MEXICO
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Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ December 8-14
Pablo Salazar Takes Office as Chiapas Governor. Guerrero Guerrillas Respond to Fox; EPR Splits Again. Oaxaca Approves Amnesty Law For Accused EPR Prisoners. Briefs
Ya Basta! The Masks of Chiapas, By Naomi Klein ~ Dec. 11
Mexican Workers Testify at NAFTA Health & Safety Hearing in San Antonio, By Martha Ojeda ~ Dec. 5
Fox Orders Withdrawal of 53 Checkpoints in Three Chiapas Regions, By Elio Henríquez and David Aponte ~ Dec. 2
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ Nov 22-30
The Fox Cabinet. EZLN Breaks Silence, Says Adios to Zedillo. Luis H. Alvarez Criticizes "Excessive" Militarization in Chiapas. Chiapas Interim-Governor Delivers Final "State of the State" Address. Briefs
In Chiapas, The Renewed Mexican Challenge, Stratfor, Inc. ~ November 22
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ November 15-21
Fox: General Amnesty Possible in Chiapas. PAN Officially Wins Jalisco Vote; PRI Threatens Boycott of Fox Inauguration. López Obrador Names Cabinet for Mexico City Government. Briefs
Demand that Vicente Fox End the War in Chiapas, NY Azul ~ November 25
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ November 1-7, 2000
Fox Confirms His First Act of Government Will be Implementation San Andres Accords. Chiapas State Government to Provide Legal Aid for Paramilitary Prisoners. Six Cabinet Members Identified for Fox Administration. Briefs
Death Threats/Fear for Safety ~ October 31
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ September 15-21
Fox and Co. face uproar over alleged salary payments. Fox announces idea to modernize the countryside with the Internet. Salazar reiterates support for the San Andrés Accords. Briefs
Weekly News Summary, MSN ~ September 8-14, 2000
Fox in Central America, announces "crusade" against the EPR. PAN loses majority in Mexico City legislature. Garzón charges Cavallo with 423 crimes, presents extradition request. PRD presents federal initiative to criminalize "forced disappearances". Briefs
Weekly News Summary ~ September 1-7, 2000
Zedillo Gives Final State of the Union Address. PRI Wins Big in Veracruz. Accusations Mount Against Narco-Generals for Torture and Forced Disappearances. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Commits suicide, Blames Media for RENAVE Scandal. Briefs
Greenpeace Releases Confidential Information on Deforestation in the Petatlan Mountains, Greenpeace ~ September 4
Environmental Activists Rodolfo and Teodoro Sentenced Under Trumped-up Charges, Just Earth Network ~ Sept. 6
Weekly News Summary ~ August 22-31, 2000
Generals Acosta Chaparro and Quirós Hermosillo Arrested for Drug Trafficking. RENAVE Director Ricardo Miguel Cavallo Arrested on International Genocide Warrant. Fox and Salazar: San Andrés Accords Will be Top Priority in New Government. Fox Discusses Border, NAFTA, and Privatizations With US and Canadian Leaders. Briefs
Weekly News Summary, August 15-21, 2000
Salazar Wins in Chiapas; PRI Rule Will End on December 8. PRI vs. PRI in Mexico State: 15 Dead, 102 Wounded in Gun Attack. Robles Wins Abortion Vote in Mexico City Legislature. Briefs
Case Of Argentinean Torturer A Headache For Mexico, By Diego Cevallos ~ Aug. 30
Outcry Over Sentences For Activists, By Diego Cevallos and Danielle Knight ~ Aug. 29
Power Of PRI Continues To Wither, By Diego Cevallos ~ Aug. 28
Interpol Detains Alleged Argentine Torturer, By Diego Cevallos ~ Aug. 24
Opposition Win In Chiapas Paves Way For Talks, By Diego Cevallos ~ August 21
Abortion Law Hints At New Ruling Party Morals, By Diego Cevallos ~ August 16
Zapatistas Mum On Upcoming Poll, By Diego Cevallos ~ August 15
Mexican Environmental Activists Await Judge's Verdict, Global Response ~ August 2000
Growing Marginalization Helped Defeat PRI, By Diego Cevallos ~ Aug. 11
8 Years In Jail For Abortion In Fox's State, By Diego Cevallos ~ Aug. 7
Paramilitary Attack in Yajalón, Chiapas, Enlace Civil ~ August 7
Weekly News Summary ~ August 1-7, 2000
Fox officially declared "president-elect," travels to South America. Sami David hurt in electoral rally in Chiapas; Salazar increases lead in polls. Paramilitary group burns homes, expels pro-Zapatistas from Yajalón, Chiapas. Briefs
A Wake Up Call in a Hotel Room in Tehuacan, Bob Hemauer ~ August 2000
Post-Electoral Mexico - A Future Full of Possibilities, by Mexico Solidarity Network ~ August 5
Handling The Military A Big Challenge For Fox, By Diego Cevallos ~ July 27
Weekly News Summary ~ July 22-31, 2000
FARP attacks police station in Mexico City. Fox considers taxing food and pharmaceutical products. Fox meets with Cárdenas. Opposition unites in Chiapas as Salazar leads polls. Briefs
"La Paz Tras el Cerco" - Peace Under Siege In Mexico, Fellowship for Reconciliation ~ July 27
Zapatistas Silent After PRI Defeat, By Diego Cevallos ~ Jul 25
Weekly News Summary,Mexico Solidarity Network ~ July 15-21, 2000
Fox names transition team. Fox seeks contact with EZLN. Chiapas governor's race heats up. Tabasco state electoral organs lack credibility: PRD. Briefs
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ July 8-14, 2000
Upheavals in the PRI. PRD in Crisis After Electoral Losses. Who Wants To Be a Cabinet Member? PRD Hacks Open FOBAPROA CD-Rom Disk. Briefs
Ousted Party Faces Internal Divide, By Pilar Franco ~ July 16
Expulsion of US Human Rights Activist Overturned by Mexican Officials, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ July 17
International Observers for Elections in Chiapas, Mexico Solidarity Network, Alianza Civica, and Global Exchange ~ July 11
Mexico: Now, the Hard Part, Stratfor.com ~ 6 July
Chiapas and The Presidential Elections: Where Do The Candidates Stand? ~ June 25
PRI Steps Up Effort To Derail Opposition, By Diego Cevallos ~ June 16
Voters Wary Despite Strong Performance, By Pilar Franco ~ June 15
Gov't Fights Specter Of Transition Period Crisis, By Pilar Franco ~ June 14
More Police Sent To Nothern Border, By Pilar Franco ~ Jun. 14
Ambush Leaves 10 Dead In Chiapas, By Diego Cevallos ~ June 13
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ June 8-14
Seven Police Officers Killed in Chiapas Ambush. Campaign 2000: Fox Faces Campaign Finance Scandal. "Electoral Climate" Pushes Peso Lower. Briefs. This Week in History
Weekly News Summary, Mexico Solidarity Network ~ June 1 - 7
EZLN Warns of Possible Army Offensive Following July 2 Elections. Campaign 2000: Labastida Causes Market Scare; Fox Declares Himself "President-Elect". Remaining Student Prisoners Freed on Bail. Briefs
Military Intervention Feared in Lacandona, By Hermann Bellinghausen ~ June 12
Last Clinton-Zedillo Meet Seals Close Ties, By Diego Cevallos ~ Jun. 9
Zedillo Urged To Free Conservationists, By Danielle Knight ~ Jun. 9
Sundays In Zócalo Bring Art, Music To All, By Pilar Franco ~ June 8
Proposal for EZLN Presentation to the Encuentro, by Civil Society Against War and Repression and for Democracy ~ June 9
Campaign Serves As Press Freedom Barometer, By Pilar Franco ~ June 7
Divergent Lives Of 3 Presidential Candidates, By Diego Cevallos ~ June 1
Weekly News Summary
December 8-14, 2000
Contents:
1. Pablo Salazar Takes Office as Chiapas Governor
2. Guerrero Guerrillas Respond to Fox; EPR Splits Again
3. Oaxaca Approves Amnesty Law For Accused EPR Prisoners
4. Briefs
Pablo Salazar Takes Office as Chiapas Governor
On December 8, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía was formally sworn in to office as the 163rd Governor of the State of Chiapas, in a ceremony attended by President Vicente Fox, former PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, peace commissioner Luis H. Alvarez, federal and state legislators, and diplomats from 24 countries.
In his inaugural speech, Salazar made a plea for reconciliation in the state, and promised that his government would work to resolve the problems which gave birth to the Zapatista rebellion, rather than fight the Zapatistas as a legal or political problem. He committed the state to fully investigate the massacres of Acteal and El Bosque, as well as the "criminal actions" of paramilitary groups.
Salazar - a former PRI senator who was elected governor by a slim majority at the head of an opposition coalition consisting of seven political parties - also called on the federal government to investigate possible corruption and misuse of federal resources by the past state administration of Interim Governor Roberto Albores Guillén. He furthermore called on the federal Congress to approve the COCOPA initiative on indigenous rights and culture, as a necessary precursor to peace.
The new governor also used part of his speech to order state Attorney General Mariano Herrán Salvati to "establish a commission to rule on the situation of the Zapatista prisoners and, if possible, grant them the benefit of freedom with a suspended sentence." The liberation of all Zapatista prisoners is a pre-condition set by the Zapatista Army for resumption of negotiations with the federal government; and all but three of the prisoners are currently jailed in Chiapas under state jurisdiction.
Three days later, on December 11, Herrán Salvati announced the formal creation of the commission, which includes representation of the Attorney General's office, the local legislature, the State Supreme Court, and the State Human Rights Commission. Herrán clarified that the government was not planning to grant an amnesty to the Zapatista prisoners, but rather to grant them freedom with a suspended sentence. He also added that neither an amnesty nor conditional freedom are currently being contemplated for paramilitary prisoners, with the exception of those imprisoned for participation in the 1997 Acteal massacre, whose cases are being examined both by the state government and by the federal Attorney General's office.
Meanwhile, as an honored guest at Salazar's inauguration, President Vicente Fox promised that Mexican society and the indigenous peoples of the country "will be witnesses to more actions" on the part of the government toward relaxing tensions in Chiapas "in the coming days and weeks." While Fox refused to specify such actions, aides said that there would be a "second stage" of military troop relocations, followed in January by the launching of an economic and social investment plan for the state.
During his speech, Fox promised to give Salazar "all the support of the presidency," and said he and the Chiapas governor would work closely together, "as allies," toward a "dignified peace with equitable development and opportunities for all." Fox also added that the federal government "is obligated to fully comply with the commitments it has made," a tacit reference to the San Andrés Accords.
The EZLN, for its part, issued an ironic communiqué saluting the outgoing state "governor in rebellion," Amado Avendaño - the 1994 gubernatorial candidate representing the PRD and "civil society," who lost the election through fraud but was recognized by the Zapatistas anyway - and recognizing the new government of Pablo Salazar. The Zapatistas said that Salazar's promises to undertake concrete actions in favor of peace, including the possible liberation of all Zapatista political prisoners in Chiapas, would certainly help create the necessary conditions for the resumption of peace talks, if such promises became reality. However, they added that with respect to the Zapatista prisoners, there are EZLN sympathizers imprisoned in Tabasco and Querétaro who must be liberated as well before negotiations can resume.
Finally, the EZLN called on international and national civil society to mobilize itself to demand that the federal government honor the three Zapatista demands for negotiations to resume: constitutional recognition of the rights and cultures of indigenous peoples, in accordance with the COCOPA initiative for implementation of the San Andrés Accords; liberation of all Zapatista prisoners in Mexico (not just Chiapas); and the full withdrawal of the federal army from seven positions within the "war zone."
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Guerrero Guerrillas Respond to Fox; EPR Splits Again
Following on the heels of back-to-back public statements by the People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARP) in Oaxaca and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Chiapas, the remaining major rebel groups in Mexico have also staked out public positions this week regarding the new government of Vicente Fox Quesada.
The Guerrero-based Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI) - the largest of the myriad of rebel groups which have split away from the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) in recent years - presented the first issue (number zero) of its as-yet untitled guerrilla magazine on December 11. The 48-page magazine was distributed in text format over internet email lists, and was also dropped off at the offices of all major newspapers in the port city of Acapulco.
The magazine includes several older communiqués (from shortly before and shortly after the July 2 federal elections) denouncing "neoliberal democracy" as "neoliberal fraud," and suggesting the rebels are not yet prepared to engage in a dialogue with the federal government. The magazine also includes a reprinted essay by SUNY-Binghamton scholar James Petras, poems, and a communiqué denouncing the US economic and military assistance to Colombia and calling for solidarity toward that country's FARC rebels.
A day later, on December 12, the ERPI issued its 22nd communiqué, announcing its solidarity with all the political prisoners in Mexico. The ERPI furthermore claimed as its own all political prisoners of the EPR captured prior to January 1998 - when the ERPI split off from the EPR - including José Alfredo Durán Mata, a former member of the EPR currently on hunger strike in the maximum security federal prison of Almoloya, demanding status and recognition as a political prisoner.
Meanwhile, also in Guerrero, a new guerrilla group has emerged, the latest in a string of groups which, like the ERPI, have broken away from the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR).
The EPR, which made its first public appearance in Guerrero in 1996, was initially comprised of more than 15 small guerrilla groups, many of them descendents or holdovers of armed groups active in the 1970s. The EPR's unity only lasted a short time, and was broken in early 1998 with the separation of the ERPI (taking with it most of the group's fighters and bases of support in Guerrero), whose leaders denounced excessive ideological and strategic dogmatism and intolerance on the part of the EPR leadership.
Over the next two years, the FARP and the Revolutionary Villista Army of the People (EVRP) also split off from the EPR. The FARP has presence in and around Mexico City, as well as in Guerrero, Puebla, and Oaxaca. The EVRP, meanwhile, appears centered in the state of Mexico.
What remained of the EPR, then, appeared to consist of a reduced base of militancy in Guerrero, the eastern Sierra Madre mountains, the Mexico City area, and southern Chiapas. Now, due to continued ideological disputes within the movement's top echelons, the internal current known as the "Revolutionary Democratic Tendency" (TDR) has completely broken with the EPR, but without renouncing the name. Thus there are now two EPRs - the "official" EPR, and the EPR-TDR.
In a mountain press conference in which Comandante José Arturo and Capitán Daniel read the group's first communiqués, the new EPR-TDR explained the internal "crisis" which lead to the eventual fragmentation of the unity project which was the EPR.
As a political organization made up of many different groups espousing a variety of ideologies and interpretations of revolutionary theory, the EPR and its political wing, the Democratic Popular Revolutionary Party (PDPR), had planned a party congress of sorts to promote a more democratic decision-making process within the organization. However, said the EPR-TDR, one of the internal currents of the group "took over" the provisional leadership of the party and indefinitely postponed the realization of the democratic party congress.
When the provisional leadership then attempted to backtrack on internal reforms, trying to force acceptance of a dogmatic political ideology and an undemocratic internal decision-making process while "suppressing the internal currents by force," the internal crisis exploded. Faced with lack of tolerance and failure to understand dissent, some militants of the group "resigned," while others were expelled.
The TDR - whose leader, José Arturo, was one of the most familiar figures among the EPR's leadership in 1996 and 1997 - claimed that their ideas for resolving the crisis were met with a "lack of respect and attention" by the provisional leadership, and that the two remaining currents of the EPR then reached a mutually satisfactory accord: the creation of two separate, distinct EPR's
Unlike the other groups which have split off from the EPR, the EPR-TDR maintains a firm discourse based on socialist ideology, class struggle, and a critique of the "national and international bourgeoisie," and claims to be fighting for "a radical transformation from capitalism to socialism" in Mexico.
In a communiqué dated December 2 - the 26th anniversary of the death in combat of legendary guerrilla leader Lucio Cabañas, whose organization, the Party of the Poor, eventually became one of the core groups around which the EPR was formed - the EPR-TDR denounced the Fox government as one of "neoliberal businessmen" which assures the continuity in power of the "industrial and financial bourgeoisie."
The new group called for unity and the creation of a new "revolutionary directorate" among the various political-military organizations which have declared their independence from the EPR, saying it is essential to "overcome scientific, dogmatic, and doctrinaire interpretations of revolutionary theory," which the EPR-TDR affirms "only lead to intolerance, disqualifications, confrontations, rupture, and political fragmentation."
Furthermore, the group says it wishes to work with democratic and revolutionary organizations around the world, whether armed or unarmed, to promote an "insurgent coordinating body" to create a "common front" at the global level against neoliberalism.
END
Oaxaca Approves Amnesty Law For Accused EPR Prisoners
At the request of Oaxaca governor José Murat Casab (PRI), the state legislature unanimously approved an amnesty law on December 8 designed to benefit 61 indigenous Zapotecos imprisoned in the state and accused of militancy in the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). The law also cancels 250 arrest warrants for others facing similar charges. Being a state law, however, the move does not benefit 26 other Oaxacans imprisoned under federal charges.
The amnesty law covers all crimes committed by EPR militants and those of other armed groups "motivated by the same causes for social change" between August 28, 1996 (when the EPR launched a short-lived, five-state offensive which had the highest death toll in Oaxaca) and December 8, 2000, provided that those currently imprisoned "hand over all types of instruments, weapons, explosives, or other objects employed in the commission of their crimes" within 180 days.
Many of those imprisoned in Oaxaca, however, say that would be impossible, since they maintain their innocence and insist they have no relationship whatsoever with the EPR - and they obviously cannot hand over weapons used in crimes they did not commit.
Family members of the prisoners have also demonstrated a skeptical response to the state government's initiative. "If our prisoners accept that they are part of the EPR," said one leader of the Union of Peoples Against Repression and Militarization of the Loxichas, "then they will walk free. And no one will investigate nor put on trial those who arbitrarily detained them and those who tortured them. But even then, how can they accept being a part of what they are not? But if they don't accept the amnesty, not only will they continue to be unjustly imprisoned but they will surely be accused of intransigence."
The prisoners themselves, meanwhile, have said they will decide on December 15 what position to take with respect to the proposed amnesty.
END
- Federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, a Brigadier-General of the Mexican Army, was confirmed in his post this week by a party-line vote in the Mexican Senate. The PRI, PAN, and Green parties all voted in favor of confirming the general in his new civilian post, while the PRD voted against him. Together with the PRD, independent human rights groups are concerned about Macedo's designation, since while attorney general of military justice he consistently ignored recommendations and rulings from the official National Human Rights Commission and the OAS-sponsored Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
- The Fox administration, while continuing to claim it plans a full overhaul and restructuring of the country's National Security Agency (CISEN), this week included a 50 million peso boost in the domestic intelligence agency's funding for 2001. The CISEN considerations included in Fox's overall budget for the coming year total 1.08 billion pesos.
- Oscar Espinosa Villarreal, former mayor of Mexico City before the capital's first democratic elections for the post were held in 1997, was arrested this week in Managua, Nicaragua at the request of the Mexican government. Espinosa resigned his post as Tourism Secretary in the Zedillo administration, went into hiding, and fled the country after being accused of stealing 42 million dollars from the Mexico City coffers. Espinosa denies the charges and says he is a victim of "political persecution." Extradition proceedings against the former mayor are expected to begin soon.
- In his first appearance before Congress, Treasury Secretary Francisco Gil Díaz admitted that, contrary to campaign statements of President Fox, economic growth in Mexico over the next few years "is not assured" and that economic stability will depend largely on strict government budgeting. Meanwhile, Bank of Mexico governor Guillermo Ortiz said that the latest principle macroeconomic indicators of the country show a "deceleration" of the economy with respect to high growth levels in the first two trimesters of this year, and warned that the economy may have "overheated" to the point that a "cooling off" is necessary.
- Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, former presidential candidate for the
PARM party and ex-leader of both the PRI and the PRD before eventually landing in the camp of PAN president Vicente Fox, was named this week as official representative of the Mexican government for dealings with the European Economic Community. His son Porfirio T. Muñoz Ledo Chevanner, meanwhile, was appointed Mexican ambassador to France. After having committed political treason against three different political parties, some reports suggest this was simply President Fox's way of saying "thanks" to the elder Muñoz Ledo for stepping down in his favor during the presidential race, while sending him and his family to Europe before they could actually do any damage.
END
SOURCES: Milenio Semanal, La Jornada, Proceso, Milenio, El Universal, El Financiero.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
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Ya Basta! The Masks of Chiapas
By Naomi Klein, The Globe and Mail ~ Dec.11
On the weekend, the man in the mask came down from the jungle and held a press conference. In the new year, he will travel to Mexico City and address Congress on the need for an Indian bill of rights. Subcomandante Marcos, voice of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, has been keeping a low profile lately. But he's back, in trademark ski mask, rifle over his shoulder, and pipe hanging from his mouth. Rumour has it he is a university professor who fled to the hills to lead an indigenous uprising in Chiapas, but Marcos has no comment. Showing his face, he jokes, would disappoint his female fans.
It's a mark of the Zapatistas' influence that the very first act by Mexico's new president was to order a partial withdrawal of troops from Chiapas. Vicente Fox also invited the Zapatistas to resume negotiations that broke down under his predecessor. Marcos told reporters he's ready to talk, but not until Mr. Fox completes the troop withdrawal and releases all political prisoners.
It's clear that Mr. Fox sees settling the Zapatista standoff as key to Mexico's stability. Less understood is how powerful the Zapatistas are outside of Mexico -- and why. How did this band of indigenous insurgents become symbols (some would say masked mascots) of the international anti-free-trade movement? Why, in the words of a report commissioned by the U.S. military, did the uprising go from being "a war of the flea" -- remote and easy to control -- to "a war of the swarm" -- ubiquitous and impossible to contain?
The answer dates back to Jan. 1, 1994, the day the North American free-trade agreement came into force in Mexico. The Zapatistas chose that day to "declare war" on the Mexican army. A communiqué placed NAFTA, which banned subsidies to indigenous farm co-operatives, within a long history of colonialism that has impoverished Mexico's native peoples. "Ya Basta!" they said. Enough is enough. The message was posted on the Internet. Dozens of mirror sites went up, translating and posting regular communiqués from the Zapatistas.
Caravans of activists hit the road for Chiapas. Groups from Cincinnati to Milan cropped up, calling themselves Ya Basta! And at every demonstration, there were more black masks: Marcos clones, multiplying. Though they were the first rebels to use the Internet, the Zapatistas are less a testament to the power of technology than to the power of language. Marcos's communiqués skip lightly from gruesome lists of atrocities to cracks about football games, to Shakespearean verse. He is a master of political metaphor, challenging his supporters to break out of staid old left thinking and build a movement fluid enough to adapt to the global economy.
The Zapatistas' goal is not to seize state control for their ideological camp, but to build an international movement that can rein in corporate power globally and restore community power locally. They call this a movement of "one no and many yeses." Like all indigenous struggles, the Zapatistas are fighting to preserve their heritage. But rather than throwing up blockades and locking out the world, they are inventing a new way to protect their land: opening the doors and inviting the world inside. In 1996, 3,000 activists travelled to Chiapas to attend a gathering "for humanity and against neo-liberalism."
The Zapatistas have taken what could have been a narrow ethnic dispute and made it universal. A Zapatista, Marcos says, is anyone who is fighting for communal space against market forces. And from behind their masks, the Zapatistas have forged a new kind of leadership and heroism, one especially tailored to an age suspicious of both heroes and leaders. Paradoxically, it is leadership without a face, heroes you have to imagine.
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Mexican Workers Testify at NAFTA Health & Safety Hearing in San Antonio
By Martha Ojeda ~ December 5
On December 12th at 9:00 A.M., The National Administrative Office (NAO) of the U.S. Department of Labor, the agency charged with enforcing the (so-called) NAFTA Labor Side Accords will conduct a public hearing at the San Antonio City Council Chambers, at 103 Main Plaza, Municipal Plaza Building. At the hearing, maquiladora workers from Mexico will testify about the massive injuries they have sustained from their work for Breed Technologies, a U.S. based multinational including crippling repetitive strain injuries and birth defects among their children.
The complaint was filed July 3, 2000 under provisions of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the NAFTA Labor Side Accords. Complainants include workers and former workers of Breed Technologies' maquiladora factories in Mexico, the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, 22 Mexican, U.S. and Canadian labor and religious organizations, and a U.S. law school clinic. The complaint charges the Mexican government with a persistent pattern of failure to enforce its own labor laws regarding worker health and safety. On September 7th the U.S. NAO accepted the complaint for hearing.
This is the first NAFTA labor complaint that could lead to the imposition of fines. The NAALC provides for possible sanctions against a NAFTA government for persistent failure to enforce certain of its own labor laws. Monetary sanctions up to .007 percent of the annual total trade in goods between the NAFTA countries are possible for the failure to enforce health and safety, child labor, or minimum wage laws. According to NAO guidelines, after the NAO has completed gathering information, including information received as a result of consultations with the other NAOs, the submitters, companies, experts, and testimony received at the hearing, it will issue a public report of its findings and recommendations. If the matter is not resolved, the NAALC provides for ministerial consultations and other dispute resolution mechanisms, and possible monetary sanctions.
According to Martha Ojeda, Executive Director of the San Antonio-based Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, "At the hearing, the workers of Breed s Auto Trim and Custom Trim maquiladoras in Valle Hermoso and Matamoros will provide powerful testimony of injuries and illnesses related to indiscriminate and unsafe exposure to chemicals, and from repetitive motion injuries." The factories produce leather-covered steering wheels and shift knobs for automotive makers including General Motors, Daimler-Chrysler, BMW, and Mazda.Workers required to use toxic chemicals lack adequate protective gear, and the factories lack adequate ventilation systems. As a result, workers suffer chronic skin and eye irritations, dermatitis, rashes, headaches, nausea, respiratory difficulties, chronic sore throats and coughs, dizziness, fainting, memory loss, and high rates of miscarriages and birth defects in their children, including spina bifida and anencephaly. Chronic hand, wrist, arm, and back pain, permanently diminished mobility, carpal tunnel syndrome, and cuts and gashes are also endemic.
For More Information: Martha Ojeda -- 210-732-8957 (office), 210-240-1084 (cellular)
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Fox Orders Withdrawal of 53 Checkpoints in Three Chiapas Regions
By Elio Henríquez and David Aponte, La Jornada ~ Dec. 2
President Fox ordered the Mexican Army to withdraw the 53 checkpoints it has been maintaining in Los Altos, the North and the Cañadas of Chiapas, several official sources reported yesterday. Since yesterday morning, Mexican Army forces who had been located in different places in Chiapas received instructions to lift their camps and highway checkpoints and to assemble in their barracks, noted a communiqué from the Department of Government in Mexico City. The document, signed by the head of the department, Santiago Creel Miranda, and the commissioner for the Negotiation of Peace in Chiapas, Luis H. Alvarez, noted that "the purpose of this action is to reiterate the government's full readiness to meet, in the shortest possible time, with representatives of the EZLN, and in that way create a favorable climate for renewal of negotiations for a solid and lasting peace in Chiapas."
General Carlos Enrique Adán Yabur, commander of the 31st Military Region with headquarters in Rancho Nuevo, municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas, explained that the control points, which had been set up at different times in order to enforce the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law, were withdrawn Friday afternoon and evening. Adán Yabur reported that the order which was received was to withdraw the control and search positions, known as checkpoints, but he denied any other kind of mobilization. He said that the positions located in Guadalupe Tepeyac, Vicente Guerrero and Nuevo Momón, in the municipality of Las Margaritas, as well as the one at Rancho Nuevo, had already been lifted.
According to Federal Highway Police sources, the checkpoint which had been located in the military region of Rancho Nuevo - the one closest to San Cristóbal - was "dismantled" at 9:00 PM, and "the only thing they [the soldiers] said was that they had orders to assemble and to allow free transit." At that hour, the soldiers began turning off the lights and other equipment which they used 24 hours a day. Another town which the soldiers left was Amador Hernández, where last August there was a confrontation with rocks and sticks between EZLN sympathizers and military police, leaving seven slightly wounded.
Adán Yabur refrained from commenting about any repositioning, since he had no knowledge in that regard, and he reiterated that the above-mentioned positions were the ones which had already been eliminated, which does not mean that the Army has taken new positions. In the country's capital, the Coordinator for National Security, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, confirmed the withdrawal of troops in the conflict zone in Chiapas.
Prior to entering the Bosque of Chapultepec in order to participate in the banquet being offered by the head of the Executive for his guests at Castillo Palace, the official said: "Yes, I am aware of this, Don Luis H. Alvarez (Commissioner for Peace) and Santiago Creel (Secretary of Government) have commented on it." In another interview, Aguilar Zinser noted: "In effect.it is taking place at this moment (the withdrawal). We already have reports of the withdrawal of positions that the Army has been occupying." In his role as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Fox established the repositioning of troops on the eve of the EZLN's stating its position regarding the new administration the PANista has headed since yesterday, stated Fox government officials initially, who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, the Enlace Civil organization indicated that troops are gathering around San Quintín - 25 kilometers from La Realidad, where the EZLN will be holding its press conference today - in Maravilla Tenejapa and in the 31st Military Region headquarters in Ocosingo. Just this Tuesday the Commissioner for the Negotiation of Peace in Chiapas, Luis H. Alvarez, released the news to La Jornada of the imminent withdrawal of troops in Chiapas, because the presence of troops in the state is excessive. Alvarez indicated that, since chiapanecos feel "harassed," the Army would be withdrawn to positions where "social peace would be guaranteed, but they would not act as an additional element in disturbing it."
After President Fox presided over the parade presented to him by the armed forces in Campo Marte, the Under Secretary for National Defense, Mario Palmerín, was questioned on the issue. He confined himself to responding that it is an issue that "belongs directly to the General Secretary" Ricardo Clemente Vega García. Yesterday, during his inaugural speech, President Vicente Fox reported that his first government act in legislative matters would be sending the Congress of the Union next week, "as a legislative proposal, the document drawn up by the Cocopa which summarizes the San Andrés Accords," which were signed by the previous government and the EZLN, but which the head - until last Thursday - of the Federal Government had refused to ratify.
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Weekly News Summary
November 22-30
Contents:
2. EZLN Breaks Silence, Says Adios to Zedillo
3. Luis H. Alvarez Criticizes "Excessive" Militarization in Chiapas
4. Chiapas Interim-Governor Delivers Final "State of the State" Address
5. Briefs
President-elect Vicente Fox Quesada publicly named the four dozen members of his cabinet this week in three separate Mexico City ceremonies. According to Fox, the cabinet will be divided into three strategic areas: "economic growth with quality;" "social policy and human development;" and "security, order, and respect." Each of these areas will be coordinated by a presidential advisor.
The so-called Economic Cabinet includes the following portfolios: Economy (formerly the post of Commerce Secretary); Treasury; Foreign Relations; Transportation and Communications; Agriculture; Tourism; Energy; Environment; and Natural Resources.
The Social Cabinet includes the portfolios of Health, Labor, Education, and Social Development.
The Security, Order, and Respect Cabinet includes the Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Navy, Comptroller General, Secretary of Public Security, and the Secretary of Agrarian Reform.
The Economic Cabinet was the first to be presented to the public, and was clearly considered the most important of the three areas by the Fox transition team. During the presentation, the president-elect defined the top priorities for this element of his government as: establishing better credit for more Mexicans; creation of more jobs and higher wages; improved opportunities for work in the countryside; development opportunities for rural communities; creation of a solid middle class; growth of domestic savings; creation of greater opportunities for foreign investment; support for small and medium-sized industries; and promotion of tourism.
The promise of the new administration, said Fox, would be to guarantee "sustainable and qualitative" growth, implying a more equitable distribution of income, the eradication of corruption, and an "intense fight" against poverty.
Several days later, during the presentation of the Social and Human Development Cabinet, the president-elect said that the role of the Social Cabinet would be to ensure that the results of macroeconomic growth "are reflected in every household." The priorities of this element of his administration, he added, would be to provide quality social services to the population; create incentive programs to reward individual efforts of Mexicans; create improved adult education programs for those who never completed elementary school; professionalize agricultural workers in the countryside; improve access to dignified housing and primary health care; and promote the participation of women in development programs.
Finally, with respect to the Security, Order, and Respect Cabinet, Fox said its task would be to "build solid but transparent institutions...that will contribute toward achieving a true democracy in Mexico; a true state of law and order; respect for the law; and peace and tranquility in every home, in every family, in every state, in every municipality. Our government will be absolutely committed to enforcing the Mexican laws as steps toward achieving peace and justice."
Some of those appointed to cabinet-level positions in the Fox administration were considered obvious choices for their designated posts ever since the president-elect created his transition team in July. For example, Santiago Creel will become the new Interior Minister; Jorge G. Castañeda will be the Secretary of Foreign Relations; Carlos Abascal will be the Labor Secretary; and Luis H. Alvarez has been appointed coordinator of governmental peace efforts in Chiapas.
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, another top Fox advisor and who, like Castañeda, represents the "ex-leftist" element of the Fox team, was likewise named to the newly-created post of National Security Advisor. He will be entrusted with coordinating the entire realm of national security, military, and intelligence policy for the Fox administration.
