It has been one month since the EZLN broke its silence. Between July 16 and July 24, the EZLN released 4 communiqués after 5 months of silence, which seemed eternal to the government. However, the government was not pleased with the Zapatista voice either, and they decided to ignore the insurgent group's central proposal: that the Mexican people should decide, in a National Consultation, on the law, drawn up by the Commission for Concordance and Peace (COCOPA--made up of the political parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies and Senators of the National Congress), and which is based on the Accords of Table 1, "Indigenous Rights and Culture," signed by the federal Government and the EZLN in February of 1996. Two days following the Zapatistas' last communiqué, the Secretary of Government, Francisco Labastida, stated that Sebastián Guillén (Marcos) is "a gentleman who is sending communiqués," that "neither Marcos nor anyone" is going to prevent the federal government from continuing "with its policy of resolving the in-depth problems of Chiapas," and "we want to be founded in actions, not just in words, in order to bring what has been begun to a good conclusion: a political solution to the conflict."

Let us review the events in Chiapas over the last month:

In relation to the prisoners, the release of the presumed Zapatistas has been one of the EZLN's conditions for returning to the Dialogue table. However, Roberto Albores' government freed a few and jailed even more. In addition, he released 10 Chinchulines (paramilitary group), who are now again harassing the residents of the municipalities of Yajalón and Chilón. In the municipality of Frontera Comalapa two youths, EZLN support bases, were arrested and put in jail, accused of various crimes. Despite the hunger strike carried out by prisoners in the Cerro Hueco jail in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the government refuses to accept the CNDH's (see below for explanation) recommendations, since the arrests made during the police-military operation to dismantle the autonomous municipality "Flores Magón" were not only without basis, but the procedures were irregular, worsening the confrontations between Albores' government and the CNDH. In addition, indigenous women concluded their "Strike of the Machetes" in front of the government palace, where they demanded the release of the prisoners from "The Voice of Cerro Hueco" organization.

More deaths continue to be added to the list. During the last 30 days there have occurred, at the least, the assassination of a PRD leader and CIOAC member in the municipality of Soyaló; of a businessman and filmmaker in Tuxtla Gutiérrez; of a worker from Tumble at the hands of the police; of a cattle rancher in the municipality of Pijijiapan. In addition, from last December until this June, 56 pro-Zapatista indigenous have been executed, according to the Human Rights Center Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, which holds paramilitary groups, the Mexican Army and police bodies responsible, and whose deaths occurred in the Los Altos, Northern and La Selva zones, in the municipalities of Chenalhó, El Bosque, Ocosingo, Tila and Palenque; of them, 21 were women, 17 men, 14 girls and 5 boys.

On the subject of Redistricting, the Governor of Chiapas, Roberto Albores Guillén, announced his proposal (see Bulletin No. 113), subject to a consultation and whose functions will be decided after the October 4 elections. However, days afterward, and by decree, he created the committees which will promote the redistricting; afterwards he charged the committees with carrying out the "consultations" and with publicizing the proposal. This created a chain of discontent on the part of some municipalities, and, concurrently, the joining of PRI groups in support of it, creating more anger and division among the indigenous. Additionally, the reaction of other communities, even outside the conflict zone, was to ask for the creation of additional new municipalities. The state government said that, in addition to the 12 councils dealt with by the Redistricting Commission, another 9 municipalities, not in the original proposal, have approached them, demanding the creation of more councils.

The government continues to promise and to guarantee clean elections, which will take place on October 4, electing 111 municipal presidents and the state Congress deputies, while at the same time an armed commando group raids the offices of the PRD representative to the State Electoral Council, and the PRD municipal president of Jitotol and an alderman from the municipality of Ixtapangajoya are incarcerated. Also, PRI activists continue to protest, complaining of irregularities and fraud in the internal elections of the official party, carried out several weeks ago. As a result of this internal breakdown, PRI activists have announced their movement to the ranks of the opposition: more than a thousand PRI members have confirmed that they have joined the PRD for the next elections in the municipality of Bochil; 500 fishermen from the municipality of Tonalá also joined the PRD. In addition, PRI members from the municipality of Salto de Agua announced that they will not allow election booths to be set up for the elections, due to their disagreements with the official party, creating a role reversal, with the government not demonizing them as anti-constitutionalists, provocateurs or destabilizing groups; for them, everything was tolerance and the delivery - days later - of 50 tons of maize to the dissident communities: the same tolerance exhibited towards the PRI members who expelled a family from an ejido in Frontera Comalapa, which did not occasion the "establishment" of a state of law, such as the governor had when the municipality of Nicolás Ruiz did the same to official party activists, and which deserved the intervention of a horrific police-military operation.

