From the 20th (the 88th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution) to the 22nd (eleven months after the Acteal massacre) of November, an Encuentro between the EZLN and Civil Society and the Commission of Concordance and Peace (COCOPA) was held in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. We have already covered the importance, objectives, context and history which culminated in this extremely important event, in Bulletins Nos. 133 and 134.

There were 29 delegates from the EZLN, among them, Comandantes David, Tacho, Zebedeo and Major Moisés, who shared at the tables along with the more than 3000 persons who attended the Encuentro, from 28 States of the Republic (out of a total of 32), from more than 400 organizations, among them business, campesino, indigenous, student, university and academic sectors, intellectuals, poets, housewives, artists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), unions, environmentalists, workers, urban organizations, production organizations, religious persons, etc. In addition, there were around 1500 persons participating every day in the peace cordons which surrounded the headquarters of the dialogue. Among the personalities who attended the event were Pablo González Casanova, Oscar Oliva, Juan Bañuelos, Concepción Calvillo, the widow of Nava (members of the disappeared CONAI), Amalia Solórzano, widow of Cárdenas, Carlos Monsiváis, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, among others. Foreign observers from 18 countries also participated, and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, sent his greetings to the Encuentro.

The townspeople of San Cristóbal de las Casas contributed with food for the peace cordon, while the actress Ofelia Medina donated the receipts from her performances to the event, as did the members of the rock group, "La Bola".

While the event was being held, there were also mobilizations in 24 US cities in support of the Zapatistas and the consultation. The Mayor of Minneapolis urged the Mexican government to withdraw its troops from Chiapas, to dismantle the paramilitary groups and to carry out the San Andrés Accords. Activists from different states in the American Union came together at the School of the Americas in their annual march, for the purpose of pressuring for the closure of that institution.

Once more, the country's indigenous are the only ones now who can convene so many persons and personalities with such plurality and openness. In a democratic exercise, all the participants came together in order to discuss three themes, with the following results:

Theme 1: THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION: The EZLN proposed that there be a "great national mobilization" so that all Mexicans and the sectors of the countries residing in Mexico and abroad could participate: "the indigenous, workers, campesinos, employed, neighbors, students, teachers, the unemployed, drivers, prisoners, homosexuals, lesbians, retired persons and pensioners, the handicapped, children, old ones, the youth gangs, Mexicans who live abroad, the religious, businesspersons, artists and intellectuals, workers in service to the State, deputies and senators, members of the Cocopa; all Mexicans, without regard to their age, their sex, their color, their culture, their political position, their religious creed, their social position, their name, their face or their size." In addition, they added that they could participate " with an opinion or with money, or with a song or with a poem, or with a sketch or with a march, or with an assembly or with a polling booth, or with a vehicle or with a hand, or with a smile or with a joke, or with a small amount of time or with much time, or with much work or with little work." In one of the many communiqués read during the Encuentro, they stated that "(…)We think that if we make an agreement which is very wide, open and inclusive, then many people are going to participate, are going to be mobilized (…) because they are going to agree with being taken into account (…) the consultation is part of the struggle of the Mexican people for democracy. Because it is a way for the people to let the leaders know how they feel and what they want (…) the consultation should be broad, open and inclusive (…) understood as part of the struggle of the Mexican people for democracy, liberty and justice, and that is how it should be explained, publicized, promoted and carried out (…) as part of the search for a new way of doing politics, and that is how we should think of it, agree to it, plan for it and carry it out (…)".

In order to accomplish this, the EZLN announced, to much applause, that they already had 5000 Zapatista indigenous persons ready (half men, and half women), who are willing "to risk their lives, their freedom, their goods (…) to withstand hunger and illness, to go on horseback or by burro, or in trains or in buses, or by car or by plane, or by boat or by helicopter, or by bicycle or by foot, and to reach all the municipalities, no matter how far away, or how long it takes them to get there (…) to meet and to speak with those who want to participate in the consultation, without regard to their color, their party, their size, their language, their sex, their religion or their age."