Also, as was expected, there are few ideologues of Fox's PAN party represented in the cabinet, and in fact there are relatively few politicians of any stripe. Most are either career bureaucrats or career businessmen, with a heavy emphasis on neoliberal economists and representatives of Mexico's most important private sector enterprises.
There were, however, a number of surprises in the cabinet appointments, mostly in the areas of economics and military affairs, and a few of them created a great deal of controversy.
Speculation had been swirling for weeks regarding the portfolios to be given to Fox's top economic advisors, Eduardo Sojo and Luis Ernesto Derbez, and whether or not one of them would be appointed Treasury Secretary (generally considered the most important cabinet-level position). In the end, Fox appointed Sojo "Executive Coordinator of Public Policies" in order to direct the activities of the economic cabinet, and Derbez as Economy Secretary (a new post created out of what was formerly the position of Commerce Secretary).
The cherished post of Treasury Secretary, meanwhile, was handed to former Salinas advisor Francisco Gil Díaz, currently the director of the Avantel wireless phone company.
While many expected the Education portfolio to be given to Rafael Rangel Sostmann, the director of the Monterrey Technological Institute (Mexico's most important private university system), it was instead placed in the hands of Reyes Tamez Guerra. Rangel Sostmann was meanwhile appointed to direct the National Education Council. Tamez Guerra supports "facilitating the development of private education" and, during the 1999 strike at the National University (UNAM), openly declared himself in favor of charging tuition to the students in the UNAM system, even though public education in Mexico is constitutionally considered a right to be provided free of charge.
The appointments of the Defense and Navy Secretaries, meanwhile, caused more than a minor incident of discontent among the armed forces. Fox jumped ranks to appoint General Ricardo Clemente Vega García as Defense Secretary, even though he had only received his stars as Division General one year ago and was not previously mentioned as a "pre-candidate" for the post. The designation was strongly opposed by fifteen senior generals, who met in emergency session with Fox prior to the official announcement and urged him to reconsider. In the end Fox stood fast, appointed Vega García, and the army eventually fell into line.
A similar case occurred with the appointment of the Navy Secretary, since Fox decided to give the post to Vice-Admiral Marco Antonio Peyrot González. It marks the first time in history that a Vice-Admiral, rather than an Admiral, has been named Secretary of the Navy. Sources within the armed forces have since strongly suggested that Peyrot González be promoted to Admiral, with or without merit, simply in order to avoid embarrassment among senior officers.
Perhaps the most controversial designation, however, was that of Attorney General, given to Brigadier General Rafael Macedo de la Concha. Macedo de la Concha is currently the Attorney General of the Mexican Armed Forces. In that capacity, he was responsible for initiating the prosecution of Generals Humberto Quirós Hermosillo and Mario Acosta Chaparro on drug-trafficking charges this year. However, he refused to prosecute them for human rights violations, including torture, murder, and forced disappearances, even though ample evidence exists of the generals' roles in such crimes during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Macedo de la Concha is also responsible for the incarceration of Brigadier General José Francisco Gallardo, accused of corruption in 1993 (and subsequently sentenced to 28 years in prison) after opening calling for the establishment of a human rights ombudsman to oversee the actions of the Mexican Army.
Other interesting cabinet appointees included Alejandro Gertz Manero, who will be Secretary of Public Security; and Mariclaire Acosta, named as "Ambassador for Human Rights and Democracy."
Until now, Gertz has held the position of Secretary of Public Security at a local level in the Mexico City government of Rosario Robles. He is the only significant cabinet member in the upcoming Fox administration considered close to the PRD.
Mariclaire Acosta, meanwhile, was the president of the independent Mexican Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights until joining the Fox transition team shortly after the July 2 elections. Considered a leftist, Acosta came under heavy fire from others on the left end of the political spectrum after signing an open letter just prior to the elections announcing her support for the "pragmatic vote" in favor of Fox. Her post - that of Human Rights Ambassador - was invented by the Fox team and it is as yet unclear whether or not it will be merely symbolic. The position is apparently unrelated to the official National Human Rights Commission.
Appointees To The Economic Cabinet
Coordinator of Public Policies: Eduardo Sojo Garza Aldape
Treasury Secretary: Francisco Gil Díaz
Economy (formerly Commerce) Secretary: Luis Ernesto Derbez
Secretary of Foreign Relations: Jorge G. Castañeda
Secretary of Transportation and Communications: Pedro Cerisola y Weber
Energy Secretary: Ernesto Martens Rebolledo
Agriculture Secretary: Javier Usabiaga Arroyo
Secretary of Tourism: Leticia Navarro Ochoa
Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources: Víctor Lichtinger
Commissioner for Northern Border Matters (Border Tsar): Ernesto Ruffo Appel
General Director of National Finance: Mario Laborín Gómez
Director of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (FONATUR): John McCarthy
Director of the Foreign Commerce Bank: José Luis Romero Hicks
Appointees To The Social And Human Development Cabinet
Secretary of Public Education: Reyes Tamez Guerra
Health Secretary: Julio Frenk Mora
Labor Secretary: Carlos María Abascal Carranza
Social Development Secretary: Josefina Vázquez Mota
Commissioner for Social Development: José Sarukhán Kermez
Commissioner for Peace Negotiations in Chiapas: Luis H. Alvarez
Director of the Office for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples: Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz
President of the National Education Council for Life and Work: Rafael Rangel Sostmann
Director of the Office for the Attention of Mexican Migrants in Other Countries: Juan Hernández
Director of the Office for the Promotion and Social Integration of the Disabled: Víctor Hugo Flores Higuera
Director of the National Sports Commission: Nelson Vargas Basáñez
Presidential Coordinator for the Citizen Alliance: Rodolfo Elizondo Torres
Coordinator of Advisors for Planning and Regional Development: Carlos Flores Alcocer
Director of the Citizen Studies Commission (against discrimination): Gilberto Rincón Gallardo
Appointees To The Security, Order, And Respect Cabinet
Interior Minister (Government Secretary): Santiago Creel Miranda
Secretary of Defense: General Ricardo Gerardo Clemente Vega García
Navy Secretary: Vice-Admiral Marco Antonio Peyrot González
National Security Advisor: Adolfo Aguilar Zinser
Attorney General: Brigadier General Rafael Macedo de la Concha
Secretary of Public Security: Alejandro Gertz Manero
Agrarian Reform Secretary: María Teresa Herrera
Human Rights Ambassador: Mariclaire Acosta
Comptroller General: Francisco Barrio Terrazas
Head of the Presidential Guard: José Armando Tamayo Casillas
Additional Presidential Appointees
Presidential Spokesperson: Martha Sahagún
Personal Secretary of the President: Alfonso Durazo Montaño
Presidential Legal Advisor: Juan de Dios Castro
General Director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS): Santiago Levy Algazi
Director of Mexican Petroleum (PEMEX): Raúl Muñoz Leos
Director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE): Alfredo Elías Ayub
Director of the Light and Energy Commission: Alfonso Caso
General Director of the National Water Commission: Cristóbal Jaime Jaquez
President of the National Culture Commission (CONACULTA): Sari Bermúdez
Director of the Presidential Office for Governmental Innovation: Ramón Muñoz Gutiérrez
Coordinator of Image and Public Opinion: Francisco Javier Ortiz
Director of the National Lottery: Laura Valdés de Rojas
Director of the Puebla-Panama Plan: Florencio Salazar Adame
Director of the National System for the Integration of the Family (DIF): Ana Cristina Fox
General Director of the Social Security and Services Institute for State Workers (ISSSTE): Benjamín González Roaro
END
EZLN Breaks Silence, Says Farewell To Zedillo
The Chiapas-based Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) broke five months of silence this week and issued two communiqués accompanied by a letter of presentation signed by rebel spokesperson Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Published on November 30, the first communiqué announced a press conference to be held on December 2 in the Zapatista community of La Realidad, in the southeast corner of the state of Chiapas:
"The Zapatista National Liberation Army," said the rebels, "will publicly express its position regarding the new federal government led by Mr. Vicente Fox, and also of the war in the Mexican Southeast.
"For these purposes, the EZLN is convoking a press conference to be held on December 2, 2000, in the indigenous community of La Realidad, municipality of San Pedro de Michoacán, Chiapas, at 4:00 pm.
"In order to enter the place where the press conference will take place, the press will not require special accreditation, just identification from the medium in which they work.
"Police dressed as reporters will not be allowed to enter, nor, by decision of the community, will those from the television station that destroys indigenous schools with its helicopter."
The television station referred to in the last paragraph is Televisión Azteca, whose reporter Lolita de la Vega descended uninvited on La Realidad in a helicopter two years ago. On takeoff, the winds from the helicopter rotor ripped the corrugated tin roof off of the community schoolhouse, injuring at least one child.
The second communiqué is addressed to outgoing Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, and consists of a farewell letter blasting the six-year term of Zedillo as a "nightmare" not only for the Zapatistas but for the entire country. Like the other communiqués, the letter was published in the press on Zedillo's final day as president.
"Six years ago," writes Marcos, "I wrote to you in the name of all the Zapatistas to welcome you to the nightmare. Many now believe that we were right. Throughout this administration, your rule has been a long nightmare for millions of Mexicans: assassinations, economic crisis, massive impoverishment, brutal and illegal enrichment of a few, the sell-out of national sovereignty, public insecurity, strengthening of ties between the government and organized crime, corruption, irresponsibility, war...and bad jokes."
"When you came to power," continue the rebels, "you had the freedom to choose how to confront the Zapatista uprising. What you chose and did is now history. In your capacity as Supreme Commander of the Federal Army and with all the power bestowed on the federal executive, you could have chosen the path of dialogue and negotiation. You could have reduced tensions. You could have honored what you signed in San Andrés. You could have achieved peace. You did not."
Instead, "you chose to follow the double strategy of faking a disposition to negotiate while continuing the path of violence. Thus you tried to repeat the history of the Chinameca treachery (February 9, 1995); you squandered billions of pesos trying to purchase the conscience of the rebels; you militarized the indigenous communities (and not only those of Chiapas); you expelled international observers; you armed, trained, equipped, and financed paramilitary groups; you persecuted, jailed, and summarily executed Zapatistas (remember Unión Progreso, June 10, 1998) and non-Zapatistas; you destroyed the social framework of the Chiapas countryside; and following the slogan of your bastard son, the paramilitary group 'Máscara Roja' ('we will kill the Zapatista seed'), you ordered the massacre of children and pregnant women in Acteal on December 22, 1997."
Later, following another reprimand for the Acteal massacre and asking "what have you not done to finish off the Zapatistas?," Marcos rhetorically poses the question, "were the Zapatistas in fact destroyed?"
Answering himself, the rebel leader replied: "Not only did you not destroy the Zapatistas, but they proliferated throughout the world. Do you remember the times when you had to abandon events in other countries, secretly and through emergency exits, while the Zapatista solidarity committees protested your policies in Chiapas? Is there a single ambassador or consul who has not desperately reported the actions which international Zapatistas carried out during Mexican government activities or in Mexican government buildings in other countries? How many messages from international organisms were received by your foreign relations desk protesting the failure to comply with the San Andrés Accords, the lack of dialogue with the Zapatistas, and the militarization in Chiapas? And when you ordered the expulsion of hundreds of international observers, did solidarity actions around the world actually diminish?"
After other rhetorical questions regarding Zedillo's feeble attempts to restrict the Zapatista movement to "four municipalities in Chiapas," the communiqué continues: "Thus have been these six years, Mr. Zedillo. Having had the choice to choose between war and peace, you opted for war. The results of this choice are clear: you lost the war. You did everything you could to destroy us. We did nothing but resist. You are going into exile. We will stay here."
Finally, say the rebels, "it is clear we were right when, six years ago, we Zapatistas welcomed you to the nightmare. But, now that you are leaving, will the nightmare end? Yes and no. Because for us, the nightmare with you ends today. Another one may follow, or we may finally see the dawn. We don't know, but we will do everything possible for the future to flourish. But for you, Mr. Zedillo, the nightmare will only continue.... Wherever you try to hide, there you will find Zapatistas."
END
Luis H. Alvarez Criticizes "Excessive" Militarization In Chiapas
Luis H. Alvarez, recently designated Commissioner for Peace Negotiations in Chiapas by president-elect Vicente Fox, publicly committed himself this week to act "with prudence, patience, and serenity" while seeking to restart the stalled peace process with Zapatista rebels.
In his first statement since being appointed to the post - and before the publication of three rebel communiqués on November 30 - Alvarez stated that the five-month silence of the Zapatistas was "understandable," since "they have been victims of [government] trickery" and were justifiably "waiting for concrete actions to show that the new government will behave differently."
Several days later, in an interview with the La Jornada newspaper, Alvarez reflected again on the silence of the EZLN, suggesting that "within the guerrilla movement there are well-founded doubts about whether or not things will actually change, regardless of the cancellation of the argument about the democratic legitimacy of the authorities; I suppose that the indigenous sectors and their leaders are analyzing this situation, but having been victims of so many deceptions, they are going to wait until they see clear signs which indicate that they are dealing with a government with different characteristics and a different disposition."
Responding to this possibility, Alvarez said that "nothing will change with words alone," and committed himself and the Fox administration to a series of concrete actions in order to re-establish the path of dialogue in Chiapas.
Alvarez sharply criticized the "excessive" militarization in Chiapas which is "harassing" indigenous communities, and said the army will be pulled back to positions which "guarantee social peace, but do not constitute an additional element to disturb it."
He also said the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture should be respected, and announced his support for the concept of indigenous autonomy, a key Zapatista demand included in the 1996 accords.
Alvarez also suggested that the situation of political prisoners in Chiapas will be reviewed case by case, and said there may be "special treatment" given to certain prisoners due to their "particular history" of participation in the conflict. He did not, however, indicate that the Fox administration plans to free all the Zapatista prisoners, another key Zapatista demand for re-initiation of peace talks.
Meanwhile, the appointment of Alvarez, a former senator of the conservative PAN party who served on the Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA) from 1995 to 2000, was applauded by current members of the COCOPA as well as by the governor-elect of Chiapas, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía. All say that Alvarez has an immense familiarity with the conflict in Chiapas and possesses the moral authority to achieve renewed dialogue with the rebels.
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Chiapas Interim-Governor Delivers Final "State Of The State" Address
The fourth interim governor of Chiapas since the 1994 Zapatista uprising, Roberto Albores Guillén (1998-2000), delivered his final State of the State address to the local legislature on November 28. Albores will hand the reins of government to opposition coalition leader Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía on December 8.
In his address, Albores said he was satisfied to have left Chiapas in a better condition than when he was appointed (in January 1998, in the aftermath of the Acteal massacre). He also took credit for a supposed "reconciliation" in the state, apparently the product of the interim governor's State Agreement on Reconciliation which in fact only managed to reconcile elements of the PRI party in the local legislature which unilaterally approved the accord.
Although Albores is considered responsible for ordering the violent military takeovers and deconstruction of autonomous municipalities in 1998, and is accused of protecting and financing paramilitary groups, he tried to paint a different picture during his last speech to the legislature.
As opposition deputies listened in disbelief, Albores said that his unilateral remunicipalization plan fulfilled key parts of the San Andrés Accords; that his government worked against, not for, the paramilitary groups; that he demonstrated a "clear commitment to the protection of human rights;" and that all of his actions as governor were undertaken in order to "fulfill the demands expressed by the EZLN."
In related news, Chiapas governor-elect Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, who will soon succeed Albores, appointed Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) councilor Emilio Zebadúa as state Interior Minister this week.
Zebadúa, whose family hails from Chiapas although he himself was born in Mexico City and has never lived in the southeastern state, served on the IFE since the democratizing electoral body was founded in 1996.
In accepting the designation, Zebadúa said he hoped to assist governor-elect Salazar and Peace Commissioner-designate Luis H. Alvarez in creating the conditions necessary to re-establish dialogue between the federal government and the EZLN. Zebadúa was the first person named to Salazar's state cabinet, and the remaining executive appointees were expected to be revealed on November 30.
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- After having insisted they would boycott the December 1 inauguration of president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada unless a vote recount was held in Jalisco to possibly overturn the results of that state's gubernatorial elections (held on November 12 and officially won by the PAN), the leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) put a 180-degree spin on their declarations this week and said they would in fact attend the inaugural ceremonies, "for the sake of governability."
- According to the designated coordinator of Vicente Fox's so-called "Economic Cabinet," Eduardo Sojo, the president-elect has devised a way to open both the petrochemical and the electric energy industries to private investment without receiving the approval of Congress. According to Sojo, the measure is an "administrative" one which only requires the approval of the administrating councils of the state enterprises, whose directors are both Fox appointees. Sojo added that the measure will be applied in a "parallel" fashion to a congressional initiative which, if approved, would have the same effect.
- Roberto Madrazo Pintado, outgoing PRI governor of the state of Tabasco and whose name is virtually synonymous with electoral fraud in Mexico, has formally begun his campaign for the presidency of the formerly-ruling party. So far his main rival appears to be outgoing Interior Minister and former Oaxaca governor Diódoro Carrasca Altamirano, although the head of the PRI-allied National Campesino Confederation (CNC), Heladio Ramírez, has apparently also thrown his name into the ring.
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SOURCES: Milenio, La Jornada, Milenio Semanal, Proceso, El Universal, El Financiero.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
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In Chiapas, The Renewed Mexican Challenge
Stratfor, Inc. ~ November 22
Summary
During his election campaign, Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox said he could settle the six-year-old indigenous rebellion in Chiapas peacefully in 15 minutes. However, Fox will have to move quickly after his Dec. 1 inauguration to prevent violence in Mexico's poorest state from escalating.
Analysis
On Nov. 17, Amnesty International reported very worrying signs that an already volatile situation in Chiapas is rapidly deteriorating. According to the human rights group, federal security forces have mobilized, paramilitary groups are threatening to attack displaced indigenous people, and indigenous communities sympathetic to the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) are resisting army patrols.
Low-intensity fighting since early 1994 between the EZLN and Mexican security forces and paramilitary groups has caused thousands of casualties among Chiapas' inhabitants. Many have also died in religious clashes between evangelical Christian Indians and Catholic Indians, in land wars between rich landowners and poor peasants, and in local political conflicts between leftist groups like the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the traditionally dominant Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI).
Fox has several important advantages that favor his efforts to settle the rebellion in Chiapas peacefully but he also must overcome daunting obstacles on the road to peace. As the first non-PRI president in 71 years, Fox can legitimately claim to represent a true democratic transition in Mexico. Moreover, the August election of Pablo Salazar as the first non-PRI governor of Chiapas boosted this legitimacy. Salazar will be the 167th governor in the 176 years that Chiapas has been part of Mexico.
Like Fox, Governor-elect Salazar, who takes office a month after Fox's inauguration, was the candidate of the pro-business National Action Party (PAN) and locked in his victory by forging alliances with other political parties including the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). Salazar has a record of being willing to negotiate with the EZLN. In addition, Fox should benefit from the EZLNs weakened popularity and a relatively strong economy that probably will grow 6 percent in 2000 and 2001.
However, some of the obstacles in his path include a recalcitrant Zapatista leadership that has remained oddly silent since Fox's July election, powerful local interests allied traditionally with the PRI and a military establishment likely to resist the new government's efforts to demilitarize Chiapas. Fox also faces stiff opposition from the EZLN and indigenous leaders on the issue of economic policy. Fox supports free-market solutions for Chiapas, while the EZLN has an economic vision that stresses collective work and communal land ownership.
During the election campaign, Fox said that as president his first action on Chiapas would be to submit a bill to Congress to approve and enforce the San Andres peace accords, signed in 1996. These accords would have endowed the indigenous communities of Chiapas with political and economic self-determination, but were never submitted to Congress for approval because a majority of the Mexican political establishment viewed the self-determination sought by the EZLN as secessionist. Fox also pledged to build social and economic infrastructure and attract maquiladora industries from northern Mexico to Chiapas and other impoverished southern states to create tens of thousands of assembly jobs.
In addition to seeking enforcement of the San Andres peace accords, Fox probably will seek to reduce the military presence in Chiapas. During the election campaign he promised to exchange jobs for soldiers in Chiapas. Military officials say only 19,000 soldiers are in Chiapas and Tabasco. However, according to the Chicago Tribune, other sources estimate up to 50,000 soldiers are now in Chiapas at an annual cost of $500 million or nearly 22 percent of the military's $2.3 billion budget. The fact the military leadership has never served a non-PRI president may hinder efforts by Fox to scale back the army's presence in Chiapas.
According to Raul Benitez-Manaut, a researcher at the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, the PRI has functioned as the son of the military since 1929. Until 1946, all Mexican presidents were military officers. The military supported the president of Mexico and the PRI-dominated political order in return for complete autonomy. With the all-powerful PRI a shambles and a new political order in Mexico still taking shape, many in the military fear the loss of their privileged status. These fears have increased in recent years as senior Mexican generals have been arrested for drug-related corruption.
Chiapas is the greatest and most immediate political challenge confronting the new Fox administration. If Fox fails to end the simmering rebellion in Chiapas, the violence will probably escalate and spread to other poor southeastern Mexico states, such as Guerrero and Oaxaca. To achieve a lasting peace, Fox must do two things that are anathema to the traditional political and military establishment in Mexico. First, he must grant the indigenous communities of Chiapas a significant degree of self-determination that goes against the traditional political order that includes the PRI, PRD and his own PAN party. And second, Fox must demilitarize Chiapas, a move that many traditionally independent military leaders will perceive as an infringement of their traditional autonomy.
If Fox can achieve a deal, any backlash probably will come from the military and from traditional local PRI caudillos. Local and regional military commanders with ties to local PRI strongmen, landowners and paramilitary groups will try to stir up trouble to block demilitarization and greater self-determination for the indigenous people of Chiapas.
However, Fox must push forward, since ultimately Mexicans and the international community will view his success or failure in finding a peaceful solution for the conflict in Chiapas as a litmus test on whether he can govern the country effectively as its first non-PRI president.
(c) 2000 Stratfor, Inc.
504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701 Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025 Email: info@stratfor.com
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Weekly News Summary
November 15-21, 2000
Contents:
1. Fox: General Amnesty Possible in Chiapas
2. PAN Officially Wins Jalisco Vote; PRI Threatens Boycott of Fox Inauguration
3. López Obrador Names Cabinet for Mexico City Government
4. Briefs
Fox: General Amnesty Possible in Chiapas
Just two weeks after the federal government suddenly recognized the existence of "armed civilian groups" in Chiapas, and then engaged in a serious of bungled and fruitless actions against them, president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada has begun to speak of the possibility of a general amnesty in Chiapas which would supposedly include members of armed paramilitary groups as well as the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).
On November 20, Fox said that it was "quite probable" that his government would promote a general amnesty in Chiapas, though he refused to go into details, only suggesting that in the case of political prisoners he would review each case in order to help "remove all the obstacles" toward a resumption of dialogue with the EZLN.
On the same day, outgoing Chiapas governor called on the national Congress to approve a sweeping amnesty law specifically covering the actions of anti-Zapatista paramilitary groups in Chiapas, similar to one approved by the Chiapas state legislature in 1998.
That law, the Amnesty Law for the Disarmament of Civilian Groups in Chiapas, specifically excluded the EZLN - whose members are theoretically protected from prosecution under the 1995 federal "Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas" - and granted a full amnesty to all members of "armed civilian groups" who turned in their weapons over a 120-day period.
Albores' call was backed by local PRI deputies (who maintain a majority of seats in the state legislature), including the representative of the state legislature in the COCOPA, Fernando Correo Suárez.
"We don't believe that the reach of the Amnesty Law is broad enough to pacify the state," said Correo, "but it is definitely an important starting point, especially for all those who felt themselves affected by the EZLN and decided to form self-defense groups."
Federal legislators in the congressional Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA), however, disagreed. Senator Felipe de Jesús Vicencio Alvarez (PAN), while recognizing he didn't know what Fox was specifically referring to when he spoke of a probable amnesty in Chiapas, said "I don't believe he will proceed in terms of a general amnesty, absolutely not." He added that such a move would be wholly unjustified, as it would guarantee impunity for paramilitary groups after five years of paramilitary action against civilians.
Senator Demetrio Sodi de Tijera (PRD) agreed with Vicencio, but went further, suggesting that Fox's statement only means that the president-elect "continues to lack an understanding of the conflict in Chiapas." He added that since the EZLN has not asked for and does not seem to desire an amnesty, the measure would only serve to grant impunity to paramilitary groups.
Meanwhile, the COCOPA has asked the federal Attorney General for "all information" related to last week's bungled attempt to arrest members of a paramilitary group in the Chenalhó town of Los Chorros, which resulted in no arrests and no charges being filed (except for one which didn't stick), while provoking a great deal of anger among both the paramilitary groups and local civilians.
In related news, a military and legislative commission made a quick visit to military installations in Chiapas on November 15, reportedly in order to analyze the possibilities of carrying out a partial military withdrawal from some of the positions currently held by the Mexican Army.
The military installations under inspection included the hydroelectric dam of Chicoasén; the air bases of Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Copalar (Comitán); and the two counterinsurgency installations of Euseba and San Quintín, each located near the Zapatista civilian stronghold of La Realidad.
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PAN Officially Wins Jalisco Vote; PRI Threatens Boycott of Fox Inauguration
On November 19, the State Electoral Council (CEE) of Jalisco validated the official victory of National Action Party (PAN) gubernatorial candidate Francisco Ramírez Acuña in that state's November 12 elections.
The CEE gave Ramírez Acuña 1,024,883 votes to 971,242 for Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Jorge Arana Arana, and 118,122 votes for Raúl Vargas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The PRI, however, refused to recognize the victory of Ramírez Acuña, citing what it considered massive electoral fraud on the part of the PAN, the party currently in power in Jalisco. The PRI is currently planning an appeal of the CEE decision to the state and federal electoral tribunals.
"They should beat me with votes, not with fraud," said PRI candidate Arana Arana following the CEE's certification of the election. Juan Enrique Ibarra Pedroza, the PRI's representative before the CEE, added that "the PRI, with the backing of nearly a million votes, does not recognize nor will it recognize the electoral results."
The CEE also said it saw no need to re-open sealed electoral packages to conduct a manual recount of votes. Such a recount had been requested by the state legislature.
Shortly before the certification, national PRI president Ducle María Sauri threatened a boycott of the December 1 inauguration of president-elect Vicente Fox (PAN) on the part of PRI legislators and party leaders, unless the CEE ordered a recount.
The official PRI position in favor of a boycott was supported by most internal currents of the PRI, including dissident sectors who usually find it hard to agree with the party leadership.
"The panistas have shown themselves to be a bad copy of what the former PRI mapaches were," said Fausto Félix, of the PRI's "Critical Current." "Now the system 'crashes' for them, now it is they who refuse to open the electoral packages; if they think they cleanly won the election, there isn't any reason for them to act in this manner," he added.
[Mapache literally means "raccoon," and in Mexican politics is traditionally the title reserved for those who take part in electoral fraud.]
Members of the "Democracy 2000" current agreed, adding that "The shameless resistance of the ultra-right sectors of Jalisco to respect the electoral process for governor requires us to support the warning of our National Executive Committee that our legislators may not attend Fox's inauguration ceremony as a protest gesture."
Meanwhile, the CEE also certified the electoral results at the municipal and legislative level. With respect to municipalities, the PAN officially won 50, including the capital Guadalajara and the resort municipality of Puerto Vallarta. The PRI took 66, while the PRD only won control of six local governments, the Green Party (PVEM) three, and the Democratic Convergence (CD) one.
The PAN won a narrow majority in the state legislature, taking 21 of the 40 seats. The PRI won 16, while the PRD only won 2 and the PVEM 1.
END
López Obrador Names Cabinet for Mexico City Government
Fifteen days before taking his post as "Head of Government" in Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (PRD) announced the names of his sixteen cabinet members this week. Nine are women, seven are men, and most are militants of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Those who will hold top secretariats in the local government cabinet are:
José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti (Government)
Leonel Godoy Rangel (Public Security)
César Buenrostro Hernández (Public Works)
Laura Itzel Castillo (Housing and Urban Development)
Jenny Saltiel Cohen (Transportation)
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (Environment)
Raquel Sosa Elizaga (Social Development)
Asa Cristina Laurell (Health)
Alejandro Encinas (Economic Development)
Julieta Campos Egurrola (Tourism)
Carlos Manuel Urzúa Macías (Finances)
In addition to the above, Bernardo Bátiz Vázquez was named as Mexico City Attorney General; Bertha Luján as Comptroller General; María Estela Ríos González as Legal Advisor; Ana Lilia Cepeda de León as city government spokesperson; and Octavio Romero Oropeza as Chief Clerk.
Only Godoy and Bátiz must have their appointments approved by president-elect Vicente Fox before they can assume office, as their responsibilities include dealing with issues of both public and national security.
The biggest surprise in the cabinet nominations was the noted absence of a number of important figures from the Mexico City PRD, many of whom were earlier considered shoo-ins for cabinet posts in the López Obrador government. These included Ramón Sosamontes, Marcelo Ebrard, and René Bejarano, as well as current Public Security chief Alejandro Gertz.
Gertz had reportedly been asked to stay on in his post under the López Obrador administration, and it is now rumored that he may be on his way to a cabinet post with Vicente Fox in the federal government.
Eleven of the new city cabinet members are militants of the PRD, including ex-federal deputies Leonel Godoy, Alejandro Encinas, Octavio Romero, Ana Lilia Cepeda, and Laura Itzel Castillo, as well as former party leaders Raquel Sosa and Asa Cristina Laurell.
Four are considered "non-partisan": José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti (a former councilor of the Federal Electoral Institute), Julieta Campos, Bertha Luján, and Carlos Manuel Urzúa.
Future city Attorney General Bernardo Bátiz, meanwhile, has a political history rooted strongly in the National Action Party (PAN) until 1992, when he left the PAN to help form the Democratic Forum. According to Bátiz, the PAN at the time had sold out its principles to become an ally of the Salinas government.
END
- Between November 11 and 12, approximately 600 indigenous residents of the Loxicha region in southern Oaxaca gathered in Tierra Blanca Loxicha for a "Forum Against the Militarization of the Loxichas." Considered by the government to be a "stronghold" of the rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), the Loxicha region has become a territory marked by fear and terror following four years of militarization and counterinsurgency activity on the part of the federal army, the judicial police, and paramilitary groups. At the conclusion of the meeting - marked by dozens of denunciations regarding assassinations, torture, and disappearances in the zone carried out in the name of national security - the participants adopted a resolution calling on the federal government to: demilitarize the indigenous regions of Mexico; adopt the COCOPA proposal for implementation of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture (signed between the Zapatista Army and the federal government in February 1996); review the judicial processes against 85 political prisoners from the Loxichas, accused of membership in the EPR; and to disintegrate state-sponsored paramilitary groups. The signers of the document included six federal deputies of the PAN party, who had attended the meeting in order to "see first hand what indigenous reality is like."
SOURCES: Milenio Semanal, La Jornada, Proceso, Proceso Sur, El Reforma.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
Demand that Vicente Fox End the War in Chiapas
NY Azul ~ November 25
To National and International Civil Society
To Human Rights Organizations
To Grass Roots Organizations
To the Men and Women of New York
President-Elect of Mexico, Vicente Fox, proclaimed that he could resolve the war in Chiapas in fifteen minutes. We, the men and women of Amanecer Zapatista Unidos en la Lucha (AZUL), reject a quick-fix solution to a centuries old problem of injustice and violence against the indigenous communities of Chiapas! We, as Mexicanos, immigrants, students, and workers, call to action our community in New York and communities in solidarity across the country and the world to demand an end to the violence in Chiapas on the first day Fox takes office on December 1!!!.
President-elect of Mexico, Vicente Fox, has promised to quickly restart peace talks with the zapatistas and "negotiate" implementation of the San Andres accords after he takes office. Before that important step can take place, Fox must first move quickly to dismantle the immediate danger that is at the center of the conflict in Chiapas: the growing military and paramilitary presence in communities throughout indigenous regions, and, the rapidly increasing displacement of hundreds of families fleeing from the violence of army occupation and paramilitary attacks.
Across Chiapas, impoverished and isolated indigenous communities remain surrounded by an estimated 70,000 soldiers and by hundreds of additional paramilitary forces who harass and violate struggling families every single day in all indigenous regions. The daily reality is this: people are dying by direct military or paramilitary attacks and because of the inaccessibility of basic needs. More than 20,000 people have been displaced in the last few years due to the on-going low-intensity war being waged by the government of Mexico, a low-intensity war with long-term, high-intensity repercussions.
We the men and women of AZUL extend an invitation to all zapatista organizers and supporters to come together at Mexican consulates throughout the U.S. and the world on Friday, December 1, 2000 to keep Fox to his promise and demand in one voice:
The immediate withdrawal of the more than 70,000 Mexican soldiers surrounding indigenous regions in Chiapas
The immediate dismantlement of paramilitary groups
The release of all detained indigenous leaders
The immediate relocation of the more than 20,000 displaced indigenous men, women, and children of Chiapas
The final implementation of the San Andres Accords.
