Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 01:37:49 -0500
From: CIEPAC <ciepac-AT-laneta.apc.org>
Subject: AUT: Inglish Chiapas al Dia 148   I


ENGLISH VERSION OF "CHIAPAS AL DIA" BULLETIN No. 148
CIEPAC
CHIAPAS, MEXICO
(March 19, 1999)


THE NATIONAL CONSULTA IS MUCH MORE THAN THE CONSULTA


The Start-Up

The 5000 zapatista delegates who will be promoting the National Consulta
for the Recognition of the Rights of the Indian Peoples and for an End to
the War of Extermination departed on March 12 from the five zapatista
Aguascalientes: from La Realidad in Las Margaritas they left for the states
of Puebla, Morelos, Tlaxcala, the State of Mexico and for the Federal
District Delegations;  from Oventic departed those going to the state of
Oaxaca;  from Roberto Barrios for the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana
Roo, Chiapas, the Yucatan and Veracruz;  from La Garrucha towards Northern
Baja California, Southern Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua,
Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and
San Luis Potosi, and from the Aguascalientes of Morelia in Altamirano, they
left for the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero,
Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Queretaro. 

Twenty thousand polling booths, divided into 56 zones throughout the entire
Mexican Republic will be installed for the Consulta, with a thousand phone
links and some 100 correspondents from the Rosenblueth Foundation, who will
be participating in the processing of the Consulta results.  More than
17,000 persons from civil society are participating in promotion and
organization, and more than 1700 publicity brigades have been registered in
the contact office from the 32 states in the Mexican Republic.  This has
signified organization, mobilization, security and ingenuity on the part of
civil society.  This greater part of this social participation is not from
political party activists, but rather from organized civil society, which
has today found an adequate channel for their participation.  The efforts
necessary to achieve this have been significant, and it is worth noting the
resolution by the State Assembly of Section 22 of the National Syndicate of
Education Workers (SNTE), affirming their total involvement and backing of
the Consulta, by the Mexican Electricians Syndicate (SME), and by social
organizations from the broadest possible spectrum.

The international support from 28 countries of the world of the five
continents for this Consulta is not insignificant either.  On the 21st they
will be adding a series of political-cultural acts in each one of the
countries.

The process of the Consulta as such signifies rapprochement and direct
contact by the zapatistas with those who have not been able to approach the
Selva Lacandona, for whatever reasons.  This relationship will mean a
greater sensitization of the population.  It implies the destruction of the
propaganda-driven image created by the government through the media
concerning the zapatistas.  It further means the confirmation that what is
wanted, and what is being sought for civil society, is a political program
for an inclusive nation.  It will also influence the new political culture
needed by this country, where a respect for differences and the search for
solution to common problems become a daily practice.  It means the
beginning of reflection on the building of new values for a new society,
which is something more profound than the demand for democracy, liberty and
justice.  It is the beginning of the establishment of new kinds of societal
relationships, which are being built with everyone's participation.  It
means the opening of new spaces which will offer the possibility of
meetings and reunions of actors, opening channels of communication among
them, even between those with conflicting viewpoints.  That is why the
National Consulta means much more than just the Consulta itself. 

In this space of the Consulta, those who have not been able to find voice
and participation in the spaces established by the government, that is,
through the political parties and the official media, will find space for
their voice and participation.

It is important to mention that, nationally as well as internationally,
many of the Consulta's publicity and organizational brigades have been
carried out through groups organized by the Catholic Church, which are seen
as a natural space for their activities.  Neither the political parties nor
official structures are viewed as the place where they should act, but,
rather, in the milieu of civil society.