This theme was divided into 6 regional tables, and the conclusions were: 1) we conceive of the consultation as a process for mobilization, and not just for voting, a process from which we should leave us all more organized; 2) the central focus of the consultation will be the recognition of the rights of the indigenous; 3) the characteristics of each municipality, state and region will be respected, as will the forms of political participation of the Indian peoples; 4) the table asked the EZLN to propose the dates for the consultation (promotion, voting, dissemination of results and delivery of same to the Congress of the Union, taking into consideration all the proposals presented at the table; 5) the assembly mandated the EZLN to formulate the questions for the consultation, analyzing all the proposals which were submitted; 6) the consultation will include children and young people above the age of 12. The creation of liaison and promotion committees throughout the country was also proposed, as was the establishment of a permanent meeting place in each municipality, to which all citizens could go in order to receive information, or to present denunciations, or, rather, more than 2000 "Aguascalientes".

In Themes 2 and 3, the following issues were dealt with: the struggle for peace, militarization and its social and human rights costs, the dialogue model, civil society strategies for the struggle for peace, the national situation and the alternatives of the democratic forces in response to the crisis of the State, alternative economic and social policies, etc. They demanded that the government demilitarize the country's indigenous regions and disarm the paramilitary groups, among other things. It is worth nothing the consensus concerning the reactivation of a Mediation body, but there were different proposals as to its makeup: that the former CONAI be reinstated, that it be broadened, that another be formed with various sectors of the country, that it be made up of national and international bodies, etc.

For the first time, Chiapaneco businesspersons participated, and they were listened to with acceptance and tolerance. Some recognized the unjust and unacceptable conditions in which the indigenous of Chiapas are living, and they thought that a peaceful solution would be to the benefit of everyone and would encourage productivity and employment. Other businesspersons stated that the EZLN is manipulative, and their strong criticisms were listened to with tolerance.

In addition, the children met for one day, discussing the same themes, and they shared their conclusions at the end of the Encuentro, asking for their rights to be included, and calling for the building of peace under the banner represented by the Taniperlas mural, which was destroyed during the dismantling of the "Flores Magón" autonomous municipality, which solidarity groups in Madrid had sent to the event.

At the end of the event, where political and social forces converged, Comandante Tacho stated that "The dialogue which we have had during these days represents a new opportunity in the search for peace, a step in the struggle for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture in constitutional life, and a new effort by civil society and by zapatismo to contribute to finding a solution to the grave economic, political and social crisis into which the country has been plunged." He added that "we see that the consultation is a way of taking power away from the government" and of handing it to the people, in order to make the powers "govern obeying". He concluded by saying that the Encuentro exceeded expectations, and that "it was a success".

Concomitantly, the meeting was held between the EZLN and the COCOPA, which is made up of 16 federal and state legislators. Finally, after two years, the meeting was held in the midst of tension and difficulties, and which, while indeed renewing contacts between the two actors, did not yield any memorable results. The COCOPA wanted to deliver two sealed envelopes from the federal government, which contained new proposals for achieving progress in the dialogue. However, the Zapatista delegation rejected the envelopes, arguing that the legislators had no mediatory function. The EZLN asked them to support the consultation concerning the legislative proposal, which the COCOPA itself had drawn up, on Indigenous Rights and Culture; the COCOPA called on them to renew dialogue with the government, to which the EZLN responded, yes, but only, and when, the 5 demands, which they had formulated more than two years ago, were met: the carrying out of the Accords negotiated in the municipality of San Andrés, the release of the alleged Zapatista prisoners, demilitarization and the disarmament of the paramilitary groups, a serious proposal concerning Table 2, Democracy and Justice and a government representative who is respectful and capable of decision-making.

THE GOVERNMENT REACTION

The federal government exploited this event in three ways. We have already made note of them in Bulletins 133 and 134 - not out of astuteness, but rather because of the double language already well-known to all Mexicans, and their cynical way of conducting politics:

1. Invalidate civil society, arguing that the participants are nothing, nor do they represent anything. In addition, Azteca Television and Televisa ignored the participation by civil society, and they stressed the same official discourse.

2. Attack the EZLN, pointing it out as primarily responsible for the dialogue stalemate.

3. Capitalize on the event, publicizing it as being with the COCOPA, "who have begun the peace dialogue," which is the prelude to the meeting with the Federal Government, something which is quite far removed from reality, as are all the government's interpretations. Thus, the government tries to make this scene of dialogue and meeting between the EZLN and Civil Society, primarily, and collaterally with the COCOPA, into a scene of renewal of dialogue with the government, through the use of pressure.

The Secretary of Government (Gobernación), Francisco Labastida Ochoa, stated that "the EZLN's intention is to not reach an accord quickly (…) the one who is holding up the process, and the one who is preventing an end to the conflict, is the EZLN. It is up to them whether it ends today (…) the dialogue that they are saying is with civil society, is not with civil society. It is a very small group of people who do not represent civil society (…) we hope that agreements are reached so that the EZLN and the government will renew dialogue and the conditions will be put in place in order to end this conflict (…) the Mexican Army has not exchanged shots with them (…)"

The Assistant Coordinator for Dialogue, Alan Arias, stated that the documents, which they attempted to have delivered to the EZLN through the COCOPA, contain proposals for reviewing the structure and the agenda of the negotiation, in order to make the talks "more expeditious, efficient and productive". Concerning the consultation, he said that "the government believes the constitutional reform process concerning this matter is in the hands of the National Congress, which is the body for debate and national decision-making", thus invalidating the Encuentro. He also stated that all of the EZLN's conditions are "anachronistic", but the government is willing to discuss them at the dialogue table. The primary problem here lies in the fact that, while for the EZLN the conditions must be met prior to the dialogue, for the government they are matters for the dialogue itself, which they can then fail to carry out, an attitude which they have maintained up to the present.

On another issue, Alan Arias concluded that, if the EZLN "could come to San Cristóbal and carry out their activities with complete freedom, and, outside the agenda, hold a political activity in the City Theatre closing the meeting, it is obvious that conditions also exist for them to sit down and negotiate with the government". Nonetheless, every time there is dialogue, one can count on provocations. The following day, in the autonomous municipality of Polhó, there was a confrontation between the Mexican Army and EZLN support bases, resulting in injuries to three persons, among them three women wounded with knives.

The leader of the official party - the PRI - in Chiapas called the Encuentro "a farce". For his part, the state leader of the National Action Party - PAN - displayed his ignorance of the process: he accuses the EZLN and the government of intransigence regarding dialogue, strongly criticizes the COCOPA and states the EZLN "has no ability to convene", and that "they are moved by aspirations to power, and not by the social causes of the indigenous".

The government's fear of democracy is very great. Nonetheless, President Zedillo is willing - "at whatever political cost" - to consolidate his economic program, which is intrinsically exclusionary, authoritarian, impoverishing and anti-democratic, and he has even admitted that the policies which are being implemented are having strong repercussions in the population. While the attention was focused on San Cristóbal for the Encuentro, the government raised taxes, the price of gasoline, the cost of transportation; it freed the price of maize; a proposal was aired for a tax on medications and food; it proposed a budget for 1999 which will negatively impact most Mexicans; CONASUPO is being sold; it reached cooperation agreements with Malaysia; the President of France made statements supporting government policies which affect millions of Mexicans and of poor people, etc. In order to ameliorate some of these effects, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) once again places the country in debt with a new million dollar loan, so that Mexico can cushion the impoverishing impact. In response to this structural, economic and political violence, civil society and the indigenous propose dialogue, democracy, laterality, inclusion and consultation.

On November 17, the EZLN celebrated 15 years of its existence, and, during these days, its ability to convoke. Once again the International Red Cross and legislators returned the Zapatista delegation to their places of origin in Oventic, La Garrucha and La Realidad, surrounded by more military camps now, thanks to the fact that military spending has doubled between 1994 and 1999, according to figures from the Treasury Department itself. It was with good reason that the Zapatista delegation stated during the Encuentro that a "de facto government" exists in Chiapas, directed by the military, since the PRI and state authorities are no more than "pathetic marionettes who pretend to do politics". They said that "the government has not stopped the war against us, more soldiers are threatening our towns".

"THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF THE LAW: IMPUNITY" (Excerpt, Part XXIV)*

Article 14: Protection of those goods which are indispensable for the survival of the civil population. It is prohibited, as a method of combat, to cause civilian persons to suffer from hunger. Consequently, it is prohibited to attack, to destroy, to remove, or to render useless, for that purpose, those goods which are indispensable for the survival of the civil population, such as food items and the agricultural zones which produce them, harvests, livestock, potable water facilities and reserves and irrigation equipment.

According to the Caravan of Observers for Peace, the destruction of the coffee plantations and fields, and the theft of the harvest, mean that the indigenous communities will not have food, for at least the next two years. The theft of their few livestock animals, and the contamination of seeds and drinking water with gasoline. The destruction of all their belongings and the outrageous use of their pots and kitchens as latrines by the Army. This is just one example. It is necessary to be aware of the fact that there is hunger and extreme insecurity in all the communities. Neither the government, nor the Army, want peace, they want extermination. (Cosio, E. and Einbcke, H. El correo ilustrado. La Jornada, 1/30/98, p. 2)

Standing, with their rifles on their shoulders, some 30 members of the State Police task Force are eating at a large table set out for them. An abundance of chicken and tostados and tortillas (…) in the municipal agency, the PRI's eat with the Public Security police, with an impressive degree of luxury. (…) And Miguel's son asks if the Public Security police are eating chicken. Someone tells him yes, and he turns around, in order to look significantly at another man next to him, who opens his eyes wide and exclaims: "My chickens. They were mine to sell; I had them ready and I left them there when we ran away." (Caso de S. Pedro Nixtalucum. Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 3/17/98, p. 21)

"The Army men have torn up the occupied lands, as well as damming up the water in the hoses, trampling on the community (San Cayetano) cemetery, creating prostitution centers, and they are also training PRI people, creating white guards and spies. Because of this, we request the immediate withdrawal of the Mexican Army, that the people recover their invaded right, because the federal and state governments know that the indigenous people do not have other lands" (…) "The government does not have the political will to solve the problems. Instead of sowing maize, they want to make it a military camp". (Document sent to the CONAI, COCOPA and CNDH by the ejidal authorities of S. Cayetano. Balboa, J. La Jornada, 8/26/97, p. 3)

The Mexican Army today carried out an operation in the municipal seat of Ocosingo, in order to prevent the indigenous and campesinos from recovering a lot which had served for three years as general barracks for the 39th Military Zone (...) some 100 soldiers, with artillery vehicles and high-powered weapons cordoned off the lot, known as Puerto Arturo, in order to prevent some 134 families from setting up in that piece of land (…) The Emiliano Zapata Campesino and Indigenous Popular Workers Front (Fopciez) noted that the state government had appropriated those lands a few months ago, which had been delivered by the municipal council as part of the urban development program, and they demanded that the Commander of the 39th Military Zone, Jorge Wabi Rosell, immediately retire his troops from the land, which legally belongs to the 134 families. (Balboa, J. La Jornada, 1/27/98, p. 11)

