Federal and state government policies posit investment, revival of the economy and the creation of jobs as the solutions for the armed conflict in Chiapas, as well as for the "root causes" of the EZLN uprising. President Zedillo has not hesitated to allude to and insist on this during his visits to Chiapas. It has also been a central theme in the proposals which the federal and state governments have made throughout the year in their détente programs and for solutions to the conflict. Governor Roberto Albores repeated his call for solidarity to state, national and foreign businesspersons to turn their gaze to Chiapas, since, he said, "we are in a hurry on this."

Businesspersons also believe that the Chiapas conflict is rooted in the lack of education and employment, and that the indigenous are being manipulated by "dangerous foreigners" and "undesirable outsiders." Although businesspersons are in accord on blaming the EZLN for the situation of poverty and injustice which had existed in the state even decades prior to their appearance, they also agree on the necessity for capital investment in Chiapas, but from at least two different positions. In general terms:

1) Businesspersons who consider it necessary to ally themselves with the small businesses who are investing, or who want to invest, in Chiapas. In the case of agricultural investment, they prefer an "independent" relationship with the campesinos, rather than with their organizations.

2) Small businesspersons, who are not in agreement with foreign investment, because they are not taken into consideration in the planning, nor are they the beneficiaries; or because of the federation's centralism, or because of the regional cacique culture and the lack of democracy. These businesspersons feel the need to seek new alliances, in order to guarantee their investment, such as with the campesinos themselves, the Catholic Church or sectors of the government opposition. Some of them are now even beginning to mention the need for building a new model for the country, in an inclusive manner, where everyone fits. Nonetheless, many of these businesspersons are having difficulty putting these alliances together, and they see, in the bishops of the South Pacific, a means of access to the communities and to their organizations, in order to promote their projects in the rural areas.

It has now been reported that, since 1997, at least 80% of the 5000 Chiapaneco businesses are in financial crisis, demonstrating that the state's economy is stalled, and, there is little national and foreign investment, since investors have not seen conditions to be favorable for investment, as the Revlon Group said: "there is a situation of misery and instability." In this same year it was reported that in the Tapachula region more than 100 micro and small businesses closed during 1996 as a result of the free trade changes.

The Business Coordinating Council (CEE) hopes President Zedillo's legislative proposal on Indigenous Rights and Culture is passed by the Congress of the Union. The CEE is opposed to foreign interference (human rights observers, not the IMF's economic policies, nor the US military aid) and against conflicts over land ownership (or, rather, for the dislocation of land occupied by the indigenous and the legal regulation of land which would guarantee investment for the businesspersons). They also proposed a national crusade for re-orienting investments in Chiapas. The Mexican Businessmen's Council, made up of the country's 34 most important businesses, announced an investment for 1998 of 8.355 billion dollars. In a similar vein, the Chiapaneco private sector announced their support for greater investment in the state and for the State Agreement for Reconciliation in Chiapas, proposed by the governor. Meanwhile, the governor of the state told the Chiapas Business Center the government is allied with the business sector, since they are the major creators of jobs; the peace in Chiapas is fragile; there are families who have nothing to eat, and he asked state businessmen to become more involved. And at a meeting with businessmen in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the Executive's demands were: urban land regulation, the functioning of the airport in the capital, Tuxtla, security, the removal of indigenous who have occupied lands, a solution for uncollected accounts and the creation of a hospital for medical specialties.

In July of this year the bishop of the diocese of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Monsignor Aguirre Franco, proposed 4 objectives for the sustainable development process in Chiapas to businesspersons in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon:

a) Strengthen the campesino and indigenous economy (food production, economic diversification, fair markets, savings mechanisms and financing)

b) Utilize management criteria based on existing models which work, but improving and strengthening them, in order to create appropriate technology, without imposing models and creating new bodies.

c) Promote and support their own organizing model, starting with the family and the community, based in its own associations, unions and organizing processes, avoiding disintegration and the promotion of individualism.

For the bishop, this would entail the contribution of capital for the financing, within their "own" and "alternative" finance systems, and which would include: support for production, especially creating added value; support for the marketing of processing or conversion production; and support for training and organization in the communities (social businesses). On the other hand, the National Unity of Chiapas, A.C. proposes, in order to create economic programs, that the government allocate investment funds to micro-projects with a minimum of 5000 pesos risk capital, and which would be administered by civil organizations. Other social organizations, funds and foundations have also proposed or carried out small credit projects.

