Latin America Bureau
January 4, 2001
By Linda Diebel

MEXICO CITY -- As the Chiapas rebel uprising in southern Mexico moves into its seventh year this week, President Vicente Fox faces increasing obstacles to his promise of peace.

That promise -- a highlight of his presidential campaign -- got off to a hopeful start with the closing of two military bases in the conflict zone and an optimistic response from Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos.

Shortly after Fox's Dec. 1 inauguration, Marcos sent word from his base in the Chiapas jungle he plans to travel to Mexico City for peace talks with Fox sometime this February.

This week, however, amid growing criticism of Fox from the Zapatista high command, the newsmagazine Milenio published an explosive leaked army memorandum.

It couldn't come at a worse time in the delicate peace process.

The excerpts suggest the new president is using the army plan - hammered out last fall in the highest ranks of the Mexican military - as a blueprint for his Chiapas peace strategy.

Far from promoting good will, the secret report, entitled Chiapas 2000, poisons the peace process.

It slams Marcos and besmirches the newly-elected governor of Chiapas.

It accuses a former Mexico City mayor of funneling public money to the Zapatista rebels and attacks a retired Chiapas Roman Catholic bishop, various Jesuit clergy, international aid organizations and national and international media for conspiracy with the rebels, some knowingly, some unwittingly.

The army document also says there has been extensive activity by foreign intelligence networks in Chiapas, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Israeli Mossad and Cuba's G2.

A presidential spokesperson said last night that "since the beginning of his campaign, Fox has said he wants to find a peaceful solution for Chiapas.

"The fact that there are several proposals (out there) means that society as a whole is working for a peaceful solution. It doesn't mean Fox is following one specific plan," she said, referring to the military report on Chiapas.

That report recommends Fox appoint Luis Alvarez, a veteran from his own National Action Party, as Chiapas peace negotiator. Fox made the announcement just a few weeks later.

It also urges him to strategically withdraw troops from the region, while relying on other federal forces to fill the gap and without jeopardizing real security in a state critical for its oil, hydro and mineral resources.

Fox has done so, closing two of five bases, the most recent on Sunday.

Rebel commanders say Fox isn't moving fast enough.

"Each one of those bases represents an affront to the desire for peace of the vast majority of Mexicans and the tens of thousands of people from other countries," Zapatista Comandante David said this week.

Asked why he isn't closing other bases, Fox replied, "one by one."

"We will keep doing whatever we have to do to return to the negotiating table," he told a news conference this week at the presidential palace, Los Pinos.

"Every action we take is to arrive at a dialogue. We are not playing games. We are serious about peace."

Most important, says the army report, Fox must get rid of the public perception that various power groups, from the Zapatistas to local politicians, are the ones calling the shots in Chiapas.

He must be seen dealing directly with the indigenous population, making sure people know aid projects come thanks to "the will of President Vicente Fox in response to the just petitions of our indigenous Chiapas brothers."

Fox is the first president in Mexico since 1929 who is not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was elected with strong hope he could end the war in Chiapas.

However, the Mexican army is hardly seen as a good public ally for someone trying to end a conflict being waged on behalf of indigenous rights in Mexico's poorest state.

An estimated 10,000 troops have occupied Chiapas since 1994. Relations with indigenous communities have been poor.

The army is accused of turning a blind eye to paramilitary attacks on villages.

Soldiers have been repeatedly linked to human rights abuses against the indigenous population, including a report issued Tuesday by a Chiapas-based church group.

The report accuses former Chiapas bishop Samuel Ruiz, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, of conspiring with the Zapatistas, alleging he worked with rebels for years before their Jan. 1, 1994 uprising.

The report, circulated among active generals, urges the Fox government to petition Pope John Paul II to replace Jesuit clergy in Chiapas who were appointed by Ruiz.

It says they actively oppose Ruiz' successor.

It notes, too, that Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar from the PRI, once a lawyer for the Ruiz diocese in Chiapas, can't be trusted as an advocate of peace in the southern state.

It says he is "using the Chiapas conflict as a stepping stone to achieve his own objective" -- a run for the presidency in 2006.

And, it urges Fox officials to use the media to expose Marcos for what he is -- "not a rebel defender of indigenous rights, but a law-breaker . . . who has enriched himself immensely by illicit activities detected and documented by the government's intelligence organs."