HIS PROJECT FOR CHIAPAS

On August 20th, the elections for governor were carried out in the state of Chiapas. The Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), was defeated in the face of the overwhelming victory offered by Chiapanecan society to the opposition candidate of the Alianza por Chiapas, Pablo Salar Mendiguchía. As a trancendental and historical event for the state, the new governor who will take possession on December 8, 2000 will confront important challenges in the following six years of his government.

Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía was born on August 9, 1954 in the municipality of Soyaló, Chiapas, where he took his primary schooling. He then finished his secondary and preparatory education in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. At the age of 17, he left for the state of Puebla to undertake his studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,  where he obtained the title of Lawyer, Notary, and Actuary. Five years later, he returned to Chiapas.

Pablo Salazar professes the evangelical religion of the Church of Nazareth. He is a lay member of the Church, and not a pastor as has been said many times. In 1982, at the age of 28, he married Martha Lopez Camacho, a superior-school teacher originally from the municipality of Jitotol. They have three children. For almost 20 years, he has focused on litigation and teaching at the middle and superior levels.

In 1978, at the age of 24, he was General Sub-Prosecutor of Justice. Here he started a program for the liberation of indigenous prisoners. Fiver years later, in 1983, he occupied the position of legal director of the State Secretary of Education and Culture and established the system to apply public examinations for the assignment of superior-school teaching positions. In 1993, he was designated Executive Spokesperson of the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) (Federal Electoral Institute). He later renounced it because he objected to the incorporation of persons known to be accessories to electoral fraud into the structure of the IFE.

Between January and May of 1994, he was general secretary of the state Government beside internal governor and PRIist Javier Lopez Moreno. During these first 4 months of the rise of armed conflict in Chiapas, in the words of Pablo Salazar, “I cancelled the government telephone network of the PRI and I recovered for the inheritance of the State more than 10 public buildings that this party had in its power; I started the citizenization of the electoral organs and brought to conclusion the project for reforms to the Codigo Electoral del Estado (State Electoral Code).”

He occupied an elected position for the first time after the armed uprising of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN). At 40 years of age he was appointed Senator of the Republic by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and in 1995, he was a founding member of the Comisión de Concordia y Pacificación (COCOPA) (Commission for Concordance and Pacification) which is composed of legislators from the Congress of the Union as an organ to collaborate with the Comisión Nacional de Intermediación (CONAI), over which bishop Samuel Ruiz García presided, and to negotiate peace between the EZLN and the federal government.

As a member of COCOPA, he participated in the preparation of the Ley para el Diálogo, la Conciliación y la Paz Digna en Chiapas (Law for Dialogue, Conciliation and Dignified Peace in Chiapas). He also participated in the composition of the initiative of law called Ley COCOPA (COCOPA Law) that reduced to law the San Andrés Accords in relation to Table 1: “Derechos y Cultura Indígena” (“Indigenous Rights and Culture”), signed by the EZLN and the federal government in February of 1996, but later rejected by president Ernesto Zedillo.

Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía formed part of the founding team of the Grupo Galileo that, in 1997, assembled some PRI legislators in the Congress of the Union who were critical of the interior of their party.  Salazar was the only legislator in his party who impugned the method of election of the leader of the parliamentary faction of the PRI. As Senator, he belonged to commissions on Migration Issues, Border Issues, Governance, Justice and Constitutional Points, as well as COCOPA.

Starting from the time when the Executive Power broke its promise to fulfill the San Andrés Accords, Salazar started to confront with more coherence members of his party, the interim governor of Chiapas Roberto Albores, and president Ernesto Zedillo.

Pablo Salazar accused the Executive Power of not complying with its promises, of fracturing the process of negotiation, and of showing a lack of political will to advance in the dialogue with the EZLN. As Senator of the Republic, he later confronted Roberto Albores, strongly criticizing his politics and the clumsy and violent actions toward Chiapas and  the indigenous people. He denounced paramilitary groups and the increase in the military. He also demanded punishment and the application of justice to those responsible for the massacre of 45 indigenous people from Acteal, the majority of whom were women and children.

These attitudes were distancing him from the PRI. The lynching and accusations by the PRIists reached the extreme of wanting to expel him from the party. His critical and coherent posture did not fit in with the official party. Thus, on January 14, 1999, in his birthplace of Soyaló, he announced his desire to be a candidate for governor of the state of Chiapas.

Four months later, on May 8, from the municipality of Villaflores, he launched his renunciation of the PRI and declared himself an independent Senator, stirring up the political atmosphere in Chiapas and in the Congress of the Union. His denouncement was accompanied by a document in which he set out a severe diagnosis of the situation in the state at the economic, political, social and military levels that worsened the polemic around the politics of the state of Chiapas and put him in further confrontation with members of his party.

On August 24, 1999, the Partido Convergencia por la Democracia (CD) and the Partido del Centro Democrático (PCD) announced him as their candidate. On October 2, the Partido del Trabajo (PT) was added, followed, on October 30, by the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD). On January 23, 2000, the Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN) joined, as did the Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM) for days later. Finally, in the same month the Partido de la Sociedad Nacionalista (PSN) and the Partido de Alianza Social (PAS) were added.

