ZAPATISMO NEWS PAGE http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/news971103.html

News Summary

This page is an attempt to provide an updated and informative news summary to English-speaking readers on events related to zapatismo in Mexico

News Summary for October 21- November 3,1997:

*Marcos denounces Counterinsurency tendencies within the Church

*Death toll continues to rise in Chiapas highlands

*Human Rights Commission reports on army murders carried out in Chiapas in 1994

Marcos Denounces Counterinsurgency Tendencies within the Church

In a lengthy communique published on October 27th--declicated to Ernesto Guevara, Cesar Yanez, and Julieta Glockner, and replete with quotations from Dante's Divine Comedy and the biblical book of Revelation--Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos accused the high clergy of the Mexican Catholic Church (specifically Vatican representative Justo Mullor and the leadership of the Mexican Episcopate Conference) of collaborating with the government's counterinsurgency campaign in Chiapas.

Marcos also used this communique to address the recent rise of so-called tercerista groups in Chiapas, and layed out the EZLN's response to such groups' attacks--some of which have been published in local newspapers in past weeks--against alleged Zapatista practices of "intolerance" and "militarism".

Due to its importance (and the controversy it has caused in Mexico in recent days), translated selections from the second half of the EZLN's communique are printed below, and are followed by further discussion of the reactions by Church officials and others to Marcos' statements:

"......Following the failure of the police duo Bernal-Del Valle, the supreme government searches for a new strategy with the same original objective: to turn the path of dialogue into a failure, and allow for a military solution in Chiapas with minimal political cost. One man volunteers to fulfill this deed: Pedro Joaquin Coldwell. This man, after being named Peace Commissioner, takes up the task of following one of many false leads with which the supreme government tries to explain the indigenous uprising in Chiapas: the Catholic Church.

"The commissioner thus begins a silent and double strategy: on the one hand, he makes contact with the Diocese of San Cristobal in order to "know what can be done for peace', while on the other hand begins political maneuvering with other elements of the Catholic Church. Of these elements, some turn him back toward those he should be speaking with: the National lntermediation Commission (CONAI) and the EZLN.

"Others, however, receive him with open arms: the menbers of the high ecclesiastical hierarchy.

"In the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM) and, above all, in the apostolic nunico, Justo Mullor, Joaquin Coldwell finds not only attentive ears, but also hands ready to intervene in the Chiapas conflict....

"With the CONAI neutralized (due to the suspension of the dialog) and with the Diocese put on the defensive by the governmental aggressions and the internal confusion provoked by the impasse, Joaquin Coldwell supposes that the field would be clear to bring in a more comfortable actor, more disposed to collaboration, and--so thinks the government--easier to manipulate: the great dignitaries of the Mexican Catholic Church.

"The commissioner runs to inform the Zedillo-Chuayffat pair of the good news. The pertinent meetings are held and then, as a signal that the plan is on the move, don Justo Mullor publically declares that he has an "excellent relationship" with Ernesto Zedillo and with the Interior Minister.

"Now in private, the nuncio does not hide his enthusiasm and says that Zedillo has spoken clearly to him about his desire to "advance" toward a "better relationship' between the Catholic Chuich and the Mexican government…

"For his part, and by way of his commissioner for peace (with the Church?), Mr. Zedillo has insinuated to Mr. Mullor that the Catholic hierarchy has in its hand the card which would allow for a new reform of Article 130 of the Constitution, favorable to the Church: the heads of the Zaptistas.

"The nuncio has understood immediately, and begins to unfurl his abilities. He convinces the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM) that the Church should participate more directly in the Chiapas conflict, but not by supporting don Samuel and his Diocese (although this is what they want everyone to believe), but rather by replacing them altogether in the mediation. For this to occur, several steps are necessary: first, they must try to fade out the civil, lay part of the CONAI: then they must do everything possible to intervene, even stronger, as the CEM, in the negotiations (?); and then they must try and oblige Bishop Ruiz Garcia to make use of his moral authority in the rebel indigenous communities, with or without the CONAI, and pressure them, 'from below'--that is, by way of pastoral agents--for a rapid and unconditional signing of peace. It still remains to be seen whether or not these steps will be successful.