The agreement to all EZLN demands and conditions to enable a return to dialogue with the government
Join us in this open challenge to Mr. Fox because although it will take more than 15 minutes to bring real justice to Chiapas, it takes less than 15 minutes to decide to take action and demand the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and less then fifteen seconds to pull on a mask, pick up a sign and yell YA BASTA!!
If your community is organizing a local action, please let us know. Contact us at ny_azul@hotmail.com.
Demand that Vicente Fox End the War in Chiapas
Friday, December 1, 2000 at 5:30 p.m.
Consul General of Mexico
27 East 39th Street , New York
Friday, December 1st Actions & Events:
*Austin, Texas:
National Zapatista Student Alliance, Zapatisa Council, MECHA, Radical Action Network & Others
Protest at the University of Texas in Austin followed by a rally @ Mexican Consulate
*Sacramento, California:
Zapatisa Solidarity Coalition
Protest & Vigil @ Mexican Consulate
8th & J Streets
11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
*San Francisco, California:
La Raza Centro Legal, Global Exchange, S.F. Zapatista Committee, Day Labor Program, INS Watch & others
Noon Protest @ Mexican Consulate
Flood Building @ Market & Powell
*San Diego, California:
Schools for Chiapas Film Festival Against Neoliberalism Presenting "Zapatista" and "This is What Democracy Looks Like"
December 1-3
*Denver, Colorado:
Chiapas Coalition
Demonstration @ Mexican Consulate
48 Steele Street
Noon
*New York, New York:
Amanecer Zapatista Unidos en la Lucha (AZUL)
Demand that Vicente Fox End the War in Chiapas!
Protest at the Mexican Consulate
27 East 39th Street - 5:30 PM
We are still very interested to know the details about any other actions being planned for December 1, 2000. Please contact AZUL at ny_azul@hotmail.com if you're planning an action or event.
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
NOVEMBER 1-7, 2000
Fox Confirms His First Act of Government Will be Implementation San Andres Accords
Chiapas State Government to Provide Legal Aid for Paramilitary Prisoners
Six Cabinet Members Identified for Fox Administration
Fox Confirms His First Act of Government Will be Implementation San Andres Accords
President-elect Vicente Fox Quesada announced this week that following his inauguration on December 1, his first act of government will be to formally send the COCOPA proposal on indigenous rights and culture to Congress for its approval. he proposal is a legal initiative of constitutional reforms riginally drafted in late 1996 by the congressional Commission in Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA), for the partial mplementation of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture. The COCOPA was asked to write the initiative at the request of both the federal government and the rebel Zapatista Army (EZLN) as a way of breaking the deadlock in the peace process. The EZLN accepted the COCOPA's proposal, but it was rejected by the federal government.
Since that time, the Zapatistas and their supporters have insisted on congressional approval of the COCOPA's proposal before any further peace talks can begin, a demand which was rejected out of hand by the Zedillo administration. In reiterating his support for the COCOPA proposal, Fox insisted that it is the only initiative on the table (there are two others, one written by the Zedillo administration and one by Fox's National Action Party) which fully reflects the agreements signed in February 1996 between the EZLN and the federal government in the Chiapas town of San Andrés Larráinzar. "This action," said Fox, "will demonstrate my administration's will to establish the conditions for a peace with justice and dignity in Chiapas, and to begin a great national dialogue."
Meanwhile, Rodolfo Elizondo Torres, the coordinator of political issues in Fox's transition team, said that the implementation of the COCOPA proposal on indigenous rights and culture will not be the only element of Fox's pacification strategy in Chiapas. Rather, he said, the president-elect has prepared a comprehensive "strategic plan" for peace which will seek to eradicate the root causes of the conflict while simultaneously engaging in dialogue with the belligerent parties.While Elizondo hinted that the details of the "strategic plan" would not be made public until after December 1, Fox gave a general outline to the press: "First," he said, "we must return to a dialogue, that has to be the starting point. Without dialogue there will be no solution to the conflict. I am confident that we will soon be sitting at that dialogue. I have hope that the EZLN is reflecting on this, engaging in analysis, and is now predisposed to have chats and conversations toward returning to a dialogue."
"All the actors must be there," he continued, "all of those who have had something to do with the problem, and all of those who have had something to do with the solution, must be there. That is the first step." Then, he added, "we must work decidedly to eliminate the 'white guards' [guardias blancas] and all forms of violence which exist in the state of Chiapas, and once this scenario of peace and tranquility is in the foreseeable future, we must make a serious and unprecedented push for economic and human development. We are going to generate many jobs in Chiapas. Only by bringing education, health care, roads, and other forms of human development to every one of the communities," Fox concluded, "will we be truly advancing."
END
Chiapas State Government to Provide Legal Aid for Paramilitary Prisoners
In a "secret" meeting held in Tuxtla Gutiérrez on October 29, top leaders of the state legislature promised PRI deputy Raymundo Hernández Trujillo - the current head of the "Paz y Justicia" paramilitary organization - that the state government would hire former state Supreme Court judge Federico Corzo to defend Paz y Justicia leaders Samuel Sánchez Sánchez and Marcos Albino Torres, two of the paramilitary leaders arrested in late October on terrorism, organized crime, and weapons charges. Details of the meeting were later leaked to the press, although they were subsequently denied by Sánchez Sánchez and Albino Torres. The government sources who leaked the information also said that the legislators planned to "pressure" the campesinos in northern Chiapas whose accusations lead to the unprecedented arrests of eleven members of the paramilitary group.
Meanwhile, Paz y Justicia itself issued a communiqué, signed by Cristóbal Gómez Torres and Diego Martínez Martínez, insisting that while Sánchez Sánchez and Albino Torres were "historical" leaders of the group, they no longer belong to the organization as they were "expelled some years ago for the actions they undertook" while directing the organization.Similar statements were later affirmed by Samuel Sánchez Sánchez, who said that Paz y Justicia split down the middle approximately one year ago, and that the group is currently lead by "municipal presidents and some state government officials."
Sánchez Sánchez also warned that Chiapas is "on the verge of civil war" due to the recent government moves against Paz y Justicia, which he said "have caused a great deal of discontent among our social base." He described himself as a political prisoner, and called on the federal government to undertake a dialogue among all actors in the Chiapas conflict, including with the paramilitary groups. Some human rights and non-governmental organizations have also begun to warn that the detentions of the paramilitary leaders may have been planned all along by the state government and the armed anti-Zapatista groups themselves with just that end in mind, in order to create social pressure for a dialogue leading to a full amnesty for those civilians who have participated in the government's counterinsurgency strategy against the EZLN.
END
Six Cabinet Members Identified for Fox Administration
Six cabinet positions for the incoming government of Vicente Fox Quesada have now been filled, according to journalists covering the activities of the president-elect's transition team. Those named to the future cabinet are: Pedro Cerisola, as Secretary of Communications and Transporation; Gastón Azcárraga, as Tourism Secretary; Santiago Creel Miranda, as Interior Minister; Rafael Rangel Sostmann, as Minister of Education; Carlos Abascal, as Labor Secretary; and Francisco Barrio, as Comptroller General. Cerisola was picked by one of Fox's "headhunters," and previously served as the director of Aeroméxico and executive director of Telmex in Mexico City.
Gastón Azcárraga seems a perfect fit for running the tourism industry, as he is already the president of the administrative council of the Posadas Group, the country's largest hotel chain. Santiago Creel was a federal deputy in the 1997-2000 legislature, and only joined the PAN two years ago. This year he was the party's candidate for mayor of Mexico City, and came surprisingly close to winning the job on Fox's coattails. Instead, he will be awarded with the second most powerful political position in the country.
Rafael Rangel is currently the president of the Monterrey Technological Institute, Mexico's largest and most important private university. As Minister of Education, he will be in charge of coordinating policy for Monterrey Tech's rivals in the public sphere, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the largest institution of higher education in Latin America.
Carlos Abascal is generally considered a moderate leader of the private sector, and is a former president of the Employer's Confederation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX), one of the most important organizations created in Mexico to defend private enterprise (basically one big bosses' union dedicated to promoting political and economic policy to benefit business). Abascal champions the concept of linking wages to productivity.
Francisco Barrio is a former governor of Chihuahua, and was the first member of the opposition ever elected to govern a Mexican state. His primary task as Comptroller General will be to fight corruption. It may prove a difficult task, especially as some reports in the United States have linked Barrio to drug traffickers.
Meanwhile, contrary to earlier reports which suggested that the economics coordinator in the transition team, Luis Ernesto Derbez, would almost certainly become Treasury Secretary in the Fox adminstration, recent rumors circulated in the press now indicate that Santiago Levy, a high-ranking treasury official in the Zedillo administration, is more likely to get the post.
Levy, a former professor at the Colegio de México with graduate studies at Boston University, is credited with creating the PROGESA anti-poverty program and championing the elimination of generalized federal subsidies for food and agricultural products. His résumé also includes having served as an advisor to the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank, the Ford Foundation, and the governments of such economic powerhouses asIndonesia and Ecuador.
Vicente Fox is expected to officially designate members of his cabinet in three stages, on November 15, 21, and 30. He will be inaugurated on December 1.
END
- The Mexican Defense Ministry has issued orders to all military ranks to fully respect human rights. The order states that any soldier or officer who does not comply with the directive will be subject to sanctions, including possible charges under military criminal law. The order comes just a short time after the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued a recommendation to the Army to investigate and prosecute human rights violations committed by a federal army unit in the massacre of 11 presumed members of the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI) in El Charco, Guerrero on June 7, 1998 [the CNDH recommendation claims incorrectly that the victims were militants of the EPR, the Popular Revolutionary Army, from which the ERPI split off six months earlier].
- The Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA), the congressional committee entrusted with facilitating the stalled peace process between the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the federal government, was re-established this week with new members from the 58th legislature. The new federal deputies who will participate in the COCOPA are: Jaime Martínez Veloz and Santiago López Hernández, for the PRI; Renando Pérez Noriega and Carlos Raymundo Toledo, for the PAN; Emilio Ulloa Pérez and Auldárico Hernández Gerónimo, for the PRD; Nicasia García Domínguez and Concepción Salazar González, for the PVEM; and José Narro Céspedes and Félix Castellanos Fernández, for the PT. Both Jaime Martínez Veloz and José Narro Céspedes were members of the original commission when it was created in 1995.
______________________________________________________________
SOURCES: Milenio, La Jornada, Proceso, El Universal, El Financiero.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited.
END
Amnesty International ~ October 31
Felipe Arriaga Sanchez, Juan Bautista Valle, Servando Bautista Fuerte, Jesus Bautista Fuerte, Jesus Cervantes Luviano Peasant environmentalists Luis Torres, Abimando Torres, Roberto Cabrera Torres, Elias Valdez Lucena, Miguel Garibo Heredia
Peasant environmentalists (campesinos ecologistas) trying to protect the forests in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero from overexploitation are reportedly facing death threats from soldiers and so-called paramilitary groups. Amnesty International is concerned for their safety. Activist Juan Bautista has reportedly said, 'We've been accused of the lot, of being members of the [armed opposition group] EPR, of carrying weapons. All that's lies. The only thing we've done is protect the forests and water resources.' ('Nos han acusado de todo, de ser del EPR [un grupo alzado en armas], de portar armas. Todo eso es mentira. Lo unico que hemos hecho es defender los bosques y el agua.')
Juan Bautista is a founder member of the peasant environmentalist organisation Organizacion de Campesinos Ecologistas de la Sierra de Petatlan y Coyuca de Catalan. He was speaking at a 26 October meeting (encuentro) in Banco Nuevo, set up by the organisation. He and the other activists listed above told journalists, politicians and local and federal environment officials that soldiers and so-called paramilitary groups acting with their acquiescence were harassing and threatening to kill them.
A week before the meeting, on 18 October, the peasant environmentalists had led a march (caravana) to Banco Nuevo calling environmentalist prisoners of conscience Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia (UA 144/99 issued 25 June 1999). An officer commanding some 40 soldiers which intercepted the march claimed the soldiers were deployed to control drug-trafficking and apply the Federal Law on Firearms (Ley Federal de Armas). The environmentalists denied this, saying the troops were intent on stopping their lawful activities.
Background Information
Mexico's 1917 Constitution, introduced during the Mexican Revolution, sought to break up the estates of landowners (hacendados) by making provision for the creation of communal land holdings (ejidos), owned by peasant ejidatarios. However, a significant proportion of rural land holdings remained in private hands. In 1992, however, a radical change to the Constitution allowed the land reforms to be reversed, by permitting ejidos to be sold or let to domestic and foreign corporations. Supporters of the change argued that it would benefit the ejidatarios economically. Critics argued that the opposite was true.
Logging operations have for long been conducted by ejidatarios and private landowners in Guerrero state. Boise Cascade, a USA-based corporation involved in the manufacture of wood products, reported that in 1995 it began buying logs from ejidatarios and private landowners for processing in a Boise Cascade saw-mill in Guerrero, but that these operations were closed in 1998. A year later Mexican environmentalists claimed that Boise Cascade had signed a deal in 1995 with Ruben Figueroa Alcocer, a former Governor of Guerrero, for exclusive rights to purchase logs from ejidos in Guerrero. Months later Boise Cascade denied these claims.
Nevertheless, it was excessive logging which, in 1998, led to the formation of the Organizacion de Campesinos Ecologistas de la Sierra de Petatlan y Coyuca de Catalan. According to them excessive logging continues to this day, to the benefit of local political bosses protected by the military and so-called paramilitary groups. Amnesty International takes no position on conflicts over the distribution or use of natural resources, or on the policies of governments and others with an interest in such resources. The organization, however, believes that the human rights of those involved in such conflicts, including their right to life, must be fully respected.
Recommended Action: Please send telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail letters:: - expressing concern about reports that soldiers and members of so-called paramilitary groups have threatened to kill members of the Organizacion de Campesinos Ecologistas de la Sierra de Petatlan y Coyuca de Catalan;- calling on the authorities to promptly investigate the death threats, make the findings public, and bring those responsible to justice; - calling on the authorities to ensure that peasants concerned about the protection of the environment in Guerrero state may go about their legitimate activities free of intimidation.
Appeals To: Attorney General of the Republic, Lic. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, Procurador General de la Republica, Av. Reforma, esq. Violeta, Col. Guerrero, Mexico D.F., 06300 Mexico
Telegrams: Procurador General Republica, D.F., Mexico Faxes: International code + 52 5 346 0906 E-mails: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Salutation: Senor Procurador General/ Dear Attorney General
Minister of Defense: Gral. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre Secretario de la Defensa Nacional, Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional Blvd. Manuel Avila Camacho esquina Avda. Industria Militar S/N
Col. Lomas de Sotelo, Mexico D.F. 11640 MEXICO, Telegrams: Secretario Defensa Nacional, D.F., Mexico, Faxes: International code + 52 5 557 8963
Salutation: Senor Ministro / Dear Minister
Governor of Guerrero state: Lic. Rene Juarez Cisneros, Gobernador del Estado de Guerrero, Palacio de Gobierno, segundo piso, Plaza Central, Primer Congreso de Anahuac Col. Centro, Chilpancingo 39000, Guerrero. Mexico, Telegrams: Gobernador, Guerrero, Mexico, Faxes: International code + 52 747 28319,
Salutation: Senor Gobernador / Dear Governor
Governmental National Human Rights Commission: Dr. Jose Luis Soberanes Fernandez, Presidente de la Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH), Periferico Sur 3469, 5o piso, Col. San Jeronimo Lidice, Mexico D.F. 10200 Mexico Faxes: International code + 52 5 681 9239/ 681 7199 / 135 0595 E-mails: correo@cndh.org.mx
Salutation: Estimado Dr. Soberanes / Dear Dr. Soberanes
Copies To: Non-governmental Human Rights organization:
Centro de Derechos Humanos 'Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez' A.C. Serapio Rendon 57-B Col. San Rafael Mexico D.F. 06470 Mexico, Ambassador Jesus F. Reyes Heroles G.G., Embassy of Mexico, 1911 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington DC 20006
Urgent Action Network, Amnesty International USA, PO Box 1270, Nederland CO 80466-1270, Email: sharriso@aiusa.org Phone: 303 258 1170 Fax: 303 258 7881
END
Weekly News Summary
September 15-21, 2000
Contents:
1. Fox and Co. face uproar over alleged salary payments
2. Fox announces idea to modernize the countryside with the Internet
3. Salazar reiterates support for the San Andrés Accords
4. Briefs
Fox And Advisors Face Uproar Over Salaries
When president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada presented the 20 coordinators of his "transition team" on July 17, he stated clearly that neither he nor they "would be paid a single penny" for their work prior to his inauguration on December 1, but rather would offer their services freely out of "love for Mexico."
Apparently, that love has run out.
In a press conference on September 18, Fox spokesperson Martha Sahagún admitted that eighteen coordinators of the different areas of the transition team received salaries of 85,300 pesos per month - roughly equivalent to US$110,000 per year - from public funds, even though they are not employees of the State or the government. Sahagún justified the payments, saying that "there are families who depend on that income."
She added that "it can be inferred" that Fox himself receives a salary equivalent to that of the current president, Ernesto Zedillo, a salary fixed at 167,041 pesos per month (US$212,000/year).
The declarations sparked a week of accusations, counteraccusations, contradictions, and controversy.
Treasury Secretary José Angel Gurría partially denied Sahagún's statements, claiming that only two members of the transition team are paid "honorariums" equivalent to the salary of a Cabinet member (approximately 85 thousand pesos per month), and that the rest received just 32 thousand pesos per month on average.
Facing a congressional inquiry, Gurría later announced that it was President Zedillo who specifically approved, at Fox's request, a special fund made up of 10.3 million pesos (US$1.2 million) from the public treasury to pay 178 of Fox's advisors before Fox even takes office. He again insisted, however, than only two received high salaries.
Fox, for his part, also denied the statements of his own press spokesperson and insisted that the salaries received by his advisors were not equivalent to those of a Cabinet member. He then (in the same press conference) backtracked and said that, in fact, the coordinators of his transition team each received salaries of 85,300 pesos per month (thus contradicting Gurría).
However, with respect to his own financial situation, Fox - speaking in the third person - said that "the president-elect does not receive a single cent from the public coffers for his person. He receives a salary, he does have an income, but one which comes from my own resources and which covers the income I need at this time."
Meanwhile, leading legislators of the PRI and PRD parties insist that any payments to Fox or his team before December 1 are illegal and unconstitutional, and are demanding a full investigation into the matter, as well as a criminal investigation into Treasury Secretary Gurría for the illegal dispensing of funds.
The PAN, for its part, is demanding an investigation into the
media and the Zedillo government for alleged "espionage" on the Fox transition team which supposedly led to the salary scandal first breaking in the press.
END
Fox: Modernize The Countryside With The Internet?
In his weekly radio address, president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada announced part of a plan for the "modernization" of the Mexican countryside. In addition to what he called a "gigantic offensive" to bring education, and training to poor farmers, Fox's plan includes the novel idea of bringing telephone communication to the countryside "so that we can all have Internet access and computers."
The plan, said Fox, is based on the "philosophy" that "the poor also have property, the poor also have patrimony, and unfortunately they are unable to use it in order to obtain credit, to receive capital for their own benefit. This concept has to do precisely with the ownership [of land] and the goods of the poor, it could be a small piece of land where the [campesino's] house or hut is installed, a parcel of land, or other properties, because precisely through such means intense systems of credit, financing, savings, and capitalization can be channeled. This new concept will permit us, for the first time in the history of the country, to put rural housing programs in place similar to those which exist in the cities."
Fox continued: "They should have telephone communication, which would help solve problems of illness, and solve problems of being in contact with their brothers or relatives in the United States."
Installing telephone lines would also, said the president-elect, "solve problems of knowledge, of education, because if we connect the whole country with telephone lines, then we can all have Internet access and computers.. This radically changes our vision, and we are thinking about this type of development for the rural communities."
Reminiscent of Newt Gingrich and his "laptops for the homeless" campaign a few years back, Fox neglected to mention who would pay the phone bills, much less cover the cost of the computers and internet access, for the rural poor whose annual liquid capital often does not exceed the value of an old IBM 486.
END
Salazar Reiterates Support For San Andres Accords
Chiapas governor-elect Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía announced on September 19 that as governor he plans to "review" the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture (signed by the Zapatista National Liberation Army and the federal government in February 1996) and accordingly cancel any existing programs or projects being carried out by the outgoing state government which have the intent of "invalidating" the agreements or of "neutralizing" the demands of the Zapatista Army.
Meanwhile, the state leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Sonia Rincón Chanona, announced that a number of high-ranking PRI officials in Chiapas who offered their support to Pablo Salazar during the gubernatorial campaign in August will likely be expelled from the ruling party. The six PRI figures likely to be sanctioned include former state party leader Arturo Morales Urioste; Homero Díaz Córdoba (who competed unsuccessfully against Sami David David in the internal struggle to become the party's gubernatorial candidate against Pablo Salazar); and former Federal Deputy Tito Rubín Cruz. All supported the opposition candidacy of Salazar without renouncing their militancy in the then-ruling party. Díaz Córdoba, for his part, heads a "critical current" within the local PRI with supporters numbering approximately six thousand, and all of these supporters could conceivably be expelled from the party as well.
END
- On September 17, Mexico City mayor Rosario Robles Berlanga (PRD) gave her first and only "State of the City" speech to the inaugural session of the new Mexico City legislature. Robles emphasized the gains of her administration and vigorously defended her predecessor, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, claiming that between 1997 and 2000 the rise in crime was halted, pollution levels were reduced, citizen participation in the decision-making process increased, health care was improved, the quality and availability of drinking water rose, and corruption was reduced. However, the mayor added that her government has been unable to fully meet its own goals in the areas of housing and public security, tasks which will be passed on to her successor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (PRD), in December. Robles - who is a far more popular governor of the city than Cárdenas was, even though she has only run the administration for one year - easily brushed aside criticism from the PAN and PRI parties in the question-and-answer session following her speech, to such an extent that some local journalists commented afterward that Robles had "swept away the PAN." For the PRD, it was the best news they had heard all year.
- Human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa, of the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center based in Mexico City, announced on September 19 that she has "temporarily" gone into exile in the United States as a result of continuing threats against her person and the corresponding lack of guarantees for her safety and personal security in Mexico. Ochoa made the announcement after arriving in Washington, D.C. to receive an award from President Clinton recognizing her work and that of 49 other human rights activists worldwide. In an interview with the La Jornada newspaper, Ochoa said she planned to remain in the U.S. "for a while," but did not go into further details.
- Eduardo Sojo, one of the members of president-elect Vicente Fox's "transition team" in charge of economic matters, announced that the economic policy of the next administration will be "orthodox and serious" in matters of stability and growth, "serious in maintaining the public finances in order," but "more aggressive in terms of achieving both stability and growth, and more aggressive in terms of carrying out the structural reforms necessary for the economy to grow at a better rhythm" than the forecasted annual growth rate of 5%.
- The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) issued a statement on September 15 declaring that three political parties which participated in the July 2 federal elections - the Party of the Democratic Center (PCD), the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM), and the Social Democracy Party (PDS) - have now officially lost their federal registry as political parties, meaning they will lose federal funding and will not automatically appear on the ballot in the next federal elections. The minimum national vote required to maintain registry is 2 percent; the PCD received 0.55%, the PARM 0.42%, and the PDS 1.57%.
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SOURCES: Milenio, La Jornada, Proceso, El Universal, Proceso Sur.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited.
Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
Weekly News Summary
September 8-14, 2000
Contents:
1. Fox in Central America, announces "crusade" against the EPR
2. PAN loses majority in Mexico City legislature
3. Garzón charges Cavallo with 423 crimes, presents extradition request
4. PRD presents federal initiative to criminalize "forced disappearances"
5. Briefs
Fox In Central America, Announces Crusade Against EPR
During a three-day tour of Central America, Mexican president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada visited the Costa Rican headquarters of the Interamerican Human Rights Commission (CIDH) and said that as president he would respect and implement the recommendations of the CIDH only "when they are right."
Fox insisted that as president his government would energetically respect human rights, but warned that he would use "all the resources within my reach" to "eradicate" armed groups in Mexico.
"Violence is, without a doubt, the greatest barrier to economic development," he said. "As long as there is violence, democracy will be difficult and economic development will be difficult.[Violence] must be erradicated. We have a commitment to attend to the problem of violence and the groups that promote it; otherwise we would be erasing all possibility of establishing and consolidating processes of sustainable development."
In the concrete case of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), Fox said he would offer no political concessions to the rebels, but rather would seek to "erradicate" them or at least ensure that their presence does not extend beyond Guerrero and Oaxaca.
It should be noted that Mexican politicians, including Fox, often use the EPR to refer to all opposition guerrilla groups in Mexico that are not part of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), even though the EPR's size and military capacity has been substantially reduced in the last two years and it is no longer the largest non-Zapatista rebel group.
Fox's tour took him to Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua where he met with the presidents of those nations, as well as with the president of the Dominican Republic. Fox was accompanied on the trip by the governors of the southern Mexican states (including Chiapas governor-elect Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía) in order to promote his "Puebla to Panama Plan" (PPP), a regional development initiative for southern Mexico and Central America.
END
PAN Loses Majority In Mexico City Legislature
In a surprise decision, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal by a 5-2 vote revoked the application of the controversial "governability clause" in Mexico City electoral legislation which had awarded a working majority in the local legislature to the Alliance for Change, made up of the National Action Party and the Green Party, following the July 2 elections.
The "governability clause" was written into local electoral laws before the 1997 midterm elections in order to ensure that the party which received the most votes for the local legislature, with at least 30% of the vote, would be able to govern in the legislature with at least 50% of the seats.
The electoral tribunal decided that the clause was not applicable to coalitions, and thus revoked the automatic majority for the Alliance for Change and reassigned 26 of the 66 legislative seats among all parties.
Although the Tribunal made the decision on an appeal from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which would have maintained a plurality in the local congress without the governability clause, it was the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which stood to gain the most from the decision.
Before the decision, the PAN held 24 seats, the PRD held 23, the PVEM 10, and the PRI only 5, with four minor parties (PDS, PT, PSN, CD) holding one seat each.
Now the PRD will be the largest party in the legislature with 19 seats, although it lost four deputies to the Tribunal's ruling. The PAN dropped to 17, and the PVEM to 8, while the PRI was awarded a new total of 16. The Social Democracy Party (PDS), meanwhile, increased its number of local deputies from one to three.
As a result of the decision, it is expected that the next legislature will rescind the "governability clause" in its entirety and allow proportional representation slots to be assigned under democratic norms.
END
Garzon Charges Cavallo With 423 Crimes, Demands Extradition
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón formally presented an extradition request this week for Argentinian citizen Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, former director of the National Vehicle Registry program (RENAVE) in Mexico, for 423 crimes committed while Cavallo was a Captain in the Argentinian Navy and, under the code names "Sérpico" and "Marcelo," became known as one of the most feared torturers during the military dictatorship of 1976-1983.
Cavallo was arrested by federal police in Cancún on August 24 while en route to Argentina, where he would presumably have been covered by the general amnesty decreed in that country for all those involved in the so-called "dirty war" waged by the dictatorship against political opponents.
According to the extradition papers submitted to the Spanish government on September 12, Cavallo has been "clearly identified" by at least 22 witnesses as a participant in the atrocities committed in the Navy's School of Mechanics (ESMA) between 1976 and 1980. Garzón added that "given his officer status and the hierarchical responsibility entailed therein, it is clear that Cavallo participated in the entire system of repression, [including] the disappearance and elimination of persons, crimes against property, and other crimes carried out in the ESMA."
If it decides to act on the extradition request, the Spanish government will ask the Mexican government to transfer Cavallo into Spanish custody to face charges, with Spain claiming jurisdiction under the principle of universal justice. However, if the Spanish authorities do not request extradition by October 22, Cavallo will likely be set free.
Meanwhile, Argentinian government authorities are apparently trying to "save" Cavallo from his fate at the hands of Judge Garzón, and are searching for ways to indict him on fraud or other fiscal charges completely unrelated to his activities during the dictatorship, and then demand his extradition from Mexico. Under such a scenario Argentina would take custody of Cavallo and likely imprison him for one of these minor crimes, without trying him for his participation in the disappearance (and presumed extrajudicial execution) of the five thousand people who were taken to the ESMA during the dictatorship and never heard from again.
END
PRD Presents Initiative To Criminalize Forced Disappearances
With two of the most important military figures implicated in the forced disappearances of more than 500 civilians in the state of Guerrero during the 1970s now behind bars on unrelated drug trafficking charges, citizens' petitions to try the generals for their part in human rights abuses have now received backing from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The legislative bench of the PRD presented a legal initiative on September 12 before the Chamber of Deputies to reform federal legislation such that the practice of "forced disappearance" would be characterized as a criminal act.
The most novel part of the initiative would be its retroactive nature, allowing military and civilian political figures to be tried for their parts in forced disappearances of persons even if such events took place thirty years ago and well before the practice of "forced disappearance" was legally defined as a crime. Furthermore, "forced disappearance" would be characterized as a "crime of State," and thus the use of the argument that the perpetrators were "only following superior orders" would be inadmissible as a defense in a court of law.
María Guadalupe Muñoz, promoter of the legislation and legal advisor for the "Eureka! Committee" for family members of the Disappeared, suggested that if and when the reforms are approved, family members could file criminal suits against former presidents Luis Echeverría, José López Portillo, and Miguel de la Madrid, as well as all of the Attorney Generals and Defense Secretaries between 1971 and 1987, for their roles in permitting and/or ordering disappearances to take place.
END
- Carlos Castillo Peraza, ex-president of the National Action Party (PAN) and former Mexico City mayoral candidate, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 53 while on a speaking tour in Germany on September 8. Castillo Peraza was considered the most important ideologue of the PAN during the last two decades, and served as the party president from 1993 to 1996. During that time, the PAN experienced its most important period of political and electoral growth in its history.
Together with Diego Fernández de Cevallos, Castillo Peraza was also the principal architect of the policy of dialogue and negotiation with the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari between 1988 and 1994. After losing the 1997 Mexico City mayoral elections to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Castillo resigned his militancy in the PAN, although he never ceased to identify with the party, and opted to dedicate his remaining years to "intellectual pursuits." After the victory of PAN candidate Vicente Fox in this year's presidential elections, the name of Carlos Castillo Peraza was widely circulated as a candidate for the post of Education Secretary in Fox's cabinet.
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SOURCES: Milenio, La Jornada, El Financiero, Proceso, El Universal, Reforma.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited.
END
Weekly News Summary
September 1-7, 2000
1. Zedillo gives final State of the Union address
3. Accusations mount against narco-generals for torture and forced disappearances
4. Assistant Secretary of Commerce commits suicide, blames media for RENAVE scandal
5. Briefs
Zedillo Gives Final State Of The Union Address
In the last State of the Union address of the last PRI president, Ernesto Zedillo focused on one theme and one alone: democracy. "Mexico has completed its path toward democracy," he said. "Now no one can see themselves as the permanent opposition, nor as the permanent government..The objective I expressed on December 1, 1994 has been fulfilled: that we all are satisfied with the form in which elections in Mexico are carried out, independent of the results of those elections."
On July 2, he added, "the majority elected Vicente Fox Quesada, of the Alliance for Change, as the President of the Republic. The vote for Deputies and Senators resulted in a plural composition of both houses of Congress, where no political party can claim an absolute majority. These results are unheard of in the political history of the country."
The forty-minute speech, given on September 1 to a joint session of the new Congress, also touched lightly on economic recovery and the social programs promoted by Zedillo's government since 1994. It did not address the scandals or unresolved problems which have tarnished his rule, including the Fobaproa scandal; the massacres of Aguas Blancas and Acteal; the conversion of important bankers and politicians into fugitives from justice; the unsolved assassinations of Luis Donaldo Colosio, Cardinal Posadas, and José Francisco Ruiz Massieu; the strike at the UNAM; and the arrests of important Army generals on drug trafficking charges.
Zedillo was received warmly by the new bench of the National Action Party (PAN) whenever he mentioned democracy - the same moments in which he was viewed coldly by the congressional representatives of his own party, the PRI. The much-reduced bench of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) chose not to applaud, and held up signs reading "lies" whenever Zedillo spoke of the "completion" of the democratic transition.
The official congressional response to Zedillo was given by Ricardo García Cervantes (PAN), president of the Chamber of Deputies, who read off a short and terse speech about the July 2 elections which not only failed to address the missing elements of Zedillo's speech, but also failed to address any other theme even remotely related to Zedillo's government or the State of the Union address.
The official party response of the PAN was not much different, and was characterized by journalists as a response "lacking analysis, without either a balance of the past or perspective for the future."
The PRD, with a relatively miniscule presence in the new congress, sharply attacked Zedillo's government in its own response, accusing the outgoing president of being a "backwards Robin Hood, expropriating from the poor to give to the rich." The balance of Zedillo's government, said the PRD, is reflected in "poverty and the fall of salaries."
Apart from being the venue for President Zedillo to lay down for the history books what he thinks his great achievements as president were, the State of the Union address also served to inaugurate the federal legislature elected on July 2.