Internal conflicts in the official party are worsening as the elections draw near: the PRI candidate for the 14th Electoral District was removed by his own party for supposedly having a criminal record, which demonstrates even more the breakdown and in-fighting for the shares of power. In the same manner, other official party candidates have been accused of having criminal backgrounds. PAN filed a complaint against Governor Roberto Albores and his party for supporting PRI campaigns during off-hours and with government resources; this problem is in the national context of the accusations against the PRI of having supposedly used public funds to finance past election campaigns, including the 1994 presidential election when Ernesto Zedillo was elected. It is not any political or economic proposal of the PRD's - who do not have one - which is causing the increase in their sympathizers, rather their being tired of the official party's lack of responses.

In response to these circumstances, the state government and their party continue attacking opposition parties or seeking political revenge, primarily against the PAN and the PRD. The harassment campaign against opposition municipal presidencies continues to take three forms: 1) administrative threats for supposed mismanagement of public funds, while the PRI councils remain untouchable; 2) legal threats against municipal presidencies, as well as against council members; 3) reopening legal cases against opposition candidates. It is under these circumstances that 969,000 Chiapaneco citizens will go to the polls on October 4, and there may be some surprises.

As to the militarization, major troop movements have been noted in the conflict zone, although military forces argue the necessity of "re-accommodating the troops." The Secretary of Defense confirms that they will not be leaving Chiapas, and "we have no intention of violating human rights, rather we are eager to be of service to the people, as is clearly demonstrated by Mexican history and by recent events." Concerning the UN Secretary General's statements that the path of dialogue is the solution for the conflict, the military institution stated: "We could not be far removed from such sensitive, humanistic, real positions, so beneficial for Mexico, and for any country confronting a problem." However, during the last few days, campesinos from the municipality Venustiano Carranza denounced the excessive militarization and harassment by police forces; in the Tapachula region it was discovered that flour had been burnt up rather than confiscated cocaine.

The state government continues their campaign of wearing down Zapatista morale, reporting that more than 200 heads of families have deserted the EZLN in just the last months. If this were true, it would mean around 8000 support bases had deserted, even less justification for such a military presence, for only a handful of campesinos whom they say form the EZLN. However, the campaign transcends borders, now that authorities in Guatemala and El Salvador announced they are supporting the investigation into presumed trafficking of arms supposedly destined for the EZLN. Just a short time ago, the Mexican Army not only trained its forces in the School of the Americas, but in another school for assassins, the Kaibil School, in Poptún, Petén, Guatemala. The Prensa Libre, a newspaper in the neighboring country, reported that on June 16, 1997, the Chief of the General Staff of the Department of National Defense, General Sergio Arnoldo Camargo Muralles, chiefs of the various commands of the republic and military attaches accredited in the country, had attended the closing ceremonies of the XLVIII international Kaibil course, which graduated 17 officials, including three Mexicans. One of them, Lieutenant Jesús Villar Peguero, earned the highest marks in that training of elite troops.

Up to this point, paramilitary groups have still not been detained, despite the continuing calls for their dismantling. The Broad Front of Organizations for National Liberation (FAO-LN), which unites various organizations in the Coastal Zone and in Soconusco, denounced the presence of more than 10 paramilitary groups in the region. Meanwhile, the State Human Rights Commission (CEDH) recognizes the existence of armed civilian groups such as Peace and Justice, MIRA, Chinchulines, etc., but it refuses to recognize them technically as "paramilitaries." Members of the PRI, for their part, demanded that the Ombudsman present evidence of the existence of the paramilitaries.

