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- Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 07:06:07 -0700
- From: Kerry Appel <kerry@thehumanbean.com>
- Subject: AP 12/04 ~ Chiapas a Big Problem in Mexico
Chiapas a Big Problem in MexicoBy JOHN RICE
.c The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's new president began his term with a dramatic
peace offensive to end a seven-year rebellion in the south. But the problem
may be more difficult than Vicente Fox has so far acknowledged.Not only is the Zapatista National Liberation Army wary of giving up its
guns, the rebel force, known as the EZLN, isn't the only guerrilla group
threatening violence - or even the most intransigent.While the Zapatistas call for Indian rights nationwide, they don't even
represent all Indians in Chiapas state.Pulling the army out of Zapatista territory in Chiapas risks uncorking
conflicts between pro- and anti-rebel groups with very complicated, very
local disputes.Poverty and the isolation caused by lack of roads, telephones or other
services has fed the conflicts, and that will take decades to overcome even
if Fox's economic policies are successful.``If the Indian villages continue in conflict, then signing a paper of peace
between the government and the EZLN will not do anything,'' the Roman
Catholic bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Felipe Arizmendi, warned
Sunday in the Chiapas city.Fox once famously quipped that the Zapatista rebellion could be solved in 15
minutes. But he is the third consecutive Mexican president to seek dialogue
with the rebels.His predecessor, Ernesto Zedillo, also started his term with a peace drive,
only to send the troops back in two months later.Fox has advantages Zedillo did not.
His election peacefully ended the 71-year rule of the Revolutionary
Institutional Party, which the Zapatistas had threatened to remove by force.His negotiator, Luis H. Alvarez, is respected by the rebels for helping write
and defend an Indian rights bill that Zedillo refused to endorse.A new Chiapas governor, elected in a coalition with Fox's National Action
Party, takes office this week vowing to end clandestine state sponsorship of
anti-rebel paramilitaries.Critics of the Indian rights bill that Fox backs warn that local Indian
autonomy could create conflicts with state or federal law.Some say it could lead to U.S.-style reservations. The law will not resolve
the hundreds of disputes over land, water and power within and between Indian
groups.The offer to the Zapatistas has spawned calls for amnesties and troop
pullbacks in other zones, especially in Oaxaca and Guerrero states where the
Popular Revolutionary Army and its offshoots are based.Some of those groups - more ideological and less Indian-oriented than the
Zapatistas - already say they will fight Fox's capitalist economics.The new government may ease tensions there with its plan to review the cases
of alleged rebels arrested in army sweeps, a practice that human rights
groups say often led to jail and torture for innocent and guilty alike.The rebellion gave the Zapatistas international prestige: leftists from
around the world made pilgrimages to the once-ignored Indians. The government
must find a way to let the rebels maintain their powerful new sense of
dignity if it hopes to convince them to disarm.The Zapatistas have rejected Fox's free-market policies, but say they are
open to peaceful dispute if it is possible.``What will be at stake is not whether we oppose what you represent and what
you mean for our country,'' Subcomandante Marcos, the Zapatista leader, said
in an open letter to Fox released Saturday. ``In this there should be no
doubt: We are your opponents.''``What will be at stake is if this opposition can go through civil and
peaceful channels or if we continue in arms, with our faces covered, until
achieving what we seek, which is nothing other, Mr. Fox, than democracy,
liberty and justice.''AP-NY-12-04-00 1427EST
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