The new PRI representatives sat in the largest section, with 211 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 60 in the senate. The PAN followed close behind with 206 deputies and 46 senators. The PRD deputies, looking uncomfortable, numbered just 50 with only 15 senators. The Green Party (PVEM) showed off its new, larger and improved bench, with 17 deputies and 5 senators. One-time PRD allies, the Labor Party (PT) sat at its own bench with 8 deputies and 1 senator. The Convergence for Democracy (CD), an electoral ally of the PRD which now sits in congress for the first time at the latter's expense, arrived with 3 deputies and 1 senator. Likewise, the fascist Party of the Nationalist Society (PSN) also has 3 deputies in the new congress, and the Social Alliance Party has 2.
END
In an important comeback following the Institutional Revolutionary Party's historic electoral losses on July 2 nationally and on August 20 in the state of Chiapas, the PRI has won big in local elections in the state of Veracruz, while the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has added to its recent agony by losing the two most important municipalities it previously controlled in the state, Coatzacoalcos and Minatitlán.
Apart from retaking Coatzacoalcos and Minatitlán, the PRI also gained control of the municipality of Orizaba, dominated by the National Action Party (PAN) since 1997. The PAN, for its part, retained the important port city of Veracruz as well as Córdoba, Boca del Río, and Tuxpan, among others.
Overall, the PRI won 114 municipalities, compared with 40 for the PAN and 28 for the PRD.
Smaller parties, meanwhile, such as the Convergence for Democracy (CD) - led by former Veracruz governor Dante Delgado, a former PRI stalwart jailed for corruption several years ago - also fared well. The CD beat out the PAN by just a handful of votes to control the state capital of Xalapa, and will control six other municipalities as well, while the Labor Party (PT) took nine municipalities, the Green Party (PVEM) won in five, and the Social Alliance Party won one municipality.
As of this writing, six other municipalities have yet to declare winners in the local races.
In elections for the state legislature, meanwhile, the PRI triumphed in 20 of the 24 state electoral districts, while the PAN won in the remaining four. In terms of percentage counts, the PRI took 35.4 percent of the state vote, followed by the PAN with 30.2 percent, the PRD with 15.2, the CD with 5.7, and the PT and the PVEM each with 3.9 percent of the vote.
Abstention in the elections was approximately 50%.
END
Accusations Mount Against Acosta Chaparro For Crimes Against Humanity In The 1970s
Although Brigadier General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro was detained by military justice authorities two weeks ago only for his alleged links with drug traffickers, the families of hundreds of "disappeared" political activists during the 1970s and 1980s are demanding the investigation of Acosta Chaparro by civilian authorities for his direct role in planning and carrying out illegal detentions, torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions during the "dirty war" against guerrillas and political dissidents two decades ago.
To this end, a coalition of non-governmental and human rights organizations led by Rosario Ibarra de Piedra asked the Attorney General's office (PGR) to take on the case against Generals Acosta Chaparro and Humberto Francisco Quiros Hermosillo so that they can be tried by civilian rather than military courts. If not, Ibarra de Piedra says she will take the testimonies of surviving victims of the dirty war to international institutions and human rights authorities.
Meanwhile, the state congress of Guerrero (where Acosta Chaparro was stationed in the 1970s, both in charge of Army counterinsurgency units and the judicial police) came to a unanimous "point of agreement" of September 6 among all political parties to demand that the PGR immediately open a full investigation into the participation of Acosta Chaparro "in the crimes of torture and forced disappearance of persons, perpetrated against more than 500 Guerrero citizens in the decade of the 1970s."
The point of agreement received a surprisingly energetic backing from the PRI bench, which - in its attempt to "open a new political relationship between the party and Guerrero society" - insisted that "it is imperative to struggle decisively against those who would threaten the integrity and the rights of citizens," and added that the party was in favor of the "construction of a more just and democratic society in which we unify our labor and efforts toward the eradication of impunity."
END
Assistant Commerce Secretary Commits Suicide
Two weeks ago, the controversial National Vehicle Registry program (RENAVE) became a national scandal with the detention of its director, Argentinian national Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, on international charges of genocide, torture, and terrorism stemming from his days as a Navy officer during Argentina's military dictatorship.
On September 6, the program's founder and brainchild, Assistant Secretary of Commerce Raúl Ramos Tercero, committed suicide in the woods outside Mexico City.
Ramos left behind six letters, one of which was directed to the "Reforma" newspaper, the journal which detonated the RENAVE scandal with the revelations that Cavallo was a torturer during the dictatorship in Argentina, and was also likely involved in international trafficking rings for stolen vehicles. The accusations reinforced popular impressions that the RENAVE - whose operation had been awarded to a private company headed by Cavallo - was riddled with corruption.
Ramos Tercero's suicide note to Reforma accused the paper - and the media in general - of having ruined his life (and the life of the program) with false accusations about the program, insisting that the RENAVE concession was awarded with "total transparency." He insisted that the newspaper had caused irreparable "damage to me, to the country, and to the institutions," and left as his final "dream" the hope that that someday the communications media would be "held responsible before the law."
Meanwhile, in the Cavallo case, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón has been presented with documents implicating the former RENAVE director with at least 228 crimes during the Argentinian dictatorship, including illegal detentions, torture, "forced disappearances," and murder. Judge Garzón has sixty days from the time of detention to present all the necessary evidence incriminating Cavallo in such crimes to the Mexican government, in order for Cavallo's extradition to Spain to proceed. Otherwise, Cavallo could be released in October, as the Mexican government does not plan on charging him directly with any crimes.
END
- President-elect Vicente Fox reiterated this week his "disposition" to withdraw the Federal Army from its positions in the conflict zone of Chiapas, in order to facilitate dialogue with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and jump start the "pacification process" in the state. The declarations came in a meeting with Spanish journalists on September 7, and Fox suggested that an order to the Federal Army to confine itself to its barracks in Chiapas may come as soon as December 1, immediately after his inauguration as president.
- Felix Salgado Macedonio, a Federal Deputy for the PRD representing the state of Guerrero, tested out his congressional immunity on September 2 by riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle through the Condesa district of Mexico City with his biker friends, repeatedly revving the engine and shouting "I am the face of war!" When residents complained, a police officer approached Salgado - who was visibly drunk out of his mind - and asked him to "tone down" his behavior. The former senator and one-time gubernatorial candidate then stepped off his bike and attacked the policeman and other officers who had arrived on the scene. Salgado was then detained and taken to a local police station, from where he was promptly released when officials realized Salgado was a Federal Deputy and thus enjoyed full immunity from prosecution and arrest. In the aftermath of the incident, Salgado filed a criminal lawsuit against the police officers who arrested him, claiming he had been kidnapped, drugged, pumped full of alcohol, and tortured. However, after he discovered the altercation had been videotaped and released to the press, Salgado withdrew his accusations and offered an apology to the police. Meanwhile, a more than embarrassed PRD decided to punish the legislator with a three-month suspension from party privileges, which will likely keep him from participating in any of the congressional commissions in the new legislature which was inaugurated on September 1.
- The 1998-1999 report of the Attorney General's office (PGR) on the conduct of the Federal Judicial Police under its mantle revealed that in evaluations of honesty, legality, efficiency, professionalism, loyalty, and impartiality, only 6.6% of the police, investigators, and administrators passed the tests, while the remainder - 93.4% - flunked in at least one of the six areas. The report was released to the press as the PGR celebrated its 100th anniversary.
SOURCES: Milenio, La Jornada, El Financiero, Proceso, El Universal, El Sur
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited.
END
Greenpeace Releases Confidential Information on Deforestation in the Petatlan Mountains
Greenpeace, Mexico ~ September 4, 2000
Greenpeace Mexico obtained confidential information about deforestation that has occurred over the past eight years in the Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan mountains in the state of Guerrero. This information confirms denunciations made since 1998 by the Organization of Campesino Environmentalists of the Mountains of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan, of which Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera are members.
"The region has suffered extreme deforestation: nearly 40 percent of the forests have been lost in just eight years. This information supports the claims of environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who were tortured and convicted for speaking out against widespread logging and in favor of protecting the forests," remarked Juan Carlos Cantu, coordinator of Greenpeace Mexico's biodiversity campaign.
According to satellite images taken between 1992 and 2000 of 18 areas in the Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan mountains, 86,000 hectares of forests were lost from the 226,203 hectares that existed in 1992. In other words, 38 percent of the forest has been lost to the excessive and illegal logging that the environmentalists were denouncing to the authorities.
Furthermore, the excessive logging and destruction of the region's vegetation led to a 446 percent increase of the area that has been clearcut in the last eight years. In 1992, 37,636 hectares had been clearcut; that figure reached 130,595 hectares by the year 2000.
"It is alarming that in only eight years close to 40 percent of the forests in the Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan has been lost. In 1998 the environmentalists predicted that if the logging continued, in ten years only bald mountains would remain in the region. This information on deforestation shows that they were right," Cantu added.
"It is important to point out that this information comes from the comparison of satellite photos taken in October 1992 and April 2000. This means that since April, the authorities have known about the severe deforestation in the region, but did nothing while Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera were being sentenced."
Deforestation in the region worsened in 1995, with the agreement signed by then-Governor Ruben Figueroa Alcocer with the US-based transnational timber company Boise Cascade. The agreement granted Boise Cascade exclusive rights to the exploitation of the forests on 24 ejidos. In mid-1998, the transnational company pulled out of the region, after the environmentalists staged roadblocks to prevent lumber from leaving.
However, illegal and excessive logging continues, now directed by the Ruben Figueroa Ejido Union, whose members transport lumber to sawmills, some of which are clandestine.
"Montiel and Cabrera are in jail for doing the work that the Environmental Prosecutor should have been doing -- ensuring that environmental laws are respected and that natural resources are protected. They were defending the forests. The real criminals -- the local caciques who murdered members of Montiel and Cabrera's organization, and the authorities who did not investigate logging practices, despite the organization's denunciations -- are not in jail," said Alejandro Cavillo, Director of Greenpeace Mexico.
"With this information, the sentence given to Montiel and Cabrera would have been different," he added.
"Up until now, attention on the environmentalists' case has been focused on the human rights violations they suffered, but the issue of serious deforestation has not received much attention. The environmental authorities should immediately publicize the information about this case and deliver it to the judge. If logging in Guerrero continues at this pace, in ten years there will be no more forests in the Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan mountains, just as Montiel and Cabrera have warned," Calvillo said.
Greenpeace requests that the environmental authorities be investigated for negligence and complicity for authorizing the logging and not investigating or stopping it after receiving the environmentalists' denunciations. Greenpeace also demands the Montiel and Cabrera's liberation. "Their imprisonment is the most shameful case of human rights violation and environmental injustice in Mexico, and one of the most well known worldwide," said Calvillo.
Deforestation in Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan
|
Total Forest Area, in Hectares |
Forest Lost Over 8 Years |
Percent of Forest Loss |
|
|
~~Oct 24 l ~Apr 13 ~ ~ ~ 1992 l ~2000~ ~ |
|||
|
Closed Forest |
122,331 |
78,542 ~l ~43,789 ~ |
|
|
Open Forest |
103,872 |
61,605 ~ l ~ 42,267 ~ |
40.7 |
|
Increase over 8 years |
Percent Increase |
||
|
Clearcut Area |
37,636 |
168,232 ~ l ~ 130,595 ~ |
446.9% |
For more information, contact Cecilia Navarro at 5590-6868, 9474, or 8350, or visit our webpage: www.greenpeace.org.mx.
END
Environmental Activists Rodolfo and Teodoro Sentenced Under Trumped-up Charges
Just Earth Network ~ Sept. 6
As you many of you already know Mexican environmental defenders Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia were convicted by the Fifth District Judge in Iguala, Guerrero on Monday, August 28th. Rodolfo was sentenced to 6 years, 8 months for the crimes of marijuana cultivation, possession of arms without a license, and possession of arms licensed exclusively to the military. Teodoro received a 10 year sentence for the crime of possession of arms licensed exclusively to the military. Their defense lawyers, from the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, are appealing the judge's ruling.
This judgement was handed down despite the findings of Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights that the two men had been arbitrarily detained and tortured by members of the Mexican Army, and that the evidence on which they were charged was planted. The conviction of Rodolfo and Teodoro is clearly a gross miscarriage of justice. Thus, it is essential that we continue to exert pressure during the appeals process.\
One way to do this is to write personal letters of encouragement to both Rodolfo and Teodoro in prison. This will send a clear message to prison authorities that both Rodolfo and Teodoro have activists who are working on their behalf and concerned about their prison conditions. More importantly, your letters will help lift the spirits of Rodolfo and Teodoro who are distressed by the prison sentences. In past visits to the prison, both men have mentioned how uplifting letters from activists around the world have been to them. Your letters of support mean a lot to the defenders.
You can write to them at the following address:
Centro de Re-adaptacion Social de Iguala
Carretera de Iguala - Tuxpan, Iguala, CP 40101 Guerrero, Mexico
During the appeals process, be sure to keep up the pressure on President Zedillo asking that the men be immediately and unconditionally released. Letters to President Zedillo can be sent to:
Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Palacio Nacional, Patio de Honor,
Primer piso, Col. Centro, Mexico D.F. 06067 MEXICO
Fax: (+52 5) 515 5729 / 277 2376 / 516 5762
Function: President of the Republic
Salutation: Senor Presidente
In addition, President-Elect Fox has promised to make human rights and environmental issues a top priority of his government. Urge Mr. Fox to publicly condemn the human rights violations against Rodolfo and Teodoro, and to show the citizens of Mexico and the international community that the rights of environmentalists will be respected by immediate and unconditionally releasing the two Prisoners of Conscience upon taking office on December 1. You can write to President-elect Fox at:
President-elect Vicente Fox Quesada
525 Paseo de la Reforma
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Mexico, D.F. CP11000 Mexico
Thanks for your actions around this case and our campaign to defend the rights of those who speak out for the environment. Please stay tuned for further actions on this case.
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
AUGUST 22-31, 2000
1. Generals Acosta Chaparro and Quirós Hermosillo Arrested for Drug Trafficking
2. RENAVE Director Ricardo Miguel Cavallo Arrested on International Genocide Warrant
3. Fox and Salazar: San Andrés Accords Will be Top Priority in New Government
4. Fox Discusses Border, NAFTA, and Privatizations With US and Canadian Leaders
5. Briefs
Two Generals Arrested For Drug Trafficking
Two high-ranking generals in the Mexican Army, Francisco Quirós Hermosillo and Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro Escapite, have been placed under military arrest following a prolonged investigation into their alleged links with the Juárez drug cartel.
Three years ago, a similar investigation ended the career of anti-drug czar Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, who is currently serving out a 70-year prison sentence for his part in protecting the Juárez cartel when it was led by the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
Acosta Chaparro was one of the Army's most active figures in intelligence and counterinsurgency operations. In the mid 1970s he served as the director of the Judicial Police in Guerrero during the repressive government of Rubén Figueroa Figueroa, and had previously played an important role in the war against leftist guerrilla leaders Genaro Vásquez and Lucio Cabañas in the state.
Shortly thereafter, both Quirós and Acosta later became central elements in the creation of the "Brigada Blanca," a clandestine military and paramilitary unit accused of assassinating and "disappearing" hundreds of leftists suspected of participation in guerrilla groups active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the September 23 Communist League.
Acosta continued his anti-subversive career in the Mexican Army through the 1990s, and published an army manual entitled "Subversive Movements in Mexico" which detailed thirty years of insurgency and counterinsurgency in the country. He was also accused of having had a hand in the 1995 massacre of Aguas Blancas, Guerrero.
The investigation which led to the arrests of Quirós and Acosta was based largely on the testimonies of police and army sources, as well as contacts close to the Juárez cartel. Two of the most important witnesses who implicated the generals have since been murdered for their declarations.
The same testimonies incriminated other generals as well, though none have yet been detained. The list includes Generals Evandoro García, Jesús Beltrán Guerra, Gastón Menchaca Arias, Federico Antonio Reynaldo del Pozo, Guillermo Alvarez Nahara, Oliver Cen, Jorge Mariano Maldonado Vega, Roberto Miranda, Curiel García, Tapia García, and Murillo Soberanís. All are suspected of either having received money from the cartel in exchange for protection, or of being directly involved in the cartel's trafficking operations.
Of the above list, Gen. Miranda is currently the head of the presidential guard; Gen. Oliver runs the anti-drug unit of the Judicial Police; and Generals Alvarez Nahara and Menchaca Arias are both counterinsurgency specialists. Menchaca Arias is also a graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas.
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Renave Director Arrested On International Genocide Warrant
The director of the controversial National Vehicle Registration program (RENAVE), Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, was arrested by Federal Preventative Police (PFP) officers and Interpol agents on August 24 in Cancún on an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón. Cavallo is accused of the crimes of murder, torture, car theft, falsification of documents, terrorism, and genocide.
The alleged crimes date from the mid-1970s when, according to Judge Garzón, Cavallo - an Argentinian national - was an officer in the Argentinian Navy and formed part of the specialized team based at the Navy's Mechanics School (ESMA) dedicated to the forced disappearance of thousands of leftists during the military dictatorship in that country between 1976 and 1983.
Garzón is the same judge who ordered the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998, and has circulated international arrest warrants for the leaders of the former Argentinian military junta as well.
The detention of Cavallo occurred just before he was to board an airplane in the Cancún airport which would have taken him back to Argentina - the only country where he would be virtually "untouchable" due to the general amnesty declared in Argentina for the participants in the dictatorship's "dirty war" against leftists.
The National Vehicle Registration program was already the subject of heightened controversy before Cavallo's past became known, as it was a mandatory program by which all citizens with motor vehicles were required by law to pay a fee and register their vehicles (supposedly to prevent theft) not to the government, but to a private company (headed by Cavallo) which bought the concession. A number of city and state governments, including Mexico City, had previously announced their opposition to the program and called on citizens to refuse to pay the registration fees, declaring that such a program should be free and in the hands of a government agency, not a private for-profit corporation.
While the arrest of Cavallo at first appeared to be the last nail in the RENAVE's coffin, the program's legal government sponsor - the Secretary of Commerce and Industry (SECOFI) -
redoubled its stance in defense of the RENAVE. Commerce secretary Herminio Blanco even went so far as to defend the program's director and his past, insisting that he is "only" accused of genocide:
"Cavallo is not being accused of vehicle theft as has been reported," Blanco said to the press, "nor of falsification of documents. The accusations are only for genocide and torture."
The "supposed" criminal past of Cavallo and his "personal situation," continued the Commerce secretary, "have no link nor relevance to the National Vehicle Registry, nor with the seriousness and transparency with which the RENAVE was designed and licensed."
Nevertheless, the SECOFI suspended the private concession of the RENAVE within days of Cavallo's arrest, and calls have mounted from sectors of both the PRI and the PRD parties for the resignation of Commerce secretary Blanco.
Meanwhile, Judge Garzón is preparing a petition for extradition of Cavallo to Spanish territory to be tried for genocide and torture, and it is expected that extradition hearings in Mexico will begin within 60 days.
END
Fox And Salazar: San Andres Accords Will Be Top Priority In New Government
Chiapas governor-elect Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía and president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada met on August 31 to informally discuss the perspectives for "pacification and development" in Chiapas once the respective leaders take up their positions in December.
According to Salazar, Fox reaffirmed his commitment to send the COCOPA initiative for constitutional implementation of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture to Congress for its immediate discussion and approval "in the first hours of his government" on December 1.
The initiative was drafted by the congressional commission in charge of facilitating the peace talks between the government and the EZLN, and was approved by the Zapatistas but has been stalled since late December 1996 by opposition from President Zedillo, the PAN, and the PRI.
Fox also presented a development plan for Chiapas which Salazar described as "very ambitious," and which is supposedly designed to pull the south of the country out of poverty and bring it even with the north by the year 2006.
Themes such as the demilitarization of Chiapas and the PAN's continuing opposition to the COCOPA proposal on indigenous rights were not dealt with at the meeting, although Salazar later expressed his "personal position" that there should be a "unilateral partial withdrawal" of Mexican Army troops in order to reduce tension in the conflict zone.
Salazar added that he has "never" been in favor of a full withdrawal of the army to its barracks in Chiapas, but rather of a simple "reduction" in the number of troops in the state.
END
Fox Dicusses NAFTA, Border, And Privatizations With US And Canadian Leaders
In his first official visit to the United States and Canada as Mexico's president-elect, Vicente Fox Quesada met this week with Canadian Prime Minister Chrétien, U.S. President Clinton, and U.S. presidential candidates Al Gore, Jr. and George W. Bush, as well as with business leaders and members of non-governmental organizations.
The main issues Fox raised with the North American leaders were centered on proposed changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), economic investment in Mexico, and immigration policy.
Fox, who will be sworn into office on December 1, received a warm welcome in both countries. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Chrétien rejected out of hand a proposal by the future Mexican leader to renegotiate NAFTA toward the creation of an economic block similar to that of the European Union, and also seemed hesitant to discuss Fox's proposal to increase the amount of funds in the NAFTA development bank destined toward development in Mexico from one billion to ten billion dollars.
"I know that this might not seem very important to the US and Canada," said Fox in reference to the development funds, "but it is for us in Mexico, it is crucial, it is the key...." He further explained that in the creation of the European Union, the more "developed" nations destined 35 billion dollars toward economic development in Spain and Portugal in order to bring them up to par with the rest of western Europe, and that such a measure would also be needed in Mexico if NAFTA was to become successful for all three countries involved.
In the United States, Fox was also greeted warmly but his proposal to open the border between Mexico and the United States was firmly rejected by Clinton, Gore, and Bush. Clinton insisted that "in the United States we have the most generous immigration policy in the world, which we should conserve and continue to support." Bush, for his part - who otherwise got along fabulously with Fox - said that if elected he would "energetically" defend the US-Mexican border from undocumented immigration.
In his meetings with business leaders, meanwhile, Fox insisted that the energy and oil sectors of the economy will be "completely open" to foreign investment by the end of December, and that current legislation which mandates minimum 51% state ownership of enterprises in such sectors will be changed so as "not to inhibit" private investment.
"Except for PEMEX [the nationalized oil company]," said Fox, "I think we should open everything to private investment, which will promote development in Mexico and will permit the government to not deviate from its prinicipal tasks, which should be investment in education and health care."
Fox also took the time during his trip to announce from Ottawa that the new regime in Mexico would defend and promote democracy and human rights not only in Mexico, but in the entire world.
END
- A guerrilla attack on a police convoy in the La Montaña region of Guerrero left two police officers dead and two others seriously wounded on August 30. The attack, likely perpetrated by the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI) or the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), occurred near the community of Axoxuca in the municipality of Zapotitlán Tablas, along the Chilpancingo-Tlalpa federal highway.
- In another string of post-electoral bad news for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), a local electoral tribunal revoked the party's victory in the Alvaro Obregón delegation of Mexico City, handing the delegate's post instead to the National Action Party (PAN). The tribunal said that after annulling the ballots of six polling stations - citing irregularities - and modifying the count of thirty others which had been challenged by the PAN, it came up with a new result favoring the PAN by 391 votes. Meanwhile, electoral tribunals also annulled the PRD's victories for federal deputy spots in the districts of Tlalpan (Mexico City), Tacámbaro (Michoacán), and Papalotla (Mexico State), as well as a local deputy position in the state of Sonora. The seat in Tlalpan was given to the PAN, and those in Papalotla and Tacámbaro were handed to the PRI. The PRD has said it plans to "energetically appeal" all five reversals.
- On August 23, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) officially assigned the 200 proportional representation seats of the Chamber of Deputies and the 32 PR seats of the Senate to the political parties which took part in the July 2 federal elections. The PRI will retain a plurality in the Senate, while the PAN-PVEM coalition will form the largest block in the Chamber of Deputies. The definitive makeup of the Chamber of Deputies will be as follows: PRI, 211 seats; PAN, 207; PRD, 50; PVEM, 17; PT, 7; CD, 3; PSN, 3; PAS, 2. In the Senate, the seats will be distributed in the following manner: PRI, 59; PAN, 45; PRD, 17; PVEM, 5; CD, 1; PT, 1.
- Imprisoned campesino environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera were formally sentenced to six and ten years in prison, respectively, by the Fifth District Court Judge in Guerrero on August 29. Both men were members of the Organization of Environmentalists of the Sierra of Petatlán, and had been in jail since May 2, 1999 when they were kidnapped by Federal Army troops and subsequently forced to sign "confessions" under torture regarding their alleged participation in a firefight between campesinos and the Army. Both Montiel and Cabrera, as well as a dozen non-governmental, human rights, and environmental organizations who support them, have appealed to President-Elect Vicente Fox to review their cases. Meanwhile, lawyers from the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center announced they plan to appeal the verdict.
- The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the state of Chiapas has formally challenged the results of the August 20 gubernatorial election, questioning the vote count from 1,900 ballot boxes covering 13 of the 24 local electoral districts. The State Electoral Tribunal has until September 13 to issue a ruling about the challenge. Meanwhile, opposition coalition candidate Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, was officially declared "governor-elect" by the State Electoral Council (CEE) on August 27 with a final vote count of 535,860 votes (51.5%) to the PRI's 475,267 (45.6%).
- After a state-sponsored poll showed that 53% of Guanajuato residents were opposed to a recent anti-abortion bill passed by the PAN-controlled state legislature which would have brought criminal penalties against women who abort their pregnancies after being raped, the controversial bill was vetoed by PAN governor Ramón Martín Huerta. In related news, the state legislature of Morelos - currently controlled by a lame-duck PRD and PRI majority - rushed through legislation decriminalizing abortion in the cases of rape, accident, forced or undesired artificial insemination, congenital defects, and when the health or life of the mother is at risk. The PAN, which will control both the state executive and the legislature as of December, rejected the move and said it plans to repeal the legislation as soon as it comes to power. Meanwhile, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico said the Church would excommunicate any doctor who carries out an abortion, even if the doctor is obligated by law to do so.
SOURCES: Milenio, La Jornada, El Financiero, Proceso, El Universal
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
AUGUST 15-21, 2000
1. Salazar Wins in Chiapas; PRI Rule Will End on December 8
2. PRI vs. PRI in Mexico State: 15 Dead, 102 Wounded in Gun Attack
3. Robles Wins Abortion Vote in Mexico City Legislature
4. Briefs
Six weeks after the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost the presidency, and six years after the Zapatista National Liberation Army took up arms against the government and State it represented, the PRI has lost power in the Zapatistas' home state of Chiapas.
In statewide gubernatorial elections marked by 52% abstention but otherwise characterized as "peaceful" and "respectful," opposition alliance candidate Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía defeated the candidate of the ruling PRI party, Sami David David, by a margin of 52.7% to 46.9%.
The Zapatistas abstained from voting for the most part, and the PRI won more votes than the opposition in the six electoral districts where the EZLN is the strongest.
Ironically, the reversal of fortune for the PRI in Chiapas comes amid an actual increase in voter support for the party statewide. In the July 2 federal elections (which the PRI won handily in Chiapas), PRI presidential candidate Francisco Labastida won approximately 470 thousand votes against a combined 560 thousand votes for the PAN, PRD, and other assorted opposition parties.
On August 20, Sami David David actually pulled in more votes than Labastida, and the vote count for Salazar came up about 40 thousand votes short of that offered to the combined opposition on July 2.
In other words, between the PRI's victory in Chiapas on July 2 and its historic loss on August 20, the PRI's vote count went up and the opposition's vote count went down. The difference was that on July 2 the opposition was split, while this time eight parties united behind Salazar's independent candidacy.
The only opposition party which declined to join Salazar's Alliance for Chiapas was the Social Democracy Party, whose gubernatorial candidate polled less than one percent of the total vote statewide.
After the State Electoral Commission (CEE) issued preliminary results which gave an "irreversible" advantage to Salazar, Chiapas Interim Governor Roberto Albores Guillén was quick to recognize the opposition victory. At midnight, Albores appeared on television to officially congratulate Salazar and reiterate his "commitment" to work with the governor-elect to acheive an orderly transfer of power on December 8. Albores also called on all those who supported Sami David David and the PRI to recognize and accept the opposition triumph "for the good and the tranquility of Chiapas and of Mexico."
Sami David himself, however, only recognized Salazar's victory after a full day had passed after the closing of the polls. On election night, he said he would not make any statement acknowledging the victory of either candidate until the Electoral Commission issued its final and official report three days later. But the next day David finally gave in, apparently under pressure from sectors of the PRI and the state government, and accepted the inevitable.
President-elect Vicente Fox, for his part, publicly congratulated Salazar on his victory before the CEE had even released its preliminary results, and added that he looked forward to working closely with the future governor to achieve lasting peace and reconciliation in the state.
Immediately after his election, Salazar said that his top priorities as governor would be to open a new dialogue with the EZLN; work with all sectors of Chiapas society toward reconciliation; insist on the immediate disarmament and criminal investigation of paramilitary organizations; and create the necessary conditions so that the thousands of displaced indigenous civilians in Chiapas may return as soon as possible to their homes and communities of origin.
However, Salazar added that the conflict in Chiapas is a conflict of national dimensions, pitting the Zapatista Army and its supporters against the Federal Government, and that as such it is the incoming government of Vicente Fox at the federal level, rather than the state of Chiapas, which must deal directly with the Zapatistas to resolve the simmering six-year old conflict.
Final electoral results will be released on August 23, and Salazar will be sworn into office on December 8, exactly one week after Vicente Fox becomes president.
END
PRI Vs. PRI Violence Leaves 15 Dead And 102 Wounded In Mexico State
A street battle between rival factions of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the State of Mexico on August 18 left at least 15 people dead and more than 100 injured, the majority with gunshot wounds, after armed members of the Organization of Villages and Colonies (OPC) attempted to prevent the swearing-in of mayor-elect Jesús Tolentino Román Bojórquez, affiliated with the Antorcha Campesina (Campesino Torch) organization, in the municipality of Chimalhuacán.
Antorcha Campesina and the OPC are rival groups within the PRI. All of the dead and most of the wounded in Chimalhuacán come from the ranks of Antorcha Campesina, whose members - unlike those of the OPC - were not armed with firearms with the fight began.
The OPC is lead by Guadalupe Buendía Torres, "La Loba," previously known for having organized a public fundraising event for then-presidential candidate Francisco Labastida in May which was headlined by professional male strippers.
La Loba controlled the OPC for its entire twenty-year existence, and also pulled the strings of power in the municipality of Chimalhuacán for most of that time. Antorcha Campesina arrived in the municipality in 1988, and since then has disputed local power with La Loba and the OPC.
Antorcha gained control of the PRI apparatus in the municipality in 1997, and this year nominated Tolentino from within its own ranks as the PRI's candidate for mayor. La Loba responded by calling on her supporters to vote for the opposition PRD party. Tolentino won anyway, by a margin of six thousand votes. After the election, La Loba insisted he would never govern; the events of August 18 were apparently an attempt by the OPC leader to fulfill her promise.
The police stood by and did nothing for the first hour of the battle, although eventually the Rapid Reaction Forces intervened and detained 229 people, most from the OPC. Of these, 67 tested positive in gunpowder residue tests. Police said most of the weapons used in the ambush/fight/massacre were legal .38 and .22 pistols.
Arrest warrants were subsequently issued for La Loba and the other leaders of the OPC, although Buendía herself quickly went into hiding before the violence even ended and has yet to be apprehended by the police.
The PRI, for its part, condemned the violence and accepted what it called its "historical responsibility" for having tolerated and even supported groups such as the OPC within its organization.
END
Robles Wins Abortion Vote In Mexico City; Church Counterattacks
By a vote of 41 to 7, the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City approved an initiative sponsored by mayor Rosario Robles, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, to decriminalize the practice of abortion in cases in which the health of the mother is at risk, when the fetus presents serious congenital defects, and when the pregnancy is the result of undesired artificial insemination.
Abortion is already permitted in Mexico City when the pregnancy is the result of rape.
The initiative brought immediate condemnation from the Roman Catholic Church, the right-to-life organization Pro-Vida, and conservative sectors of the National Action Party (PAN). The transition team of president-elect Vicente Fox had previously asked Robles to withdraw her initiative.
The president of the Commission of Justice in the national Senate, Juan de Dios Castro - of the PAN - attacked the initiative and insisted that abortion is never justified, not even when the mother has been raped. He said that the idea that a woman has the right to decide about the future of a fetus simply because it is within her body is a fallacy, and that the decriminalization of abortion in the case of rape is a legal maneuver derived from times of war when soldiers raped civilians, and has no place in a contemporary society.
For his part, Jorge Serrano Limón, president of ProVida, led a series of confrontational Operation Rescue-style protests in Mexico City, demonstrating outside the legislative offices of the Assembly and closing a number of women's health clinics. Graffiti of "Robles, Assassin" appeared in various parts of the city, and Serrano Limón called for citizens not to pay their taxes to the local government upon implementation of the new law. He also said that raped women should give their babies up for adoption and undergo psychiatric treatment, and that all women who support decriminalization of abortion are lesbians.
The Church also attacked Robles' proposal, and all attempts to decriminalize abortion in the cases of rape and the health of the mother. Cardenal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez even went so far as to say that women need to dress more conservatively to avoid being raped.