( ….. )

"But the new political-military strategy of Power against the Zapatista rebellion does not only include the Church and the Federal Army, but also reincorporates strategies which have already failed in the past. The official social organizations(CNC and ARIC-Oficial) are now demanding a 'reestablishment of the state of law' in the canyonlands, since the indigenous Zapatista communities claim the fields and orchards taken over since the uprising of 1994 as their own.

"Not only the official groups, but also many independent social organizations are regrouping in a new block whose destiny is to repeat the lamentable work of the ex-AEDPECH during the times of another Dante(Dante Delgado R, now imprisoned in Veracruz). With the banner of 'tercerismo' ('not on the side of either the government or the Zapatistas'), the same 'leaders' as always mix in with the honest ones, and prepare to give the state and federal governments the interlocutor they need in order to create fake solutions and sell lies to foreigners.

"It is false that the so-called 'tercerista option' is constructed between Zapatismo and the governmental positions; the truth is that it is redefined as an anti-Zapatista space, but not openly, since within there are syrnpathizers to the cause of the indigenous rebels.

"The state leaderships of the CIOAC and the FAC-MLN offer their services to lead the struggle against those who, they say, dispute revolutionary titles, interlocutions with governmental agencies, and(note carefully), monetary rewards: the indigenous peoples of the EZLN.

"Thus, while the local NGOs and the independent social organizations (and those who back them up) regroup in order to reopen the space of civil society (closed, according to all of them by the 'Zapatista intolerance and militaism', and not by the governmental intolerance and militarism), the supreme government confines a war whose 'low intensity' consists only of the echo it achieves in the media.

"The paradoxes at Zapatismo continue: what they are recognized for in the national sphere (opening up spaces for civil society) is denied them on local terrain, where the war is a daily constant. 'The ELEN not only does not favor the participation of the local civil society, but actually closes those spaces, practicing intolerance in its relationship with other actors, and with the militarism used in its decision making', say the neo-critics of Zapatismo….

"The assigning of merits and defects follows the same logic which prevails in the local 'intelligentsia' circles: if the EZLN does something correct and good. then it is because of the Zapatista communities; if something bad and wrong is produced, it is because of the Zapatista political-military leadership.

''Indigenous campesinos affected by decisions of the rebel municipal governments have directed their complaints to the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, and the latter has directed them to the autonomous civilian authorities recommending dialogue as a method with which to arrive at a just agreement….

"Ignoring, (or trying to ignore) the fact that in the indigenous territories of Chiapas a process of autonomy is operating, and that this autonomy' has its own logic, processes, conflicts, and actors, the 'terceristas' attribute decisions which they don't like to the military Ieadership of the EZLN and criticize it for falling into 'militaristic' positions, at practicing 'intolerance', of 'closing down spaces', and of becoming the 'principal enemy' of civil society. This accusation only reveals the lack of knowledge which exists regarding, the processes of autonomous governments and ot the place of the EZLN within them.

"After more than three and a halt years of war, and coinciding, with the advances of military positions of the Federal Army, the belligerance of the 'guardias blancas', and the government's refusal to comply with the San Andres Accords, the 'terceristas' suddenly 'discover' that there are conflicts between and within communities. With a surprising simultaneity, they 'discover' the responsible party for these conflicts: the leadership of the EZLN …..

"Persecuted and with prices on their heads, the members of the Zapatista leadership are now 'guilty' of imposing 'militarism and intolerance' on the communities, of directing a true campaign of hostility against the 'other' social actors of the Chiapas countryside…and of sponsoring a split in the Catholic Church!…..

"Today, in local media, the meetings of analysis and exchange of ' information' regarding the various 'arbitrary acts' of the Zapatista leadership are common. The Zapatista leadership does not run from its responsibility, and assumes as its own all errors committed in the past and those which may be committed in the future; it engages in attempts to resolve them; and only complains that, together with the criticisms, there is also a proliferation of incorrect knowledge regarding the internal processes of the indigenous communities (who, it should not be forgotten, have become the actors of their own history), and a lack of intelligence for seriously analyzing what is occuring.

