Fw: Politico-military "pacification" in Chiapas
Lars Ekman/Lise Stensrud (stenekm@online.no)
Sun, 17 May 1998 22:17:15 +0200 (MET DST)
>Return-Path: <owner-wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 10:10:05 +0200
>Reply-To: austria@it.com.pl
>Sender: owner-wsn@csf.colorado.edu
>From: "Austrian Embassy" <austria@it.com.pl>
>To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>Subject: Fw: Politico-military "pacification" in Chiapas
>X-To: <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
>
>
>
>----------
>> From: Le Monde diplomatique <dispatch@london.monde-diplomatique.fr>
>> To: English edition dispatch <dispatch@london.monde-diplomatique.fr>
>> Subject: Politico-military "pacification" in Chiapas
>> Date: Donnerstag, 14. Mai 1998 16:50
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>>
>> A CENTRAL AMERICAN CLASSIC
>>
>> Politico-military "pacification" in Chiapas
>>
>>
>> (translated from http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/md/dossiers/chiapas/ )
>>
>> At first glance, it would be both unjust and almost
>> irrelevent to blame the Mexican authorities for the murder
>> of 45 inhabitants of the Chiapas village Acteal on 22
>> December 1997. As soon as the news broke out, President
>> Ernesto Zedillo described the massacre as "cruel, absurd and
>> unacceptable". On 3 January 1998 Minister of Interior Emilio
>> Chuayffet tendered his resignation, followed on 7 January by
>> Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, Governor of the State of Chiapas. As
>> early as 9 January, 46 people were arrested and charged.
>> Among them were the priista (1) mayor of Chenalho, Jacinto
>> Arias Cruz (accused of providing the murderers with vehicles
>> and weapons), and the director of public security of the
>> State of Chiapas. After a swift investigation, 113 people
>> were jailed.
>>
>> Control of the electorate in the federation's states,
>> especially in rural areas, has long been in the hands of
>> local oligarchies and casiques. Given the current discourse
>> of the central government in support of a more democratic
>> political system (witness the victory of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas
>> of the Democratic Revolution Party as mayor of Mexico), it
>> is hardly surprising to see local oligarchies distancing
>> themselves from control from the centre, which they fear
>> intends to change the rules of the game that have always
>> assured them domination and impunity.
>>
>> But there is more to be said. On 26 December 1997 Jorge
>> Madrazo, Attorney General of the Republic, went to the scene
>> of the crime, expressed his solidarity with the victims and
>> offered his explanation of the events. "Since the 1930s acts
>> of great violence have been witnessed in the commune of
>> Chenalho and other communes of Chiapas and this situation
>> has unfortunately never disappeared. These conflicts can be
>> labelled as inter-communal in the context of constant
>> disputes between local political and economic powers. They
>> also stem from the existence of religious diversity and,
>> more recently, ideological divisions (2)".
>>
>> This is an overly simplistic explanation. Just between
>> 1982-88, under the governorship of General Castellanos,
>> human rights organisations recorded 153 political
>> assassinations in Chiapas (inter-communal?), 692 abusive
>> incarcerations (disputes?), 503 sequestrations accompanied
>> by torture (religious diversity?), 407 expulsions of
>> families from their communities, 54 expulsions from
>> villages, 12 rapes and 29 attacks against protest movements.
>>
>> In 1988 and 1990, the state's penal code was revised,
>> penalising various offences said to be "political",
>> including the occupation of public roads and public
>> buildings and "tumultuous" gatherings, all of which are
>> traditional means of expression of peasant populations (3).
>> This series of violations of basic rights was not unrelated
>> to the January 1994 uprising and was a far cry from the
>> usual "local disputes". On 23 January, in Kanasin (Yucatan),
>> President Zedillo pledged not to use force to resolve the
>> Chiapas conflict. This was all very well. But at the same
>> time, the defence minister was sending several military
>> detachments to the area to "re-establish a climate of
>> security and avoid confrontations between rival groups".
>>
>> This is a return to a strategy developed in the 1980s in
>> Central America by, among others, the Christian Democrats in
>> Salvador: a democratic government "squeezed" between two
>> extremes - of the far left and the far right - which did not
>> differentiate between an armed social movement (the Frente
>> Farabundo Marti de Liberacion Nacional - FMLN) and the death
>> squads. And, on the pretext of fighting the death squads, it
>> attacked the FMLN. It was no secret that a proliferation of
>> paramilitary groups - Peace and Justice, the Chinchulines,
>> the Red Mask, the Throat Cutters, the Alliance San Bartolome
>> de los llanos, the Mixed Operations Brigades, the Indigenous
>> Anti-Zapatista Revolutionary Movement, the Tomas Muntzer
>> Community, etc. - were operating in Chiapas, sowing terror
>> and causing massive population displacements, with the
>> passive - if not active - complicity of the army and the
>> authorities.
