by Peter Gellert

[Mexico City] - The Mexican government is waging a major

political offensive on several fronts against the Zapatista

rebels of Chiapas. At the same time the situation in the southern

Mexican state is marked by a growing polarization and heightened

instability, with 27 different paramilitary bands operating with

impunity in as many municipalities.

Four years after the Zapatistas armed insurrection, no end

is in sight. While the Zapatista National Liberation Army--the

EZLN--has not engaged in military confrontations with the army,

neither have the government or its army been able to push the

rebels out of their rain forest strongholds. Peace negotiations

and the dialogue process have been on hold for 17 months.

Since the New Year, when the Interior Minister was replaced

and a new Peace Commissioner appointed, the government has moved

to resolve the Chiapas crisis in its favor, taking advantage of a

certain war weariness both in the state and nationally, and

playing its cards rather intelligently.

In recent days and weeks, the government has moved on three

fronts:

On one level, the government has acted to weaken,

counteract, and isolate the presence of foreign observers, a

major thorn in the side of the Mexican government, which is very

sensitive about its international isolation and criticisms from

abroad. In addition to deporting foreigners--including respected

clergymen--deemed openly sympathetic to the Zapatistas, the

government has waged a non-stop campaign almost daily in the mass

media and in social organizations such as official unions and

peasant groups charging non-government organizations with

interfering in Mexican domestic affairs and calling for the

expulsion of trouble-making foreigners.

Federal Attorney General Jorge Madrazo, for example, has

publicly charged international human rights groups with seeking

to intervene in Mexico for purely political reasons, unrelated to

humanitarian concerns or considerations of social justice.

The government has hypocritically invoked Mexican

nationalism to ward off criticism from abroad and attempt to

rally popular support in favor of the country's national

sovereignty, supposedly under attack by leftists and non-

government organizations that appeal for support from the

international community.

On a second level, the government is attempting to weaken

the Legislative Peace Commission, the COCOPA, which was a strong

counterweight to the government due to its consensus agreements

involving all political parties represented in parliament and its

calls for scaling back the military presence in Chiapas and

passing legislation to implement the San Andres Peace Accords.

President Zedillo has announced that the executive branch

would unilaterally send its own bill to Congress on indigenous

rights. The proposal, which will have the support of the ruling

Institutional Revolutionary Party and the conservative National

Action Party, effectively nullifies the original COCOPA proposal,

which was satisfactory to the Zapatistas. The government's plan

has run into problems, however, with the left-leaning Party of

the Democratic Revolution (PRD) which opposes the president's

bill as an affront to the peace process and has announced that it

will not even participate in the congressional debate on the

question.

On a third level, all week long Interior Minister Francisco

Labastida and other Ministry officials have publicly indicated

that they are considering disqualifying the National

Intermediation Commission, the CONAI, headed by Catholic Bishop

Samuel Ruiz, for its alleged partiality to the Zapatistas. The

CONAI has long opposed government policy in Chiapas, and more

recently placed ads in the national dailies criticizing Zedillo's

indigenous rights bill as contrary to the spirit and letter of

the San Andres Peace Accords on the question of autonomy. The

CONAI charged that the government's proposal subordinates Indian

autonomy to higher government structures and limits it to a

municipal and community level, instead of being conceived as

national and ethnic in scope.

Backed by most of the country's press and the powerful

television consortiums, the government's campaign has had a

certain, if undetermined, impact on public opinion. The Catholic

Church is reportedly split on the issue, while opposing the

expulsion of foreign priests and defending Samuel Ruiz from the

most despicable attacks.

Throughout all this, however, the Zapatistas themselves have

been completely silent, including in response to calls from

sympathetic observers such as PRD legislator and COCOPA member

Carlos Payan to resume the dialogue with the government. On the

other hand, the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN),

universally considered the EZLN's political expression, has been

actively denouncing latest government moves and building protest

actions with other forces.

Civil society itself is again beginning to respond, although

much momentum has been lost compared to the groundswell of

protests following the Acteal massacre last December 22. Hundreds

of non-governmental and social organizations, the PRD, the FZLN,

and the National Indigenous Congress are holding peace rallies on

Saturday, April 4, against government policy in Chiapas.

The National Indigenous Congress, a nationwide umbrella

organization, local Indian groups and independent peasant

organizations have announced a national march on Mexico City for

Friday, April 10,--the anniversary of peasant revolutionary

Emiliano Zapata's assassination in 1919 and traditional date of

peasant mobilizations--from four cardinal points in Mexico. The

Indigenous Uprising for Peace, as it's called, will culminate

with an indefinite sit-in by thousands in front of the National

Palace in downtown Mexico City.

The preceding article is clipped from:

MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS

April 2, 1998

Vol. III, No. 7

Mexican Labor News and Analysis is produced in collaboration

with the Authentic Labor Front (Frente Autentico del Trabajo -

FAT) of Mexico and with the United Electrical Workers (UE) of the

United States and is published the 2nd and 16th of every month.

MLNA can be viewed at the UE's international web site:

http://www.igc.org/unitedelect

For information about direct

subscriptions, submission of articles, and all queries contact

editor Dan La Botz at the following e-mail address:

103144.2651@compuserve.com

or call in the U.S. (513) 961-8722.

The U.S. mailing address is: Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News and

Analysis, 3436 Morrison Place, Cincinnati, OH 45220.

MLNA articles may be reprinted by other electronic or print

media, but we ask that you credit Mexican Labor News and Analysis

and give the UE home page location and Dan La Botz's compuserve

address.

The UE Home Page which displays Mexican Labor News and

Analysis has an INDEX of back issues and an URGENT ACTION ALERT

section.

Staff: Editor, Dan La Botz; Correspondents in Mexico: Bob

Briggs, Peter Gellert, Jess Kincaid, Wendy Patterson, Jorge

Robles, Juan-Carlos Romero, Fred Rosen, Don Sherman, Sam Smucker,

Linda Stevenson.