Associated Press
December 8, 2000
By Mark Stevenson

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico -- Calling Zapatista rebels freedom fighters and his predecessors tyrants, the first opposition candidate to become governor of Chiapas was inaugurated Friday, promising to bring great change to the troubled state.

Pablo Salazar said his first move as governor would be to release all "prisoners of conscience in the state, including Zapatista prisoners."

His remarks echoed sentiments expressed by President Vicente Fox, who attended the inauguration. In his first acts as president, Fox submitted an Indian rights bill to Congress and began a troop pullback in Chiapas.

"What we are saying is give peace a chance," Fox said, paraphrasing a famous John Lennon lyric on the 20th anniversary of the singer's death. "Give justice a chance. Give our Indians and their children a chance."

In response to Fox's action over the past week, the rebels have said they would return to peace negotiations, which had stalled under the previous administration. But they remain distrustful of the pro-business president, leaving peace prospects uncertain.

Salazar praised the rebels in his inaugural speech for having noble goals.

"The ones who went to war were those who wanted authentic democracy, true peace and freedom without limits," Salazar said.

The Chiapas conflict began in 1994, when the rebels staged an armed uprising in the name of Indian rights. Since then, rebel sympathizers and paramilitary groups have often sparred, forcing many poor Indians to flee communities across the state.

This summer, both Fox and Salazar defeated members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had held Mexico's presidency and the Chiapas governorship for more than 70 years. Salazar blamed the violence in Chiapas on the previous government.

"Those who went to war were forced to do it. They were forced to do it by hunger, authoritarianism and desperation," he said.

Under previous governments in Chiapas, he said, foreigners accused of having rebel sympathies were frequently deported and free speech was crushed.

Salazar also said the past government had given arms to paramilitary groups, who often drove Indians from their communities, and sometimes massacred them.

His remarks were vastly different from those of past governments, which had called the rebels subversive and tried to combat them. But Salazar also warned against a backlash.

"Almost all of the deaths so far have been on one side," he said, referring to rebel sympathizers killed by paramilitary groups. "We don't want to reverse that. ... We don't want any more deaths at all."

Lined up outside the state capital's modern convention center, Indians dressed in brightly colored embroidered shirts and black, woven robes greeted Fox and Salazar.

Salazar seconded Fox's pledge to do everything possible to achieve peace, promising that "the government will never again be used as an instrument against the people."