La Jornada
July 19, 2000
Hermann Bellinghausen

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas- The election campaigns for governor are being held under exceptional conditions, even more so than those of July 2, which is saying quite a lot.

Political normalcy, whatever that might be, does not exist in Chiapas. The militarization unleashed against hundreds of indigenous communities in resistance continues its inexorable course. While a very tough election is going on, the presence of all kinds of police forces is evidence of control and repression, deployed openly and blatantly.

The electoral use of public funds is an everyday occurrence, which is exacerbating the differences among the various sectors of the population. One month away from the elections, the distribution of aid, construction materials and other "incentives" are creating remarkable scenes. Today it was in Teopisca, a few days ago it was in the border region, tomorrow it will be any other area. Large trailers loaded with materials and foodstuffs are discharging their goods in front of hundreds of anxious campesinos, who are waiting for their portion in the central plazas of the municipal seats, in an out-of-control clientelismo.

The Still-Official Party Goes All Out

An unusual government, headed by an interim head of state for the previous interim head of state, has prodigious resources at its disposal, much more than the other federal bodies, and it has been using them in a clearly partisan, biased manner and for counterinsurgency purposes. Their effects can be seen in the federal elections: Chiapas is now the last bastion of the strong PRI. The still-official party is going all out, and it has everything at its disposal in order to achieve it.

In good measure supported by the military forces who are completely occupying indigenous areas, Roberto Albores Guille'n's government is distributing largesse to its faithful supporters on the one hand, and on the other it is striking out at and persecuting its opponents - especially against the communities in resistance who have formed Autonomous Municipalities and who do not accept the stimulating incentives of federal origin.

The date of the election itself is exceptional (August 20). As is its makeup. On the one side the PRI is fighting for the governorship, and, on the other, a candidate has brought the opposition parties together.

Pablo Salazar Mendiguchi'a is running against PRI Sami David. Salazar is supported by the PAN, the PRD and other parties. It is worth noting that on July 2 the government party won 11 of the 12 electoral districts, the two Senate races and even the presidential election. That is perhaps why Francisco Labastida's image is still on display in the cities and towns of the state. No one has come to take down his propaganda.

Nonetheless, if the governor had been elected on that date, the PRI would have lost, since they won 42% of the votes. The total for the PAN and the PRD together was 55%. That shadow is hanging over the victorious PRI.

Nervousness is the rule. It is being felt, in the first place, among the indigenous who have been receiving Procampo and Progresa benefits and promises in recent years. A tenant in the San Cristo'bal market put it in a few words: "Now that we're not going to have a PRI president, who's going to give us the programs?" These kinds of comments are being made all over the state.

Campesino organizations, in particular those which have been noted as being paramilitary, have carried their nervousness over into violence (such as happened in El Bosque), internal confrontations (in the case of the three groups which resulted from the division of Peace and Justice in the Northern region) or direct pressure on officials to obtain the most benefits possible, now while they still can.

The repressive mood has been seen in the arbitrary detentions of Salvador Lopez Gonzalez and Manuel Lopez Gonzalez from the zapatista community of Union Progreso and of Francisco Demesa Aguilar of the Yetal Mobal Teel ranch in Chilon over the last few days. And in the attack against, and later punishment of, Oscar Abarca Aguilar, Roberto Hernandez Aguilar, Jose Raymundo Juarez, Jorge Alberto Morales and Edmundo Fonseca Arguello, prisoners in the Comitan jail who declared a hunger strike on July 3, demanding "Liberty with justice and dignity" in the name of many other detainees.

The political prisoners who belong to The Voice of Cerro Hueco in Tuxtla Gutierrez announced today that they are preparing to join the hunger strike of their companeros in Comitan. Carlos Cordova Solis, the director of Cereso Number One, punished the Comitan prisoners, ordering that they be beaten and forced to eat, and shutting one of them, Jorge Alberto Morales, in a punishment cell.

The CNDH announced that, beginning this week, it would be going to the military checkpoints in the conflict zone in order to verify that human rights were being respected. As it happens, the checkpoints have "softened" their methods over the last few days. This allowed the Commission's delegate in Los Altos and the Selva, Alejandro Souza Bravo, to announce yesterday that he and his visitors had not found "any alleged violation of human rights," at least when they had passed "incognito" through the checkpoints.

At the same time, civil observers who have remained in communities like Amador Herna'ndez and La Realidad are denouncing constant insults and attacks by soldiers carrying out daily patrols. Indigenous as well as observers have been beaten by military forces in Amador. Meanwhile, the women participating in the civil peace camp in La Realidad sate that they are being insulted, manhandled and threatened sexually in a display of sexism. They are even referring to the women by name, so that they will also know they have files on them.