In the municipality of Tila, campesinos denounced harassment by the paramilitary group Peace and Justice, who have shot at and carried out a strategy of psychological torture against the people; displaced from Busiljá, municipality of Ocosingo, denounced that presumed PRI paramilitaries were continuing to besiege them in their place of refuge; campesino organizations denounced harassment by an alleged paramilitary group "Los Chentes" in the municipality of Berriozábal, adjoining Tuxtla Gutiérrez; Zapatistas in Taniperla, Ocosingo, denounced that MIRA paramilitaries are walking about armed, and even in police uniforms, laying siege to the residents; indigenous from various social organizations and members of the PRD denounced harassment by police and shock troops in the municipality of Oxchuc, where the paramilitary group MIRA supposedly operates. Meanwhile, in the municipality of Sabanilla, PRI residents refuse the entrance of aid from the International Red Cross; for its part, the Red Cross has gone on record affirming that that there is no war in Chiapas, but rather only "tension."

The issue of the Acteal massacre has become complicated. According to the press, Roberto Albores' government assigned and paid for 6 lawyers to defend and to seek the release of the more than 87 prisoners guilty of the Acteal massacre, although they deny these reports. According to the court-appointed attorney, at least 70% of them could be freed soon, when their innocence is proven. Meanwhile, the families of the alleged paramilitaries are hoping that the CNDH will very soon be recommending their release to the Albores' government. For their part, 120 campesinos, relatives of the prisoners, embarked on a trip to Mexico City to ask for the paramilitaries' freedom. It would now seem that none of the accused participated in the massacre since - they argue - they were working in their fields or at their looms at the time of the massacre. This argument seems even more absurd given the evidence. However, if it were true, it would be of even greater concern that 100 paramilitaries could participate in the massacre in various ways and still be on the loose, calling law enforcement even more into question. On the other hand, government sources confirm that the 14 former government officials, who were associated with the former governor Julio César Ruiz Ferro, have already testified on the Acteal massacre, but none of them has as yet been charged. It was also announced that 6 arrest warrants were issued against those purportedly involved. But up to this point thousands of police and military personnel have not come up with the guilty. At this time, 123 persons are in jail, of them 28 are state police, 94 indigenous and the former municipal president of Chenalhó.

As to the massacre at El Bosque, the government continues to insist that the supposed Zapatistas were not executed, despite the evidence presented, and that the state in which there bodies were returned to their communities was owing to "natural causes of the bodies' decomposition." This position has cost the Albores' government one more confrontation with the CNDH - a government dependency - which tries to deny and refute the governor's reports. Days later, campesinos from the PRI community of "Los Plátanos," municipality of El Bosque, detained adjutant military attaché of the US embassy, Thomas A. Guillén, accompanied by Elizabeth Krug, also from the embassy, for 8 hours, without the government knowing of their presence. This event provoked strong reactions concerning supposed espionage activity and United States military interference in Chiapas.

The sixth, seventh and eighth presidential visits to Chiapas take place this month. He visits the municipality of Ocosingo and promotes new investment funds for development, and he states "It has been others who, by their own choice, have excluded themselves from the dialogue process. But no one can say that the Government has tried to exclude any person or organization from the dialogue process." The seventh visit was made discreetly with the Secretary of National Defense. The eighth was with his family, visiting tourist spots in Ocosingo. These visits brought the total municipalities which the President of the Republic has visited to 20.

Circumstances have not been easy for the COCOPA. President Zedillo continues to press the legislators for their failure to pass his unilateral proposal on Indigenous Rights and Culture, and further puts off the reality of indigenous rights in the country. For their part, the COCOPA continues to insist on a direct meeting with the EZLN.

