Want a successful protest in Mexico? Arm your women

Eleven years ago, the community decided to take action and filed petitions with the state and federal government for reparations. The demands, says resident Angel del Pilar Sandoval, went unanswered. "It was pure talk and no action," he says. Last year, record floods spurred the movement to take a step in a new direction: "We went to find an outside adviser."

The adviser, Santiago Perez, a lawyer from another part of Mexico State, has assisted at least three other rural groups involved in government disputes. According to Mr. del Pilar, Mr. Perez further organized the inhabitants of Valle del Allende and suggested a march on the nation's capital. (Perez could not be reached for comment.)

In February, a group of men made the two-hour trip to Mexico City, protesting outside the Water Commission and the Environmental Secretariat. They quickly discovered that the march simply wasn't enough: not a single newspaper covered the story, and negotiations went nowhere.

Several months later, the movement, now guided by a dozen advisers, decided to send some of the area women, loosely associated with the cause, on the same march, but dressed in full ethnic garb and carrying rifles over their shoulders. Taking a page from the Zapatistas, they threatened violence and used militaristic rhetoric. The results were immediate. "[The government] didn't take the men seriously at all," says Eulalia Diaz, who participated in the first march in August. "But with us at the front, everything began to change."

A few weeks later, the women set up outside the water-treatment plant and blocked a truck loaded with chlorine from entering, cutting off part of the water supply. Within days, the women, accompanied by advisers, had met with the head of the Water Commission and the Environmental Secretary.

"We had been already working with this group for a long time," says Jesus Campos Lopez, a ranking water department official who headed negotiations. "But it wasn't until the women came forward that we began to agree."

On Oct. 6, the two sides settled on a plan to indemnify the residents of Valle de Allende for lost lands, build up local infrastructure, and reforest much of the area. Headlines nationwide crowed about a victory for the Mazahua women, but failed to note that all nine signatories on behalf of the movement were men - most of whom weren't Indians.

Today, a visit to Valle de Allende reveals a sophisticated PR operation, complete with daily press conferences, guided tours of the controversial reservoir, a battery of shiny new cellphones at the ready, and scheduled face time with the Mazahua women who now symbolize the movement. "The demands of these people are legitimate," says Galvez of the Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples. "But it's a shame it has to reach this level of discourse."

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