However, many other events have arisen within the context of the Consulta,
and we cannot let two, very important ones, pass unnoticed.  On the one
hand is the "Exodus for Democracy," which is the march by indigenous and
campesinos that left from the state of Guerrero last week.  This state
shares many similar conditions with Chiapas, such as the cacique structure,
which reigns in both states, which is protected and maintained by groups of
"white guards and paramilitaries."  Other similarities include a broad
military presence in the indigenous communities and the existence of armed
organizations struggling for a structural change in the country.  Chiapas
and Guerrero have been considered by the World Bank to be the poorest in
the country.  They are states which have seen massacres such as Acteal,
Chavajeval, Union Progreso, and in Guerrero, massacres such as those at
Aguas Blancas, El Charco and many others.  Today, without it having been
planned or coordinated, the social movements in both states are marching
for the same demands:  democracy, liberty and justice.

The Exodus for Democracy is marching to the doors of the Congress of the
Union, demanding respect for the popular vote, electoral transparency, a
rejection of the imposition of a PRI governor, etcetera.  The zapatistas
are marching in order to share their struggle in the search for democracy
and the building of a new society.

The other event that should be noted is that of the 35 indigenous members
of the Council of Indigenous Representatives of Los Altos of Chiapas
(CRIACh) and of the National Lombardist Union (UNAL), who have been on a
Hunger Strike for a month in the jails in San Cristobal and Tuxtla
Gutierrez.  This April 7 they will have been detained in jail for one year,
following police-military operations in La Hormiga Colony, municipality of
San Cristobal, some in Tenejapa, and others in Ocosingo.  The pretext for
these operations was the search for arms and hidden drugs, the illegal
deprivation of liberty, auto theft, of having violently broken into the
District Jail in Ocosingo, allowing the flight of 83 prisoners, etcetera.
The prisoners told legal authorities that, if they were not released, they
would set themselves on fire on the 17th at 3 in the afternoon.  Eighteen
of them did so, dousing themselves with alcohol and setting themselves on
fire, and they were transferred in serious condition to hospitals in the
city.  Meanwhile, leaders of La Hormiga Colony, who were in jail at that
time, accepted the government's proposal:  remain at liberty in exchange
for campaigning for the PRI prior to the municipal elections of last
October 4. 

The prisoners on hunger strike, as well as the 55 members of The Voice of
Cerro Hueco (organization of zapatista prisoners), have in common the fact
that they were detained in police-military operations, they will be
completing one year in jail without having been sentenced and their rights
were violated during their detention.  In summary, they coincide with the
zapatista movement in their demand for liberty, democracy and justice.

The Official Responses to the Consulta

Concomitant with this movement by organized civil society, the reactions by
the Secretary of Government, Francisco Labastida Ochoa, were not long in
coming.  He deprecated the Consulta and its promotion from the outset,
characterizing it as "absurd and rigged" by the zapatistas in their favor.
But the reactions from PRD Deputies, as well as from some PRI's and other
sectors, were equally prompt, leading the Coordinator for Dialogue in
Chiapas, Emilio Rabasa Gamboa, to leap to Labastida's defense, arguing that
the federal government would not be obstructing the Consulta.  He also
warned foreigners against any involvement, and he said "..it would be up to
the public to validate the procedure."  Labastida's statements were echoed
in the Indigenous Pastoral of the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), in
some sectors of private business, by various PRI activists in different
states and in official circles. 

The Consulta is already a success simply in the mobilization and
organization by civil society, to such a degree that President Zedillo made
an impromptu visit to Chiapas on March 17, and was in the municipality of
Las Margaritas, where the General Command of the EZLN is located.  Here,
Zedillo, in a clear response to the Consulta, asserted "…the people know
who is shying away from dialogue and the solutions to the conflict in Los
Altos, who is maintaining an intransigence that is conditioned by political
interests and calculations that have nothing to do with Chiapas, democracy,
nor the dignity of the indigenous communities…"  At the same time, he
called on the Congress of the Union to review the Indigenous Rights and
Culture Law, which Zedillo submitted exactly one year ago as a
counterproposal to the San Andres Accords which had been signed and agreed
between the federal government and the EZLN, but which Zedillo refused to
carry out.  Obviously, Zedillo was surrounded at this meeting by PRI
leaders and caciques, those who have expelled persons from their lands and
the principal human rights violators in Chiapas:  these were the ones who
appeared on the television screens.  At the end, he said that "…Chiapas has
a debt to the poor…" (Cuarto Poder, 3/18/99).  What was not recognized is
that it is the government that had a debt to the poor of Chiapas.  With
this speech, he was attempting to take the political initiative from the
EZLN, to push for the "Zedillo Law" to be the one that is discussed in the
federal Congress, and not the law drawn up by the Commission of Concordance
and Peace (COCOPA), that captures the original spirit of the San Andres
Accords.

