Prisoners have scant opportunity to defend themselves against false charges and are frequently abused in custody.
In the summer of 2019, Dr. Bassano traveled to San Cristóbal de las Casas, a city in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. Dr. Bassano was part of a small delegation from the United States under the auspices of SiPaz, an international peace and human rights organization formed in the wake of the 1994 Zapatista uprising. His delegation visited a prison to interview the incarcerated, some of whom were on a hunger strike to protest injustices inside and outside the prison. His talk will present these interviews, as well as give background context on injustice in Mexico, and particularly in Chiapas.
Dr. David Bassano is an Assistant Professor of History at Brookdale Community College. He holds a PhD in International History with an emphasis on Human Rights History. His publications include Fight and Flight: The Central America Human Rights Movement in the United States in the 1980s, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He is also a human rights activist and an avid outdoorsman.