Among some of the conclusions concerning private investment in Chiapas, we can mention:

1) Investments do not arrive at the desired pace, despite public resources allocated to fiscal facilities, tax increases, legal and labor changes, subsidies, support for infrastructure and industrial corridors, the sale of lands at low cost, subsidies for qualified labor, increase in budgets for police security, the construction of military barracks and security in land ownership.

2) The majority of the investments are not yet in Chiapas, but rather in the process of evaluation, promises and feasibility studies. The Department of Economic Development in Chiapas, which met with members of the US Chamber of Commerce to discuss different investment options in the state, said, concerning the slow pace of investments in Chiapas, "it was still owing to security conditions in the state and, in the second place, these are long-term projects, and in addition, they are not going to happen overnight, since the projects have to be developed before the investments occur."

3) The investments which are announced do not create the expected employment, or what Governor Albores promised (300,000 jobs in three years).

4) The central bank has frozen funds for the economic renewal of Chiapas, as Governor Roberto Albores himself announced at the beginning of this year.

5) Investments are primarily aimed at the Soconusco Zone and the most important cities, such as Tapachula and Tuxtla Gutiérrez. At the beginning of the year, the governor of the state said that official investments for 1998 would be 28,000 million pesos, part of a "new focus on complete development" in productive zones, "with a strategy that will enable national or foreign businesses to invest in the state," and the renewal of the economy will cover "80% of the state," the productive zones such as Costa, Frailesca, Cintalapa and Tapachula.

6) Significant investments are not planned for the municipalities of Altamirano, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, El Bosque, San Andrés, Cancuc, Mitontic, Chanal, Sabanilla, Tila, Tumbalá, Chenalhó, Huitiupán, etc. That is to say, in the zones with the greatest indigenous presence and the highest indices of marginalization. Which does not mean an absence of exploitable wealth in these areas.

7) Investments which want to take advantage of cheap labor and Central America, in the bottleneck of Central American migration, in the border regions, which at the same time help to dampen the migration flow to the US.

8) Many of the facilities and investment offers, such as in the case of construction, are directed to non-Chiapaneco businesses.

9) Many direct foreign investments are focused more on seeking markets and local consumption, the market towards Central America and the United States and Canada; because the European countries, instead of forming multiple bilateral agreements in the Western hemisphere countries, have only done so with one: Mexico, which has sought trade accords with Central and South American countries and those to the north.

10) Funds to "campesino organizations" for production are preferentially awarded to those with the greatest impact, with the capability for export and which attract capital to the country and to the state, such as ISMAM, not to the poor campesino who has no access to health and education, with high illiteracy rates, or who only speaks his own language; they are awarded paltry programs "to fight poverty."

11) Agriculture policy is premised on the substitution of crops by those agricultural export products which are more profitable for businesses. Thus, corn (or maize), and what it means to indigenous culture, will tend to disappear from many fields in the countryside, to be substituted with other products.

12) Among the sectors considering investments in Chiapas are: agricultural export products (rubber, macadamia, African palm, bananas, melons, eucalyptus, etc.); industries such as cement, automobiles, mining, scientific investigations of bio-diversity, communications and highways, fisheries, tourism, paper, services and energy, as well as pharmaceuticals.

13) Many of the agriculture and forest projects with the greatest impact tend to deplete the capacity of the soil over the long term, such as African palm.

14) The trend is for the poor campesino, owning his own land, to become an agricultural day laborer, employed on his own land by capital; a tenant on his land and cheap labor, without any major obligations for the investor in labor matters.

15) Among the countries which are considering the possibility of investment are, among others: Canada, the US, Japan, Guatemala, Israel, Switzerland, Malaysia and Germany.

16) Much of the support for indigenous organizations or ejidos are focused on creating ecotourism projects, because it is the primary source of capital for the country and for the state. Tourism in Chiapas has grown. In the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas alone, more than 5 times the number of tourists visited in 1997 than had in 1994. "Chiapas is probably the state, or one of the states, where foreign tourism has grown the most," noted the Secretary of Tourism, and authorities do not feel that the expulsion of foreigners has reduced this sector, which this year will allocate 69.7 million pesos for the construction of access highways for tourist centers. In addition, according to official sources there are more than 2700 archeological sites located in Chiapas.