There is no truce for the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas. The priest in the municipality of Yajalón pressed legal charges against police officers for harassment, causing the Human Rights Center Fray Bartolomé de las Casas to call on the Intra-American Commission for Human Rights (CIDH) to recommend preventative measures. For their part, the Episcopal Commission visits Chiapas in order to meet with various actors. This commission is made up of 10 bishops, among them Morales Reyes, Arizmendi Esquivel (Tapachula), Samuel Ruiz (San Cristóbal), Raúl Vera O. P. (San Cristóbal), Felipe Aguirre Franco (Tuxtla), Carlos Talavera (Coatzacoalcos), Héctor González Martínez (Oaxaca). In the case of the Evangelical Churches, the National Fraternity of Christian Evangelical Churches (COFRATERNICE) continues to repeat the official line: they accuse the EZLN of being an illegal and paramilitary group, criticize the "uses and customs" of indigenous communities, reject indigenous autonomy, continuously criticize Bishop Don Samuel Ruiz and the role played by the former CONAI, accuse Catholic catechists of the destruction of evangelical churches and request the issuance of 21 arrest warrants.

Campesino organizations such as the CIOAC, as well as the AEDPCh, are continuing to denounce hounding, harassment and threats against their leaders and supporters, while also demanding a resolution of the assassination of Ruiz Gamboa, which occurred at the beginning of the year. For their part, various social and political organizations presented the Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, with their reports on the human rights situation in Chiapas. It would seem that it was due to that event that PRI members demanded the investigation of NGOs which they suspect are financing the EZLN, distorting and profiting from the chiapaneco conflict. Nonetheless, a few days later Emma Cosío Villegas announced that royalties from her father's (a noted intellectual) works would go to the EZLN.

Regarding the process of dialogue and negotiation, after the EZLN communiqués, the government returned to the combat with its speeches and double-talk, attempting to counter the effects of the communiqués. The Secretary of the Interior (Gobernación) stated that Subcomandante Marcos can remain in the Selva Lacandona and that he is a better writer than a politician; at the same time they were ignoring the National Consultation and, along with their spokespersons, discrediting and even denying the existence of the proposed COCOPA law. Also, at the same time the communiqués were being issued, a local newspaper, presumably close to the state government, reported that the EZLN would be taking a military action, which was used as a pretext for reinforcing checkpoints, patrols and over-flights during the following days. The "Coordinator for Dialogue" stated that the EZLN's perceptions are "completely removed from what is going on in Chiapas." The government also denied accusations that they are carrying out a "war of extermination," while at the same time again offering "direct talks" with the EZLN , and they refused to withdraw the unilateral proposal on Indigenous Rights and Culture which President Zedillo made in March of this year.

Among those actors calling for international mediation is the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), which will hold their Second National Congress next October 16. For the CNI, the carrying out of the San Andrés Accords and the withdrawal of the Mexican Army from the indigenous communities are the conditions necessary for renewal of dialogue.

US citizen Peter Brown was expelled from the country for supporting the education of the indigenous through the construction of a school in the Aguascalientes of Oventic, municipality of San Andrés Larráinzar. In this way they try to box the indigenous completely in: militarily, in health, production, commercially, and now even education is denied. In addition, the Mexican Army refused to allow 12 foreigners from Spain, Italy and the US into the community of Roberto Barrios, in the municipality of Palenque.

Social spending policies: the Federal government as well as the state government continue to announce resources and agreements to "reactivate the economy and production in Chiapas," through funds, as we have already noted, which are absurd (see Bulletin No. 122). In the same way, talk continues to be of the future, as in years: "investments are expected," "will be guaranteed," "will be announced," etc. In August Governor Roberto Albores Guillén announced that federal spending for Chiapas is now 7057 million pesos for 1998 (a little more than 5 pesos per day per Chiapaneco), of which 40% has already been invested in agricultural sectors, Cultural, Recreation and Sports; Ecology, Natural Resources and Fisheries; Indigenous Zones, Health and Social Assistance; Education; Social Development Agreement; Agriculture; Industry and Commerce; Urban Development and Public Works and Communications and Transport. The previous would lead one to expect a visibly improved advance in the Chiapaneco outlook.

As to Police forces, the Secretary of the Interior (Gobernación), in his first, and thus far only, visit to Chiapas, signed a Public Security Agreement with a budget of 127.5 million pesos for the purchase of weapons, equipment, the services of 267 judicial police, 40 experts and 50 public ministry officers. Similarly, a salary increase was announced for public ministers, who will go from 3000 pesos to 10 or 15,000 pesos a month (from $1100 to $1600 USD). These are added to the 5000 police officers already contracted by Governor Albores at the beginning of the year.

