Human Rights Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juárez, A.C.
Communique to the Press
June 15, 2001

Fox demonstrated in El Salvador his lack of sensitivity for the reality in Chiapas and impelled the PPP unilaterally

Once more Vicente Fox made yesterday a series of declarations regarding the Chiapas conflict that not only demonstrate his lack of sensitivity on the subject, but also the imposition of the unilateral decision of the federal government to impel the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP), a development plan that will take into account the economic interests of the transnational companies and the United States, but not those of the communities that populate those territories and which in theory are supposed to be its main beneficiaries.

In a press conference together with his like-minded associate from El Salvador Francisco Flores, President Fox claimed in Chiapas "is no longer a conflict, we are in blessed peace," and that the Zapatismo would be "in a process of deactivation," that "there are no talks, but neither violence and both sides are peaceful."

These affirmations lack sustenance when faced with the violent reality that the communities of Chiapas continue to suffer today, and makes the reconstruction of the social structure impossible: the strong military presence with it's effects for the indigenous communities in violation of their human rights still persists; there are still more than 18 000 displaced; communitarian division, the presence of paramilitary groups; the disappearance of persons, like Bacilio Gutiérrez Lopez, who belongs to the Zapatista bases of support and disappeared in Tila; the harassment of defenders and promoters of human rights (in the month of June alone two aggressions against members of the Committee Fray Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada in Ocosingo were reported); the construction of infrastructure for the military strategy that violates the communities in resistance; the impunity in the cases of Acteal, El Bosque and Venustiano Carranza, the inefficiency of the PGR in the persecution of the paramilitaries, to mention only some incidents. Is this the "blessed peace" Fox is talking about?

In addition, "the Zapatismo," contrary to what Fox affirms, is neither a local movement, nor is it being deactivated. It has been clearly demonstrated that the demands this movement has put on the international scene, are shared and endorsed beyond the Chiapas and Mexican borders, as recently seen in the caravan of the Zapatista command to Mexico City.

At this moment, the discussion process of the law on indigenous rights and culture - which is not only a key element of the Chiapas conflict, but also a central point in the situation of the recognition of the rights of the Indigenous peoples - in the local Congresses is not concluded; and many and important social sectors are mobilizing at national level to pronounce themselves against the legislative proposal, which structurally involves a politicosocial conflict that cannot be diminished, much less considering the consequences that the approval of this law could trigger in the frame of the social pacts between the society and the Mexican government. In addition the existence of armed groups in other regions of the country, that have reaffirmed their position of dissent with the Fox government prevails.

In the midst of this anything but peaceful scenery, Fox presents as universal remedy for the situation of his "indigenous brothers" a development plan that crosses eight states of the country's southeast, and strives for their strictly economic integration with six countries of Central America, a region that includes a great natural wealth and an impressive biodiversity.

Nobody who knows the socioeconomic situation of the mainly indigenous population of the Mexican southeast and Central America, could deny that it requires a strong investment in infrastructure and supports to activate the regional economy. Nevertheless, the PPP is not an answer for these communities but for the great transnational companies and the United States, who see in this region a matchless opportunity for the sacking of biodiversity, an answer to the power crisis of the ferocious North American consumers and an enormous source of cheap manual labor for maquilas.

The PPP, no matter how hard they would like to present it as an economic project that will benefit to the indigenous population of Chiapas and the entire southeast, is not an independent project designed with these aims; it is an economic project rooted in the legal frame of the Free Trade Ares of the Americas (FTAA).

The FTAA is known to be an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its sadly famous Chapter 11, that establishes the right of foreign companies to sue the national governments for any measurement that would limit their businesses, to the entire continent. Neither citizens nor national companies have this right. This clause has effectively prevented the governments from taking measures to protect the health of their population and the environment of their territory.

Therefore, any administrative and legislative measurement directed to protect the local economy or the lack of social protection of the Indigenas could not be opposed in any form. For that reason, the approval of the Indigenous law in the Congress of Union is not accidentally.

It is clear that the Indigenous population living throughout Mexico and Central America, from Puebla to Panama, does not need this PPP. What the region needs are the necessary conditions to decide over its own economic destiny: governed by autonomy and nourishing independence and by democratic principles of fairness, justice and respect to the environment and the biodiversity. An economic project that benefits the people must therefore be based on the principles and aspirations of the human rights, that is to say, on the respect and the dignity of the people and the care of the environment above any other interest.