Thus, there was the PRI against the Alianza por Chiapas formed by 8 political forces. Later, the Partido Democracia Social (PDS) launched their candidate Mario Arturo Coutiño Farrera, who did not receive more than 1% of the vote.

PABLO SALAZAR MENDIGUCHÍA’S PROJECT FOR CHIAPAS

At 45 years of age, Pablo Salazar is faced with a huge challenge, with a state that is heavily militarized, the presence of the EZLN, and a dialogue for peace suspended since August of 1996. Since the armed conflict started, it has produced thousands of displaced persons, hundreds of indigenous prisoners, dozens of ambushes, violence, and deaths that have stained the state with blood.

In the words of Pablo Salazar:

1) “I want to be governor to head a project of government that permits us to recover sovereignty, governability and dignity in Chiapas, to put an end to the wheel of fortune of interim governors and give to Chiapanecans a government for 6 years, that has a vision for the future, is inclusive, honorable, a promoter of development, involved with reconciliation and peace, and that rises to the level of the political and returns its nature of service.”

2) “I want to promote a government that has the capacity to convert the non-conformity of Chiapanecans into energy for change and transformation of our tragedies into opportunities.”

Salazar described the Alianza por Chiapas as pacifist, as defenders of human rights, supporters of freedom of expression and change, and promoters of tolerance. For him, the two principal problems in the state are the absence of peace and the brutal underdevelopment in all sectors.

Among the principal ideas of his campaign, Pablo Salazar outlines the characteristics of his “inclusive, honorable, with a vision for the future of reconciliation and peace” in the following way:

1) Implement education programs aimed at reducing illiteracy and the drop-out rate, with an emphasis on the participation of women.

2) Generate employment opportunities.

3) Promote a process of industrialization to transform agricultural production from micro-industry to the establishment of industrial parks.

4) Promote micro-enterprises and medium-size businesses, supporting the familial participation of women and youth in this sector.

5) Increase the coverage of centers for health to decrease the high rates of malnutrition and mortality in the state.

6) Implement a program for the protection of the environment and the preservation of natural resources, flora and fauna.

7) Modify the deficient administration of justice and create a new state of law.

8) Integrate all communities into the productive life of the state through a highway program.

9) Promote the participation of civil society in government.

10) Reduce the density of the military by at least one half to encourage a solution to the conflict; tasks which the Constitution exclusively assigns to him.

11) “That those who use public resources to support the campaign of a remaining official party in Chiapas know that they will not be left unpunished. That those who want to buy votes or alter the count record and calculation are conscious of the fact that they will be held responsible. Make it clear that: for the electoral raccoons, for those who wanted to hold back democratization and change in Chiapas this August 20, there will be not pardon.”

12) Creation of a program of frontier cities in Chiapas that will serve as ports of entry to the progress of the Central American market.

13) Create a cultural center in Suchiate that will serve to link Mexico and Central America.

14) Promote a complete development project for coffee farmers.

15) Promote constitutional reforms in the state to incorporate new forms like plebiscites, referendums, and popular initiatives, so that in the given moment Chiapanecans can decide whether or not to follow the governor, “we want society to be more vigilant”.

16) Castigate with all the weight of the law the material and intellectual authors of the Acteal massacre, dealing with whoever is involved, whether they are functionaries or any other kind of person.

17) “In the new government there will not be corruption or impunity, no one who has committed an offense will be able to walk the streets in a tranquil way.”

18) Create conditions for the return of displaced people to their places of origin.

19) Dismantle paramilitary groups.

20) Promote the fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords according to the Ley COCOPA (COCOPA Law).

21) Call to account the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) to contribute to the state the corresponding taxes. Pronounce a position against the privatization of electrical energy.

22) Free education at all levels and initiate actions that promote access to all levels of education for every Chiapanecan.

23) Deepen and perfect electoral reform.

24) Strengthen the Instituciones de la Sociedad Civil de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Institutions of Civil Society for the Defense of Human Rights) and ensure that the three powers (executive, legislative and judicial) conduct themselves with full respect for human rights. “I am against whatever form of abuse of power, against whatever act of the state apparatus that commits an outrage against human dignity and human rights.”

25) Guarantee to every man and woman access to social security and full respect for their labor rights.

26) Planning for urban growth in the principal points of highest population growth with a long-term perspective and keeping a balance between the needs of families and ecological surroundings. Give preventative and corrective attention to aspects of social vulnerability of urban groups.

27) Create an Observatorio Ciudadano de las Políticas Públicas (Citizen Observatory of Public Politics) and create a similar organ in the State Congress. Citizen participation in the form of co-government is necessary to make clear the public function.

28) Promote a culture of transparency and responsibility and preserve and clarify the Derecho a la Información (Information Law).

Sources: Banco de Datos de Alianza Cívica Chiapas (data bank of the Chiapas Civic Alliance): alianchis@laneta.apc.org; Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía: salazarp@prodigy.net.mx; p@blosalazar.chiapas.net.mx; www.pablosalazar.org.mx; press and campaign statements.

Tomorrow we will demand that these are fulfilled!