The deforestation of Guerrero’s Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán mountain ranges dates back to the 1950s. In the 1970s, under then-governor Ruben Figueroa, logging increased, accompanied by militarization and repression of Guerrero’s rural communities. In 1994, with the signing of NAFTA, the transnational Boise Cascade Corporation began what resulted in the exploitation of thousands of kilometers of virgin forests, leaving deserts in its wake. Defending the Forests is the story of the Organization of the Campesino Environmentalists (OCE), created in 1998, and their success in halting Boise Cascade’s exploitation of their forests. The video describes, through the members of the OCE, the Mexican government’s campaign to destroy the OCE with the arrest and torture by the Mexican Military of OCE co-founders Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. Both were recently sentenced to prison terms of seven and ten years on false charges of weapons and drug trafficking for their courageous activism in defense of the forests. Directed by the Chiapas Media Project, Mexico, 2000, 18 min.

Cosponsored with the Department of Cinema and Photography, Cinema on the Edge, the Office of the Provost, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Environmental Studies Program, Ithaca College.