Today an interesting juxtaposition of two articles which appeared in La Alta Voz, the local weekly which covers Coatepec, Teocelo, Xico and some other nearby towns. This has to do with coffee farmers and farms.
The first, by Omar Madrigal:
Coffee Farmers Demonstrate in Plaza Lerdo [Plaza Lerdo is the central park/square of Coatepec, right in front of the City Hall.]
This past April 12, around 1500 coffee farmers from the areas of Xico, Cosautlán, Emiliano Zapata, Teocelo, Xalapa, Tepetlán, Pinoltepec, El Haya and municipios in the region of Huatusco gathered to renew their recognition of Emiliano Zapata as the gretest spirutual guide in the fight of campesinos, today not to gain the land, but to gain better conditions for production.
....
Among the eight demands ... of the producers...we wil mention two here which were presented as urgent:
1. The immediate delivery of resources from the Program for the Productive Promotion of Coffee for 2010.
2. That the state government distribute in an urgent manner the fertilliers which have to be used in this production cycle.
Both demands are due to the necessity of beginning the work of cultivating the coffee fields now so that they give better fruit in the present cycle. ...
[There were some claims that the demonstrators lacked their leaders by the government representatives which were resolved but which led to delays, and then the government representatives said they couldn't themselves do anything, but would have to forward the demands.]
Finally, [it was resolved] that both demands would be met by April 30 or the coffee growers' organization would block highways and important streets in Xalapa as a way of pressing for action.