La Jornada
August 22, 2001
By Andrea Becerril

The spaces for the indigenous in the Fox government have, little by little, been closed off, and the presidential commitments to the Indian peoples and to the EZLN have remained nothing but words, asserted Francisco López Barcenas.

Up until two days ago he was the director of justice for the National Indigenous Institute. Now, López Barcenas argues his statement: the federal Executive did not defend the Cocopa proposal, it did not take the Army out of the conflict zone in Chiapas -- it merely repositioned it -- without legally returning the lands in Guadalupe Tepeyac, La Realidad and Amador Herna'ndez. This means that military camps could again be situated in those communities at any moment.

The reason for his resignation, he said, is Fox's failure to carry out his promises. He said that policies towards ethnicities have continued to be the same, and the INI management has been pressured to stop demanding changes to the indigenous constitutional reform.

"There isn't any such transition, there isn't any change in the new regime, the indigenous are not being taken into account in the drafting of those policies which specify their relationship with the State. I'm not interested, then, in holding a position in the INI under such conditions. If we aren't going to fight for autonomy. For free determination, for defense of indigenous lands, because they themselves administer their own justice systems. It doesn't make sense," he added in an interview with La Jornada.

The Reasons For the Resignation

López Barcenas noted that it had been difficult for him, at the beginning of the administration, to accept the offer to participate in the INI leadership. "I didn't want to, it didn't seem to me as if the platform and promises which Fox, the candidate, had made concerning ethnic groups were really in-depth. I must say, however, that the speeches and the measures which the President of the Republic took in his first days in government had a profound impact on me."

During his inauguration, Fox announced that he would be sending the Cocopa proposal to Congress, that he was withdrawing the Army from Chiapas, that he was going to release the Zapatista prisoners, and that he was also going to take indigenous participation into account. "I talked it over with a lot of compa~eros whom we work with in the indigenous movement, and I decided to go to the INI."

It may have been very idealistic, he added, to feel at that moment that it was important to participate in the running of the institute, because there were signs of a transitional stage in what had been the relationship between the Mexican State and the indigenous for the last 52 years, and a new stage could be beginning.

Nine months later, he discovered a completely different reality, because "the spaces were being closed off. The government sent the Cocopa proposal, but it didn't defend it. We, in the INI, did defend it, but they left us by ourselves, and the pressure began over the last few weeks."

In addition, in the National Development Plan, which contains the government's program, "the indigenous are completely cut out. Nor is Fox's offer to demilitarize the conflict zone being carried out, since the Army has just been repositioned."

If one looks at it in more detail, he added, you find that the Army was merely repositioned in Chiapas. What is serious is that the measure was not even accompanied by the legal return of the ejidal lands on which the camps and troops had been established.

"We warned about the delicacy of that situation at the time, because it means that the Army could return to Guadalupe Tepeyac, La Realidad and Amador Herna'ndez at any moment, since the ejidal lands where the barracks were situated had been expropriated by Ernesto Zedillo's government, and the decrees have not been reversed."

Disturbed over what he considers a deception by officials, López Barcenas warned that, if the troop withdrawal had been in good faith, it should have been accompanied by the return of the land to the ejidos or the communities. It was not done, however, because they still have the same goal as when they were expropriated, for the establishment of military camps.

In the case of Amador Herna'ndez, he noted, the community brought suit against the federal government, because they had invaded their land without any prior proceedings, and then later expropriated part of the ejido where they situated the military camp. Although the commissioner for peace, Luis H. Alvarez, handed the lands over to the governor of Chiapas -- following the troops' departure -- "What we in the INI are complaining about is that, legally, they still belong to the Army."

As he went on to explain the current government's performance in Chiapas, he restated his conviction that "Fox's words about the zapatista movement were just that, words."

He explained that, when the Senate approved the indigenous reform report, and it became clear that it had completely changed the Cocopa proposal -- leaving out the primary rights of the indigenous -- the head of the INI, Marcos Mati'as, and the four directors, agreed to adopt a critical position, in defense of ethnic groups.

"And we did so, and at a particularly difficult juncture, because the President of the Republic himself had already sent congratulations to the Senate of the Republic. We maintained that position. It had some impact. Our points of view were listened to, the arguments about constitutions in Latin America, like Venezuela's and Nicaragua's, which include indigenous autonomies, without those countries having become fragmented. But the Mexican government didn't take any concrete stance in order to change the situation."

The Mixtec lawyer revealed that the pressures on the INI administration began increasing. Eight days ago, after Fox enacted the dubious reform, there were no more discussion in the INI. "During an internal meeting, the Director General said that the President of the Republic's position was the INI's position, and I understood that there would no longer be any discussion."

"Which Departments pressured Marcos Mati'as?"

"He didn't tell me, but I believe it was the Department of Government. The Director of the INI is in a difficult position, because the PANistas were also applying pressure. He hasn't discussed it with me, but I don't agree with that change in the Institute's position.

"The new path that will have to be undertaken, outside the INI," he said, "is to advise some municipalities and communities so that legal appeals can be presented which will allow the legislative process to be reinitiated. It has not been exhausted, because the Supreme Court has protection orders and two controversies to resolve."

In his judgment, despite the attitude of hard-line groups in the PAN and in the PRI, of Bartlett Diaz and Fernandez de Cevallos, the indigenous peoples, along with civil society, can still do battle and achieve the establishment of the rights of ethnicities in the Constitution.

In addition, the Fox government will have to shift their position and carry out the commitments they made to the EZLN and the indigenous of the country.

"The Mexican government is also looking very bad, because it had taken on a responsibility." Nor can Fox forget that there is a conflict in Chiapas, and "even if the EZLN is fenced in there, and the indigenous movement might have very small voice, it's a mistake not to defuse the zapatista demands, because it could create a very serious conflict."