Blatantly ignoring virtually all sociological and psychological studies of the phenomenon, Cardinal Sandoval declared that sexual abuse occurs because the society is "eroticized" and "bombarded with sex," and that women "must do their part, since they tend to dress in a very provocative manner; they need to be more decent and not ask for it."
The Bishop of Cuernavaca, Luis Reynoso Cervantes, launched a verbal attack on Mexico City mayor Robles, calling her a "cowardly assassin." Bishop Reynoso also suggested that women who "think they might be raped" should "use anticonceptive devices to avoid becoming impregnated."
Meanwhile, in the PAN-controlled state of Guanajuato, legislation criminalizing abortion even in the case of rape has been approved by the state legislature, and is simply awaiting the signature or veto of PAN governor Ramón Martín Huerta, who has hired the Center of Studies of Opinion (CEO) of Guadalajara to carry out a statewide survey on the matter.
In Nuevo León, another state governed by the PAN, an initiative to reform the state constitution "to protect life from the moment of conception" and criminalize abortion in all cases (eliminating existing exemptions for the cases of rape, health of the mother, or congenital defects present in the fetus) was frozen in the current legislature, due to opposition from the PRI, PRD and PT parties. But since the PAN won an absolute majority in the legislature in the July 2 elections, it will have the votes necessary in the next session to push the measure through on its own.
END
- Julio Boltvinik, a researcher at the Colegio de México and generally considered one of Mexico's top experts in economic studies of poverty, announced on August 17 the conclusion of a nationwide study which suggested there are 75 million poor people in Mexico - out of a population of 97 million - and that of those, 45 million live in conditions of extreme poverty. Boltvinik said that the majority of Mexico's poor are urban youth, contrary to official statements alleging that most poverty in the country is found in rural areas. Boltvinik added that it will be essential for the incoming government of Vicente Fox to give less priority to macroeconomic indicators and more attention to the welfare of the population, and that existing government anti-poverty programs need to be completely overhauled to become effective.
- Luis Ernesto Derbez, one of the "economic coordinators" of Vicente Fox's transition team, announced this week that Fox will try to convert the nationalized oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), into a multinational corporation with capacity to invest in other countries. Derbez also laid out the fundamental economic goals for Fox's administration: sustained GDP growth of 7% by 2005; 3% annual inflation as of 2003; a fiscal deficit of 0.75% of GDP beginning in 2001; and oil export prices of between 16 and 18 dollars per barrel in 2001.
- On August 19, a delegation composed of four past winners of the international Goldman prize for environmental protection were denied entrance into the penitentiary of Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, to visit this year's winners of the prize, Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera García. Montiel and Cabrera have been imprisoned for their environmental activities in Guerrero for fifteen months. The government-sponsored National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) recently affirmed that they are being held for crimes they did not commit, and that it was only under military torture that they "confessed" to such crimes.
SOURCES: Milenio, Proceso, La Jornada, El Universal, El Excelsior.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
Case Of Argentinean Torturer A Headache For Mexico
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 30 (IPS) -- The arrest in Mexico of Miguel Cavallo, a high-ranking officer in Argentina during the last dictatorship, who has several criminal charges pending against him in Spain, has become a thorn in the side of the Ernesto Zedillo government.
Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, or one of his assistants, will visit Mexico next week to seek Cavallo's extradition. But Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa will also make the trip to request Cavallo's release.
Interpol agents (International Police) arrested Cavallo in Mexico last week after a local newspaper identified him as a torturer under the most recent Argentinean dictatorship (1976-1983).
Up until the arrest, Cavallo had been working here as head of the Mexican National Registry of Vehicles.
According to political observers, Mexico has just two choices in handling the case of the alleged torturer, who has already caused a political scandal because he had served as director of a firm hired by the government to perform a public service.
One option is to accept Spain's extradition request and recognize the extra-territoriality of another nation's law, but this contradicts Mexico's traditional diplomatic line.
The other choice is to let the former navy captain return to Argentina, where he would be free. This would trigger a wave of protests from human rights groups, but would have the blessing of the De la Rúa government.
The Argentinean president and his defence minister, Ricardo López, declared yesterday that they would defend the principle of national legal jurisdiction over the Cavallo case.
Argentina, under president Carlos Menem (1989-1999), granted amnesty to military personnel accused of human rights violations, meaning Cavallo would have no problems with justice authorities in his home country.
Mexico finds itself between a rock and a hard place with Cavallo on its hands, said Octavio Cantarel, an international relations expert.
There is also the possibility that Garzón, the judge who in 1998 won the arrest in Great Britain of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, may not be able to legally sustain his request for Cavallo's extradition.
The petition might fail on formalities, such as the difference between Cavallo's real name and aliases he used during and after the Argentinean dictatorship. Or it could flounder because the Spanish National High Court's prosecutor's office maintains Garzón does not have the authority to try the former Argentinean military official.
According to Cavallo's lawyers in Mexico, the accused is not the person the media reports claim him to be.
But examination of Cavallo's photos, his handwriting and his fingerprints, as well as the testimony of numerous torture victims in Argentina, seem to rule out mistaken identity. Charges against him include auto theft, forgery of documents, torture and assassination.
"Regarding the arrest of Argentinean citizen Cavallo, and in contrast to its questionable decision to abstain from voting in favor of the International Criminal Court in July 1988, on this occasion the Mexican government should remove the thorn from its side and grant the extradition requested by Spain," said a statement from the Mexican Academy of Human Rights.
According to diplomatic tradition, Mexico opposes the extra-territoriality of any law, and thus questions the legality of the International Criminal Court proposed by the United Nations.
"In response to potential pressures from the Argentinean military and even from the Argentinean government, the Mexican Judiciary and Executive must assume their historic responsibility: choose the primacy of human rights and justice," in both the domestic and international spheres, exhorts the non-governmental Academy of Human Rights.
The clues Cavallo has left in his wake indicate that for several years, before he became a business executive, he tortured political prisoners at Argentina's Navy Mechanics School, a known detention center during his country's dictatorship.
Political analysts here believe De la Rúa, during his visit on Sept. 4 and 5, will ask the Mexican government to release Cavallo under the principle of national legal jurisdiction.
Though Spain had issued a warrant for his arrest, the former military officer had travelled to several Latin American countries in recent years and had no problems with legal authorities.
"Mr. Cavallo was not included on any Interpol list, nor did he have any pending issues with justice authorities, which is why he was able to enter Mexico and obtain a work permit here," explained José Pescador, Mexico's Under-secretary for Population and Migration Services.
"We had received no information from international organizations that would lead to assume that Mr. Cavallo might be responsible for the terrible crimes for which he is accused," commented Pescador.
The former Argentinean navy captain has not committed any crime in Mexico and his situation will be resolved one way or another by the judge in charge of the extradition proceedings. But that decision would only be preliminary, as the final word would come from Mexico's foreign ministry.
Mexico is now caught up in an important process of ethical and legal reflection. The Cavallo case will set legal precedents and will unfold in a highly politicized environment, commented Sergio Sarmiento, a columnist for Mexico's Reforma newspaper.
END
Outcry Over Sentences For Activists
By Diego Cevallos and Danielle Knight
MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (IPS) -- Environmental and human rights groups in Mexico and the U.S. are condemning the conviction of two Mexican environmentalists, found guilty yesterday of drugs and weapons crimes in the southern state of Guerrero.
Seen as a severe blow to human rights and environmental protection in Mexico, the two farmers, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, were sentenced to six years and eight months in prison by a state district judge.
"A battle was lost but we will not flag in our efforts (to obtain their release), because these two peasant farmers are innocent, and their only crime was to oppose the destruction of forests at the hands of powerful business interests," Mario Patrón, a lawyer for the local Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, which is defending the two men, told IPS.
Two prominent U.S. non-governmental organizations, Sierra Club and Amnesty International believe that the arrest and conviction of Montiel and Cabrera stem from their efforts to stop illegal logging in the mountains around their village north of Acapulco.
"The Mexican authorities have demonstrated complete disregard for the human rights of these two men and sent a chilling message to other environmental activists," says Diego Zavala of Amnesty International USA.
In 1988, Montiel organized peasants in the region to fight the commercial logging that he believed was causing erosion, disturbing the water supply, and leading to crop losses.
Montiel's activism began when he became concerned for his crops when logging in the mountains of Guerrero began disturbing the forest watershed and drastically decreasing the region's water supply and quality. With only a first grade education, he wrote letters to federal officials that laws were being violated.
When the letters were never answered, Montiel formed an environmental organization, Campesinos Ecologistas or Farmer Ecologists, and his activities led U.S.-based Boise Cascade to abandon the logging it began in 1995.
But his group -- called an "eco-guerrilla" organization by the State Attorney General's Office -- has infuriated wealthy land owners and the generals at a nearby garrison.
In May 1999 the two farmers were arrested and reportedly beaten and tortured by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army. During the raid, the soldiers shot and killed another local farmer.
According to testimony by the prisoners and Amnesty International, Montiel and Cabrera were then threatened at gunpoint and forced into confessing involvement with an armed opposition group and illegal possession of weapons.
The human rights center Agustin Pro Juarez in Mexico has taken on the legal defence of both Montiel and Cabrera. But since the organization took on the case, its members have received several death threats. In August 1999, the coordinator of the law program, Digna Ochoa y Placido, was kidnapped for several hours by unidentified assailants and beaten.
In an attempt to highlight the plight of these two farmers, they were awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts.
"The Goldman Environmental Foundation calls on President-elect Vicente Fox to prove his commitment to human rights and environmental protection by repealing the conviction of these men immediately upon assuming office," says Richard Goldman, president of the California-based foundation, which awards international unsung heroes of the environment.
On Jul. 14, Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights, a governmental organization, acknowledged that Montiel and Cabrera had been illegally detained and tortured by members of the Mexican army. The report also rejected the allegation that the two men were carrying weapons at the time of their arrest.
Alejandro Queral, director of the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment Program, who visited Montiel in prison in April, said both prisoners have lost weight and have been refused medical care on several occasions. He said they are forced to sleep on the cold floor of the shower rooms and treated inhumanely.
"The arrest, torture and conviction of Montiel and Cabrera are clearly linked to their efforts to protect the forests in Guerrero," says Queral. Without someone to speak out on behalf of the ecology of Guerrero, the forests are beginning to disappear in the region, he adds.
Forensic doctors working for the Danish branch of Physicians for Human Rights confirmed the torture after examining Montiel and Cabrera. They concluded that the physical signs and symptoms of the two activists coincide conclusively with the timing and methods of torture.
"We aren't against anybody...but hope that everybody will look out for the ecology, because to damage the ecology is to do damage to ourselves," said Montiel in a statement distributed by the Goldman Foundation.
END
Power Of PRI Continues To Wither
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 28 (IPS) -- The patronage with which the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has governed Mexico for the last seven decades is showing signs of erosion.
The party's peasant organization will soon disappear, its labor union is breaking into factions and a party leader has been imprisoned on assassination charges.
Marking a turnaround from its submissive attitude before the government, the National Peasant Confederation (CNC), affiliated with the PRI, held a special congress over the weekend in which delegates voted to dissolve the organization.
A cog in the once-powerful PRI political machine in rural areas, where it proved unable to prevent high levels of poverty and underdevelopment, the leadership of the 62-year-old CNC now openly criticizes the government and promises to adapt to the new political era by creating a new rural organization.
Battered by the PRI's defeat in the July 2 presidential elections, the CNC, the Mexican Confederation of Workers (CTM) and urban groups -- which for the last 71 years insured the power of the PRI -- now face their worst crisis ever.
Meanwhile, the National Syndicate of Education Workers, also linked to the still-governing PRI, opted to sign an agreement to help draft educational reforms with the team of President-elect Vicente Fox, who will be the first non-PRI president in seven decades.
Before the July presidential elections, Leonardo Rodríguez Alcaine, leader of the powerful CTM, threatened to organize the first-ever national strike if opposition candidate Fox won.
Today, with Fox victorious, Rodríguez Alcaine has renounced his past statements and affirms that he would like to be a "cuate" (friend) of the next president.
But that might not be so easy. Fox is already laying the groundwork to change labor laws in order to put an end to corporatist unionism and to the privileges of labor leaders, who, including Rodríguez Alcaine, have cultivated comfortable lifestyles, surrounded by luxurious homes and cars, and always keeping close to power.
The 50-year-old CTM faces other problems as well. Dozens of its affiliate groups have announced they will abandon the labor central to join the ranks of the Union of Workers, an independent group created just three years ago.
And the CTM's "compañeros," as the union leaders have been fondly known to all occupants of Mexico's presidential seat -- including current President Ernesto Zedillo -- never staged their national strike.
For the last six years, the CTM has prohibited its members from holding the traditional Labor Day parade on May 1 for fear the government would come under criticism, acknowledge the organization's leaders.
In the July elections, the PRI presented 29 labor candidates for seats in the Chamber of Deputies, but only five won. Back in 1978, when the PRI was seemingly invincible, the CTM labor deputies numbered 102.
But if the new political era does not bode well for Rodríguez Alcaine and his colleagues, the situation may be even worse for other groups and personalities linked to the PRI. Such is the case of urban leader Guadalupe Buendía, leader of the Organization of Villages and Settlements.
After having served the governing party for more than 25 years, gathering support and mobilizing thousands of people for political rallies in the state of Mexico, which neighbors the nation's capital, the leader is now under arrest, facing assassination and insurrection charges.
Known by the nickname "Loba" (she-wolf), Buendía organized a protest earlier this month in one of the municipalities in Mexico state. It turned into a confrontation between the supporters of rival political parties, which left 13 people dead and more than 100 injured.
Today, she is in prison and the PRI has apparently washed its hands of her. Buendía points to the fact that she obtained thousands of votes for her party, land for the party faithful and obtained services such as water and electricity for numerous urban areas. She was the quintessential "cacique" (political boss), say her allies.
Investigations indicate that the "Loba" had received police and political protection for decades, as well as public posts for family members, in exchange for her work for the PRI.
In other poverty-stricken areas of the country, far from Chimalhuacán where Buendía ruled, there are plenty more PRI party bosses and grassroots operators who could be expelled from party ranks, according to some PRI officials.
Research by non-governmental groups conducted during the last presidential elections indicates that PRI leaders in the poorer areas of Mexico exercise their power through intimidation and threats. Several have cases pending with judicial authorities.
The days of corporatism in Mexico are not yet over, says anthropologist Roger Bartra, but they seem to be fading.
The PRI lost approximately a million votes in the nation's rural areas last July, but it continues to be the strongest party there. Of Mexico's 109 rural electoral districts, the PRI won 86.
"The reports of foreign and national election observers agree that progress made in the areas of transparency and participation at the national level do not correspond with the reality of party bosses and domination in the countryside," says a report by the non-governmental Civic Alliance, an electoral watchdog group.
END
Interpol Detains Alleged Argentine Torturer
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 24 (IPS) -- The international police agency Interpol today are questioning an Argentinean business executive in Mexico who had been accused by a local newspaper of torturing prisoners in Argentina during the "Dirty War."
Ricardo Cavallo, general director of Mexico's National Vehicles Registry (RENAVE), was identified by Reforma newspaper as Argentinean military agent Miguel Cavallo. He was later arrested in Cancún during a stopover of a flight to Buenos Aires.
"He faces an accusaion and we are going to investiate it," said the head of the Mexican branch of Interpol, Miguel Ponce Edmonson.
The arrest was a precaution, reported Interpol, because it involves "an extremely urgent case." Mexico's Federal Preventive Police, which carried out the arrest, said it had acted at the request of Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon.
Miguel Cavallo is wanted in Spain on charges of torture, car theft, terrorism and forging documents in events that involved Spanish citizens living in Argentina during the dictatorship.
Ricardo Cavallo will be investigated to determine if he is, in fact, the person the newspaper says he is, and if there is a petition pending for his extradition, said Juan Ponce, Interpol chief in Mexico. Cavallo denies the newspaper's accusations.
The Secretary of Trade indicated in a press release that Cavallo had requested leave from RENAVE in order to clear his name, and that the firm had already named a substitute director. The government had hired RENAVE to design a system to combat car theft and prevent forgery of vehicle documentation.
The secretariat absolved itself of responsibility in this situation because RENAVE is a private enterprise that won a government bidding process, and which freely named Ricardo Cavallo as its director, says the communiqué.
Reforma reported that five people in Buenos Aires, who had been political prisoners during the dictatorship, identified Cavallo as the person who had tortured them at the Navy Mechanics School, a notorious clandestine detention center of the military regime.
The newspaper published a recent photograph of Ricardo Cavallo and another of Miguel Cavallo during the Argentinean dictatorship. An expert hired by Reforma indicated that the similarities between the two would indicate it is one and the same person.
Ricardo Cavallo, who says he is a computer expert, received authorization from the government years ago to work in Mexico. His identification documents carry with the same number -- 6.275.013 -- as was found in documents gathered by Judge Baltazar Garzón who is reviewing criminal charges against Miguel Cavallo (also known as "Serpico") in Spain.
Miguel Cavallo, according to the news story, was a member of "work group 3.3.2" at the Naval School, a covert command in charge of various repressive actions against the political opposition.
The RENAVE director denied today that he ever tortured anyone during his tenure in his country's military. He then attempted to leave Mexico for Argentina where he had planned to gather documents to prove he is not the person Reforma claims.
A member of Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo's cabinet said the allegations against Cavallo represent disturbing coincidences.
Mexican Trade Secretary Herminio Blanco said he thought it odd that a newspaper would invest so many of its resources in an investigation of the person in charge of RENAVE. There seem to be "major interests behind this," he said.
RENAVE was created in an effort to combat large-scale illegal trade in vehicles, which in this country is the second most profitable crime, stressed the secretary.
The registry process, initiated this year amid great controversy because of the additional cost it imposes on car owners, is an attempt to create a national system to track and prevent car theft -- a crime that costs Mexican insurance companies $300 million a year.
RENAVE is currently operating at half speed because several state governments and the national Congress have rejected the project due to its high cost to car owners and because they consider it inappropriate for a private firm to be handling the process.
The company entrusted with the registry, a partnership of Mexicans and Argentineans, won the government's bidding process among a field of 90 competitors.
If the Reforma report proves accurate, as appears likely, it would would mean that a known criminal sought by international authorities had been harbored in Mexico with some degree of government support, said Edgar Cortés, a spokesman for the Agustín Pro Juárez human rights organization.
But according to Secretary Blanco, the alleged Argentinean torturer is just an employee of a company that won a transparent bidding process, and that the coincidence between the Reforma story and the debate generated by the RENAVE project is, at the very least, "strange."
Mario Villani, a physicist at Argentina's National Institute of Industrial Technology, who was jailed during the dictatorship, said during an interview with Mexican radio journalists that the current RENAVE director is the same person who tortured him years ago.
Argentina's military juntas carried out a campaign of terror against leftists and other purported enemies of the state, in which 15,000 to 30,000 people died or disappeared after being tortured in clandestine jails.
Ricardo Cavallo continues to deny all the charges against him, reiterating that he has no relation with the person indicated by the newspaper.
Mexico has long been a haven for political asylum-seekers, and is home to numerous Argentineans who fled the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.
Many of the exiles have returned to Argentina, but others decided to stay in Mexico permanently. These expatriates periodically get together to talk about times past, including the era in which they were victims of the Argentinean dictatorship, which included a man named Miguel Cavallo among the ranks of its repressive forces.
END
Opposition Win In Chiapas Paves Way For Talks
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 21 (IPS) -- The opposition party's victory in yesterday's polls in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas could pave the way for a resumption of peace talks between the government and Zapatista rebels, according to analysts.
However, it will take much longer to come up with effective remedies for the poverty and violence troubling the country's most highly militarized region.
The election for governor, which the opposition won for the first time, took place yesterday amidst an atmosphere of calm, belying Chiapas' reputation as a place where political and religious intolerance regularly claims lives.
According to the preliminary results, poll-favorite Pablo Salazar, the candidate fielded by a coalition of four opposition parties, is the new governor-elect, dealing yet another defeat to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which for the first time in 71 years lost its hold on the presidency in the July 2 national elections.
No one believes the conflict in Chiapas will be resolved "in 15 minutes" as President-elect Vicente Fox promised in his campaign.
But most analysts and politicians agreed today that the new defeat for the PRI would pave the way for a renewal of peace talks between the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the government, suspended in 1996.
"Peace will only come hand in hand with democracy" and when the PRI is "at last" shoved out of the government, the Zapatista leadership said four years ago, when the ruling party still looked invincible.
Today, with the governing party pushed aside and real democracy emerging, there is no longer any reason to put off the negotiations for peace, according to analyst Jean Mayer.
Salazar's triumph launches a new stage in the search for peace in Chiapas, said Fox, after reiterating his readiness to respect an accord on indigenous rights and culture signed several years ago by the guerrillas and the administration of outgoing Pres. Ernesto Zedillo. The peace talks broke off when the Zedillo government objected to a draft law based on the agreement on indigenous rights.
The president-elect says he is prepared to meet with the leaders of the EZLN, and to order, when he takes office in December, a "repositioning" of the army in the area.
The priority is to strike a peace deal with the guerrillas, said governor-elect Salazar, who represented four parties, including Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN), and the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) -- Mexico's third-strongest political force -- in yesterday's election.
But the agenda of pending issues in Chiapas predates the history of a rebel group which, after fighting the army for just 12 days in early 1994 before an armed truce was agreed, and with its unusual mix of ideological and political stances, was able to shake Mexico's entire political system and awaken a strong flow of sympathy from around the world.
Moreover, the EZLN has kept silent since June, and has neither pronounced itself on the latest political developments, nor responded to delegates sent to Chiapas by Fox.
Hemmed in by thousands of soldiers in its remote jungle refuge on the border with Guatemala, the insurgents, mainly barely-armed indigenous people, have continued to respect the truce, and cannot be attacked by the army thanks to a "law on pacification" enacted in 1996.
Chiapas is Mexico's most unstable, highly militarized and impoverished state, and one of the areas with the largest proportions of indigenous people, who account for around 10 percent of Mexico's total population of nearly 100 million.
It is also one of the states where impunity for human rights violators runs strongest, and where the distribution of wealth is extremely unequal.
Although Chiapas is Mexico's top producer of coffee, second-largest producer of livestock and third-largest producer of corn, the state has the worst marginalization and mortality rates, and more than 65 percent of the local population is malnourished.
In the past six years, the state has had six different elected or acting PRI governors, and the Zedillo administration has poured millions of dollars into social programs in the area, in a vain attempt to improve conditions there.
Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of army troops has been posted in Chiapas, and a spate of reports by local and international human rights groups have documented abuses such as massacres of peasant farmers, allegedly by paramilitary groups, while the number of people displaced by the violence has climbed to over 20,000.
There are around 300 military and migration checkpoints in Chiapas, as well as constant air and land patrols. However, abuses -- although less high-profile than the massacre of 45 indigenous men, women and children in December 1997 in the village of Acteal -- continue to occur, and impunity is the norm, rights groups complain.
Although he did not admit to the errors and even crimes of which the PRI is accused in Chiapas, acting governor Roberto Albores acknowledged his party's defeat in yesterday's election, which he described as a "watershed" in the history of the state.
"A profound political change is afoot in Chiapas," as demonstrated by the results of the election, columnist Roberto Zamarripa wrote in the Mexico City daily Reforma.
END
Abortion Law Hints At New Ruling Party Morals
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 16 (IPS) -- A faction of the National Action Party (PAN) that is known for criticizing miniskirts and "immoral" works of art has unleashed a national debate on abortion using its newfound power as the party of President-elect Vicente Fox.
A practicing Roman Catholic and follower of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe, Fox has said that, as president, he would not impose conservative ideas or laws, but his opponents stress that some PAN activists may lead him in that direction.
Though it was founded by conservative Catholics and has been branded as right-wing by political analysts, the PAN has yet to establish its position on the political spectrum, or its stance on issues like abortion.
Fox, who observers say is a pragmatic businessman, defines his party as center-left, but some of his fellow PAN members say it belongs in the center, others indicate it lies more to the right, and still others reject any labels at all.
The PAN embodies political humanism, and speaking of left or right is "an antiquated geography," insisted the party's secretary-general, Jorge Ocejo.
Earlier this month, with the blessing of the Catholic Church, PAN legislators in the state of Guanajuato (where Fox served as governor until 1999) passed a law to criminalize abortion even in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The law's passage sparked anger among women's organizations throughout the country.
Though the president-elect, who is to take office Dec. 1, declared that he does not agree with the actions of his Guanajuato colleagues, he said he would not intervene because it is an issue that falls under state jurisdiction.
Until the Guanajuato legislature voted in favor of the new law, abortion was legally permitted in cases of rape in all 32 Mexican states.
In 11 states, abortion is legal if the mother's life is in danger, while eight permit the procedure if there is proof that the fetus suffers major deformities. In all other cases, abortion, which is the fourth leading cause of death among Mexican women, is considered a crime.
In answer to the Guanajuato lawmakers, the Mexico City government -- in the hands of the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) -- presented a bill that would uphold legal abortions in the case of rape, and adds the exceptions of severe birth defects and if the pregnancy endangers the mother's life.
The bill could be approved within a week, reported Martí Batres, head of the PRD lawmakers in the capital's Legislative Assembly.
But the Catholic Church and the conservative anti-abortion group Pro Vida warned that they would block the bill's passage at any cost. They urged the rest of Mexico's states to adopt the legislative line of the PAN in Guanajuato.
Fox must abandon his silence "of complicity" with his party's conservative attitudes, which represent a double standard and are reminiscent of the "Holy Inquisition," said Mexico City Mayor Rosario Robles, as she argued in favor of expanding abortion rights.
In several states and municipalities governed by the PAN, the authorities in recent years have adopted measures such as prohibiting public employees from wearing miniskirts and banning billboards advertising undergarments.
They have also censored art exhibits for being immoral, prohibited homosexuals from organizing public parades and banned shows involving nude women.
"Right-wing terrorist groups are reappearing on the national scene and the PAN's fundamentalist wing believes the time has come for revenge, and is encouraged by the Catholic Church hierarchy," said Humberto Musacchio, a columnist for Reforma newspaper.
In the legislature of Coahuila State in northern Mexico, PAN lawmakers proposed an abortion law similar to the one in Guanajuato. Also in Coahuila, a doctor who is a PAN activist recently distributed a flier titled "Masturbation Is Genocide."
Meanwhile, the cultural officials in the city of Guadalajara, also governed by the PAN, tried earlier this month, unsuccessfully, to censor an exhibition of drawings because they considered some of the works "erotic."
Just when the scandal arising from the censorship attempt had begun to dissipate, two young Catholics destroyed one of the works of the exhibit because it depicted Juan Diego -- the indigenous man who is said to have seen the Virgin of Guadalupe more than 400 years ago -- holding the image of a nude Marilyn Monroe.
The Church justified the boys' act, saying the drawing offended the beliefs of Catholics.
In response to the uproar created by the actions of individual PAN supporters, the president-elect's advisers have promised that the future Fox government will be morally tolerant and will not impose socially-restrictive laws on anyone.
END
Zapatistas Mum On Upcoming Poll
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 15 (IPS) -- This weekend's elections in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas will help chart the future of the Zapatista guerrillas, who according to analysts face the risk of being isolated from the democratic changes sweeping the country.
Opinion polls point to a wide gap between the frontrunner for the post of governor, Pablo Salazar, the candidate for a coalition set up by opposition parties of all stripes, and his rival, Sami David, of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Salazar, a former member of the PRI backed by an alliance of eight centrist, right-wing and leftist parties, is riding the wave of triumph of Vicente Fox, who won the July 2 presidential elections in what were widely recognized as a free and fair poll.
But the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) has not taken a public stance on the elections, even though the creation of a coalition is what the rebels were calling for, in order to defeat the PRI.
Nor have the Zapatistas said anything about the defeat of the long-ruling PRI by the conservative National Action Party's Fox. Furthermore, they have failed to respond to the president-elect's calls for a renewal of the peace talks.
The results of the national elections answered one of the EZLN's demands, while the way is now open for seeking democratic solutions to the rest of their grievances, said Jean Meyer, the director of the history department of the Mexican Center for Economic Research and Teaching.
Meyer predicted that the fate of the guerrilla group and its charismatic leader, "Subcomandante Marcos," would be isolation and martyrdom if they failed to respond to the president-elect's invitation to resume peace talks. But he added that if they did agree to negotiate peace, their group would eventually disappear.
Historian Enrique Krauze holds a similar view, saying the way things stand, Marcos should "heed the results of the elections, agree to hold talks with the future state and federal governments...and add the fight for his ideals to the arena in which we all find ourselves: democracy."
If Marcos and the Zapatistas fail to "read the signs" in today's Mexico, they will find themselves isolated, warned Krauze.
The rebels have remained in their remote jungle hide-out and kept mum since before the presidential elections, hemmed in by thousands of soldiers in an area rife with violent clashes between poor peasant farmers and paramilitary groups fighting over land and religious and political beliefs.
The EZLN, whose political strategies in the past have shaken a political system that is now in the process of transformation after the PRI's first defeat in 71 years, is beginning to suffer the wear and tear brought by the passage of time and the impact of democratic changes, said analyst Carlos Castillo.
The EZLN, which reportedly has less than 5,000 members, most of whom are armed with not much more than a machete, held an informal "vote" in 1995 in which it asked the public whether the insurgent group should become a legal political force. More than one million Mexicans responded with a resounding "yes."
But the plan fell flat, after the peace talks between the government and the rebels broke off in 1996 over disagreements on a draft law on indigenous rights, the continuing militarization of Chiapas and the impunity enjoyed by paramilitary groups.
Peace and war are at stake in the Aug. 20 elections, said Salazar, who could become the first opposition leader to govern Chiapas in the history of the state.
The southern state, which borders Guatemala, has had six interim governors -- all of them belonging to the PRI -- in the past six years, as a result of the EZLN's emergence in January 1994.
Meanwhile, the government of Ernesto Zedillo has spent millions of dollars in the impoverished state on programs designed to alleviate poverty, while pledging to put an end to the violence that reigns in rural areas.
But human rights groups working in Chiapas say the situation is even more tense and social conditions even worse today than in 1994, when the largely indigenous EZLN burst on the scene and engaged in 12 days of fighting with the army before an armed truce was agreed.
The Aug. 20 elections for governor, in which slightly more than 2 million voters will be eligible to cast their ballots out of Mexico's total population of close to 100 million, will be overseen by some 4,000 national and foreign observers.
After the poll, the problem between the EZLN and the government, one of the many pressing issues affecting Chiapas, will have to be resolved, because "I can't see Marcos succumbing to the temptation of leaving things as they now stand for three more years," said historian Carlos Tello.
Tello, the author of one of the most authoritative works on the history of the EZLN, says Marcos and his followers are no longer significant political actors, and represent no military threat.
Fox has promised to do everything in his power to secure a meeting with Marcos -- something Zedillo never sought -- to work towards a rapid and effective solution to the armed conflict.
The president-elect said that after he takes office in December for his six-year term, the military presence will be relaxed in Chiapas, where an all-out fight against poverty will be waged and human rights will be respected.
But there could also be war, according to old threats issued by Marcos.
Prior to the elections, the rebel leader said he was ready to negotiate for peace or make war, warning that it would all depend on the new government.
END
Mexican Environmental Activists Await Judge's Verdict
Report by National Commission Acknowledges Use of Torture
Global Response Campaign Update ~ August 2000
Mexican environmental activists and farmers Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who have been in jail since May of last year, await the verdict on their case, which may come as early as the third week in August.
Meanwhile, a recent report by Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights (Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos - CNDH) has confirmed the human rights violations against the two activists and their community. The report further states that the two men were not carrying weapons at the time of arrest, as the authorities have claimed. Although the report could have an impact on the judge's decision, the men's lawyers at the Mexican human rights organization PRODH are still concerned that the lack of impartiality and rule-bending by the court will override any independent recommendations.
Since May 2, 1999, when members of Mexico's 40th Infantry Battalion stormed into the town of Pizotla, in the southern State of Guerrero, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera have been victims of shocking human rights violations. The two environmentalists endured several days of threats, beatings, and torture until they signed blank pieces of paper, which were later presented to the judge in the form of 'signed confessions'.
Their detention, torture, and possible sentence to a prison term appear to be retaliatory acts against the environmental movement they represent. Sierra Club and Amnesty International (also Global Response) have been working on behalf of these activists for more than a year.
Protecting Mexico's Old-Growth Forests
In 1995 US-based Boise Cascade set up a wholly owned subsidiary (Costa Grande Forest Products) in Guerrero, Mexico, and formed business partnerships with ejidos -- communal farming associations that hold the title to most of Mexico's forests see "Defending the Forests and Other Crimes" by John Ross, Sierra, July/August 2000. Boise's operations began to work around the clock, purchasing logs from the local ejido bosses and forest managers. Rodolfo Montiel and other campesinos were concerned about the magnitude and extent of the logging, especially when people began noticing changes in the local ecology.
