The Participation of Civil Society in Mexico and in the state of Chiapas

The participation of civil society in Mexico has been diverse in different circumstances and structures; but it acquired greater participation in the last 20 years insofar as the population has been more informed, conscientious, active and organized; such as, for example, the wide-spread social participation in 1985 to help those affected by the earthquake of September 19^th, 1985 in Mexico City, which managed to rebuild the social fabric and infrastructure that, bit by bit, returned life in the nation’s capital to normal.  Likewise, in 1988 when a widespread front made up of organizations, citizen committees, resistance fronts, etc. united for the first time to push forward the candidacy of Cuahtemoc Cardenas Solorzano for the presidency of the nation via the National Democratic Front (NDF).  Civil society itself did not believe in the Mexican political system driven by the PRI government and now on this occasion due to the great electoral fraud, civil society accelerated its process of incredibility before the government-state but it was also the beginning of the lack of credibility in the political parties and in the channels of participation and decisions for civil society and the government’s mask as a representative state and driver of social society began to fall.  After this, the popular defence committees, civil resistance fronts, human rights, fair trade, consumer, shelter, etc. organizations began to form so that when we arrive at 2001 from the year 1994, civil society not only understood the EZLN’s armed uprising (directed mainly by the indigenous peoples of Chiapas), it was mature and able to organize and move itself so that on January 12^th, 1994, the government of Carlos Salinas declared a cease fire and the EZLN agreed to stop military confrontations and so began the search for a political and negotiated end to the armed conflict.  That January 12^th, there were more than 2 million people gathered in Mexico City, but it was the same in at least 25 other states of the republic with the singular interest in stopping the war that threatened to extend itself into the rest of the Mexican republic.

The participation of civil society was later manifested in the Civilian Peace Belts around the Cathedral of San Cristobal, when the dialogue between the EZLN and the government began, giving all of its support to the National Mediation Commission (CONAI), headed by the Bishop of San Cristobal, Samuel Ruiz Garcia.  The participation of civil society in these peace belts co-ordinated and carried out together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Mexican Army, was impressive.  Similarly in the Forums, the National Democratic Convention, the federal elections of August 1994, in the assistance given to people affected by natural disasters, etc.. 

Later, when then Mexican president, Ernesto Zedillo ordered the capture of the General Command of the EZLN on February 9^th, 1995, there was a great national and international movement on February 12^th in which people blocked highways, bridges, ports, etc. and in 52 countries around the world there were movements to stop the offensive against the Zapatistas.  Finally, on March 11^th, the Law of Concord and Peace-Making (COCOPA) was proclaimed.  Hence, in April 1985, negotiations began in San Miguel (municipality of Ocosingo) and later in San Andres; between the EZLN and the federal government.  Here the participation of civil society was very important, not only in the civilian belts along with the ICRC, the Mexican Army and the indigenous support bases of the EZLN, but to the point where diverse organized sectors were transformed and were able to come together and enter into the negotiations with a political proposal to negotiate along with the EZLN.  Thus, the decisions and the construction of a new Mexico and the agenda of the social and national movement were debated among the federal government, the EZLN and civil society in San Andres.  The vast themes of the national agenda were debated in San Andres and not in the Federal Congress.  In this way it ceased to be the place where laws were debated and passed, accelerating even more the lack of credibility in the political parties (acknowledging the importance of the parties making up the COCOPA), arriving to the point where the PAN – the Friends of Fox, the PRI with “Pemez-Gate”, the PVEM, the “Green Child” scandal and more recently the case of the PRD in the Federal District and its Mafioso links to Carlos Ahumada (although not all of those in the PRD act in the same way, the PRD is nonetheless tainted) and the collapse of the PRD in Chiapas, the  PRD’s aggression toward and ambushing of Zapatistas on April 10^th in Jech’vo’ (in the municipality of Zinacantan).  In these actions they are no different than the PRI.

For these reasons, civil society has presented other forms of organization and struggle for its demands and it continues to look for new ways of organizing.

