Nuevo Jerusalen, Chiapas
A hundred farmers wielding machetes seized a Mexican ranch owned by an American couple, and vowed this week to keep it. “We’re here to stay,” the invaders, supporters of the leftist Zapatista rebels, shouted to journalists who hiked to the ranch. Ellen Jones and her husband, Glen Wersch, fled last month after Zapatistas cut off the road leading to their property, Rancho Esmeralda, in the southern state of Chiapas. The Zapatistas have denounced foreign investment in Chiapas and demanded local autonomy. Jones and Wersch, former Peace Corps volunteers, ran a tourist resort where guests learned about tropical agriculture and visited Mayan ruins. “We just had our lives destroyed,” Jones said.
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