In the national context we have other problems. The Bank Fund for the Protection of Savings (FOBAPROA) has, over the last few weeks, been the central focus of a very heated discussion between the branches of government. The PRD has opened a wound, because it affects all important sectors: bankers, officials, former PRI officials and large businessmen, among them even PAN activists. The government is attempting to pass on 552,300 million pesos (more than $61 million USD) to the public debt, leading the PRD to demand a public consultation, which the public sector has rejected. As well as with the EZLN consultation, there is a fear of the people and of democracy.

The economic situation in the country is becoming more critical. The fall in oil prices; the fall in agricultural production; the fall in the stock exchange; the public debt which now represents 27 and 28% of the Gross National Product (GNP); the peso which has plummeted to almost 10 per dollar during the last few days; the cutback in circulation and the problem of FOBAPROA, will present the government of the Republic and the Executive Branch with a serious problem in the Fourth Government Statement by President Ernesto Zedillo, which will have to be made on September 1. In the same way, the official party is put in a deep hole in the run-up to the presidential elections in the year 2000. However, according to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, William J. McDonough, the economic policy of Mexico is effective for confronting our country's financial adversities.

On the day after the EZLN's communiqués, the new US ambassador, Jeffrey Davidow, arrived, taking up a post which had been vacant for one year; he stated that the relationship with Mexico is the most important for the US, and he denied that there had been interference in the Chiapas conflict, when, days later, the US military attaché fell into PRI hands in the municipality of El Bosque. For their part, US senators postponed presenting a resolution which, in principle, would urge the Mexican government to seek peace accords in Chiapas, until after Ernesto Zedillo's Fourth Government Statement; while other organizations, such as Basic Principles of Life, headquartered in Indianapolis, send funds for projects of social interest to Roberto Albores' government.

In response to these events, we can verify that the same talk, the same attitudes and the same government actions are continuing by the various actors. The federal government is rapidly losing its credibility and its capacity to generate initiatives and political scenarios. This is extremely worrisome because, by not accepting a process of transition, it will be imposed by force. In the same way, the state governor is in danger of being left alone, since he has already had major confrontations with the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, with Bishop Samuel Ruiz and the disappeared CONAI, with the COCOPA, with campesino organizations, with NGOs, with the CNDH and with opposition parties.

"THE INSUPPORTABLE LIGHTNESS OF THE LAW: IMPUNITY"

(excerpt, Part XIV)*

3. Children will be provided with the care and support which they need and, particularly: a) they will receive an education, including religious or moral education, in accordance with their parents' wishes or, lacking those, with the persons who are their guardians; b) opportune measures will be taken to facilitate the reunion of families temporarily separated; c) children under fifteen years of age will not be recruited into armed forces or groups, and they will not be permitted to participate in the hostilities; d) the special protection provided in this article for children under fifteen years of age will still be applicable to them if, despite the dispositions in the section, c) they have directly participated in the hostilities and have been captured; e) measures will be taken, if appropriate, and whenever possible with the consent of the parents or persons who, by virtue of the law or of custom, have guardianship of them, for the temporary removal of the children from areas experiencing hostilities, to a more secure part of the country and for them to be accompanied by people who will watch out for their security and well-being.

"All access routes to the northern zone (roads, rivers and streams) are controlled by PRI members from Peace and Justice, constituting a paramilitary siege; the Mexican army has taken new positions, some seven, encircling the Zapatista zone, among them one of the main junctions; at the same time, the lack of food and medical attention is affecting the population, primarily some 100 children who are suffering from chronic malnutrition," said Sebastián Vázquez Jiménez, one of the representatives of the Zapatista communities (Denunciation by the Residents of Moisés Gandhi. Ojarasca. La Jornada, 3/11/98, p. 6)

The children, young people and women cannot go to school or to stock up on basic necessities, since they are intercepted by the federal military, they interrogate them and they offend the women with words referring to their sex, and so they cannot go to the river to wash up, or to their fields or for firewood. (Denunciation by the Residents of Moisés Gandhi. Ojarasca. La Jornada, 3/11/98, p. 6)

