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Speakers address NAFTA SOU talk features Mexico activists ASHLAND -- The Alliance for Democracy's West Coast tour brings to the Rogue Valley two men who are active in struggles for democracy and social justice in Mexico. Phil Wheaton and Amado Avendano Figueroa will discuss the consequences of the North American Free Trade Act on the people of Mexico as well as other issues in their discussion, "NAFTA's Fruits in Mexico and the Threat to Local Self-sufficiency: the View from inside Indigenous Communities" at 7 p.m. Friday in Southern Oregon University's Stevenson Union Rogue River Room. Admission is free. Wheaton, an author whose books include histories of Puerto Rico, Grenada and Guatemala and volumes discussing the theology of liberation, is the coordinator of the Maryland-based Conversion for Reclaiming Earth in the Americas. The group coordinates assistance for poor communities in Nicaragua and Mexico. He was an Episcopal missionary in the Dominican Republic for 12 years and is a co-founder of the Committee of Indigenous Solidarity in Washington, D.C. Avendano and his wife, Concepcion Villafuerteas, are editors of the Mexican newspaper El Tiempo in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. They were the first to report to the Mexican press about the Zapatista uprising in December 1994. Avendano, who is also a lawyer, was a candidate for governor in the embattled Mexican state in 1994. Although he lost, he is still considered Governor in Rebellion of the region in defiance of Mexico's PRI party. He and his wife say they have been politically harassed and their offices have been damaged and robbed repeatedly. They continue to publish El Tiempo and speak out in support of autonomy for the indigenous communities of Mexico. Local sponsors of the event include the Rogue Valley Chapter of Alliance for Democracy, Ashland Community Food Store, Headwaters, the Chomsky Action Project, Peace House, Progressive Coalition, SOU Students for Peace and Social Justice, the UNETE farmworkers' rights group, and the organizing committee of the Rogue Valley Labor Party. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA