After the Acteal massacre of December 22, 1997, the federal government managed to find a way out of the blind alley where it had placed itself. The pressure exerted by different actors insisting on the compliance of the San Andres Agreements, the de-militarization of indigenous communities and the dis-articulation of the paramilitary groups, has been a principal factor, among others of similar importance, cornering the government into a commitment to find a way out of the armed conflict.

For rhetoric, the government began using the need to dismember "the civilian armed groups acting outside the law" in its aim against the EZLN, equating it to "a paramilitary group", while, simultaneously, at Cerro Hueco prison the 96 imprisoned paramilitary PRI members were being accused of the Acteal massacre.

With the disarming slogan as an excuse, the armed forces took positions anew at 28 posts in Chenalhó and attempted to enter La Realidad, presumed to be the headquarters for the EZLN General Command. Timely warnings from the communities momentarily impeded the army from advancing.

It seems that the government profited most from the massacre, leading to an important shift in government strategy: today, in military terms, the EZLN is still more cornered and its mobility much decreased as a result of the military and incendiary siege on the Chiapas countryside. Furthermore, the autonomous municipalities are being dismantled and prisons are being filled with opposition indigenous militants, while the siege on the international observers is becoming more heavy handed.  In addition, the government has been spewing out its discourse about "dialogue being the only way for Chiapas" and that "no indigenous blood shall be shed". Contradicting those words, the blood of indigenous and non indigenous peasants is, in fact, flowing. The offensive coincides with the governor's public presentation of the State Reconciliation Agreement for Chiapas, starting the spiral of violence with the assassination of the leaders of the Democratic State Assembly of the Chiapanecan Peoples (AEDPCH), Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa and Antonio Gomez Flores, in February 1998, and continuing to this date with the murders of peasant leaders at La Fraylesca and the imprisonment of CIOAC and PRD leaders as well as of EZLN support bases, etc.  These offensives have been carried out mainly when public attention is most dispersed -such as Holy Week and vacation periods. One such case was the joint military-police raid of La Hormiga Colony at San Cristóbal and the detention of the evangelist indigenous leaders known in previous years for organizing mobilizations, supporting whoever paid best.

This offensive continues and increases in a spiral of violence that doesn’t seem to have an easy solution, at least in the short run. In spite of this scenario, the indigenous communities continue to declare themselves in resistance, organizing their autonomous regions in a state of maximum alert.

The communities are ready to resist without surrendering nor selling out, since they are not willing to return to the conditions prior to January 1, 1994.

In this context of resistance, the main paramilitary groups are using the phantom of Acteal to threaten their main opponents with yet more massacres to take place in the Venustiano Carranza, Norte, El Bosque and Ocosingo regions. These threats are making the situation even more tense in several areas of Chiapas. Additionally, President Zedillo’s constant visits (two in May alone and 11 since taking office), are providing suppport to the continuing repressive policies that originate at the federal level but are mainly implemented by the state governor,  Roberto Albores.

 THE SEVEN ITEMS OF THE STRATEGY

Both state and federal authorities are carrying out joint military-police offensives mainly against Zapatista communities. The federal government's tactic has been to funnel its strategy through the state government and, in fact, the purpose of the president's May visits -accompanied by Emilio Rabasa, the Dialogue Coordinator- was to oversee its implementation. Rabasa summarized this strategy in seven points:

1. Attention to people’s demands.

This point is quite ambiguous, since the people’s demands are many: land, work, health, education, food, housing, democracy, justice, liberty, etc. Responding to them requires a dialogue that can offer solutions for all sectors, including the EZLN and the opposition governments, not only to the sectors that belong to the PRI.

2. Aim resources to municipalities with greatest poverty.

In Chiapas 42 municipalities live in utmost marginality and most of them are Zapatista. This means that resources shall be channeled with two ends: as a community-dividing, counter-insurgency strategy, and as a means to recover the municipal presidencies and the social bases previously lost by the PRI.

3. Enforcement of Law and Order

With the slogan of "regaining law and order”, the government applies the law mainly against opposition leaders of peasant organizations, while foregoing the application of law in other cases, such as that of PRI congressman Samuel Sánchez, leader of the paramilitary group "Paz y Justicia" which has publicly declared itself an armed group, or the MIRA paramilitary, at Taniperlas, or the Chinchulines paramilitary at Bachajón who continue their aggressions against and murders of opposition peasants.

4.- Inter-community policies.

The government's rhetoric about the displaced by political violence returning to their communities is not at all the whole truth. The only ones returning recently have been the 41 families from Pantienijá, Tila municipality.  The government is silent about the fact that hostilities continue against them, that they are still being harassed by Paz y Justicia and forced to submit to their conditions: that they abandon the ranks of the opposition, renounce their Catholic faith, abstain from attending community meetings, inform Paz y Justicia leaders of all their activities, etc. 

5.Promoting an inter-community policy, primarily in Chenalhó.

This is simply not possible. It is presumed that the paramilitary command imprisoned at Cerro Hueco penitentiary continue their control and command over their followers in PRI communities, transmitting their orders by telephone, threatening the displaced with another aggression like the one at Acteal.  Meanwhile, the government does not apply the law against violations to the right of religious freedom: PRI members have prohibited Catholic mass at the municipality's capital and, furthermore, they have called in a priest expelled by the Diocese who is undergoing a canonical process.

6.     Fostering remunicipalization, considered an element of the San Andres Agreements.

Encouraging remunicipalization requires the political framework of the negotiation and the political will to comply with the agreements signed. Consequently, the Remunicipalization Commission must be composed by local congressmen representing political parties, indigenous representatives of the communities, EZLN representatives and representatives of the local government. As always, the governments promotes the participation of the indigenous caciques (strongmen) of the municipalities of Chenalhó, Chamula, Tenejapa, Oxchuc and Cancuc, who ingratiate themselves with the authorities and, at the same time, legitimize official policies. Meanwhile, communities represented by the autonomous municipalities are being repressed with the argument that they are usurpers of official functions. Thus if this Commission is reestablished once more, in a manner similar to what the government has tried in the past, it will encounter the resistance of the indigenous communities. Another possibility is that the government will encourage the remunicipalization where the caciques are asking for autonomy, such as at Monte Cristo, municipality of Angel Albino Corzo, Belisario Domínguez, municipality of Motozintla and Malpaso, municipality of Tecpatán, etc. After the president demanded, during his last visit, that the remunicipalization process be accelerated, governor Albores is executing his command by drawing up a new proposal on the issue, to be ready by the end of this month.

7.The political solution and the dialogue as the way to solve the armed conflict in Chiapas

Our previous bulletin mentioned the balance of repression. While on the one hand the government repeats this rhetoric (about the dialogue as solution), it nevertheless shows its repressive face,  and is strengthening the conservative and cacique power groups in Chiapas, such as the Orantes family at La Fraylesca, the Ruiz family at La Concordia, the Ocosingo and Altamirano cattlemen and San Cristóbal’s "Authentic Coletos" (a term that refers to the conservative native-born residents of San Cristóbal).

PEASANT ORGANIZATIONS

With Zedillo's last visit to Chiapas, the peasant organizations that have traditionally struggled for land find that access to it is withering.  The federal government declared the end of land distribution through the acquisition of 193,686 hectares valued at 800 million pesos (US$94 million) and delivered to 50 thousand Chiapas peasants. For their part, cattlemen of the Las Margaritas, Altamirano and Ocosingo municipalities demand payment for the 680 land properties occupied by Zapatistas and peasant organizations since 1994. Meanwhile, at the largest urban centers of Chiapas -Tuxtla, Tapachula San Cristóbal and Comitán- there are over 300 proceedings pending solution regarding land properties occupied after January 1, 1994.

Should the government neither legalize nor pay cattlemen for the occupied properties, peasants fear evictions would ensue, such as those already carried out at Yajalón, Venustiano Carranza and Tapachula. Furthermore, peasants that are members of the opposition are suffering a flurry of repression, evidenced by the increasing number of the imprisoned, mainly at the municipalities with opposition government (Jitotol, Ixtapa, Soyaló, Nicolás Ruiz, Altamirano, Ocosingo, Chilón and Sitalá). In fact, proceedings have been opened against the leaders of several of these municipalities who, at the start of election campaigns, will be threatened with detention orders.

Nevertheless, peasant organizations are seeking their re-articulation though different alliances. The Ample Front for the Construction of the National Liberation Movement (FAC-MLN), the Coalition of Autonomous Organizations of Ocosingo (COAO) and the Pluriethnic Autonomous Regions (RAP, which encompass a series of (civilian) organizations and a similar number of indigenous and peasant organizations), are carrying out a new attempt at coordination among the social sectors with the purpose of restraining repression and of reorganizing the popular movement in what has come to be known as the FORUM FOR THE CONVERGENCE OF ORGANIZATIONS.  Although this is certainly a good attempt, it has not yet been able to become consolidated around common issues such as repression, de-militarization, de-paramilitarization, compliance with the San Andres Agreements, etc., that is, around those issues that would allow for unity in spite of particular differences.

THE XENOPHOBIC CAMPAIGN

The quality of tourism has changed in Chiapas.  Tourists don't arrive only to admire the state's natural beauties but to express their solidarity, obtain information, to observe and learn about what is happening.  Nevertheless, the military and migration surveillance posts on the roads to Palenque, Toniná, Laguna Miramar, Lagos de Montebello, etc. make little distinction among different types of tourists passing through. Most tourists who are retained by the National Migration Institute, get their papers stamped with the legend: "made aware of his/her rights and of Mexican laws", which is a warning against any attempt to observe or visit a Civilian Peace Camp.

The international observers visits have been enormously annoying to the Mexican government. So greatly annoying that  by means of the mass media, particularly television, the government is fostering a "chauvinist" spirit and an open rejection of all kinds of international solidarity.  In addition, the government tries to blame the National Intermediation Commission (CONAI) and the San Cristóbal Diocese of promoting foreign intervention in the country.

The government thus pretends to conceal human rights violations, the actions of the army and of the different police groups, and the responsibility of the PRI municipal presidents who are presumably supporting the paramilitarization. The government wants to avoid having the eyes of the world focus on Chiapas, it does not want witnesses nor to be inconvenienced, it does not wish that its international treaties be brought into question.  Consequently, the government has proposed a series of reforms to the General Population Law regarding international observers: a) they must be endorsed by a "serious" organization and have at least 10 years experience in international observation; b) they must have active experience as international observers; c) They must have published the work they have carried out as international observers; d) the observer groups shall be no large than 10 persons; e) permits for observers will be issued for a maximum of 10 days. These measures, among others, will be discussed in the upcoming sessions of the Federal Congress at the end of this month.

Furthermore, the government has started refusing visas to observers such as Ted Lewis, Coordinator of Global Exchange at San Francisco, USA. Also persecution of persons arriving in Chiapas continues: the 12 members of the United Church of Christ who came to visit and collaborate with productive projects in the Las Margaritas region were subject to harassment.

The campaign against foreigners is growing and their entrance to the country is becoming ever more bureaucratic. Those who are allowed entrance are then restricted regarding the places they may visit in Chiapas; in fact, they receive specifications as to the places where they may go. These are unconstitutional measures. In flagrant contradiction, the Mexican government on the one hand denies that war exists in Chiapas while, on the other hand it restricts free transit throughout the state.  Also, if war does not exist, the military surveillance posts are also unconstitutional.  Nevertheless hope is growing due to the expectation regarding the establishment of a European Union office for the international observation of human rights at San Cristóbal.

"THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF THE LAW: IMPUNITY (extract, Part IV)*

Article 4: Fundamental Rights

1.     All persons that do not directly participate in hostilities or who have stopped participating in them, be they or not deprived of their liberty, have the right to be respected in their person, their honor, their convictions and religious practices. They shall be treated with humanity in all circumstances, without any distinction of an unfavorable nature.  It is forbidden to order that there be no survivors.

2.     Without challenging the general character of the preceding dispositions, the following shall remain prohibited at all times and places regarding the persons referred to in paragraph 1: a) attempts against the life, the health and the physical and mental integrity of persons, particularly homicide and cruel treatments such as torture, mutilations or all forms of corporal punishment.

 ....Nevertheless, in Chiapas:

The head of Medical Services at Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Francisco Malpica Ortiz, pointed out that in the last two years the federal poverty combating programs have been adulterated and that it  s "quite probable" that its resources have been used to finance the arming and training of the counterinsurgency paramilitary groups.

He states that from 1995 to date, the Chiapas municipal governments had to decrease their poverty combating actions, because the federal resources destined to that end "were sidetracked to other purposes" (Cornejo, J. La Jornada, 21/01/98, page. 10)

The popular government of El Bosque, the 66 family heads, the EZLN supporters displaced from the sierra communities of this municipality at Los Altos, the widows with fearful faces who were interviewed and the PRD authorities of San Pedro Nixtalucum, all without exception coincide: "shooting rained on us from the sky and form the ground".

At 10 o'clock Friday morning an armed helicopter started shooting on the indigenous persons blocking up the road; a group of one hundred police opened the way in their attempt to forcefully transfer 6 Zapatista supporters to Tuxtla Gutiérrez. In only two minutes 3 Zapatistas were killed (Fernando González Gomez, Carmen González González and Juan N.), one more was injured by a bullet (Miguel Gomez Hernandez) and then finished off by a policeman driving the police station wagon over his body.  The balance was 4 EZLN sympathizers dead, 4 Zapatistas injured and 29 detained and transferred to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital city of Chiapas. (...) The helicopter not only attacked  the Zapatistas blocking the community's entrance, but also shot over the vehicles that were in the area (...) The 70 EZLN sympathizing families abandoned the San Pedro Nixtalucum ejido since last Friday and most found refuge in the sierra communities of San Juan El Bosque, between the municipalities of Bochil and Simojovel. They hide among the trees to avoid being localized by the Chiapas government helicopter that has been overflying the region since last Friday.

"See her, Mr. Licenciado, the police has already killed our husbands, what are we going to do?", Petrona López speaks in tzotzil while she wipes away her tears. She is the wife of old Miguel Gomez Hernández, whose body is still lying on the ground at the ejido .

During the interview, the site where the displaced (had taken refuge) was overflown on three occasions by the helicopter belonging to the Chiapas state government.  Each time, upon hearing the machine approach, three of the four widows are transformed: they ran and hid in an old house and a concert of weeping floods the place where the conversation with journalists is taking place. "I had been married only a few months and now my husband, they killed him, I have no means with which to live", says Julia Méndez, the youngest of the widows. (Balboa, J. La Jornada, 17/03/97, page. 10.)

·        Extract of the document "The unbearable lightness of the law: Impunity, Three months after Acteal" by "Comunicación Popular Alternativa, Grupo de Trabajo", 11/04/98

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