>>
>> An investigation revealed that former military and police
>> personel had trained Red Mask, the group held responsible
>> for the Acteal massacre. The arrest on 2 April of General
>> Julio Cesar Santiago Diaz (until then in hiding) confirmed
>> the involvement of the army at its highest level: the
>> general commanded a detachment of 40 troops posted nearby,
>> who could have prevented the tragedy, but failed to do so.
>> This shows the strategy (and the real responsibility) of the
>> authorities: the "militarisation" of a large portion of the
>> territory and an appeal, albeit more discreet, to the
>> paramilitary (by nature "uncontrollable") to embark on a
>> sweeping repression of the whole social movement.
>>
>> The tragedy of Acteal is only one unfortunate "bungle" which
>> came to public attention both because of its extent and,
>> consequently, the reactions it produced - not only
>> internationally. Negotiations carried out between the
>> Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the
>> government had allowed the signing in February 1996 of the
>> San Andres Accords. Based on these accords, the Commission
>> for Reconciliation and Peace (Cocopa), comprising delegates
>> of all parties represented in parliament, presented a bill
>> integrating their content into state legislation, which
>> would mean a reform of the constitution.
>>
>> The minister of the interior, Francisco Labastida Ochoa said
>> on 1 March 1998: "If the government signed the San Andres
>> Accords, it was obviously to comply with them. The president
>> of the republic has on numerous occasions stated that the
>> government will stand by its commitment: this is not
>> negotiable. Whoever says otherwise would be telling a lie.
>> The Cocopa has drawn up a proposal of constitutional reform.
>> This project has never been approved by the government. We
>> have never committed ourselves in this area. Nothing has
>> been signed". In fact, the authorities, alleging that
>> indigenous autonomy and its effects would constitute an
>> encroachment upon national sovereignty and the unity of
>> Mexico, have reneged on their commitments.
>>
>> A government bill on constitutional reform presented on 15
>> March 1998 by President Zedillo was rejected by the
>> Zapatistas and by the main opposition party, the Democratic
>> Revolution Party (PDR). The EZLN refuses to renew
>> negotiations but the Zapatista social bases are unilaterally
>> implementing the Accords by forming 38 autonomous
>> municipios. More than the EZLN (which has not fired a single
>> shot since January 1994), it is this process of pacific
>> social organisation led by the indigenous people that the
>> authorities intend to crush. As in Central America, where
>> "the guerrilla moves amongst the people as fish in water",
>> the objective is to take the water away from the fish. A
>> large portion of the rural population of Chiapas now live in
>> a state of military occupation. And the paramilitary groups
>> have instituted a reign of terror. All the authorities need
>> do is to restore the discretion necessary to any campaign
>> aimed at regaining control. Since 1996, 4,435 foreigners
>> have accessed the conflict zones, most of them members of
>> some 200 non-governmental organisations (4).
>>
>> What we see here is, more or less, and without any formal
>> link, a process successfully applied in Guatemala in the
>> early 1990s: the presence of international observers with
>> two major missions: to dissuade, by their presence,
>> violations of human rights, and to spread information to the
>> outside world. In the context of an official campaign
>> against foreigners who are being accused of "manipulating
>> the indigenous", some fifteen people were "shown out" of the
>> country between 13 and 16 April. A 67 year-old Frenchman,
>> Michel Chanteau, priest of Chenalhe for the past 32 years,
>> was also expelled, accused of "pro-Zapatista activism"
>> (three other members of the clergy had been similarly
>> treated).
>>
>> Repression, isolation and silence: these are the ingredients
>> which accompanied the "pacification" campaigns applied in
>> Central America not so long ago.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> (1) Member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party which
>> has held power for over 60 years.
>> (2) Le Mexique aujourd'hui, Information service of the Mexican
>> embassy, Paris, no. 68-69, December 1997-January 1998.
>> (3) "Rapport Mexique", Federation internationale des ligues
>> des droits de l'homme (FIDH), no 251, February 1998.
>> (4) El Pais, February 13 1998.
>>
>>
>>
>> MAURICE LEMOINE.
>>
>> <Maurice.Lemoine@Monde-diplomatique.fr>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>>
>> See also :
>>
>> * The fourth world war has begun,
>> by sub-commandante Marcos, ao=FBt 1997.
>> http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/md/en/1997/08-09/marcos.html
>>
>>
>> On the Web
>> ----------
>>
>> * EZLN. - http://www.ezln.org/
>>
>> * FZLN. - http://spin.com.mx/~floresu/FZLN/
>>
>> * Sipaz. - http://www.nonviolence.org/sipaz/
>>
>> * Tendance floue. - http://www.chez.com/tf/
>>
>> * Zapatistas in Cyberspace. -
>> http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/zapsincyber.html
>>
>>
>>
>> ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
>> Le Monde diplomatique. - http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/md/
>>
>>
>>
>
>