La Jornada
May 3, 1998

With the dispossession and dismantling of the autonomous municipalities, President Ernesto Zedillo is violating the Laws of Dialogue and Conciliation in Chiapas, as well as the Constitution of Mexico. In the process, according to members of COCOPA, some twenty human rights organizations, and the FZLN, Zedillo has demonstrated the government's doubletalk, by speaking about a peaceful solution to the conflict in Chiapas, while in practice, mounting an military offensive against the EZLN and communities that have claimed neutrality.

The FZLN sent a letter to the ambassadors from the countries that make up the European Union denouncing the "offensive" against the autonomous municipalities of Chiapas. Members of COCOPA, along with the deputy reporter Gilberto Lopez y Rivas, have stated that this issue, "must be dealt with through the viewpoint that a peaceful settlement to the conflict in Chiapas will not be reached with continued assaults against the autonomous municipalities that include the plundering and robbing of their inhabitants, as has occurred in the municipality of Tierra y Libertad, but instead will only be realized by bringing the issue of autonomy back to the negotiation table".

This theme was added to the ten points that COCOPA recently proposed to the Federal Government as necessary requirements to renew the stalled dialogue process, but as the FZLN has pointed out, "it is clear that the intention of the government is not to renew negotiations and that Zedillo is lying, as is evident in the reality that he is reprimanding the indigenous people".

In that respect the FZLN has demanded, "the cease to the escalating repressiveness" oriented against the indigenous communities in Chiapas. The FZLN is also worried of the fact that the offensive against autonomous municipalities will be used as a pretext, and excuse for further military and police incursions as what occurred with the petition by the UN Commission for Refugees which enquired about the detention of two Guatemalan refugees in the Municipality Tierra y Libertad.

Included in the letter sent to the countries of the European Union, the FZLN stated that, "the consequences of the continued declarations of the Mexican Government have been the increasing military build up in Zapatista support bases". In the letter the FZLN protests specifically about the dismantling of Tierra y Libertad, which was the second attack upon a autonomous municipality this month, and the subsequent detention of 47 prisoners including the municipality president, Aureliano Lopez Ruiz. As expressed by Lopez y Rivas, the operation didn't fit the manifesto, "the repressive actions and calculations of the Governor of Chiapas, Roberto Albores Guillen, was solely against the Zapatistas, as the PRI members of the community were left untouched". Lopez y Rivas continues by saying, " these actions by the government against the community were supported by the petition of the UN Commission on Refugees, but it is necessary to ask if their petition included the robbing and plundering of the houses of the Zapatista community members".

Also, Emilio Krieger, Rafael Alvarez and Benjamin Laureano Luna, representatives of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers for The Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Center for Human Rights (PRODH), and the Mexican Front For Human Rights, respectively, coincided in signaling yesterday that the Federal Government is violating articles 39 and 115 of the Mexican Constitution, by occupying and dismantling autonomous municipalities in Chiapas. In the opinion of Emilio Krieger, "Ernesto Zedillo is flagrantly violating articles 39 and 115 of the General Constitution of the Republic, the creation of the autonomous municipalities with new forms of government is not a threat to the state of the Republic". For Krieger the non-exercise of article 39 is worrisome, in part because it is threatening the sovereignty of the community to decide when it wants to change its type of government.

Rafael Alvarez, head lawyer of PRODH, has indicated that there exists doubts about the application of the petition by the UN Commission on Refugees (ACNUR) in intervening in the Autonomous Municipality of Tierra y Libertad in order to free the two jailed Guatemalans supposedly detained by the said community. "It would be lamentable that ACNUR, very knowledgeable about the seriousness of the situation in Chiapas, would have participated in this kind of action...I will have to make it clear, that this would effect the image of this particular commission of the UN".

Furthermore, some twenty NGO's in Chiapas rejected the reasoning given by Roberto Albores Guillen, for the actions carried out against Tierra y Libertad, " they detained 47 people from this community with violent tactics... these arbitrary actions that are carried out against the indigenous groups of Chiapas are showing an increasing amount of violence".

Enlace Civil, Kinal Anzetik, Washakmen de los Altos, Chiltak, CEPAZ, CIUSPAZ, Parejo Skotol, among others, demand the cease to the repression against indigenous communities, the respect for the manifestation of indigenous autonomy, and the fulfillment of the San Andres Accords.

Andrea Becerril, Triunfo Elizalde, Enrique Mendez, and Juan Balboa, correspondents. Translated by Global Exchange staff