In a recent interview, Montiel described how the rivers began to dry up soon after the logging operations began in 1995. ?By ninety-seven, there was nothing but garbage and plastic in the riverbed. Everyone knew it was the fault of the logging 'without the trees, the rivers dry up.'
In response to the rampant logging, Rodolfo Montiel founded the Organization of Campesino Environmentalists in 1998, which began a letter-writing campaign to Mexican environmental officials. When their letters did not receive a response, the group began peaceful blockades of the logging roads. Eventually, these protests put a halt to the logging.
Environmentalists Under Fire
Boise Cascade left Mexico in April of 1998 'due to difficult business conditions.' Soon after, threats and intimidation against Montiel's organization and its sympathizers began in earnest. During the course of thirteen months, four members of the organization were killed and one remains 'disappeared'.
According to Montiel and other members of the Organization of Campesino Environmentalists, the caciques hired gunmen and, according to the allegations, were coordinating with the military in the area as they looked for local leaders of the environmental group. Locals tell stories of how the army would come into small towns asking the whereabouts of Montiel and other activists. These inquiries were often accompanied by death threats.
International Recognition
On April 1, 2000, Amnesty International declared the two environmental activists 'Prisoners of Conscience', and just a few days later Rodolfo Montiel was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, considered to be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the environment. Unfortunately, Montiel could not travel to San Francisco (where the awards are usually given) and had to receive his prize inside the jail in Iguala. "The only prize I was expecting was a bullet from the Mexican government," Montiel said upon receiving the Goldman award.
Despite wide coverage in the Mexican and international press, the government of Mexico has been silent about the case. It has also been unresponsive to the letters sent by Sierra Club, Amnesty International, Global Response, activists worldwide, and members of the United States Congress. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has led the way in Congress by initiating letters to President Zedillo, President Clinton, and to the Judge presiding over the case. To date, neither Rep. Pelosi nor any of the other members that signed those letters have received a response from the Mexican government.
Environmentalists Must Be Released
Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera are certain they have not broken any laws. In fact, their only 'crime' was to protect the forests from destruction for short-term profit. Bewildered at his situation, Montiel stated at a press conference in April: "First, the [Mexican] government tells us to protect the forests, but when we do it, they throw us in jail."
The recent report by the CNDH acknowledged that Montiel and Cabrera were tortured, and that they were framed by soldiers of the Mexican army.
Article 8 of Mexico's Federal Law to Prevent and Punish Torture prohibits using confessions and information obtained under torture as evidence. Thus, the Mexican government must drop the charges and release Montiel and Cabrera immediately and unconditionally.
Your letters work
Already, letters from activists worldwide have contributed to the government of Mexico's decision to investigate the environmental consequences of logging in Guerrero. We must continue to pressure the government to release the two environmentalists and ensure that existing human rights and environmental laws in Mexico are enforced.
The outcome of the July 2 elections is an opportunity for the new administration of President-elect Vicente Fox to ensure that the rights of all Mexicans are respected. We must urge President-elect Fox to speak out on behalf of Montiel and Cabrera and to publicly recognize that the peaceful protection of the environment is not a crime.
Write to:
President Ernesto Zedillo
c/o Ambassador Jesus Reyes-Heroles
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20006
President-elect Vicente Fox Quezada
525 Paseo de la Reforma
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Mexico, D.F. CP11000. Mexico
"When someone kills many people, he is guilty of genocide. Someone who kills a lot of trees is guilty of ecocide. When I see a tree cut down, it wounds me inside." -- Rodolfo Montiel
P.O. Box 7490 Phone: 303/444-0306
Boulder CO, USA 80306-7490 Fax: 303/449-9794
To receive Global Response "Actions" and "Emergency Actions" by email: Send a blank message to: globresmembers-subscribe@igc.topica.com
END
Growing Marginalization Helped Defeat PRI
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 11 (IPS) -- In Mexico, some 40 million poor people receive 12.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), while 10 million wealthy people account for 38 percent -- a gap that has grown over the past 14 years, according to statistics released today.
The growing gap between rich and poor, which makes Mexico one of the countries with the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, was one of the reasons for the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) defeat in the July presidential elections, say analysts.
From 1986 to 1999, the economy grew at an average of 2.6 percent a year. However, the abyss between rich and poor also grew in that period, says a new study by the government's National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI).
The income of the richest 10 percent of the population is now 25 times larger than the income of the poorest 40 percent, compared to 21 times larger 14 years ago, said INEGI.
The campaign pledges of President-elect Vicente Fox and his conservative National Action Party (PAN) to deal a harsh blow to poverty drew many voters, according to analyst Sergio Sarmiento.
In the July elections, the PRI -- which has been in power for 71 years -- lost 13.3 percent of votes with respect to the last poll in 1994, while the PAN won 15.8 percent.
Right up to the elections, the PRI was confident that it would win once again, albeit with a narrow margin. And that confidence was largely based on the fact that poor rural voters have traditionally backed the PRI en masse.
Non-governmental organizations and independent observers, meanwhile, complained that among the poorest sectors of the population, the governing party was using free hand-outs of food and tools to buy votes, as well as threats that the government's social assistance programs would be cut off if people did not cast their ballots in favor of the PRI
But the PRI made a much worse showing than expected in poor areas of the country. In the 84 lowest-income electoral districts, the ruling party lost more than one million votes with respect to the 1994 election results -- votes that were taken by the PAN.
"The voting decisions of poor urban slum-dwellers were decisive to Fox's triumph," Alejandro Tuirán, a consultant on poverty issues for United Nations agencies, told IPS.
In areas where indigenous people comprise a majority of the population and poverty rates are at their highest, the proportion of votes won by the PRI dropped from 57.8 to 49.5 percent between the 1994 elections and this year's poll, said Tuirán, the author of a detailed study on voting patterns among low income sectors.
The PRI remains strong among the dispossessed, although it no longer enjoys an exclusive sway over that sector, perhaps because the party's campaign pledges no longer convince voters, he said.
During the election campaign, Fox called on the poor not to allow themselves to be intimidated by the PRI, and promised that he would throw all his energy into fighting poverty.
As president-elect, he has continued to reiterate that pledge, but his advisers on social matters now stress that during the government's six-year term, the foundations will merely be laid for pulling Mexicans out of poverty.
Fox says he will continue the government's social assistance programs, which some analysts criticise as welfare-based. But he promised to put higher priority on education and on financing family-based microenterprise, with strategies to eliminate poverty.
There is no magic formula to eradicate poverty, which will take years, Pres. Ernesto Zedillo, whose term ends in December, underlined yesterday.
During his term, Zedillo earmarked around $1.20 a day to each of the 400,000 Mexican families living in extreme poverty, through social assistance programs.
A 1999 report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) indicated that while poverty was reduced overall in the region in the previous eight years, it grew in Mexico.
During that period, the proportion of households living below the poverty line fell from 41 to 36 percent regionwide, while it grew from 36 to 43 percent in Mexico.
A World Bank study released last year reported that 42.5 percent of Mexico's 98 million people lived on an average of $2 a day or less, and 17.9 percent on $1 a day or less.
Poverty grew during seven decades of government by the PRI. Today, the poor have opted for change, and decided to give Fox a chance, wrote historian Lorenzo Meyer, who stressed, however, that the task would be enormous.
END
8 Years In Jail For Abortion In Fox's State
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 7 (IPS) -- A law providing for prison terms of eight years for women who terminate their pregnancies, just approved in the state of Guanajuato, has triggered an angry backlash among women's organizations.
The new law in Guanajuato, passed by party members of president-elect Vincente Fox, bans all abortions, without exception.
"What can the country expect after Dec. 1 when Fox takes the reigns of the government? Will abortion be penalized as in Guanajuato?" asked feminist organizations in pamphlets distributed today in Mexico's major cities. Fox recently served as Guanajuato governor and is staunchly anti-abortion.
Mexico's 32 states currently permit abortions, but only in special circumstances like rape or to save the life of the mother, and then only with a declaration from legal authorities.
Legislators in Guanajuato of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), Fox's party, approved the penal code reform last week. It provides criminal penaties for any woman who voluntarily interrupts her pregnancy, even if she has been raped or suffers health problems.
The law takes effect on Oct. 1, and was passed without prior public debate.
"The republic will not become another Guanajuato" because women's groups will block any attempt to further criminalize abortion, declared a pro-choice organization of Catholic women in a leaflet.
An estimated 300,000 illegal abortions take place every year in Mexico, and an average of 1,500 women die from botched procedures, according to the Secretariat (Ministry) of Health. Other sources, however, say the numbers are two or three times higher.
Throughout the last 30 years, women's groups have presented a range of requests, claims and demands to decriminalize abortion.
The law reform passed in Guanajuato eliminates all exceptions, establishing that abortion for any reason is illegal.
A dozen feminist groups launched demonstrations to demand the annulment of the abortion law in Guanajuato, the state Fox governed from 1995 to 1999, and to warn against the possibility that such a measure could be implemented at the national level.
The president-elect has stated on several occasions that he is against abortion for any reason, but he has also promised he would not impose his opinion on the nation and that he would always be open to discuss the issue.
The PAN in Guanajuato has hurt women's rights by adopting this retrograde measure, and one would hope that a similar law would never pass in the national Congress, Patricia Duarte, of the feminist Grupo Plural, told IPS.
For its part, the anti-abortion group Pro Vida applauded the Guanajuato legislators for approving the law to penalize all abortions. Jorge Serrano, the organization's leader, said today the lawmakers did what was appropriate and just, protecting life from inception.
Archbishop Sergio Obeso said he had not received information about the Guanajuato law, but stressed that the Roman Catholic Church considers abortion to be murder.
A woman has the right to make decisions affecting her body, but in the case of pregnancy, she does not have the same right because it is a question involving another human being, Obeso pointed out.
But feminist activist Duarte believes women must be able to decide for themselves if they want to have children because it is the woman's life and future that is at stake.
One PAN leader, Carlos Medida, admitted that the penal reform approved in Guanajuato is controversial, and affirmed that he does not support it.
Given the firestorm of debate the new law triggered, several of the party's deputies have insinuated that it might be repealed.
Health experts estimate that clandestine abortions in Mexico earn doctors, nurses and midwives over $500 million each year.
Official studies indicate that follow-up treatment for women who are suffering problems related to poorly performed abortions represents a yearly expense of nearly $20 million. Today, abortion is the fourth leading cause of death among Mexican women.
If abortion were not a crime, as it is currently in most cases, the deaths of thousands of women could be prevented, maintain the pro-choice organizations.
END
Paramilitary Attack in Yajalón, Chiapas
ENLACE CIVIL ~ August 7, 2000
Urgent Action
Paramilitaries continue to occupy territory in the municipality of Yajalón they seized in an attack on August 3rd. The attack occurred at 10:30 a.m. in the community of "Tierra y Libertad" (formerly two communities: Paraiso and Progreso). The paramilitaries, from the group Paz y Justicia, arrived in a group of about 70-30 dressed as state public security forces, 40 in civilian clothing, three in masks-armed with pistols, R-15's, and 22 caliber rifles. They proceeded to loot farms, fire in the air and behind fleeing townspeople, burn six houses, and drive 48 families into the mountains.
The community was forced to flee quickly, and according to those interviewed much of the population is still in hiding. Two children were missing for two days and later found with dehydration and fevers from exposure. As of August 5th one child was still missing.
On August 6th the paramilitaries threatened journalists and human rights workers on the scene, but they had spoken with journalists after the attack. They told the Mexican daily La Jornada that the land they've occupied belongs to them; that they are the owners and that they will not allow the previous occupants, members of the EZLN's base of support, to return.
The land in question is actually the subject of a dispute that is still pending in an agrarian court. The members of Paz y Justicia who took part in the attack belong to a group that settled on the lands of Tierra y Libertad after those lands had been transferred to the members of the EZLN base of support. Those members of the EZLN base of support had lived and worked on these lands for over 25 years.
A formal legal complaint has been filed with the Public Ministry and the state prosecutor. The prosecutor has claimed that he knows nothing about the situation. Members of the community, however, saw public security forces enter the community after the attack-taking photos and doing nothing to stop the violence or aid the fleeing community members period. The presence of public security forces on the scene suggests that the prosecutor and the public ministry have access to ample information to take legal and police action against the members of "Paz y Justicia" present in "Tierra y Libertad."
Given the situation the Non-Governmental Organizations which sign below
DEMAND:
1) That the National Prosecutor take the necessary action to disarm the members of Paz y Justicia present in the community of "Tierra y Libertad."
2) That the Public Ministry and the Governor of Chiapas move to gaurantee the lives and safety of all of the citizens of "Tierra y Libertad."
3) That the agrarian problem which gave rise to these violent agressions be resolved in a fair and timely fashion.
4) That the safety and mobility of human rights workers and journalists attempting to gain access to Tierra y Libertad be gauranteed by the Governor of Chiapas and the Public Ministry.
WE ENCOURAGE ALL THOSE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE DISPLACED PEOPLES OF TIERRA Y LIBERTAD TO MAKE OUR DEMANDS RESONATE BY SENDING FAXES, EMAILS, AND BY HOLDING PROTESTS AND ACTIONS AT MEXICAN EMBASSIES AROUND THE WORLD.
President of the Republic of Mexico:
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon Email: webadmon@oppresidencia.gob.mx
Governor of the State of Chiapas Lic. Roberto Albores Guillen Tel/Fax: 5296120917 or 5296112418 Email: comsocgo@correo.chiapas.com
National Commission for Human Rights (Mexico) Fax: 5256312633 Email: cndh@laneta.apc.org
Senator Luis H. Alvarez (Head of Vicente Fox's Transition Team for Peace in Chiapas) halvarez.pan@senado.gob.mx
Mexican Embassy in the United States Attn: Jesus Ramirez Heroles Gonzalez, 1911 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington D.C., 20006 U.S.A. Tel: (202) 728-1600 Fax: (202) 728-1698 Email:mexembusa@aol.com
Mexican Consulate in Austin Attn: Rogelio Gasci Neri, 200 East 6th Street, Suite 200, Austin TX. 78701 U.S.A. Tel: (512) 478-2866 Fax: (512) 478-8008 Email: consulmx@onr.com
Mexican Consulate in Chicago Attn: Carlos Manuel Sada Solana 2nd y 4th Floor, Chicago Il., 60601 Tel: (312) 855-1380 Fax: (312) 855-9252 Email: Info@consulmexchicago.com
Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia Attn: Juan Manuel Lombera Lopez, 111 S. Independence Mall, E. Suite 310, The Bourse Building, Philadelphia PA, 19106 Email: 103114.335@compuserver.com
Sincerely,
Enlace Civil A.C.
Chiapas Community Defenders Network
Alianza Civica
Autoridades Comunales de San Felipe Ecatepec, Municipio de San Cristóbal
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada
CIEPAC (Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas, A.. C. )
CIUSPAZ (Ciudadanos San Cristobalenses por la PAZ)
Coordinadora Regional de Contacto de los Altos de Chiapas por la Consulta
Zapatista
DESMI
EAPSEC (Equipo de Apoyo en Salud Comunitaria)
Jolom Mayaetik
K'inal Antzetik
Parejo Sk'otol
PRODUSSEP (Promoción de Servicios de Salud y Educación Popular)
SYJAC (Skoltael Yu'un Jlumajtik, A. C. )
ENLACE CIVIL, A. C.
20 de Noviembre no. 36, Barrio de Mexicanos, C.P. 29240, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas E-mail: enlacecivil@laneta.apc.org Web-site: http://www.enlacecivil.org
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
AUGUST 1-7, 2000
CONTENTS:
1. Fox officially declared "president-elect," travels to South America
2. Sami David hurt in electoral rally in Chiapas; Salazar increases lead in polls
3. Paramilitary group burns homes, expels pro-Zapatistas from Yajalón, Chiapas
4. Briefs
Fox Officially Declared "President-Elect"
Vicente Fox Quesada was officially pronounced "President-Elect" by the Superior Court of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation on August 2, in a one-hour ceremony in which Fox apologized to the Tribunal for his verbal attacks on the electoral institutions during the campaign, and praised his former opponents (to whom he has also recently apologized), offering them his "friendship and invariable respect."
Regarding his insults launched against the Electoral Tribunal during the campaign, Fox told the Tribunal "I apologize for our behavior. My words were not meant to offend, but rather to defend democracy."
With respect to the other candidates, Fox said that "to Francisco Labastida I extend my appreciation for his honesty and serenity in accepting the result of the elections. I also recognize the disposition of his party to open spaces for dialogue and understanding, which will work to the benefit of Mexico and all Mexicans."
Regarding Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Fox said "his struggle has been essential for the democratic advance in the country. I manifest my admiration for his ethical and political congruency which will allow him, his party, and the forces which accompanied him during the campaign, to participate in a pronounced manner in the construction of the new Mexico."
Fox even reached out to also-rans Manuel Camacho Solís and Gilberto Rincón Gallardo, saying that their proposals and visions "deserve an important space in the coming period of construction."
The other half of Fox's acceptance speech was dedicated to reiterating his desire to form a plural government of transition "for all Mexicans."
"I will intensely seek agreements and convergences with all the sectors prepared to contribute to the democratic advance," said Fox, "so that with the same determination with which we competed against each other, we may step up to a stage of concordance based on tolerance, consensus, and respect for plurality. I will head a plural, inclusive, and capable government of transition, with State vision and with the highest standards of honor and quality."
He added that plurality "should never be interpreted as ideological or political confusion. We cannot speak of ideological inconsistency in a transitional regime, which is plural by definition."
Responding implicitly to criticisms about his transition team's draft proposal to tax medicines and food, Fox said "I should express, clearly, that my government will not make decisions, above all in economic matters, which go against the interests of the majorities. Nothing will be done without consensus, and much less behind the backs of the Mexican people."
Fox ended his speech with an appeal to tolerance, apparently in response to increasing attacks on policies of censorship and homophobia promoted by his party, the PAN: "Let's construct a Mexico where there is no place for intolerance, where no one is persecuted for their ideas, political or religious beliefs, lifestyles, or sexual preferences."
On August 6, Fox left Mexico on his first official trip as President-Elect, visiting Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Fox traveled in the company of Martha Sahugán, his spokesperson; Santiago Creel and Eduardo Sojo, coordinators of political and economic matters, respectively, in Fox's transition team; Jorge G. Castañeda and Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the intellectuals who make up Fox's international relations team; the General Secretaries of the PRI, Sergio García Ramírez, and of the PRD, Jesús Zambrano; Porfirio Muñoz Ledo; and the president of the PAN, Luis Felipe Bravo Mena.
The first stop of the trip was Santiago de Chile, where Fox and his team where scheduled to meet with President Lagos and the parties which made up his center-left electoral coalition, as well as representatives of the Pinochetistas and the political right.
The most interesting part of the trip, however, was the attempt by Fox and his group - in response to questions from Chilean journalists - to define themselves along the ideological spectrum.
Fox stated that "if the left is about redistributing income and solving problems of poverty, margination, and human development, and if the right is about generating wealth, then I define myself as the sum of both."
PAN president Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, meanwhile, responded to questions about the ideology of the party by dropping a bombshell: the PAN, according to its president, is a center-left party, and has never, never been right-wing.
"The PAN," said Bravo Mena, "has always been a centrist party, always. It has been characterized as right-wing, but that is false. The PAN has always recognized itself as being in the center....Within the party there are currents, groups of the center-left and also of the center, of the dead-center, but never, never, of the right."
When asked directly if the PAN was then a "center-left" party, Bravo Mena replied "well yes...but it has never been on the right."
To political coordinator and failed Mexico City mayoral candidate Santiago Creel, journalists asked if the PAN, now that it is entering government, should try to better define itself ideologically.
"According to our concept of government and of our platform, we are in the center, moving a little bit to the left," he said.
Electoral Rally In Chiapas Turns Violent; Salazar Climbs In Polls
A campaign rally for PRI gubernatorial candidate Sami David David on August 4 in Soyaló, Chiapas - the hometown of his opponent from the Alliance for Chiapas, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía - turned violent immediately after David's arrival when the 600 PRI militants in attendance were confronted by approximately 800 Salazar supporters.
After David began to speak, the PRI candidate and his supporters became projectile targets as a rain of apples, rocks, and other random materials fell on them. After being struck in the head, David - with a visible bleeding wound - was quickly ushered away and the rally was abruptly canceled.
David did not show up at his scheduled campaign stops the following day in the north of Chiapas, and in his place sent Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo Pintado, who declared that the PRI would be reconstructed from the nation's southeast, where the ex-ruling party would win all the governorships and reconquer the presidency.
The state and national PRI, as well as several Chiapas newspapers, implicitly or explicitly accused Pablo Salazar of being directly responsible for the aggression against the PRI candidate. One newspaper even ran a headline which read "Pablo Salazar tries to kill Sami David."
For his part, Salazar accused the PRI itself of being responsible, and charged David with carrying out an act of "self-aggression."
"Since they [the PRI and the federal and state governments] know that Sami David is not going to win," said Salazar, "and neither do they want Pablo Salazar to win, the orders they gave to Pedro René Bodegas is to provoke a crisis in Chiapas so that his cousin José Antonio Aguilar Bodegas will be imposed as a new interim governor."
[José Antonio Aguilar Bodegas was elected to the national Senate for the PRI this past July 2. Pedro René Bodegas is the Chiapas state Education Secretary, and part of the PRI's political machine in the state. He is involved in a legal dispute with Salazar, having accused the latter of falsifying his educational records and claiming to be a lawyer when in fact - says Bodegas - he never finished law school. As a result, Salazar filed a criminal defamation suit against Bodegas and PRI deputy Ramiro Micelli Maza, who countered with their own defamation suit against Salazar.]
Pablo Salazar, meanwhile, has increased his advantage over Sami David in several recent polls. A poll commissioned by the Alliance for Chiapas gave Salazar a ten-point edge, with 52% of the electoral preferences to 42% for David. Another Alliance-commissioned poll, carried out by the ARCOP agency, put Salazar squarely in the lead in the rural areas of the state with 53 percent to David's 37 percent.
But the most astonishing poll is one published by the EL UNIVERSAL newspaper on July 31, which gave Salazar a crushing 43-point advantage of 69.5 percent to just 27 percent for the PRI.
Meanwhile, the national delegate of the PRI in Chiapas, Efrén Leyva Acevedo - the top electoral "operative" of the party in the state - declared on August 1 that if "those from the center" - President Ernesto Zedillo or Interior Minister Diódoro Carrasco - think that they can negotiate the defeat of the PRI in Chiapas, "they are mistaken."
"They already gave up the country," said Leyva, but "we will not permit them to give up Chiapas....If they try to take up a posture of negotiation in order to sit well with the incoming president, they are mistaken. What we are doing is defending the sovereignty of Chiapas."
In other news from the Chiapas campaign, Alliance candidate Pablo Salazar has seemingly backtracked from his earlier statements in which, together with then-presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, he declared himself in favor of a full withdrawal of the Federal Army in Chiapas to its pre-1994 positions, preferring now to speak only in terms of a partial withdrawal.
In an interview with the national daily EL UNIVERSAL, published on August 2, Salazar said that "the Army arrived to stay in many places. There are even permanent installations which have been constructed, real 'bunkers,' but their density should be reduced....It has been accepted that the EZLN is not a military threat; alright, so if it is not a military threat, a good number of Army troops should be pulled back."
In the same interview Salazar did, however, reiterate his full support for the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture and the text drafted by the COCOPA - of which Salazar was a member - for the constitutional implementation of those agreements.
Paramilitary Group Drives Out Zapatistas From Predio Paraiso, Yajalon
On August 4, a paramilitary group composed of approximately forty armed men entered a disputed territory made up of 192 hectares of land known as Paraíso, in the northern Chiapas municipality of Yajalón, and forcibly expelled the families living on the land who sympathize with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). One of the Zapatista civilians, Elmar Hernández Cruz, was wounded with a gunshot wound to his left hand during the invasion, and five homes were burned to the ground.
On the following day, thirty members of the paramilitary group maintained the community in a virtual state of siege, controlling who entered and left the area, apparently in order to keep the Zapatistas from returning. When members of the press arrived, they were told that the invasion occurred because the inhabitants - identified by the paramilitaries as PRD militants rather than Zapatistas - "invaded our lands in October of 1997," and then "refused to comply" with a supposed agreement set up by the municipal president by which the inhabitants would be given 19 hectares of land and one hundred thousand pesos in exchange for turning over the lands to their former owners from the Ejido Emiliano Zapata, who purchased the land in 1997.
The paramilitary leader, who identified himself as Mario Cruz Pérez, also told the journalists that his group was "only armed with machetes in order to defend ourselves," regardless of the fact that several members of the group within visible range of the journalists were uniformed and carrying firearms.
The Zapatista families who took refuge in the hills after the invasion claim that they had worked the Paraíso lands for three generations, that the courts had ruled in their favor, and that there was never an agreement with the state or municipal governments to give the land back to the campesinos from Emiliano Zapata.
The Zapatistas claim that their attackers were from the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia. However, information filtered to the press from the state government and published in the Mexico City daily LA JORNADA, suggests that the group was likely made up of former members of the Grupo Maya, an elite military-police unit created in 1995 by the Mexican Army and which worked in the northern zone of the state - allegedly alongside paramilitary groups such as Paz y Justicia - until 1998.
The state Attorney General, meanwhile, claimed that "there is no evidence" to suggest that armed men had occupied the Paraíso land; that if they had, they were probably Zapatistas; and that the photographs published in the press of armed members of the paramilitary group the day after the invasion were probably faked.
- The Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE) revoked the July 2 proportional representation victory of the Alliance for Mexico and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the country's Fourth Electoral District, handing the seat instead to the Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM), the coalition partner of the National Action Party (PAN). With this move, the PVEM increased its seats in the federal Chamber of Deputies to 16, and the PRD saw its presence in the chamber reduced to 52.
- The parliamentary coordinator of the Green Party (PVEM), Bernardo de la Garza Herrera, announced on August 2 that the PVEM would sustain its electoral alliance with the National Action Party (PAN) as a legislative coalition in the Chamber of Deputies. The sixteen-seat PVEM bench, combined with the PAN's 208 seats, gives the Alliance for Change a combined 224 seats, making it the largest voting block in the Chamber and just 27 votes short of an absolute majority.
- Unlike the Alliance for Change, the Alliance for Mexico has fallen apart and will not maintain itself as a unified voting block in the next session of Congress. The Labor Party (PT), the largest of the "junior partners" in the coalition led by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), announced it was breaking with the Alliance for Mexico and would form a separate, independent voting block in the Chamber of Deputies made up of its own eight-person bench. PT leader José Narro Céspedes told the MILENIO newspaper that "the alliance is over," and added that the PT planned to procede with its lawsuit against the PRD for alleged misuse of party funds during the past electoral campaign.
- On August 1, authorities in the municipality of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, discovered a large arms cache located at the end of a tunnel which streched nearly 200 feet underneath the community of Loma Blanca. The cache contained 4 thousand rounds of ammunition, AK-47 and AR-15 rifles, camouflage uniforms, and radiocommunications equipment. As has become the norm in such cases, the authorities insisted the arms cache had nothing to do with any political or guerrilla group, although when asked they recognized that they did not know who in fact the guns belonged to, saying only that many campesinos in the area grow marijuana. Meanwhile, units of the Mexican Army arrived in the municipality and established three roadblocks in the vicinity, presumibly seeking poor campesino marijuana growers who wear camouflage outfits, carry automatic rifles, and communicate with high-tech radios.
- The Amigos de Fox ("Friends of Fox") organization, formed in 1998 to coordinate then-candidate Vicente Fox's campaign and raise money for his presidential bid, has turned itself into the Amigos por México ("Friends for Mexico"). "The civil association fulfilled its objective," said the group, "and, far from disappearing, will strengthen itself by redirecting that energy of the citizenry toward much higher goals." The Amigos por México said the organization will work at the grassroots level to receive people's complaints and suggestions, and will work as an intermediary of sorts between the population and President Fox.
- 300 indigenous Tarahumaras from the community of Chorogui, located in the municipality of Guachochi, Chihuahua, were seriously injured, and one baby was killed, after a Federal Judicial Police airplane sprayed the toxic herbicide Paraquat - banned in the United States - over their community, supposedly in an attempt to wipe out a marijuana crop 22 kilometers away. The baby died two days after inhaling the chemicals, and three hundred other members of the community were affected with respiratory problems, skin burns, temporary blindness, and other forms of sickness. Dozens of animals belonging to the community were also killed. The office of the Attorney General affirmed that the police had sprayed the marijuana plantations, but fervently denied having sprayed the community, and added that even if they had, "the drops of solution produced during normal use [fumigation] are too large to be inhaled," and in any case "do not cause damage to human beings."
______________________________________________________
SOURCES: Milenio, Proceso, La Jornada, El Universal. This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. This and past news updates are archived at: http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/ Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
A Wake Up Call in a Hotel Room in Tehuacan
Bob Hemauer, Eugene, OR ~ August 2000
The woman who opened up the door waited for us to sit in the courtyard before she sprung it on us. She asked if she should shoot us like the US ranchers are shooting Mexicans along the border. It was a harsh introduction, but I felt an odd connection with her, probably because I would have said (or at least thought) the same thing in her position. The situation perfectly encapsulated how I was feeling when I first arrived in Mexico- I was a cog in the star-spangled machine rolling over Mexico and leaving a wide swath of McDonald's, Coca-Cola and maquilas in its wake.
OK, that might have been a bit severe, but I was at best another do-gooder gringo liberal who would go back to the States and tell stories of the horrible conditions that the poor people are going through, but return to my air-conditioned apartment and my computer but not really do anything to help. Us and them. It was powerful imaginary line that I drew in my brain, at least as powerful as the imaginary line drawn between Juarez and El Paso that justified the kidnappings and murders that my host referred to.
The realities that I saw outside of the plant gate, in the Colonia that we visited, and in the caustic wisdom of our host demonstrated to me in a really concrete way that my reality was amazingly disconnected from the struggle against maquila abuses on the ground in Mexico. In short, I was confronted with my privilege. It's a term that gets bantered around in leftie circles, but isn't well defined. I'm not even sure that I can offer a useful definition, but a smart person once told me that it is the power to be able to ignore the suffering of others. I just know that it was a gut feeling that I had when I attempted to explain exactly why my attempts to reform sweatshop conditions are relevant to a worker making 320 pesos (roughly $35) a week. Even when I was talking to brother and sister organizers, I couldn't seem to articulate why the work I was engaged in was important or even a justifiable use of my time. In my experience, it is hard to think this critically of the anti-sweatshop movement when you are experiencing all of the perks of "success in the movement": your face on TV, speaking engagements, old SDSers calling you the "new face of student activism."
But confronting privilege for me extended beyond questioning the tangible results of my activism to a more basic question of the roots of my work: How do we choose our targets? Hell, it's a luxury to be able to choose "targets" at all- do street vendors in Tehuacan or maquila workers in Puebla get to choose the battles that they fight? The answer . This face of privilege was particularly disempowering. As we heard the struggles of the groups doing amazing work, I wanted to be able to throw myself into each of them and rededicate myself to all of them. If all of these groups and individuals exist already locally and are incredibly effective, how valid are any of the US-based projects that we start? It made me sick to my stomach.
But we can't let these realities cripple us. As we were walking around the UNAM campus on our CGH-guided tour, one of the UNAM students pointed out a bench that Che Guevara sat on at a point in the sadly distant past. It reminded me of a story in Che's legend. A group of American wannabe revolutionaries wanted to move to South America and join the guerilla bands fighting for liberation. But Che pointed out that they had a unique opportunity to fight the evils of imperialism/capitalism because they were fighting from the heart of the beast. The moral of the story, and one of the major lessons that I take away from Mexico, is that we each must struggle from where we can. And, in spite of our differences, we have certain similarities that unite us in a common, or at least similar, struggle. One thing that all activists share is the voice of dissent. Setting aside differences in ideology and practice that we all have, all activists work from the fringe of the political scene inward, and sometimes the fringe can get frustrating. Activists everywhere have to deal with the press misrepresenting what they say, the cops getting called in, or just plain being ignored by a good portion of the population. And yes, degrees of frustration vary, but the emotional experience of all of the daily peaks and valleys of organizing are pretty much the same.
Plus, we all are fighting the same enemy. The CGH at UNAM is fighting neoliberalism's influence on their campus, Derechos Humanos is organizing indigenous communities because neoliberal economic policies are destroying their way and quality of life, and the FAT is attempting to organize the thousands of workers that are facing deteriorating working conditions as a result of neoliberal trade policies.*** In our small way, USAS is battling the same monster, even if we haven't made a huge dent yet. But then again, activism is a marathon, not a sprint.
These realizations, that privilege exists, that we all have to struggle from where we are, that we actually have a common enemy, are all things that I knew in my head before I went down, but until I was there, I never was able to feel them stick in my throat. That was perhaps the most important lesson that Mexico taught me, that acknowledging privilege intellectually and experiencing it emotionally are two completely different experiences. Yeah, the people I met were amazing organizers doing great work in their communities and I am a middle-class white kid organizing around sweatshops in the U S, but we all are just people, right? And besides, if I were that woman, I would have threatened to shoot us too.
