In 2005, SIPAZ decided to expand its work to include Oaxaca and Guerrero, southeastern states that together with Chiapas, represent the poorest states of Mexico. In both places, we can find the same structural causes which provoked the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas: economic, social and political marginalization; discrimination and racism cultivated throughout centuries of internal and external colonialism; militarization, repression and human rights violations.
At that time national and international attention was focused on Chiapas, while in other states, such as Oaxaca and Guerrero, social, campesino and indigenous organizations continued to suffer threats, violence and militarization without many voices denouncing these crimes, leaving the door open to political impunity.
Although Oaxaca and Guerrero have gained greater visibility in recent years, the structural violence that prevails in both states is often overshadowed by the more direct violence that lacerates Northern Mexico. This is why SIPAZ still considers it strategic to make visible the causes, consequences, and the responses to the political-social conflicts in those states so as to sensitize and mobilize the local, national and international communities in the search for nonviolent responses. SIPAZ doesn’t want to just report exclusively on contexts where repression remains a constant, but also sees it useful to raise awareness on alternative processes in each of these states, as well as to encourage them to know one another.