17) One vein which the government wants to exploit is investments in the mining sector, since large mineral deposits have been detected in some regions in Chiapas.

18) Industrial plants are scarce and limited; "Up to now profitable plants have not developed in Chiapas because of a lack of incentives, but it would mean a great effort on the part of the business community," according to the Federation of National Chambers of Commerce (FECANACO).

One of the key and strategic pieces of governmental policy are the highways, which perform at least 3 functions: 1) attract more capital by providing access to tourist centers, a primary investment source; 2) strategic mobility for the Mexican army and the police forces in the state, connecting to the municipalities and regions in conflict and; 3) creating optimal conditions for investments and for international trade, by providing routes to Central America and to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These three aspects are intimately connected. On August 12, Governor Roberto Albores announced that highway investment this year for Chiapas would be 1.169 billion pesos, for the construction, rebuilding and maintenance of 20,000 kilometers. The three great commercial routes which are being built in Chiapas are:

a) In the Chiapas Coast, beginning in Puerto Madero, municipality of Tapachula, adjoining Guatemala - where they are attempting to create the first great industrial park - which will reach Salina Cruz in Oaxaca; the 4-lane highway, Tapachula-Arriaga.

b) The other highway will cross the state through the Central Zone, where another industrial route is planned, from the municipality of Motozintla, in the Soconusco Zone, also bordering Guatemala, to the municipality of Angel; Albino Corzo (this highway passes by the entrance to El Triunfo Ecological Reserve, where the army is building facilities to establish a presence in this zone) and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, which will have access to the highway being built in Cosoleacaque, in the state of Veracruz with access to the Gulf of Mexico.

c) The third great route is the one in the Selva Lacandona which will surround Chiapas from the side of the conflict zone in the municipality of Ocosingo, along the river which divides the country with Guatemala, building the highway from Fronteriza del Sur de los Lagos de Montebello, Marqués de Comillas, Palenque, and with an exit to Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco with access to the Gulf of Mexico, until it intersects with the main communication waterways, connecting the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, known as the Tri-Continental Project of the Usumacinta River, with headquarters in the state of Tabasco.

The current economic policies for Chiapas have certain characteristics:

a) They create an even wider gulf in the polarization between the "productive regions" (Soconusco, Marqués de Comillas, the large cities, etc.) and the poorest indigenous regions of the state. For businesses, the situation in the Chiapas countryside has been critical since 1994, with production dropping by 50%.

b) They often expel the indigenous from regions with strong economic interests, where there is lumber trade, construction of hydroelectric dams on ejidal lands, drug trafficking, bio-diversity, trade in flora and fauna, petroleum, copper, zinc, uranium, etc. Buildings and strong military fortifications have already been erected in these areas. Oddly, many armed and paramilitary groups are operating in these zones.

c) They force the indigenous to enter into the agro-export economic chain, the substitution of crops based on products which are most competitive in the free market. This will lead to a severe disruption in diet and culture, exterminating the indigenous, and to the "natural survival" (socioeconomic) of the strongest in the world of globalization.

d) Some investments in the areas of agriculture, agro-export and scientific investigations in bio-diversity and soil use, etc., tend to experiment and to deplete the soil, which could leave the campesino and indigenous with a land that is worn down in the long run, let us say in 10 to 30 years, making subsistence culture even more difficult.

e) The beneficiaries of the economic and agricultural crisis in the country and in the state tend to be the large businesses which are able to buy at the desperate privatizations sales carried out by the state in order to "save" the economy, the grain export businesses, among others. In the case of the fires in the ecological reserve in the Chimalapas, the National Committee for the Defense of the Chimalapas stated that the beneficiaries of the ecological catastrophe were the cattle ranchers, lumber industry, drug-traffickers, cellulose paper industries and the Secretary of Communication and Transportation, along with foreign investors who are trying to build a highway in the reserve. If the investors' plans move ahead as they would like, it would be an ecological crime to re-plant (or re-green) the zone with eucalyptus plantations.

f) Whether because of presidential pride, politics or in order to defend these kinds of interests, the federal and state governments are seeking at all costs to deny what was signed at the San Andrés Accords. They also are defending their observations on the COCOPA's proposed legislation, which is trying to retain that exact key for political and territorial control of the state and the Indian nations: control over the use and infrastructure of the natural resources in the indigenous territories, access by the 10 million indigenous in the country to communications media, the right of the indigenous to their own language, culture and education, their authorities and their autonomy. To break with these rights would be to guarantee the success of globalization and the international capital guarantees.