Bob Hemauer, Eugene, OR. August 2000
END
Post-Electoral Mexico - A Future Full of Possibilities
by Mexico Solidarity Network ~ August 5
At 10:00 pm on July 2, President Ernesto Zedillo, the latest in a seven-decade run of PRI presidents, transfixed the nation with a five minute speech conceding the defeat of PRI presidential candidate Francisco Labastida. By beating Labastida himself to the punch, Zedillo sealed the fate of the PRI, ending the world's longest running "perfect dictatorship." Opposition candidate Vicente Fox, nominally representing the right-leaning National Action Party (PAN), won a decisive victory on a platform that can be summed up as "I'm not the PRI and I'll promise almost anything to be president."
With an historically high voter turn-out of 64%, the Mexican people finally said "ya basta" to a long history of PRI corruption and election-stealing. Even with massive fraud, especially in the southern states, and especially in Chiapas, the PRI was unable to win much more than a third of the national vote. Though the party continues to control the Senate and about half of the state governorships, the PRI is a minority in the House and has virtually disappeared from the capitol of Mexico City.
What does this mean? In the short term there will be a frantic realigning of political forces throughout the country. The August 20 gubernatorial elections in Chiapas will be indicative. While the PRI won control of the state assembly with 43% of the vote (held at the same time as the presidential vote), opposition candidate Pablo Salazar currently holds a 17 point lead over the PRI candidate. If the polls are accurate, apparently a number of former PRIistas are rethinking their votes.
This will likely be the case throughout the country. The PRI maintained power through a combination of corruption and patronage. Without control of the national budget and its myriad social programs, there is no practical reason for their traditional bases of power in the countryside and the unions to continue following the PRI. Will they go with the PAN, a right-of-center party that traditionally favors neo-liberal economic plans and conservative social programs (more than a few Mexican men are concerned that the PAN may abolish mini-skirts from public offices)? Will they go with the PRD, the left-of-center party that displayed historic levels of disunity during the recent campaign, and was resoundingly defeated at the polls when many "leftists" jumped ship with their "voto util" (pragmatic vote) for Fox? Will we witness an explosion of civil society as Mexicans, empowered by their removal of the PRI, take the political process into their own hands?
The coming months are a time for guarded optimism, but also a time that is fraught with potential danger. In the Chiapas gubernatorial elections, it appears that the PRI is up to its old tricks. PRI governors from surrounding southern states have banded together to provide resources in an effort to buy the election. Increased paramilitary activity and a spat of recent expulsions from indigenous communities indicates that the PRI may be making certain sectors of the state ungovernable, with the intention of disenfranchising a significant part of the electorate on August 20. Even if Salazar wins, the traditional PRI bases of power could resort to the kind of "caciquismo" that has historically divided this state into virtual fiefdoms.
On the national level, Fox will enjoy a short honeymoon with a great deal of initial good will - after all, he did defeat the PRI. But in the medium and long term, Fox will likely find it difficult to govern. He is not particularly popular within his own party, and both the PRI and PRD declined offers to participate in his government, preferring roles as "constructive opposition." Ultimately, Fox's political base is broad, but thin and unorganized.
The PRI is splitting into warring factions. Historically the party that introduced the neo-liberal model to Mexico, the PRI may ultimately find it convenient to oppose neo-liberal policies and reclaim the banner of populism. This will put them in direct competition with the PRD. The PRI has historically counted on control of government resources to build its political base. Without these controls, the PRI will have to re-invent its entire organizational structure - not an easy task. The PRD is much more the experienced grassroots party, but does not have nearly the reach of the PRI.
Civil society is the real wild card. There is a genuine opportunity for civil society to define Mexico's economic and political model for a generation to come, not through party structures, but through grassroots organizations that serve the needs of real people. This will require vision and imagination. The current political culture is ripe for a genuine transfer of power to civil society, especially in the areas of housing, labor rights, indigenous rights, and privatization of state companies. The role of international solidarity will be important. Fox will look to the US government for support for his neo-liberal program, and civil society on this side of the border must be prepared to pressure for alternatives that serve the needs of real people rather than US-based corporations. Support for independent trade unions will be key as Mexican unions become increasingly independent of the PRI and look for international allies.
Support for autonomy, self-determination and genuine democracy, values which are not high on the list of priorities for US government bureaucrats, will also be important. Strategic alliances linking civil society on both sides of the border have never had more potential, nor been more important.
END
Handling The Military A Big Challenge For Fox
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jul. 27 (IPS) -- Relations with Mexico's armed forces, long characterized by an aura of secrecy and faithfulness to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whose seven decades in power end in December, will be a major challenge for president-elect Vicente Fox.
Lacking the openness that has marked his preparations in other areas, Fox, who won the July 2 elections on the ticket of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), is now deciding who to name as his secretary of defence when he takes office in December.
The decision will be announced in August or September, sources close to the president-elect reported today.
Two high-level retired officers, one of them a PRI parliamentary deputy, have already proclaimed themselves the best candidates. Their statements surprised observers, because in the past the secretary of defence has been named behind the scenes, far from the public spotlight.
Under the new administration, the armed forces will be submitted to scrutiny by Congress, and will be urged to become more open, Fox told IPS at a news briefing earlier this month.
The president-elect has clarified that in accordance with tradition, he will designate a military rather than a civilian secretary of defence because, he said, the armed forces can provide officers fit for the post.
Unaccustomed to public scrutiny and upset by a flood of allegations of corruption and human rights violations, as of December the armed forces will for the first time have a chief who emerged from the ranks of the political opposition.
Mexico's modern-day armed forces were created by the PRI, which was founded in 1929 in the wake of the Mexican Revolution.
Despite all the decades that have passed, "most high-ranking officers continue to form part of the 'PRI-ist' institutional structure," commented Carlos Ramírez, a columnist for the daily El Universal.
During the election campaign, Fox repeatedly expressed his admiration for the "professionalism" of the armed forces, and said he would give them his full support. Soon after the elections, the military brass pledged the president-elect their "institutional" support.
But observers warn that given the origins of the armed forces and their ties to the PRI, relations between the military and Fox could be a bit touch-and-go, at least at the start.
The president-elect promised during his campaign that in order to get the peace talks moving again and in a gesture of openness to the Zapatista guerrillas in the southern state of Chiapas, he would withdraw the armed forces from that group's area of influence.
Analysts cautioned that the armed forces would see such a move as a surrender by the government.
But Fox's offer has changed. Now he says he will withdraw government troops from Chiapas not as a unilateral measure, but only after negotiations with the rebels.
Since early 1994, when the army was called out to fight the Zapatistas -- an armed truce was agreed after 12 days of skirmishes -- and the military's fight against drug trafficking began to pick up steam, the armed forces have become less and less able to avoid the public spotlight.
Since then, allegations by human rights groups of corruption, rights abuses, links to the drug trade, intolerance and cases of subordination have hung over Mexico's military, the only armed forces in Latin America that have never staged a coup d'etat.
Today, Mexico has the second largest army in Latin America and is third in the region in terms of military spending, after Brazil and Argentina.
In February 1999, a human rights report by the United States Department of State declared that corruption was on the rise in Mexico's armed forces.
Special United Nations rapporteur on torture, Nigel Rodley, stated in March 1998 that military personnel in Mexico were apparently immune to the civilian justice system and were generally protected by the military courts.
Several Mexican military officers have been investigated and arrested for complicity with drug traffickers since the 1996 arrest of the government's former anti-drug chief, Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez.
But the armed forces say the cases of corruption and abuses that have cropped up have been isolated incidents, and do not reflect the reality within their ranks.
The Organization of American States' Inter-American Human Rights Commission has also criticised Mexico's armed forces, especially for the impunity in which the military courts operate.
The regional human rights commission has repeatedly demanded that the armed forces release a general who was arrested after he urged that the post of human rights defender be created for the military justice system. But the officer remains behind bars.
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
JULY 22-31, 2000
CONTENTS:
1. FARP attacks police station in Mexico City
2. Fox considers taxing food and pharmaceutical products
4. Opposition unites in Chiapas as Salazar leads polls
5. Briefs
FARP Attacks Federal Police Station In Cuajimalpa
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People (FARP), a breakaway organization from the nearly-defunct Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), ended its electoral "truce" on July 23 and attacked an outpost of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) located in La Venta, Cuajimalpa (on the western limits of Mexico City), on the federal highway to Toluca.
Two people - a PFP captain and a twelve-year old civilian - were wounded in the attack. The former was shot in the stomach, and the latter was grazed in the head by a passing bullet.
The shots were fired by a commando unit of between five and fifteen people, located in the woods across from the police station at a distance of approximately six hundred feet. The guerrillas never approached the station, and left the scene after letting loose a six-minute barrage of gunfire.
Within minutes, nearly 150 heavily armed PFP members combed the area in search of the aggressors, but found no one and made no arrests.
The FARP, which has a presence in Guerrero, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Mexico City, separated from the EPR in August 1999. The group sent its first communique to the press in December, and in February 2000 launched its first armed action, an attack on the offices of the National Security and Intelligence Center (CISEN) in the state of Puebla. In April, commando units of the FARP made an appearance in Xochimilco, in southern Mexico City; planted explosives (later defused) at the base of a monument to the Figueroa family in the state of Guerrero; and placed mortars (which never exploded) near the offices of the Interior Ministry in Mexico City. There were no casualties reported in any of these actions.
In a communique released to a Mexico City newspaper shortly after the Cuajimalpa attack, the FARP affirmed that a unit of its organization carried out the operation, firing 270 shots from AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles against the PFP building and 12 patrol cars from a distance of 200 meters, wounding two people.
According to the FARP, the victory of Vicente Fox in the recent federal elections "was the result of the majority of the people being fed up with the PRI." But the rebels added that "there are now clear indications that Vicente Fox and the PAN prefer authoritarianism to consensus, a neo-authoritarianism emerging from the elections. A democracy turned against the people which serves and was impelled by the electronic virtuality of the screens of finance capital."
"We want to make it clear," said the FARP, "that we disagree with the country's swing to the right, toward the establishment of a conservative regime."
The rebels also pronounced their belief that all forms of struggle were valid - including the electoral path, which they said should be fortified - but that the FARP "will continue to struggle with weapons in hand," an armed struggle which they claim is just as valid now as before July 2.
Fox Team Announces Plan To Tax Food, Medicines
The transition team of Vicente Fox spent much of the past week floating ideas for new government policies in the areas of policing, taxation, and social policy.
The most controversial proposal came from Fox's economic advisors, Eduardo Sojo and Ernesto Derbez, who proposed eliminating the exemption of foods and medicines from the national sales tax (IVA, currently at 15%) for all but the most basic foodstuffs.
Fox's overall program for fiscal reform includes eliminating all federal taxes except the 15% sales tax (which is also applied to salaries) and the 5% Rent Tax (ISR, also applied to salaries). Taxes slated to disappear include the new automobile tax, the Special Tax on Products and Services, taxes imposed on foreign commerce, and additional corporate taxes.
The idea behind the food and medicine tax, said Sojo, is to raise more money to be applied to anti-poverty social programs such as Progresa and Sedesol.
After several national newspapers published front-page stories about the proposal, Fox's press office confirmed that the future government was considering taxing medicines and foodstuffs, but that it "would not take decisions which [negatively] affect the population, especially the most vulnerable sectors."
Other reforms in the political and social spheres being analyzed by Fox's transition team include:
- Restructuring of the public security, justice, and enforcement agencies, including a redesign of the Judicial Police forces and the Attorney General's office to create a new federal investigative agency based on the United States' FBI; the demilitarization of all police agencies; the withdrawal of the Federal Army from the fight against drug trafficking; and a redesign of the Center for Research and National Security (CISEN).
- Doubling of funds to combat poverty (from 1% to 2% of GDP), along with an extension of the Education, Health, and Food Program (PROGRESA) to more families and the preservation of the Social Development Secretariat (SEDESOL).
- The disappearance of the Notimex news agency.
- The disappearance of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform (SRA).
On the afternoon of July 26, president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada met privately with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, three-time presidential candidate and moral leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Following Fox's victory against Cárdenas and PRI candidate Francisco Labastida in the July 2 federal elections, Cárdenas had insisted he would not congratulate the winner, saying Fox's victory was "a disaster for the country." He also called on his party, the PRD, not to accept any posts in the Fox government and to work as a solid opposition against the new administration.
But during the PRD's National Council meeting held between July 21 and 23, Cárdenas seemed to change his tune. He insisted the party should "not bet on the failure" of Fox's government, and said the party should play the role of a "constructive opposition" and seek agreements and consensus where possible with other parties, including the PRI and the PAN. This was eventually the position backed by the National Council.
The Fox-Cárdenas meeting was arranged at Fox's request, and took place in Cárdenas' Mexico City apartment without the presence of any advisors, reporters, or photographers. The press was informed of the meeting only after it had taken place.
During the discussion Fox reiterated his interest in forming a "plural and inclusive cabinet," and his wish to include a member of the PRD in his government. Fox also apologized for the "offenses" and "aggressions" against Cárdenas which "may have occurred" during the past presidential campaign.
According to a press bulletin emitted by Fox's office after the meeting, both Fox and Cárdenas agreed to "maintain a healthy, constructive, and transparent relationship, clearly understanding differences in opinion and in political postures, but also recognizing the same will to seek agreements and consensus in all possible areas."
Cárdenas, for his part, clarified that he met with Fox representing only himself, not the Party of the Democratic Revolution. In response to the president-elect's insistence on the inclusion of a PRD leader or militant in the new Cabinet, Cárdenas said that any decision of the PRD to work with the Fox government or to take part in discussions about legislative reforms "must be taken by the leadership of the party, of which I do not form a part."
The PRD founder added that he personally would not accept any position in the upcoming administration, since "we [Fox and Cárdenas] are promoting projects that in some aspects are radically different."
Opposition Unites In Chiapas As Salazar Takes Strong Lead In Polls
The national leaders of the eight political parties which make up the Alliance for Chiapas - PRD, PAN, PT, PVEM, PAS, PSN, CD, and PCD - met in Mexico City on July 24 to reinforce their coalition and throw extra weight behind the Alliance's gubernatorial candidate, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, who is now leading in Chiapas opinion polls by as much as 17 percent against his rival from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Sami David David.
The Chiapas state elections will be held on August 20.
The party presidents at the meeting signed their names to a ten-point joint agreement designed to fortify Salazar's candidacy with words, actions, and money. The opposition leaders demanded that President Zedillo put a stop to the use of public funds and social programs to support Sami David David's campaign; that Interim Governor Roberto Albores Guillén comply fully with the law and prevent local municipal governments from funnelling money and resources to the PRI; and that the State Electoral Council (CEE) fulfill its role and bring transparency and impartiality to the electoral process.
The eight parties - all the registered opposition parties in Chiapas, with the exception of the Social Democracy Party (PDS), whose gubernatorial candidate is not expected to receive more than one percent of the vote in the upcoming elections - also agreed to jointly finance the last stretch of Salazar's campaign, form an electoral "operations" team from the ranks of the PRD and the PAN, and promote national and international electoral observation in Chiapas.
The unprecedented meeting of the Alliance party leaders came just two days after an announcement by the PRI that it had formed a "Southern Political Front" made up of all the governors of the southeastern states (Tabasco, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Campeche, and Yucatán) in order to support the candidacy of Sami David David. Roberto Madrazo (governor of Tabasco), José Murat (Oaxaca), Víctor Cervera Pacheco (Yucatán), and Joaquín Hendricks (Quintana Roo) immediately announced they would travel to Chiapas to join David's campaign.
The Alliance for Chiapas responded by sending Mexico City mayor Rosario Robles Berlanga and former presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, both from the PRD (the largest opposition party in Chiapas), on separate trips to Chiapas to campaign for Pablo Salazar.
- Two indigenous tzotziles, Alberto Patishtán Gómez and Salvador López González, received preliminary sentences of guilt for premeditated homicide and were sentenced to prison on July 26 for their presumed participation in the June 12 massacre of seven police officers in the municipality of El Bosque, Chiapas. Patishtán is a militant of the PRI, and was detained shortly after the ambush. López González, meanwhile, is a sympathizer of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) from the community of Unión Progreso who was detained two weeks ago on unrelated charges of marijuana possession. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center immediately demanded López's release, since no strong evidence was presented to implicate him in the El Bosque massacre. Furthermore, said the rights office, the idea that a Zapatista and a Priista committed the ambush together is "absurd," as it implies the creation of an entire paramilitary organization made up of "such dissimilar militants."
- 23 civilian Zapatistas imprisoned in the Comitán state prison (Cereso No. 10) in Chiapas began a hunger strike on July 3 to protest the fabrication of evidence against them and to demand their immediate release. Most are from the Tierra y Libertad Autonomous Municipality. Some were detained as a result of their participation in the Zapatista political system of autonomous municipalities, and others were accused of various crimes by PRI militants. On July 21, the hunger strikers announced that one of their own, Catalino López Vásquez, had entered into a coma, and that the rest were in delicate health.
- On July 24, three hundred Chiapas state public security police violently broke up a protest by campesinos from the National Coordinator of Indian Peoples (CNPI) who had blockaded the San Cristóbal-Tuxtla Gutiérrez highway for seven hours. The protestors were demanding that the Tribasa company pay reparations to the community of San Felipe Ecatepec, where several homes and the Catholic Church were damaged by a Tribasa excavation and construction project. Many of the demonstrators were beaten or kicked by the police, as was one radio reporter, before they were hauled to jail in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, charged with attacking a roadway and obstructing a public construction project. Nearly all of the protestors were released the following day.
- Zapatista civilians in the autonomous municipality of San Andrés Sakam'chen, in the highlands north of the town of San Cristóbal, Chiapas, denounced the presence of a new paramilitary group in the area which "meets at night and patrols, blocks roads, and threatens the population." The Zapatista bases of support added that the paramilitaries dress in dark green uniforms and are heavily armed, and have increased their activities in the past week.
- Since issuing a public call earlier in the month for all those interested in participating in the next government to submit their résumés for consideration, the Mexico City headquarters of president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada is reported to be receiving on average 150 to 200 résumés daily. Interested parties can submit their CVs over the internet to: apfcurriculum@visto.com, or deliver them to Fox's headquarters located at Paseo de la Reforma 525 and Paseo de la Reforma 607 in Mexico City.
SOURCES: La Jornada, Proceso, El Universal, Milenio, El Financiero, The News.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
"La Paz Tras el Cerco" - Peace Under Siege In Mexico
Fellowship for Reconciliation ~ July 27
"La Paz Tras el Cerco" - Peace Under Siege In Mexico
A photo and testimonial exhibit
Touring the U.S.: October 2000
Produced by SERPAJ-Cuernavaca
With FOR Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
Dear Friends,
We are writing to invite you to participate in an exciting exposition which explores the concept of peace in the context of a country torn by political and social violence and war. In response to the United Nations declaration of the year 2000 as the "International Year For a Culture of Peace," the Mexican nonviolence collective Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) has put together a photo and testimonial exhibit that explores the violence, war and inhumanity that has cut across Mexico in recent years, as well as resistance movements and strategies for nonviolent action. The objective of the "La Paz Tras el Cerco," or "Peace Under Siege in Mexico" Exposition, is to provoke an enriched reflection from the panels of photos and texts, which will extend into the work of other groups and individuals as they continue to work for peace.
The original Spanish version of the Exposition is currently touring Mexico. The F.O.R. Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean is preparing a bilingual version of the Expo to tour the United States from October 2000 to February 2001. Although we have already confirmed showings at some sites, we are eager to open more spaces to this vivid and powerful exhibit.
The Expo consists of twenty-four 2¹ x 3¹ panels each with color photos and accompanying text. In the first seven panels, the ideas of peace and the construction of political and social violence are explored. The next ten panels describe the face of militarization and "Armed Peace" with concrete testimonies and photos, showing the different ways people and communities are under siege, from the displacement of the population to the assassination of social activists. The last six panels explore the many ways all sectors of Mexican society have organized to resist militarization and build peace in an active nonviolent manner.
The Expo works from the concept that peace is not abstract, but an active process towards justice and equality on which we all must reflect. SERPAJ makes clear that the Expo is only the first step towards empowering people, and their hope is that other groups will continue to explore these issues in their own communities through newsletters, murals, round tables, plays or videos. The idea is that to build peace, we must all "think out loud" together and break out from a state of siege and fear.
F.O.R. is excited about the opportunity to show this exhibit in the United States. Because of our limited resources, we are asking each hosting group to raise at least $200 towards the cost of producing and shipping the Expo. If you are interested in hosting the Expo "Peace Under Siege in Mexico" during its tour in the United States, please fill out the following response form and return it to F.O.R. by fax, mail, or email. To facilitate your organizing an exhibit of the Expo in your community, let us know if you want to see a reduced black and white version of the panels.
Sincerely,
John Lindsay-Poland, Task Force Coordinator
Zaidee Stavely, Task Force Volunteer
REPLY FORM:
WE WANT TO HOST THE PEACE UNDER SIEGE IN MEXICO EXPO!!!
Name and objectives of your group:
We can host the expo during the following approximate dates (Oct. 2000-Feb. 2001):
Please describe the character, use, and size of space where the expo may be shown (e.g. community center, gallery, etc.):
We can commit to raising $_________ for the Expo ($200 min. requested).
Please return to Fellowship for Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean:
2017 Mission St. #305, San Francisco, CA 94110, Tel: (415) 495-6334, Fax: (415) 495-5628, E-mail: forlatam@igc.org
END
Zapatistas Silent After PRI Defeat
By Diego Cevallos, (IPS) ~ Jul 25
The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), known for its quick responses to national political events, has remained unusually silent following the historic defeat of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the July 2 presidential elections.
The EZLN has not responded to recent calls to dialogue, even when three of its principal requirements have been met: the PRI lost the presidency, the political opposition has met in the rebels' home state of Chiapas and authorities have offered to withdraw army troops from this southern state.
President-elect Vicente Fox, who will take office in December, sent several messages to the Zapatistas in the last few weeks, inviting them to discuss an end to the armed conflict in Chiapas. Fox and his team offered to withdraw the army from the area controlled by the rebels and to make the agreements on indigenous rights and culture into law. The EZLN and the Ernesto Zedillo government had signed the accords, but the Executive branch then withdrew support for their implementation.
Fox's proposals respond to the EZLN's primary demands, but have not yet won a response. A ceasefire has been in effect in Chiapas since 1994, the result of a law promoting talks between the government and the guerrilla group.
Eight political groups, including Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the centre-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), signed an agreement Monday to support a single candidate for the Chiapas governor's seat after concurring that the region faces the extremes of either peace or war. The new governor is to be elected August 20. Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico, is currently governed by the PRI.
The EZLN, which took up arms in January 1994 to demand recognition of indigenous rights, has long called on the opposition parties to unite in a political front and push the PRI out of the federal and state governments, especially that of Chiapas. The PAN defeated the PRI in the last presidential elections, despite the divisions between the opposition parties. But in the case of Chiapas, the opposition coalition is ready to take on the PRI party machine.
The rebel force, which suspended talks with the government in 1996, seems to have been left ''flabbergasted'' by the results of the July 2 elections, said independent senator Adolfo Aguilar. The EZLN maintained that it was possible to defeat the PRI, which had governed Mexico uninterrupted since 1929, though rebels imagined it would be through widespread civilian mobilisations, and even insurrectional actions. But it was not so. The party was defeated in elections that were closely monitored and approved by international observers and took place in an environment of social peace. ''Commander Marcos (EZLN leader) must see what has occurred in Mexico as an incomprehensible political outcome, or at least one that is difficult to process,'' commented Aguilar.
Fox, who stated during his campaign that he could end the Chiapas conflict ''in 15 minutes'' if given the chance to meet with Marcos, designated a team of advisers to prepare the foundations for dialogue with the EZLN before December.
After several attempts, the team apparently was able to make contact with the guerrilla force, though only informally, according to sources close to Fox. The EZLN, however, did not confirm such contacts.
The goal of the government-elect is to convince the EZLN to transform itself into a legal political organisation. Though the rebel group has not said so publicly, previous events indicate that Zapatistas have no warm feelings for the PAN because of its conservative tendencies.
The EZLN announced before the July elections that it would permit the free participation of its supporters in the voting process. But then indicated in a communiqu‚ that, in its view, the best candidate for the presidency was Cuaut‚moc C rdenas, of the PRD.
Cardenas, who made his third bid for the presidency, came in third place and the PRD, which had 125 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, held on to just 53 out of a total 500 seats. In recent years the PRD has been one of the most outspoken defenders of the EZLN cause and party leaders have met with the guerrilla commanders on several occasions. The PRD may serve now as a bridge, convincing the EZLN to negotiate with the government-elect, whose legitimacy is assured by clean and transparent elections - another condition the guerrillas demanded, said political analyst Bernardo Barranco.
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
JULY 15-21, 2000
CONTENTS:
2. Fox seeks contact with EZLN
3. Chiapas governor's race heats up
4. PRD: Tabasco state electoral organs lack credibility
5. Briefs
The long-awaited "transition team" of president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada, made up of 20 politicians, intellectuals, and business executives, was officially named on July 17.
The team's primary task will be to work with the outgoing administration to achieve an orderly transition of power, tasks, and administrative responsibilities between now and November 30, and to "help define the strategic paths" for the next government.
Fox - together with his still-unnamed cabinet - will be inaugurated on December 1.
The most notable element about the transition team is that none of its members hails from the dogmatic or ideological sector of the National Action Party (PAN). In fact, half are not even members of the PAN.
The following are the members of the transition team and their portfolios.
PERSONAL SECRETARY: Alfonso Durazo
Alfonso Durazo was the personal secretary of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the original 1994 presidential candidate for the PRI, assassinated on March 23 of that year. Durazo has since left the PRI, but did not become a militant of the PAN.
POLITICAL COORDINATORS: Rodolfo Elizondo and Santiago Creel
Rodolfo Elizondo is the most "panista" of the PAN members on the transition team, having been a member of the National Executive Committee of the party on three occasions. Nevertheless, he is not considered one of the doctrinaire figures of the party, but rather part of the group which began its ascendancy with Manuel Clouthier in the 1980s.
Santiago Creel was the PAN's nearly victorious mayoral candidate in Mexico City this year, though he only joined the party last year. He is considered a moderate, and is a likely candidate for the Interior Ministry position in Fox's government.
COORDINATOR OF STUDIES ON STATE REFORM: Porfirio Muñoz Ledo
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo was once the president of the PRI, once the president of the PRD, and this year was the presidential candidate for the PARM before dropping out of the race to back Fox. His portfolio in the transition team is rumored to be a position invented in order to keep him from meddling in other matters.
ECONOMICS PORTFOLIO: Luis Ernesto Derbez and Eduardo Sojo
Derbez and Sojo are economists who studied in the United States, and at least one is likely to become a Cabinet member in December. Derbez has experience working with international economic agencies such as the World Bank and the InterAmerican Development Bank.
SOCIAL POLICY: Carlos Flores Alcocer and María del Carmen Díaz
Carlos Flores was Fox's social development and anti-poverty director in the state of Guanajuato, while María del Carmen Díaz is currently an independent federal deputy.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Jorge G. Castañeda and Adolfo Aguilar Zinser
Neither Jorge Castañeda nor Adolfo Aguilar Zinser are members of the PAN, yet both stand out as perhaps the closest advisors of Vicente Fox throughout his campaign. Both are intellectuals, not politicians, with a political trajectory on the left end of the spectrum until very recently. Both were also advisors to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in his 1994 presidential bid.
Castañeda, whose father was a well-respected diplomat, is considered a shoo-in for the position of Secretary of Foreign Relations in Fox's Cabinet.
JUSTICE AND SECURITY: José Luis Reyes Vázquez and Francisco Javier Molina
Reyes Vázquez and Javier Molina are lawyers who worked for the State Attorney Generals of Guanajuato and Chihuahua, respectively.
LEGAL AND JUDICIAL: Carlos Arce Macías and César Nava Vázquez
Carlos Arce and César Nava are lawyers and PAN politicians. Nava was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies on July 2.
PRESS AND COMMUNICATION: Martha Sahagún and Francisco Javier Ortiz.
Sahagún, a PAN militant since 1988, is a close friend and advisor of Fox and was his press spokesperson during the campaign. Ortiz worked for Televisa for much of the past decade.
ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS: Carlos Rojas Magnon and Lino Korrodi
Both Rojas and Korrodi are business executives with little political interest.
ADVISORS: Pedro Cerisola and Ramón Muñoz Gutiérrez
Cerisola and Muñoz are also businessmen, the former hailing from Aeroméxico and Telmex, and the latter - an eighteen-year veteran of the PAN - an executive of the Bimbo bread company.
The members of Fox's transition team in charge of political affairs, Rodolfo Elizondo and Santiago Creel, have officially asked PAN senator Luis H. Alvarez to represent the president-elect in his attempts to contact the leadership of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and open a dialogue with the rebels before he takes office on December 1.
Alvarez, the only member of the original Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA) who still serves on that commission, announced on July 20 that "certain contacts" have already been established between Fox's transition team and the EZLN.
The senator from Chihuahua added that his principal goal in the coming days and weeks will be to arrange a direct, face-to-face meeting between Vicente Fox and the EZLN's spokesperson and military chief, Subcomandante Marcos.
Alvarez is now Fox's point man and top advisor for Chiapas, and if a dialogue is established it will likely be Alvarez who directs the movement and positions of the future Federal Executive with respect to the Zapatistas.
Fox and Alvarez also met recently with Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, who offered her services to the new government in order to "facilitate" the peace process. Menchú will have direct access to the future president's "Chiapas team," and will apparently serve as an informal advisor helping to develop a social and economic plan for the state during the Fox administration.
The EZLN has yet to make a public pronouncement regarding Fox's victory in the July 2 presidential elections, nor has it announced whether it will seek or accept a dialogue with the president-elect before his inauguration.
Meanwhile, trite soundbites about the conflict in Chiapas continue to hound the offices of the president-elect, who once said that if elected he would resolve the problem in Chiapas "in 15 minutes." Recently, Nobel literature prize-winner José Saramago said that the conflict could be resolved in just ten minutes if the Fox administration really wanted peace for the indigenous inhabitants of Chiapas. Fox advisor Rodolfo Elizondo then responded by saying it could be resolved "in one minute," if the EZLN had the desire and will for a peaceful settlement.
Chiapas Governor's Race Heats Up
On August 20, the state of Chiapas will undergo the only electoral process this year which rivals that of this past July 2 in importance. The Chiapas gubernatorial race pits the PRI candidate, Sami David David, against an alliance of literally every other political party on the state's political map.
The Alliance for Chiapas candidate, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, is a national senator who served on the original Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA), the legislative commission established in 1995 to facilitate peace talks between the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the federal government.
Salazar stood out on that committee as one of the most vehement supporters of indigenous rights, and together with PRI deputy Jaime Martínez Veloz often defied his party to back what he considered legitimate Zapatista concerns and positions regarding the peace talks, the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, and the excessive military presence in the state.
After leaving the PRI last year, Salazar has drawn closer to the PRD but remains an independent candidate. His campaign is currently backed by the PRD, PAN, PT, PVEM, and four smaller parties.
The PRI's Sami David David has said he is confident of victory, since the PRI conserved its hegemony in the state in the July 2 elections (winning 43% of the vote against a divided opposition). The PRI's candidates won nearly everything on the ballot in Chiapas: the presidential race, 11 of the 12 federal electoral districts, and two majority Senate seats.
Pablo Salazar cites the same figures, however, to demonstrate his own confidence in victory: the combined PAN and PRD vote on July 2 was 55% of the total. The PRI, he says, is a minority; while the Alliance for Chiapas is already a majority.
While David David has expressed his "legitimate concern" that the PRI may lose its most important bastion of support in the country on August 20, Salazar (and the parties which support him) is worried about fraud. Chiapas held the dubious distinction of being the state with the greatest number of electoral violations on July 2, and stood out as the state with the most blatant use of national PROGRESA (the federal anti-poverty program) and PROCAMPO funds to literally purchase votes for the PRI.
Meanwhile, the "war of the widely-varying polls" which marked - some would say "stained" - the federal electoral process in July, has now taken hold in Chiapas. Sami David's campaign is disseminating a poll taken by the Rosenblueth Foundation before July 2, which places the PRI candidate in the lead with 49.9% of voter preferences, compared with 38.9% for Pablo Salazar.
David David adds that the Rosenblueth Foundation is best known as the pollster of choice for the PRD.
Salazar has retaliated with a poll taken just after the federal elections by the Doxa Internacional polling agency, giving the Alliance for Chiapas candidate a lead of 8 points - more than a nineteen point swing from the Rosenblueth poll.
It is expected that both president-elect Vicente Fox and ex-presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, rivals in every other aspect, will soon tour Chiapas - separately - in support of Pablo Salazar's campaign, while Sami David David has said he is expecting the support of Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo and other governors of the Southeast.
PRD: Tabasco State Electoral Organs Lack Credibility
When the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) registered its candidate for governor of Tabasco on July 15, it did so "under protest" as the party "does not trust the electoral authorities" of the state. The PRD candidate, César Raúl Ojeda Zubieta, then accused the president of the State Electoral Institute of Tabasco (IET), Leonardo Sara Poisot, of being a partial electoral representative in favor of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and openly called for his resignation.