In Nuevo Plan de Ayala and Emiliano Zapata (municipality of Palenque), a group of State Public Security men occupied the school's classrooms (the only concrete buildings) in order to "guarantee that the invaders don't return," one of the police officers stated succinctly. But the 664 children, women and men from the dislocated properties, and now sheltered in the ejidos Ojo de Agua and Rio San Diego, had already made a decision: "We will return to the land so that we do not die of hunger. There is no alternative." (Pérez, M. La Jornada, 3/17/97, p. 7)

On January 14, federal soldiers set up a camp in the school in the community of Acteal. When those responsible in the community questioned them about their presence there, a captain responded that they were offering social work, and they were especially interested in the school, so that the children would receive a good education. The person in charge of the community told them: "The community asks you to leave, because the women are afraid, because those who killed them on the 22nd (of December) had weapons, and the Army has weapons." (López Monjardin, A. I am Not Afraid or Ashamed. Testimonies from Civil Peace Camp Observers. Masiosare. La Jornada, 2/1/98, p. 9)

From one side in Acteal, and from the other in Yabteclum and Las Limas, the federal army keeps watch over Polhó. The great primary school in Yabteclum is converted into a military camp. What do you call it when the schools are turned into barracks? The same thing happened in semi-deserted Acteal, in Las Limas, and in so many other schools in the unhappy chiapaneco geography. (Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 1/10/98, p. 8)

Health matters must necessarily be dealt with by the deceptive and incompetent social work of the uniformed personnel, cultivated fields are plundered by the paramilitaries and there is not one single teacher in the municipality (Chenalhó), since the soldiers are now staying in the schools and the student hostels, or because no mother, displaced or not, dares to send her children to study with so many soldiers on the loose. (Aubry, A. and Inda, A. La Jornada, 1/22/98, p. 14)

People protested because, since last February 28, the town's school (San Jerónimo Tulijá) had been turned into a barracks for the Mexican Army, after the arrival of 50 vehicles with troops and arms. One more school in the chiapaneco countryside that comes to serve as a military installation. In Las Limas, Chenalhó, an official gave an explanation a short time ago, rather scatological, for this tendency by federal troops to set themselves up in schools: "It's because they have bathrooms, and they don't have to dig holes for latrines." (Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 3/14/98, p. 7)

"Today I reaffirm that those who have no reservations in using indigenous women and children for their provocations, and who will not stop using them as cannon fodder, will always find an Army tempered by firmness, but also by prudence; an Army tempered by daring, but also by serenity; and Army tempered by bravery, but also by discipline and patience. The Mexican's is an Army whose commanders and troops already know the tactics of provocation, and they will know how to resist them." (Ernesto Zedillo, President of the Republic. 2/19/98)

*Excerpt from the document "The Insupportable Lightness of the Law: Impunity; Three Months from Acteal," by "Alternative Popular Communication, Working Group" of 4/11/98

by Gustavo Castro Soto,
Center for Economic and Political Investigations of Community Action, A.C. (CIEPAC)

Note: Given recent economic instability, peso figures in this Bulletin can be converted to dollars at around 10 pesos to US$1.

Note: If you wish to be placed on a list to receive this English version of the Bulletin, or the Spanish, or both, please direct a request to: ciepac@laneta.apc.org and indicate whether you wish to receive the bulletin in plain text or as a Word 7 for Windows 95 attachment.

Note: If you use this information, cite the source and our email address. We are grateful to the persons and institutions who have given us their comments on these Bulletins. CIEPAC, A.C. is a non-government and non-profit organization, and your support is necessary for us to be able to continue offering you this news and analysis service. If you would like to contribute, in any amount, we would infinitely appreciate your remittance to the bank account in the name of:

CIEPAC, A.C.
Bank: Banamex
Account number: 7049672 Sucursal 386
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México.
You will also need to use an ABA number:
BNMXMXMM

Thank you! CIEPAC

Telephone:
in México: 01 967 674 5168
from outside Mexico:: +52 967 674 5168