On the other hand, meanwhile, the media has been silent and secretive about
the mobilization and the zapatista Consulta.  Many of them, such as
television and the majority of the radio stations, have simply ignored the
event.

Nonetheless, prior to the Consulta, two journalists and two academics from
the UNACH were the objects of threats and harassment by investigative
members of the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (PGR), who accused
them of having ties to the Union of the People Clandestine Revolutionary
Party and the Popular Revolutionary Army (PROCUP-EPR).  This earned that
institution a series of protests and mobilizations of various kinds by
campesinos, journalists, party and social organization activists, students
and journalist associations.  These precipitated a lightening visit by the
head of the PGR, Jorge Madrazo, to Chiapas, to deny what was creating a
wave of generalized protest and of support for the reporters.  In the
framework of the zapatista mobilization, the objective of this campaign was
to discredit the work of those journalists who have been objective in the
management of information in Chiapas.

Within the chiapaneco communities, it is not so much the army who is
exerting pressure, but the PRI activists and the paramilitary groups who
are harassing the EZLN support base communities.  It is worth mentioning
within the context of the Consulta, that the paramilitary group Liberal
Army of Chiapas (ELCH) made its appearance through a communique, in the
municipality of Nicolas Ruiz.  They threatened to carry out a series of
actions against the Comuneros Assembly if it participated in the Consulta
on March 21 (Cuarto Poder, 3/13/99).

Similarly, on March 7, PRI's from the community of Jolnachoj, in the
municipality of San Andres Larrainzar, cut the electricity, with the help
of the army, to the Yolte community, EZLN support base, seeking a
confrontation between the indigenous (Denunciation written by the community).

On March 9, in the Autonomous Municipality of Francisco Gomez, in the
community of San Manuel (located in the constitutional municipality of
Ocosingo), the PRI's, aided by Public Security police, stole the
zapatistas' maize and bean harvest.  Meanwhile, in the community of Pavo
Real, in the municipality of Ocosingo, an EZLN support base indigenous was
detained on orders of the Municipal President and community leaders.
Zapatista support bases have suffered similar provocations in the
communities of La Ventana and Campet, in the same municipality (Written
denunciation).

On March 7, the community of Union Progreso, in the municipality of El
Bosque, denounced that PRI's and Public Security agents were firing shots
at the crossroads of the highway leading to the community of Los Platanos
(Written denunciation).  Jose Lopez Rodas and his minor child were
ambushed, with resultant gunshot wounds, on the same day in the same location.

It is worth noting that several brigades and coordinators in different
states have declared that they will not be holding the Consulta, due to
death threats against the zapatista delegates by paramilitary groups, hired
gunmen and "white guards."  This has occurred in:  Los Loxica in Oaxaca;
the Sierra de Zongolica and Uxpanapa in Veracruz.

Among the obstacles being faced, it must be mentioned that priests and
religious persons are under surveillance and are being harassed by
"national security" agents because of their participation in the Consulta.
This has been the case with priests and religious of the Missionaries of
the Holy Ghost in Comalcalco, Tabasco;  priests belonging to the Tepeyac
Human Rights Center of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca;  priests in
the Hustecas region in the state of Hidalgo, among others.

