In his tour of Mexico's northern state of Sonora, Zapatista Subcommander Marcos made public the existence of "forced labor camps," where mostly indigenous migrant laborers from Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero and southern Veracruz live in "inhuman conditions" and "virtual slavery."

"They are truly concentration camps for the indigenous," according to the local Libre Ciudadano (Free Citizenry) group, which hosted Marcos in the Sonoran coastal town of Guaymas, whose members have attempted to establish contact with and aid the camps' inhabitants. Local activists from Libre Ciudadano and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) said the camps are maintained by agribusiness interests.

When local activists drove Marcos and his delegation to the nearby "Campo Mercurio," run by the firm G-Mark in Empalme municipality, some 70 workers at the camp were quickly "evacuated" by their employers aboard a trailer to a nearby ranch. Cries for help were heard from the trailer as it drove away. (Hermann Bellinghausen for La Jornada, Oct. 25 via Chiapas95)

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