La Jornada
January 20, 2002
By Herman Bellinghausen

"It is evident that the war that Chiapas is living is based on the economic interests of transnational corporations. Since Mexico, Canada, and United States signed NAFTA, preliminary mechanisms to appropriate energy resources laid the groundwork for privatization and the conditioning of the agrarian policy," affirmed the civil organization, the Social Economic Development of Indigenous Mexicans (DESMI), which has been working in indigenous areas for more than 30 years.

In documents and reports from the organization that appear in the book, If One Eats, May Everyone Eat (Si uno come, que coman todos, Economic Solidarity, Alma Celcilia Omana Reyes and Jorge Santiago Santiago, DESMI AC, August 2001) released this week, DESMI analyzes the war that communities are living: "Since 1992 the modification of Constitutional Article 27 has established the foundation for the privatization of ejidal and communal land... as part of the State's privatization policy in favor of neoliberal economics."

The Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle of the EZLN (1994) "refers to this situation as death, because in the neoliberal model, there is no space for the possibility of a dignified life for the peasants and indigenous of the country," added the analysis.

"Part of the war includes the destruction of the productive structure of communities, which takes away their strength and capacity for resistance. Resources that should be used for the development of the countryside and for investments in productive infrastructure, are instead dedicated primarily to sustain the armed forces and paramilitary groups," the reported the analysis.

DESMI has been linked since its inception to the progressive orientation of the Catholic Dioceses of San Cristobal (the "preferential option for the poor" pushed by Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia). The organization has worked since 1969 in los Altos in the north and south of the state - Ocosingo, Altamirano, Chilon, Sabanilla, Tila, San Andres, Chenalho, El Bosque and other municipalities.

Under the concept of economic solidarity, this independent organization has promoted the construction of peoples' and communities' alternatives before the imposition of the neoliberal capitalist model. For the past three decades, the organization has participated in projects supporting education, health, potable water, the organization of women, agricultural production, commercialization of products and artisan crafts, and a permanent collective reflection in 240 chiapanecan communities.

The section titled "War and Peace" (p 215) reads: "once a situation of instability, persecution, and fear has been established (above all after the dismantling of the autonomous municipalities and the massacre of Acteal), proposed social investment programs become another element of the same war because they actually function to dismantle communities' political will and their organizational capacity."

The armed forces implement the social initiatives, taking the place of civil institutions and, above all, of communities that are otherwise predisposed to function with autonomy and self- determination."

Reservations about the Case

DESMI does in fact express optimism about changes in the government of Chiapas, but not without reservations after seven years of continued militarization. "In the context of war it is difficult to interpret the State's actions like investment projects in certain zones and the opening of highways and airports. The State's strategic interests are fundamentally important to the interpretation of its development plans and investment of resources in communities."

The report continues, "Economic resources also have counterinsurgency use. Desertion and the abandonment of organizations assume a higher importance than actual development. During the past few years the situation has gotten worse; poverty has multiplied; the war has established a process of impoverishment."

Beyond the structural situation, fear increases, "the military siege has created conditions that deteriorate life in the communities. Social ills like prostitution have increased. Military camps' dumping of waste has severely contaminated rivers in certain zones where the civil population used to manage water resources for washing and bathing purposes... The camps take possession of the strategic resources necessary for survival: water sources, forests, springs, roads, and media of communication," read the article.

With respect to the stalled peace process, DESMI considers justice key. The San Andres Accords (1996) establishes the need to "recognize the value of a party's given word." The State is obligated to recognize Convention 169 of the OIT with respect to indigenous rights and to recognize that international agreements are the "supreme law of the Union in constitutional terms." DESMI considers the participation of civil society to be a requirement of peace as civil society is one of the key players in the development of peace.

"The concept of self-determination and the right to autonomy have become part of the struggle for justice: an exercise in cultural resistence, but also an appropriation of the right to exist as a people, participating in the construction of their own society. (This self-determination and autonomy represent) a shout out against being denied and forgotten, a demand to create proposals within a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation, rising above and overcoming the challenges of marginalization and dependence and constructing alternatives for themselves, not simply continuing the scheme of imposed social models and colonialism but in a way that accounts for all elements of cultural identity and the participation of everyone in the society."

What the war denies, determines DESMI's analysis, is the recognition of the right to struggle, to demand self determination and establish just relationships so that, in the end, the "right to exist" of these people be recognized.

Translated from Spanish by Alyse Schrecongost on January 30, 2002.