The soldiers who are occupying Guadalupe Tepeyac, "on lands which do not belong to them, destroy the wood and take the compañeros' coffee, which they can't go and harvest". During the daily patrols between Tepeyac and the Euseba River, "the soldiers go by and steal the firewood of the compañeras from La Realidad, which they put in piles next to the road in order to carry them back later to their community". (Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 12/1/97, p. 5)

The soldiers "have the town surrounded (Guadalupe Tepeyac). They destroyed all the land we had set up for coffee, and they made it into a barracks. (…) There were 160 hectares for the town, and 5000 hectares for cultivating for our ejido: maize, beans, coffee, cane, oranges. Now we can't go there, because the soldiers set up traps", relates one of the elderly members of the community (…) This was a town center with very good infrastructure, almost urban. Brick houses, piped water systems, electricity. Now it is a wasteland of buildings without walls, and an almost completely impassable undergrowth of jungle. Only the shells of the houses are accessible, which, according to the campesinos, the soldiers use "for the services of the prostitutes". (Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 2/22/98, p. 3)

Those assassinated in Acteal, men and women, according to the forensic medical report, had completely empty stomachs. As clean as their own consciences. They had been fasting for three days, and they had only had a little water. Their sacrifice, for the fast, was to ask God for Peace. So they understood it, so they died. (Brevísima relación de la destrucción de Chiapas. Romo Cedano, P. La Jornada del Campo, 1/28/98, p. 4)

The Autonomous Council of Chenalhó denounced that Army forces were helping PRI's in the coffee harvest - but the coffee plantations belonged to the displaced -. In order to back up this denunciation, Luciano offers photographs which show the soldiers cutting and de-pulping the coffee in a cordoned-off community. In another picture, a soldier is posing in front of a cordoned-off house, pointing his weapon towards the door. Striking at the means of subsistence, and preventing the planting and the harvesting of the most profitable products, and even the subsistence ones such as maize and beans, are part of the strategy. (Un soldado por familia. Ramírez Cuevas, J. Masiosare. La Jornada, 1/25/98, p. 9)

"The coffee from Chenalhó did not disappear, someone stole it to buy weapons. The Public Security police supports robberies, and it steals the harvested coffee", Javier Luna Ruiz, president of the Majomut Union of Coffee Production Ejidos and Communities, told this newspaper, who added that, in many communities, the coffee was stolen even before it was harvested. "All the PRI's went to harvest it, even accompanied by the police themselves". (Balboa, J. La Jornada, 2/2/98, p. 6)

Two thousand soldiers stationed in the municipality of Chenalhó were unable to prevent a group of PRI's from blocking the road to Polhó for an entire day, preventing the arrival of humanitarian aid for the refugees. On the other hand, the soldiers helped the PRI's to harvest the coffee which belonged to the displaced, they contaminated the Polhó spring and tried to turn the Acteal school into a barracks. (No tengo miedo ni pena. López Monjardin, A. Masiosare. La Jornada, 2/1/98, p. 7)

In Los Chorros (Chenalhó), the land where the burned houses are has been sold: between 1800 and 3000 pesos per lot, depending on its size or on the added value of the labor invested; the coffee plantations are offered a la carte, according to the buying power of the purchaser: 15 pesos per shrub; the fields, with so many people without land, are not sold by hectare, but rather by "tasks", of 4 to 40 "armfuls", each one at 400 pesos. If it were just a theft by the paramilitaries, the justice and the peace would return this property to its owners. But the new situation involves the new owners having stolen nothing: they have bought what they now have from the paramilitaries, they have transformed it, they have invested work in it. A nice way of applying Article 27 of the reformed Constitution. (Aubry, A. and Inda, A. La Jornada del Campo, La Jornada, 2/25/98, p. 3)