The project of economic renewal in Chiapas has a national and an international context, the current and previous presidents having brought Mexico into an important role in the world of globalization, opening economic borders through international conventions such as the Multilateral Investment Agreement - MIA - (see Bulletin No. 109), but closing doors to democracy and to the observance of human rights damaged by this opening.

A REFLECTION ON AUTONOMY AS "FIREBREAK NATIONS"

The indigenous peoples in Chiapas and in the country could now form part of what has been called in other countries, "Firewall Nations." This theory holds that the "Ethnic Nation," rooted in its own history, culture, historic memory, uses and customs, geography, etc., is structurally stronger and more resistant than the modern neo-liberal State. In addition to having resisted the threat of annihilation through the centuries, they have even been able to endure the longest wars in history, such as Eritrea, Kawthoolei and Kurdistan. However, many ethnic nations occupy geographically strategic places from a military, economic and commercial point of view; their positions in geo-political areas in conflict can create a "Firebreak Nation."

Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central America, during the eighties, made up geo-political regions where strong globalization interests and world powers struggled. In the midst of outbreaks of insurgency, ungovernability, weakness in public and political institutions, extreme poverty, the ethnic nations fought against the expansionist interests of globalization, at some moments being able to stop or to abate the voracity for oil, natural resources, communications routes, land, etc. The Miskito Nation of Nicaragua, the Kuna Nation and Guaymi in Panama and Costa Rica, and many others in South America, have fought various battles for survival.

According to one study, 50 ethnic nations are located in 7 modern states in Nicaragua; with a population greater than 6 million inhabitants (23% of the Central American population), and lands occupying 40% of the entire region. In the case of the Mayas, the more than 5 million indigenous from 22 Mayan groups make up a larger population than that of any of the modern Central American States.

The majority of the world wars, the genocide of refugees, the flagrant violation of human rights, destruction of the environment and the production of drugs - all occur in the territories of indigenous nations. In just ten years, of the 120 wars fought in the world, 72 of them (60%) were between modern States and ethnic nations for the control of territory, for religious and political questions, etc. (Israel vs. Palestine, Nicaragua vs. Miskitos, Indonesia vs. Papua Occidental, Iraq vs. Kurdistan, etc.).

The indigenous of Chiapas represent, to the voracity of the neo-liberal program, a threat to their expansion. The historic unity of the Maya, the struggle for recognition of their territory, their indigenous autonomy, the ILO's Convention 169 which recognizes the indigenous "peoples," the negotiation process of the San Andrés Accords, among others, represent their main weapons. They are potentially converted into an ethnic nation or an indigenous "firebreak" nation, which the modern states will have to break up in order to appropriate what Chiapas means for Mexico, and all of our continent in commercial and investment terms. Thus, the tourist program, the Mayan Route, which involves Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador, representing one of the main challenges for globalization, is an attempt to completely integrate the entire area. With the support of the World Bank an effort is being made to draw tourist and investment routes, crossing tourist and archeological zones, ecological regions and biosphere reserves. One cannot forget that the indigenous are also on oil-rich land, which they are trying to cross with highways and other interests in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, etc.

If you wish to go more deeply, as to which businesses are investing, where, in what, and their impact on the regional economy, read the second part.

"THE INSUPPORTABLE LIGHTNESS OF THE LAW: IMPUNITY"
(Excerpt, Part XV)*

Article 5: Persons deprived of their liberty

1. In addition to the regulations in Article 4, as a minimum, as to persons deprived of their liberty due to armed conflicts, whether interned or detained, the following regulations will be respected: a) the wounded and sick will treated in conformity with Article 7; b) the persons referred to in this paragraph will receive, to the same degree as the local population, food and potable water and will enjoy the guarantees of health, hygiene and protection against the elements and the dangers of the armed conflict; c) they will be authorized to receive individual and collective support; d) they can practice their religion and, when they so act and so do, they will receive spiritual assistance from persons carrying out religious functions, such as chaplains; e) in instances where they must work, they will enjoy conditions of work and guarantees analogous with those enjoyed by the local civil population.