"It is not worth hiding that which the national and foreign governmental intelligence services already know: there exists today an anti-Zapatista campaign in local circles. It it are participating the state and federal governments, the army, the regional communications media, the reactionary Church...and more than a few members of civil society and NGOs who have not understood what is happening, nor how their relationship should be with the communities in resistance.

"This campaign is not the first, nor will it be the last, We will know how to learn from it, just as we learned from those in the past, and the communities will know how to construct their own history--which, certainly, will not be the history of a fanatic and fundamentalist army (as some wish it were).

(….. )

"Far from the offices of church and government, the indigenous communities begin to find the now diffuse points that unite them: the past, misery, and rebellion are places of encounter and reflection that do not appear either in statistics or in clerical confusions. In their deeds, confronted with reality, the Zapatista peoples continue on the complicated path of constructing themselves. Their local alliances are not lacking in difficulties (one of which is the lack of intercommunication), and at times it seems that they may be making more enemies 'at home'. But the Zapatistas know how to listen to their brothers, and to see far (many are their eyes and ears), and they know that the enemy is not difference, but oblivion. Therefore, by remembering, by creating memory, they go on constructing the future and, as is the law, mending it with the thread of self-criticism...."

The Catholic Church was quick to react against Marcos' statements. The Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), in fact, was in session when the communique was published, although San Cristobal bishops Samuel Ruiz Garcia and Raul Vera Lopez were notably absent from the opening ceremony. In his inaugural address to the CEM, Vatican representative Justo Mullor responded to the EZLN communique with a direct attack of his own, declaring that the Church has "a moral and pastoral obligation to prevent certain pressure groups founded on ideological or economic interests from trying to use the indigenous peoples".

Two days later, the four bishops of Chiapas--Samuel Ruiz, Raul Vera, Felipe Arizmendi, and Felipe Aguirre--issued a separate statement ,saying that the declarations made in the EZLN's communique were "hurtful and mistaken", although they refused to respond to specific accusations "so as to not produce more tension and division which would weaken the possibilities for peace". They added that the Church would not be lured into playing a role in the "schemes" of military or political institutions, however, and urged both the state and federal governments to comply with the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture.

As of this writing,the only official published response from an independent social organization in Chiapas to Marcos' declarations has come from the ARIC-Union of Unions (ARIC-UU) and the ARIC-Independiente. Both groups, through their leaders, Leonardo Vazquer and Marcelo Jimenez Cruz, denied that they are taking part in a defamation campaign against the EZLN, and called for an ongoing, permanent dialogue of respect with the Zapatistas. "As with any social and political organization", they said, "ideological differences exist; but we are respectful". The two ARIC organizations also denied having signed a letter against the EZLN published in local newspapers last week, and denounced attempts by former ARIC-UU leader Rene Orantes--who was deposed two months ago for alleged corruption--to continue speaking for the organization.

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DEATH TOLL CONTINUES TO RISE IN CHIAPAS HIGHLANDS

In and around the highland Chiapas municipalinty of Chenallho, the attacks and counterattacks between PRI-backed paramilitary squads and Zapatista sympathizers continued last week, leaving at least one person dead, seventeen wounded, three disappeared, and hundreds more expelled from their communities.

In the northem municipality of Chilon on October 20th, an attempted land invasion by members of Xi'Nich was repelled by guardias blamcas, who shot and killed 12-year old Manuel Jimenez Mendez and wounded four other Xi'Nich members.

In Chenalho, between October 25th and 27th, at least 17 PRI militants were wounded near the communities of Chimix and Majomut in apparent fighting between Zapatista sympathizers and paramilitary groups, which also left three women "disappeared".

The continued violence in the highlands has also led more than 800 people to abandon their homes in Chenalho and take refuge in nearby communities. According to the Automous Municipal Council of Polho, in October alone 170 families were forced to leave the community of Yashemel, 54 abandoned La Esperanza, 30 families left Aurora Chica, 300 left Chimix, and 48 abandoned Puebla.

Meanwhile,the communities of Yashemel,Tzamembolom,and Canolan are currently