Within this context of pressure and repression is the harassment by
judicial police of the zapatista delegation in the municipality of
Zacacoyuca, in the state of Guerrero.  While in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, a group
of zapatistas promoting the Consulta, who were travelling in a municipal
presidency vehicle - provided by the authorities (Mazatlan is governed by
the PAN) - were detained by a group of municipal police.  They were forced
at gunpoint to get down from the truck, remove their ski-masks and then
identify themselves.  After the organizers' explanations, they let them go,
explaining that they had not known of the zapatistas' arrival nor of the
Consulta (Cuarto Poder, 3/17/99).

After the Consulta:  What Follows?

The consequences and effects of the Consulta can be examined from two
perspectives.  The first is that we must refresh our memory with the
experience of the San Andres negotiations.  It is worth remembering that
between the Phases, there were corresponding actions by the federal Army in
the EZLN support base communities.  During the seven days in which each of
the Phases of the negotiation were taking place, actions by paramilitary
groups occurred, directed against everything opposed to the government.
Ultimately, the militarization and paramilitarization were continuous, and
they engulfed the negotiation Table, causing the EZLN to suspend it on
September 2, 1996.

Another event which it is important to recall was the mobilization of the
1111 zapatistas in the Federal District, who departed from Chiapas on
September 12 and returned on the 16th.  The official response came on the
17th, with the reactivation - with greater force - of the paramilitary
groups in Chenalho, worsening the situation.  The Acteal Massacre bore
witness to this strategy.

Recalling these lamentable events, what we can expect as an official
response is an increase of violence in the communities, disguised as being
"inter-religious," "inter-community" conflicts, PRI's against zapatistas,
indigenous against indigenous.  Or, especially, official repression with
the enforcement of the Amnesty Law for the Disarmament of Armed Civilian
Groups in the State of Chiapas, promoted by the government of Chiapas.
Anything can be expected with this law.

The second perspective, and a positive one, is the challenge for the
zapatistas and civil society to maintain that civil mobilization with a
series of initiatives that will make their opinion with the Consulta
results count, that is, to not repeat the experience of the consulta on the
Bank Fund for the Protection of Savings (FOBAPROA).  In that Consulta, more
than 3 and a half million persons participated, but, at the end of the day,
the government did not respect the results, and the legislative proposal
was imposed, in a disguised fashion, converting FOBAPROA into public debt.

Meanwhile, the Commission of Concordance and Peace (COCOPA) will be put to
an acid test, with its back against the wall, because it will be seen
whether it is acting for the people or for the government.  It will be
presented with the challenge of demanding that President Zedillo carry out
the San Andres Accords, and it will thus have to defend its proposal for an
Indigenous Rights and Culture Law, or simply demonstrate that the Congress
of the Union is a dependency of the executive.  Meanwhile, it will have
little room for political maneuverability and a lack of credibility for the
renewal of dialogue with the EZLN.  This presents us with a scenario of
great challenge and new initiatives by civil society.

What is important will have to be capitalizing on civil society's
participation in the demanding of their rights and in having what they
think and want being taken into account.  This must open the possibility of
the convergence of new social forces, which will open spaces for the
democratic transition of Mexico and avoid the policies of presidential
imposition. This imposition is what is being attempted with the
privatization of the electric industry, the imposition of quotas at the
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), through the failure to
carry out the San Andres Accords, through the imposition of the PRI
governor in Guerrero, through the militarization and paramilitarization in
various regions in the country, through the imposition of the neo-liberal
program, and through the imposition of a new PRI president of the Republic
in 2000.


Onesimo Hidalgo
Center of Economic and Political Investigations of Community Action, A.C.
CIEPAC
CIEPAC, member of the "Convergence of Civil Organizations for Democracy"
National Network (CONVERGENCIA)

 ******************************************
Translated by irlandesa for CIEPAC, A.C.
******************************************

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