Returning to the theme of negotiations, these advanced due to the strong and determined participation of civil society.  Militarization and paramilitarization and the failure of officials to fulfil their part, obligated that Zapatistas to suspend the dialogues.  Meanwhile in Chiapas and in Mexico there was a low-intensity war going on against indigenous and campesino communities which overtook the negotiating table and suspended the dialogue which even today has not been able to resume due to a lack of trust in the actors, for the lack of fulfilment of the San Andres Accords in the area of Indigenous Rights and Culture and for the lack of political will by the federal government, as much with the past presidents as with current president, Vicente Fox.  The representative for Dialogue in Chiapas, Luis H. Alvarez, constantly travels to Chiapas, meeting with PRI members, paramilitaries, business and trade people, saying that he is dialoguing with the Zapatistas.  Mr. H. Alvarez is talking nonsense when he says that he has an ongoing dialogue with the EZLN, something that is impossible.  What is the point of dialoguing and achieving agreements if the government doesn’t fulfil its part?

Seeing that the possibilities for dialogue with the government are closed, the EZLN has opted to continue to dialogue with civil society, to build the sessions of the Good Government, to articulate what it is to be Zapatista in the Autonomous Rebel Communities and to link itself with national and international civil society movements; because it knows that its main strength is to legitimize itself before national and international civil society, before this rainbow of thoughts, forms of expression, organization, rebellion including meeting with the sectors opposed to them, because this is what makes the rainbow beautiful – the mix of delicate rain and the sunset, which are so contradictory, but so complementary between themselves in a given moment.  The beauty of the rainbow is the diversity of colours together but not mixed presented before the sun as a single form giving it its own identity.  This is how it appears and is manifested and this is how it disappears as the son shines stronger and conquers the rain or because the rain conquers the sun.

This is what civil society is like, a social gelatinous dough which is not so easily schematized nor structured under traditional forms of organization; it is ever-changing and goes about appearing under given social circumstances, making the correlation of forces change in favour of certain players.

Civil Society in Chiapas

Civil society in Mexico and in Chiapas manifested itself at the beginning of the war in 1994 through “caravans” and “days” for peace, the Civil Peace Camps, observation tours, etc. with the constant and vigilant assistance of the civil population, mainly in the war zones.  The civil society of Chiapas has played an important role in stopping the war and in the harshest of times of conflict it has been able to organize itself in different ways and work for peace.  Its organization has been through committees, resistance fronts, citizen committees, civil peace spaces, etc..  These organizational forms during election times have been expressed through alternative means with the construction and installation of electoral legal bodies and tribunals, neighbourhood and community popular assemblies, etc.; and its daily work is expressed in the civil resistance, the communities in rebellion, a form of pacifist, non-violent struggle that gradually builds new forms of popular government in indigenous communities, new forms of relations with the national and international community, re-shaping the concept and content of international solidarity; generating new forms of production, new ways to apply justice in which the guilty are not necessarily punished through jail time or the death penalty – there are other, more humane means of carrying out justice.  These forms of organization are also seeking greater participation of women in making decisions in the community; this is happening through the good practices, customs, traditions and cultures of the indigenous peoples and communities.

None of this would have been possible if there hadn’t been a process of education and popular self-education; with simple and practical methods in which one not only analyzes and reflects but rather that one considers what is best for the collective and vast population without giving importance to political parties, religion, organization or political militancy.  What one looks for is the common good.  Action is taken in the construction of economic, political and social alternatives in the community.  People reflect on their common problems and together they seek common solutions.

For this to be possible, various factors come into play.  One important factor is the community assembly as a body for making decisions and solving conflicts where the collective is imposed on the individual, where the values of forgiveness, justice, peace and reconciliation function for the community and not for the individual.  Biblical texts also play an important role beginning with the opting for the most unprotected and marginalized.  One reflects on the structural problems and circumstances that affect all of us, looking for the problems that cause the most pain for the heart and reflecting and seeking proposals to help stop the pain … given that the communities speak from the heart and not so much from theory.

Another important element is the attempt to seek the participation of women, who are in a process of organizing for making of decisions and having their say and taking on responsibilities in their process of organization.  Often this materializes in the organization of cooperative stores, in community education in agreement with their customs and their own indigenous languages, in the Commissions for Community Honour and Justice, in the Commissions for Dialogue and Reconciliation, in the building of organic agriculture that watches, cares for and protects Mother Earth, her territory and her natural resources because we come from her, we live on her, we reproduce on her and we die on her; the people and the communities have a holistic cosmo-vision of life linked to Earth, production and daily life.

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