Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/ -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/1/_/_/_/976224776/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: discuss-dan-unsubscribe@egroups.com
-- BEGIN included message
NEWSMAKER-Mexico's Chiapas commissioner known as peacemaker
- Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 12:55:02 -0700
- From: Kerry Appel <kerry@thehumanbean.com>
- Subject: [Fwd: [Chiapas-L] Reuters 12/05 ~ NEWSMAKER-Mexico's Chiapas commissioner known as peacemaker]
By Lorraine Orlandi
MEXICO CITY, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Luis H. Alvarez, point man in Mexican
President Vicente Fox's bid to end the six-year-old Chiapas rebellion, has
played a pivotal role in the on-again-off-again peace effort and won respect
from Zapatista rebels as a consensus builder.Alvarez took a key step toward bringing the Zapatista leadership back to the
negotiating table after a four-year impasse on Tuesday when he presented to
Congress a rebel-backed Indian rights bill seen as a prerequisite to peace."Indigenous people have have already waited many years, many decades, many
centuries," Alvarez, the new administration's Chiapas peace commissioner,
told a news conference.The proposal would make into law the 1996 San Andres accords between rebels
and the Congressional peace commission known as Cocopa. Alvarez helped hammer
out the accords, named for the Chiapas village that hosted the talks, as a
former senator and leading member of Cocopa."Alvarez had a very important role in the San Andres dialogue, his moral
weight and leadership of Cocopa were very important," Noel Pineda of the
Catholic diocese's Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center in Chiapas told
Reuters.The Zapatistas took up arms over indigenous rights on New Years Day 1994 in a
surprise uprising that left some 200 dead. While the initial shooting war
only lasted 10 days, hundreds have since died in clashes between Zapatistas
supporters and their rivals, some linked to Mexico's former ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).The rebels walked away from peace negotiations in 1996 after the government
failed to act on the San Andres accords, remaining at a bitter impasse since
then with former President Ernesto Zedillo's government as the armed conflict
simmered.But Fox's election, which ended 71 years of rule by Zedillo's PRI, opened the
door to renewing negotiations.On Saturday, Fox's second day in office, Zapatista leader Subcommander Marcos
made a rare public appearance to offer the rebels' conditional willingness to
renew peace talks.Marcos singled out Alvarez for "always addressing us with seriousness,
respect and responsibility," welcoming his designation as peace commissioner.MAN OF PRINCIPLE
At 85, Alvarez is the oldest member of Fox's extended Cabinet, a longtime
member of Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN), its former
president and once a PAN presidential candidate. An architect with a
gentlemanly demeanor, he is roundly respected both for his talent as a
mediator and his commitment to principles.That commitment nearly killed him in 1986, when he launched a hunger strike
that lasted weeks to protest over apparently fraudulent PRI election tactics
in his home state of Chihuahua."He was finally convinced by fellow party members that it was not worth
sacrificing his life over the intransigence of a corrupt government," Mexican
commentator Sergio Sarmiento recalled.Still, Alvarez also showed flexibility in guiding the peace process as a
member of Cocopa, putting aside personal differences with some points of the
final accords in order to achieve consensus, observers said.As PAN president, he was lambasted by party faithful for taking a
conciliatory attitude toward then-PRI President Carlos Salinas, and some
party militants resigned in protest.Others saw that attitude as consistent with a practical approach to politics.
He supported Salinas in policy decisions that had long been priorities for
the conservative PAN, such as privatizing the banking system and normalizing
relations with the Vatican, Sarmiento said."He is a reasonable man, not one who simply rejected everything as a member
of the opposition," Sarmiento said.But Alvarez did not lose sight of his party's interests. And he proved his
political prescience when he predicted in 1995 that the PRI would be ousted
from the presidency in the year 2000."The PRI is living its final moments," he said then.
17:37 12-05-00
-- END included message