2. As far as they are able, those responsible for the internment or detention of the persons referred to in Paragraph 1, will respect, also within the limits of their capabilities, the following regulations relative to those persons: a) except when men and women from the same family are housed together, the women will be kept in locations separate from those assigned to the men, and they will be under the immediate supervision of women; b) such persons will be authorized to send and to receive letters and postcards, although their number may be limited by the relevant authorities if it is considered necessary; c) the places of internment and detention should not be situated in proximity to the conflict zone. The persons referred to in Paragraph 1 will be evacuated when the places of internment or detention become particularly exposed to the dangers resulting from the armed conflict, as long as the evacuation can be carried out under sufficiently secure conditions; d) these persons will be subjected to medical examinations; e) their health will not be put at risk, nor their physical or mental integrity, through any unjustified action or omission. Consequently, it is prohibited to subject the persons referred to in this article to any medical intervention which is not indicated by their state of health, and which is not in accordance with generally recognized medical norms that would be applicable under analogous medical circumstances to persons not deprived of their liberty.

The Cerro Hueco jail in Chiapas is now a "red light bordering on riot," where the zapatista prisoners are living in subhuman conditions ( . . .). The President of the PT, Alberto Anaya, stressed that the prison center seems more like a concentration camp, where elemental rights are violated and the prisoners have neither clothing nor food. (La Jornada, 1/22/98, p.6)

"My brother was a calm man. He was assassinated by the police that day they detained me. Now here I am, accused of murder," said Pedro González González, 37, in the Cerro Hueco jail in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in an interview. Pedro is one of the 24 Tzotzil campesinos of San Pedro Nixtalucum sent there after the violent actions of last March 14. He sobs while relating: "They killed my son as well, and he had been married barely two months. As if I would have killed him." But he has five other sons, who are now displaced, along with his son's young widow, Carmen.

Each time testimony is obtained from the victims ( the dead, the wounded, the prisoners and the displaced), it directly contradicts the official versions. For example, Enrique González, another of the prisoners, relates: "the Public Security forces mistreated us as if we were animals, they beat us, and the same thing happened when the Prosecutor's office people came."

Enrique says: "the policemen put us in the vans face down, and that's when the gunfire let loose. The Public Security officers took us prisoners and the people got together to stop them, since it wasn't just. They began beating the first van with their fists, and then with stones. At that point the first shot was fired, although I didn't see it then because they had me bent over. From there I heard everything."

Abraham López' back was completely burnt because of the manner in which he was taken to the Prosecutor's office. "They took us on the platform of the van, and since the exhaust was underneath, the metal heated up and that part of me was burned. When we got to the police station they began to beat us again." Manuel González talks of the conditions of his imprisonment: "We stayed in the Prosecutor's cells for four days, where they gave us almost nothing to eat. And then they took us here (Cerro Hueco) and put us in a room with 52 prisoners, without mattresses or blankets."

"On the 17th they brought us here, that day they didn't give us anything to eat," Pedro González says. And Enrique added: "They kept us crowded in a corner for 17 days, we didn't have enough food, we didn't have enough water to drink or clothes to change into. The doctor took care of the wounded compañeros after we were in jail for three weeks." (Bellinghausen, H., La Jornada, 4/12/97, p. 15)

The 15 indigenous who were freed this morning, mostly elderly persons, still have serious contusion on their faces and bodies. They tell in their own language of the way in which the Public Security police picked them out from among the 2000 persons who were demonstrating; they mentioned that, since they were the oldest, since they couldn't run and since they stayed stock still, the police beat them mercilessly and arrested them. (Mariscal, A. La Jornada, 8/28/97, p. 15)

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

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

Notes: The sources for the figures are from the local and national press.

(*) In order to covert pesos to dollars, the actual exchange rate is close to 10 pesos to $1USD.

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