The Mexican Army has set about looting the meager belongings of the indigenous campesinos, robbing their cooperative stores, destroying their cultivated lands, pillaging livestock from the communities. Evidence of all of this can be gathered from the civil population and in the ejidos of La Garrucha, El Prado, San Juan, Sultana, Nueva Estrella, Las Tazas, La Unión, La Grandeza, Ibarra, Laguna Santa Elena, Guadalupe Tepeyac, Vicente Guerrero, Nuevo Momón, and many others, all those communities of the Selva Lacandona (2/23/95) (…) the soldiers' actions include destroyed houses, stores looted, food grains poisoned with chemicals, the machine-gunning of the coffee plantations and fields, the constant departure of Mexican Army trucks loaded with the communities' livestock. The presence of the military is always officially justified by the supposed "social work" carried out by the Army, and by the need for watching out for the "social tranquillity" in the Selva Lacandona. (del 12 de enero al 22 de diciembre. Fernández, P. La Jornada, 1/12/98, p. 14).

Hundreds of indigenous women from Altamirano and Ocosingo insisted that the presence of the Mexican Army in the communities has "caused great problems in our lives, which now aren't like they were before, because now we can't go out for firewood, and our husbands can't get the maize, the beans or the coffee". The government, they stressed, "wants to kill us with hunger, fear and bullets". (Henríquez, E. La Jornada, 1/12/98, p. 14)

In La Realidad, the majority of the children are limited to a diet of coffee and tortillas, occasionally spread with a little bit of beans (…) a greater shortage is feared over the next few months. The military siege, which increased during the last agricultural season, prevented the planting or harvesting of thousands of hectares. Coffee production was scanty, and therefore there was no money. The fields and the beans produced very little, and now it has run out. Without economic resources or any food reserves, La Realidad (like the other communities in resistance in the region) is awaiting a period of hunger. Gastrointestinal and skin diseases are taking hold and affecting dozens of children. It is hot now, but it was already cold last weekend; because of the abrupt changes in temperature, respiratory infections are present in almost all the houses. (Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 2/19/98, p. 6)

Malnutrition among the small children has visibly worsened. Masiqueni, Doña Elvira's little daughter, now has, and she didn't before, worms, as do Irma, Luci, Rafita and Guicho. Clinton continues bright and tiny, but he's not growing, only Marcelo stays rosy-cheeked and smiling, because he is a grown boy, completely, totally happy (…) Several cases of tuberculosis have appeared, that disease which officially no longer exists in our country (…) skin infections and allergies are proliferating. In La Realidad, it is possible today to find all the vitamin deficiencies, or almost all, because there are no limes or oranges. (Bellinghausen, H. La Jornada, 3/14/98, p. 7).

Raul Vera (Coadjutant Bishop of the Diocese of San Cristóbal) referred to the "state of war and the destruction of the social fabric which exists in the communities", which "has prevented working, planting and gathering the harvests": on which he bases his statement that "a famine" is expected. (Henríquez, E. La Jornada, 2/16/98, p. 17)

"They are exemplars in the Army, they are insulted, hit; they send children and women to insult them and to hit them, and they put up with all these provocations, because they are very aware of the situation. We Mexicans are very lucky in having an Army which is completely different, and I say this with all respect, completely different from other armies in Latin American countries. We are very lucky". (Ernesto Zedillo, President of the Republic. 2/13/98)

"We are committed to not involving ourselves in confrontations for one simple reason: it is not good for the nation, Mexico does not wish it, our supreme commander does not want it, history and reflection do not advise it. We reject violence, violation of the law, bias against collective national interests and dictates and the interference which feeds them". (General Cervantes Aguirre, Secretary of National Defense, 2/9/98)

"Governor, we don't need your money, leftovers or used pants. What we want is justice". (Antonio González, Las Abejas representative, 1/11/98)

"We will take nothing from those hands which are stained with indigenous blood. A little aid, a few sheets of plywood and a little clothing is not enough to solve the serious situation and to ease the hunger, because those little gifts from the government end in a few days, and poverty, hunger and disease are always with us". (Representatives of the Polhó Autonomous Council. 1/10/98)

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

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