Sara Poisot is considered a figure politically close to Governor Roberto Madrazo, who named him to the IET in 1997. Also under criticism is the State Electoral Tribunal of Tabasco (TET), which likewise is filled with Madrazo allies. The head of the state Supreme Court, which controls the TET, even published an open letter in state newspapers after the July 2 elections in which he affirmed that Tabasco "is, and will remain, a PRI state."
A total of eleven parties have registered candidates for the October 15 elections, although only three are seen to have possibilities of winning the gubernatorial race: the PRI, with Madrazo protégé Manuel Andrade Díaz; the PRD, with César Raúl Ojeda; and the PAN, whose candidate is José Antonio de la Vega Asmitia.
All three major candidates worked together in the PRI until very recently. Ojeda left the then-ruling party just five months ago, and is registered as an "external" candidate for the PRD. De la Vega was elected a Federal Deputy for the PRI on July 2, and only resigned from the party this week to compete for the governor's post under the banner of the PAN.
Both De la Vega Asmitia and Ojeda Zubieta have offered to drop out of the race in favor of the other, depending on which of the two major opposition candidates is ahead in the polls by early October.
- José Murat Casab, governor of the state of Oaxaca and one of the strongest allies of rebellious Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), announced on July 19 that his home and offices were the targets of "political espionage." While presenting microphones to the press which he claims to have found within the government palace, Murat also said that he is followed when he travels to Mexico City, that he and his children have received death threats, and that his wife's bank accounts were recently audited. The governor suggested that the spying and the threats may well originate in the PRI or the Interior Ministry, as a result of the position he has taken within the party since the July 2 elections. Three Interior Ministry officials responded by filing a criminal lawsuit against Murat for defamation, accusing him of lying and of planting the microphones himself.
- In Oaxaca, a judge this week sentenced two accused members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) to 31 and 33 years in prison, respectively, for the crimes of conspiracy, premeditated murder, and homicide. The charges stem from coordinated EPR attacks on the night of August 28, 1996 against Navy, Judicial Police, and Municipal police installations in five states. The sentences against the accused EPR militants come just two weeks after a judge in Mexico State sentenced 8 presumed EPR guerrillas, also from Oaxaca, to 40 years imprisonment each in the maximum security penitentiary of Almoloya de Juárez. The eight were accused of the same crimes and involvement in the same events as those sentenced this week in Oaxaca.
- Five currents within the PRI have demanded the expulsion of President Ernesto Zedillo from the party, for having contributed to the electoral losses on July 2. Arturo Barajas, leader of the Solidarity Current, said that the consensus among the five groups was that Zedillo "left the PRI in political bankruptcy." He added that it was wrong for Zedillo to recognize the victory of PAN presidential candidate Vicente Fox before the candidate of the PRI, Francisco Labastida, had done so. The five currents said they were planning a "political trial" of Zedillo at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, beginning on August 23.
- On July 20, representatives of the Labor Party (PT) announced they had officially prohibited the party's members and representatives from accepting any post in the government of Vicente Fox Quesada. The PT said that rather than "sell out" to the Fox government, it would continue to work closely with the PRD in a united opposition block of the parties which made up the Alliance for Mexico in the July 2 elections. However, the PT said it is proceeding anyway with a lawsuit against the PRD for a supposed deficit of 25 million pesos incurred in the course of the past electoral campaign.
- On July 21, the parents of student strikers imprisoned following the collapse of the 10-month strike at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) on February 6, lifted their 151-day protest in front of the offices of the university president. The protest began on February 22 to demand the liberation of the nearly one thousand student prisoners of the General Strike Council (CGH). No students are currently imprisoned, though several hundred are only free on bail while they face minor criminal charges. The parents decided to end the protest after assurances from the school administration that it would ask the Attorney General's Office to drop the remaining charges against the students.
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SOURCES: La Jornada, Proceso, Proceso Sur, Milenio, El Financiero. This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited.
END
JULY 8-14, 2000
CONTENTS:
2. PRD in Crisis After Electoral Losses
3. Who Wants To Be a Cabinet Member?
4. PRD Hacks Open FOBAPROA CD-Rom Disk
5. Briefs
At precisely 8:00pm on election night, July 2, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) realized that its 71-year reign in the executive branch of government had come to an end. Two hours later, the President of the Republic, followed by the PRI's own candidate, accepted the preliminary electoral results.
Shortly before midnight, the finger-pointing began.
Within twenty-four hours of the elections, it appeared as though the PRI had fractured into three groups: those close to ex-presidential candidate Francisco Labastida Ochoa and President Ernesto Zedillo; a group of state governors lined up behind Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo Pintado; and a small group of legislators backing former assistant Interior Minister Jesús Murillo Karam.
The first response of the party leadership, led by party president Dulce María Sauri, was to resign en masse on July 3 for what they considered reasons "of dignity." This decision coincided with an attempt by Murillo Karam to personally take control of the party, a move which eventually ended in failure.
On July 4 the insurrection began. Led by former Puebla governor Manuel Bartlett, a group of past party presidents, current PRI legislators, and other important party figures refused to accept the resignations of Sauri and the National Executive Committee (CEN) of the PRI. Bartlett also led a verbal attack against President Ernesto Zedillo - received with ovations - insisting that the President should not be allowed to make decisions in the party "even for one more minute."
One of the fears of the old guard, and of many governors, was that the resignations of Sauri and the CEN had been promoted by Zedillo himself, in order to quickly designate a new party leadership before figures such as Bartlett or Madrazo gained too much strength. But in the wake of the first defeat of the PRI in a presidential election, it was precisely the rebellious old guard which gained the upper hand in party discussions.
Attacking Zedillo for handing the government to the PAN - many were disturbed by the fact that Zedillo had congratulated Fox on his victory before Labastida conceded defeat, and even before the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) pronounced a winner - and for having made decisions virtually by decree for the party which resulted in its electoral defeat, the governors virtually took over the meeting of the Political Council on July 4. They adopted the banner of internal democracy, attacked the "rightward swing" of the PRI under technocratic leadership for the last 18 years, revoked President Zedillo's "moral authority" in the party, and blocked the attempts to quickly replace the party leadership without full internal debate and restructuring.
Late on July 4, the competing elements in the PRI reached a temporary accord: Sauri and the members of the CEN would remain in their posts temporarily, until such time as they could be relieved from their posts in a "democratic and consensual" manner; the National Political Council of the PRI would be suspended; and a "commission of transition" would be created, made up of the 21 PRI governors, the state leaders of the party in the states where the PRI does not govern, the parliamentary coordinators of the party in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, and the leaders of the three "sectors" - workers, campesinos, and "popular" - which make up the party militancy.
The deal did not last long.
By July 7, Roberto Madrazo was openly calling for the resignations of the party leadership and the election of a "provisional" national leadership to lay the bases for the meeting of the 18th National Assembly of the PRI in October, and to organize democratic internal elections in November for a new leadership selected by the bases, rather than by the President.
Madrazo's current - supported by Oaxaca governor José Murat, Oaxaca egislator Ulises Ruiz, and the governors of Yucatán, Víctor Cervera, and Campeche, José Antonio González Curi - were also clear about who they believed should not lead in the PRI, either in its interim transitional period or after the party assembly: the losers, specifically Francisco Labastida.
Meanwhile, Labastida's current - made up largely of Labastida's campaign team and a few governors led by Guerrero executive René Juárez Cisneros - rejected the idea that Sauri should resign before the National Assembly meeting, and insisted that the "moral leader" of the party to direct its restructuring efforts should be none other than.Francisco Labastida.
On July 11, the 21 PRI governors met for more than six hours with President Zedillo to discuss the crisis in the party. The deal reached at the end of the day was another compromise: the National Executive Committee of the PRI would resign effective immediately (with the significant exception of party president Dulce María Sauri), to be replaced by an interim governing board made up exclusively of past party presidents and well as Sauri.
The deal represented a partial victory for the Madrazo camp, which had called for the replacement of the CEN with an interim council, but was also a victory for the Labastida current, as Sauri was allowed to remain party president and, together with the "institutional sector" of the party (still allied with Zedillo and Labastida), will direct the organization of the National Assembly in October.
Meanwhile, the names being circulated as candidates to eventually lead the PRI after the National Assembly include Roberto Madrazo, Manuel Bartlett, Jesús Murillo Karam, Francisco Labastida (although Labastida himself has said he has no interest in being party president), and Fausto Félix.
PRD Enters Post-Electoral Crisis; Degree Of Loss Unexpected
The results of the July 2 elections were a disaster for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), evicted from the official presidential residence Los Pinos for the first time in 71 years. But the results were almost equally disheartening for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The PRD claims to have fought Mexico's Party-State system more than any other in the last twelve years, only to see its efforts rewarded by a drop in relative voter support across the country in the wake of the Fox phenomenon. Its presidential candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, received virtually the same actual and relative voter support on July 2 as he received six years ago (winning 357,491 more votes but 0.44% less of the total vote count). And while the PRD in 1997 rose to become a competitive political force threatening the hegemony of the PAN as the dominant opposition party - the difference between national PRD and PAN support in the midterm elections that year was less than one percent - this year the PRD saw its share of the party vote drop by 7 percent, while that of the PAN increased more than 10 percent.
Few party stalwarts in the PRD truly expected Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas to win the presidency on July 2, at least not after the barrage of polls in the three months prior to the election which suggested his was virtually a lost cause.
But Cárdenas' campaign was on the ascent in the final weeks, and many thought realistically that he could win between 20 and 25 percent of the vote. Winning less than 17% - his worst showing in three attempts - was considered a failure.
Even more worrisome for the party was the vote count for federal deputies and senators elected by proportional representation (the best indicator of national party, rather than candidate, support). While most were prepared for Cárdenas to suffer at the hands of anti-PRI "pragmatic" voters - i.e., those who would choose Fox over Cárdenas only because he seemed to have a better chance of winning - few people inside or outside the party expected such voters to cast their ballots for the PAN across the board, rather than differentiating their votes.
Yet on election day, Fox pulled in only 4% more of the total vote than the PAN as a party (42% to 38%), of which less than 2% was likely due to a differentiated vote between the PRD and Fox. With few exceptions, those who voted for Cárdenas voted for the PRD, and those who voted for Fox voted for the PAN.
In real terms, this led to the PAN becoming the most popular political party in the country, although the PRI will still hold a minimal plurality over the PAN in the national Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
The PRD, in turn, saw its presence in the 500-member Chamber of Deputies drop from 126 seats to just 53, and observed its status as a strong and rising center-left electoral option virtually disappear.
The party did win re-election in its stronghold of Mexico City, the nation's capital, but only by an extremely narrow margin. Rather than surpass 50% of the vote as many analysts expected, victorious mayoral candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador now seems lucky to have won more than 35%. Furthermore, the PAN won control of the Mexico City local assembly, which had been almost unanimously controlled by the PRD since 1997.
The PRD did not expect victory on July 2; but neither did the party anticipate the magnitude of its defeat.
In the aftermath of the elections, the old internal differences between competing political and personal currents within the PRD have resurfaced with a vengeance.
Within hours of the publication of exit polls on July 2, voices within the party called for the immediate resignation of the party leadership, currently under the direction of Amalia García Medina, president of the PRD since March 1999.
Campesino representatives in the PRD have even suggested that if García and the entire national directorate do not present their resignations by July 26, the rural and campesino elements within the party - including the UNTA, the CIOAC, the UGOCP, and the UNORCA - will bolt from the PRD and form a "new campesino party."
There are nearly a dozen identifiable currents within the party, the most powerful of which are the New Left, led by Jesús Zambrano and Jesús Ortega (known as the "Chuchos"), and the group supporting the leadership of Amalia García (known as the "Amalios"). Other influential currents include those close to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who has tried to play a unifying role within the party; the group surrounding popular former PRD president and Mexico City mayor-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador; and those supporting current Mexico City mayor Rosario Robles.
López Obrador and Robles are not only the most popular figures within the party apart from Cárdenas, but they have also already become the most likely candidates to run for president on the PRD ticket in 2006.
While the "Chuchos" and the "Amalios" have been at odds for over a year, Jesús Ortega - who lost to Amalia García in the internal elections for president of the party in a bitter battle in March 1999 - insists that he has "no interest" in becoming president of the PRD before 2002, when García's term is set to expire.
Rosario Robles has also been unofficially "nominated" to succeed García in the party's top post, but she has also said she is not interested, at least not before her term as Mexico City mayor ends on December 1.
Meanwhile, the only idea shared by all factions within the party is that the PRD must undergo, as soon as possible, a comprehensive reform of its identity and direction. To this end, the PRD's National Council is scheduled to meet on July 21 and 22 to evaluate the electoral results and discuss profound reforms to the party's internal statutes and attempt to define a new direction for the party following its worst showing at the polls in more than six years.
Fox Hires "Headhunters" To Fill Cabinet Posts
President-elect Vicente Fox Quesada, a former executive of Coca-Cola in Mexico, is bringing his business savvy and managerial style into government.
On July 10, the press office of Vicente Fox sent out a communique calling for resumes to be submitted to Fox's campaign headquarters on the part of people wishing to join his future Cabinet. The text reads, in part:
"To honor the campaign promise to form a plural, inclusive government with the best talents of Mexican men and women, the virtual president-elect, Vicente Fox Quesada, today called on the distinct organizations of society to send in their proposals regarding those persons who should participate in the next Cabinet.
"In the coming months, the proposals of the candidates for the top posts will be reviewed. Candidates should demonstrate the following characteristics: 1) Love for Mexico; 2) High sense of social responsibility; 3) Proven honesty; 4) Recognized capacities; 5) Ability to obtain results."
At the same time, it was announced that Fox had hired five unnamed "headhunter" or "talent-seeker" companies with the explicit task of seeking prime candidates for top government positions.
The "talent search" is reportedly being coordinated by Ramón Muñoz Gutiérrez, who previously served as head of Fox's advisory corps during the president-elect's term as governor of Guanajuato. In that state, Muñoz Gutiérrez worked to replace traditional notions of political governance with those of corporate management, promoting the concept of "total quality" government and the use of "benchmarking" to evaluate results of government programs and goals. Muñoz Gutiérrez also suggested the government should view citizens as "clients," and correspondingly provide them with good service.
"For us," writes Muñoz Gutiérrez in his recent book "Passion for a Good Government," - detailing Fox's governance style in Guanajuato - "the use of the word 'client' denotes quality service; we can view the citizen as the consumer of a service, as a contributor, or as a voter, but if [the citizen] is not viewed as a client who receives a benefit and should be satisfied with its quality, then it is impossible to improve and control the services of the government."
The "Cabinet search" is expected to continue through the month of August, and Fox has hinted he will officially name his cabinet in early September (Fox will assume the presidency on December 1).
Meanwhile, the leaderships of the PRD and PT parties have threatened their militants with expulsion if any join Fox's Cabinet or hold other posts in his government, and elements of the PRI have also said that their militants will not be allowed to join the Cabinet. These restrictions may limit Fox's ability to form a "plural and inclusive" government, even if he desires to do so.
The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) this week managed to "crack" the secret code of the PRI guarding data in a CD-Rom disk with names and other details of Mexico's largest savings-and-loan scandal in history, known as FOBAPROA (Bank Fund for the Protection of Savings).
After a congressional investigation and a secret audit last year, the data on the fund - used legally and illegally to "protect" the savings of thousands of wealthy Mexicans and their companies who accumulated unpayable debts in recent years - was kept sealed by a joint PRI-PAN vote, after which each party represented in Congress was given a secret access code to the disk which contained the data.
Congress then voted to bail out those in debt, converting their private debts into public debt at a cost of tens of billions of dollars to the Mexican public.
Two months ago, the PAN, PRD, and PT made public their access codes to the disk. The only code lacking was that of the PRI, which was revealed on July 12 by the PRD as "wteopb549" following a week-long attempt by the party to hack into the disk.
After revealing 74 pages of information with a list of 2,300 credits made by the FOBAPROA (the data contained in the disk only included those debts which were considered "payable;" another 18,400 "unpayable" credits were not included), PRD deputies Pablo Gómez and Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar suggested the possibilities of suing or bringing criminal charges against former Treasury Secretary (and current Director of the Bank of Mexico) Guillermo Ortíz and other officials responsible for the FOBAPROA, for crimes committed in the management of the savings protection fund.
The PRI and the National Values and Banking Commission (CNBV) have meanwhile said they are considering suing the PRD, for publicizing "banking secrets."
- The Secretary of Defense (SEDENA) announced on July 14 that it had mobilized 11,632 soldiers of the Mexican Army in the Montes Azules and Marqués de Comillas regions of Chiapas "in order to plant 20 million trees." Gustavo Castro, director of the Center for Economic and Political Studies of Communitary Action (CIEPAC) denounced the move, saying the tree-planting campaign was but "a pretext" to cover up the real activities of the Army, which he said included guarding petroleum wells, working to inhibit the indigenous vote in the upcoming August 20 gubernatorial elections, and besieging Zapatista communities.
- The PAN, PRD, and PT parties in the state of Tabasco registered their gubernatorial candidates this week for the statewide elections to be held on October 15. As it happens, all three were important state politicians for the PRI not more than two years ago. The PT candidate, Sen. Héctor Argüello López, was the state president of the PRI from February to June of 1998. The PRD candidate, Raúl Ojeda Zubieta, was a PRI stalwart until just five months ago, when he resigned his 30-year militancy to compete for a senatorial slot under the banner of the Alliance for Mexico this past July 2. And the intended PAN candidate, José Antonio de la Vega Azmitia, is not only still a PRI militant, but he also won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies on July 2 from the PRI's proportional representation lists.
SOURCES: La Jornada, Proceso, El Universal, Milenio, El Financiero.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited. Comments: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
Ousted Party Faces Internal Divide
By Pilar Franco ~ July 16
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) -- Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) two weeks ago lost its 71-year grip on power and now has embarked on a meandering two-way course as it defines its place among president-elect Vicente Fox's political opposition.
The results of the July 2 elections marked a turning point in Mexican history and gave way to a division of the PRI into two groups, which are now fighting for control of the until recently homogenous party.
The so-called "institutional" sector and a "syndicate" of governors have pushed the PRI into a deep crisis after years of unquestioningly following the orders of whoever the party had in the national president's seat at any given moment.
The institutional group calls for the continued unity of the party and defends the decision of current president Ernesto Zedillo to recognize the victory of the National Action Party (PAN) candidate, Fox, as soon as the preliminary electoral results were released.
But the syndicate blames Zedillo for the PRI defeat. The party hardliners began to gather strength when 11 of the 21 PRI state governors agreed they would act as a front beginning December 1, the day Zedillo will hand over the presidency to Fox.
The governors have openly declared their resistance to continuing under Zedillo's rule within the party and warned Fox that they will obstruct any attempt by the federal government to ignore the autonomy of the states.
However, the 21 PRI governors did pledge to respect the authority of the Fox government at the behest of the party's weakened leadership. They limited themselves to stressing that they would be on the alert to ensure equitable treatment for Mexico's 31 states and federal district (Mexico City).
Fox's political collaborators said the creation of the 11-governor bloc is not a cause for concern. The president-elect, meanwhile, is putting together a transition team that will work with the current administration to prepare for the first handover of the governing party in more than seven decades.
On Monday, after working behind closed doors to put the team together, Fox is to announce the names of the leaders for the transition process in the areas of economic, social and political development, communications and budget.
Immediately thereafter, and continuing until Fox's inauguration, the team will be busy immersing itself in the functionings of each of the government's ministries.
The team's work should provide an agenda for each ministry, which are expected to reflect Fox's electoral campaign promises to reach sustained annual economic growth of seven percent.
In the area of education, Fox proposed a scholarship program that would ensure access to schooling for children from low-income families, minors who might otherwise work in order to contribute to the household income.
He also announced an anti-corruption project that promises to increase punishments for officials found guilty of engaging in fraud or abuse of authority.
International analysts of foreign investment in Mexico ruled out the possibility that an economic crisis would hit the country this year, a phenomenon that has occurred with every six-year election cycle for the last several decades.
Experts also predict Fox will achieve his economic objectives during his second year in office.
Public opinion polls seem to indicate that voters threw their support behind Fox - not his party, PAN - and the informal group known as Friends of Fox, which unites more activists than the party does.
But according to PAN leaders, the victory was the fruit of 60 years of political efforts, which have also won the party six of Mexico's 32 governorships.
PAN's role will be to monitor and provide constructive criticism to the new government, explained the party's president, Luis Felipe Bravo.
He said PAN would not participate in the selection of the members of the government's future Cabinet after Fox made an unusual call this week for "capable, competent and honest" candidates to join him at the government's helm.
Fox, who asked social and business organizations to provide him with recommendations, has hired five private firms specialized in executive recruiting to assist in choosing from among the aspirants.
Some analysts have commented that it has never been so easy for the average Mexican to win a seat in the Cabinet, but others wonder how those who voted for Fox will react as they see him turn into a "recruiting sergeant" of Mexico's best men and women.
"What must they think -- the old 'PAN-istas,' friends of the patriarchal order and the Sunday (Catholic) mass -- about an announcement to hire well-presented ministers," said political analyst Rafael Segovia.
The syndicate sector of the PRI governors hopes to postpone the party's 18th national assembly until next year and to replace the members of that body before Fox takes office in December.
The PRI's internal conflict forebodes the dismembering of the party, dividing it between the liberal wing and the hardline old guard, agree political observers.
END
Expulsion of US Human Rights Activist Overturned by Mexican Officials
Mexico Solidarity Network ~ July 17
In a stunning reversal of a five-year policy to expel politically "inconvenient" foreigners from southern Mexico, authorities overturned the 2 ½ year expulsion of Tom Hansen, Director of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Hansen arrived in Mexico on June 30 under a fifteen-day visa provided by National Immigration Institute and approved by the National Electoral Institute.
"This represents a very welcome reversal of a policy that has brought criticism and embarrassment to Mexico," said Hansen. "In particular I applaud Lic. Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, Sub-Secretary of Goberacion, for taking this issue in hand."
In a meeting held on July 4 in the offices of Gobernacion, Mr. Pescador agreed to annul Hansen's expulsion as well as reconsider the expulsions of some 400 other human rights activists, priests and foreign development volunteers.
The campaign of expulsions began in 1995 and escalated significantly in 1998. Most of the expulsados were invited guests in Indigenous communities in the southern state of Chiapas. Many of the expulsions are documented in a report entitled "Foreigners of Conscience" published by Global Exchange.
The expulsions came under increasing criticism from non-governmental organizations, officials of the Federal Election Institute, and opposition party officials in Mexico. And a Sense of the Congress Resolution recently introduced by Rep. DeFazio (D-OR) criticized the Mexican government for human rights abuses and the expulsion campaign.
"We hope that this represents a permanent change in Immigration policy in Mexico," noted Hansen. "I know many of the people who have been expelled. They are law-abiding citizens whose only 'crime' was to express concern about human rights violations."
Mexico Solidarity Network, Tel: 773-583-7728 ~ e-mail: msn@mexicosolidarity.org
END
International Observers for Elections in Chiapas
Mexico Solidarity Network, Alianza Civica, and Global Exchange ~ 11 July 2000
Please forward to your lists...
Dear Colleague:
As you may well know, the Mexican state of Chiapas will be holding very important elections this year. The August 20 balloting for the state governor is widely predicted to be influential in the eventual resolution of the armed conflict that has raged between the Mexican government and the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional since 1994.
With the collaboration of national and international observers, Alianza Cívica has worked since 1994 to promote the transparency and fairness of federal and state electoral processes in Mexico. For the upcoming elections in Chiapas, Alianza Cívica will be coordinating the participation of International Visitors with its long-time partner Global Exchange, a U.S.-based human rights non-governmental organization with experience in electoral observation in Mexico.
Alianza Cívica and Global Exchange would hereby like to invite you to accompany us as an international electoral visitor for the August 20 Chiapas elections. If you would like to participate and you are part of a self-organized delegation with an institutional affiliation, we kindly ask that you reply to Alianza Cívica by returning the attached document to Mauricio Claudio, at <international@laneta.apc.org>, no later than July 31.
Alternatively, if you are not part of an organized, institutionally-sponsored delegation, we ask that you coordinate your participation with Global Exchange by contacting Carleen Pickard a <carleen@globalexchange.org> as soon as possible. In both cases, all International Visitors will observe the electoral process with the Alianza Cívica chapters in Chiapas.
Please note that independent of your registration with Alianza Cívica or Global Exchange, you will need to become accredited as an International Visitor by the Chiapas Electoral Council. The deadline for the submitting the accreditation form to the Council is July 31. The forms can be found on the Alianza Cívica and the Global Exchange websites. In order to avoid potential problems with the accreditation, be sure to write "Alianza Cívica" as the sponsoring organization in the accreditation form.
Kindly note that Alianza Cívica is unable to provide any type of financial support to its International Visitors. Therefore, travel to and from Mexico and expenses while in the country are solely the responsibility of each Visitor. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact Alianza Civica´s International Liason, Mauricio Claudio, or Global Exchange´s Mexico Program Associate, Carleen Pickard.
Sincerely,
Silvia Alonso Félix, Executive Director
Alianza Cívica, Yosemite 45, Col. Napoles, Mexico City, CP 03810, Mexico
Ted Lewis, Mexico Program Director
Global Exchange, 2017 Mission St., Suite 303, San Francisco, CA, USA 94110
Although Electoral Fraud Did Not Affect the Outcome of the National Election, Widespread Incidents of Vote-Buying, Coercion and Intimidation Persist. Such Abuses Constitute an Abuse of Citizens' Basic Human Right to Freedom of Conscience and Political Expression, Global Exchange Concludes
Between June 25 and July 2, a group of 60 international observers including academics, religious workers, and human rights activists, visited Mexico to investigate the conditions surrounding Mexico's July 2 federal elections. During the 7-day investigation, which included visits to some of the most impoverished and conflict-ridden states of the republic, the observers recorded a large degree of voter manipulation in poor, rural communities.
The delegation was organized by Global Exchange, an international human rights organization with consultative status before the United Nations, in conjunction with Alianza Civica, Mexico's premier electoral watchdog organization. The observers visited the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Yucatan, the State of Mexico, and the Huasteca region of Hidalgo.
During the past decade, Mexican society has made large gains in creating a more pluralistic political space for the nation's citizens. The work of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), Alianza Civica, local civil society groups, human rights organizations, and religious groups has been successful in establishing a more transparent and fair electoral system. Individual citizens' commitment to democratic principles has been particularly crucial to building a truly competitive political system.
As the ruling party's surprisingly heavy defeat in the July 2 elections proves, a majority of Mexicans feel confident that they can express their political beliefs at the voting booth without fear of repression or persecution. But the freedom to express one's political beliefs is still denied to many Mexican citizens for whom intimidation by government officials and caciques is a fact of life. And even for those citizens who enjoy a good deal of privilege--such as public employees like teachers, health workers and engineers--a failure to follow the party line may lead to harassment.
If it is clear that electoral fraud committed by the PRI can no longer determine the final outcome of national political contests, incidents of vote-buying, coercion and intimidation remain of serious concern. Today in the poor, rural regions of the Mexican south a climate of fear grips many communities.
The vast majority of Mexicans have succeeded in creating for themselves a functioning democracy free from fear, but this freedom has yet to reach the nation's most vulnerable citizens. The next step in creating a truly inclusive political system is to bring democracy to those people.
The delegation concluded that although political intimidation did not occur on a scale large enough to manipulate the outcome of the presidential race, it certainly constitutes a serious human rights crisis as citizens are denied their rights of political expression.
Global Exchange's election-day observations revealed a country sharply divided by education, access to resources, and political culture. In Mexico City and most medium-sized communities, the voting process itself, though disorganized at times and occasionally troubled by confused voters, was largely in order.
IFE regulations were consistently followed, and the delegation was impressed by local IFE officials' attempts to correctirregularities when they appeared. Nationally, the IFEs' vote-counting system was impressively transparent and fast, eliminating any doubt about whether the votes people cast were respected.
But in most of the communities where the Global Exchange observers were stationed voting day was marred by often flagrant violations of the electoral code. In the days immediately preceding the vote, episodes of vote-buying, coercion, and intimidation were commonplace.
Among other findings, the June 25-July 2 electoral observation delegation concluded that:
* Mexican society's admirable, and largely successful, efforts at eliminating election day abuses have not yet extended to the country's poorest and most marginalized communities. On election day the large presence of unofficial PRI partisans at many voting booths interfered with the voting and set a tone of intimidation. In some cases, voters' basic right to a secret vote was not guaranteed. For example, in a several instances polling places were located inside or next to open and functioning municipal offices or military barracks. Throughout southern Mexico, and also in Mexico City, the observers witnessed PRI representatives distributing meals, bulk food, and farming equipment throughout election day.
* The greatest number of serious electoral violations occurred in the days immediately preceding July 2. Interviews and observation revealed a pattern of vote-buying and illegal campaigning across southern Mexico as the PRI, in a last ditch attempt to hold on to power, mobilized its party machine. Local party functionaries, apparently unconcerned about being prosecuted, openly committed electoral violations.
* The delegation found that in many communities of southern Mexico, a common practice was the offering of material assistance in exchange for a vote in favor of the ruling party. The Global Exchange observers uncovered twelve separate cases of vote-buying, all of these committed by the PRI. Global Exchange observers also witnessed a widespread violation of national electoral regulations prohibiting active campaigning after Wednesday, June 28.
* Municipal officials and representatives of the now defeated PRI used government systems and their public status to influence voters' decisions in favor of their candidate, or to intimidate and threaten opposition supporters, evidently with the confidence and knowledge that these violations would never be investigated or prosecuted. The delegation heard numerous testimonies from opposition supporters of harassment and intimidation, particularly in the marginalized and poor communities. In the majority of these testimonies individuals were threatened with the loss of economic programs, their social benefits or government jobs.
In conclusion, the result of this election is a turning point for the Mexican society towards the country's democratization. The changes made by the IFE, both administrative and structural, were a great success, resulting in the high participation and confidence in the electoral process by the Mexican people. Nevertheless, federal resources should continue to be made available to the IFE and they should continue to expand their authority. On the other hand, the efficiency of the Special Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes (FEPADE) and other judicial institutions that investigate electoral crimes should be examined. Democratic transition in Mexico will only be complete when each and every citizen has the confidence that all allegations of electoral crimes will be thoroughly investigated without fear of repercussion to themselves.
Global Exchange calls for the new Mexican government to end the chronic state of impunity which has existed in Mexico, consistently violating the human and civil rights of its citizens most affected by the lack of economic equality. Finally Global Exchange considers the demilitarization of the rural, indigenous zones of the Southeast of Mexico of paramount importance and recommend that the new Government take this as a first step to respect the human rights of all Mexican citizens.
July 4, 2000
END
Stratfor.com ~ 6 July 2000
Summary
With nearly all the votes counted in Mexico, Vicente Fox has won 43.8 percent of the vote, as well as ensured the defeat of the country's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). However, Fox is unlikely to realize the public's broad, contradictory - and nearly messianic - hopes. Fox's coalition has failed to win a working majority in the Mexican Congress, and the ruling party continues to permeate the country's bureaucracies. Fox's own alliance is a contradictory mix of conservatives and greens. As a result, the president elect's six-year tenure is likely to be constrained by compromise.
Analysis
With 93 percent of voting booths counted by late Monday, Alliance for Change candidate Vicente Fox held 43.8 percent of the vote for the presidency, compared to 36.7 percent won by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) candidate Francisco Labastida. Fox's victory marks the first upset for the PRI since 1929. According to international observers, turnout was extraordinarily high and the elections were reportedly the fairest in Mexico's history.
This turnout, however, will do more than pick the next occupant of Los Pinos, the presidential mansion. Also at stake are seats in the Mexican Congress, revitalized in recent years. Fox's coalition is reportedly winning elections for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, though by a thinner margin. Preliminary results also show the National Action Party (PAN), one of the parties in the alliance, winning governorships in Guanajuato and Morelos while the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) reportedly retained control of the Mexico City government.
After the euphoria of victory subsides, Fox faces the unenviable task of living up to the messianic expectations placed upon him. He will govern without a working majority in the Congress. Throughout the campaign, he has promised to be all things to all people. To Mexico's poor, Fox has promised to more evenly distribute the country's wealth, implement jobs programs and nearly double spending on education. To Mexico's business elite, the former Coca Cola executive promised to seek foreign investment and to remain committed to market oriented economic policies.
Fox's greatest challenge will lie in his vow to stamp out the corruption that is endemic in Mexico. The PRI lost the presidency, and the majority in the Mexican Congress, but it is far from toppled. It is pervasive at all levels of national, state and local government; even presidents in recent years have had trouble getting bureaucracies and state governments to toe the line. Fox's next campaign - the one that will seek to root out corruption and spark economic reform - will crash headlong into this entrenched PRI rank and file.
In addition, the Alliance for Change fell short of winning a working majority in the Chamber of Deputies, which under Mexico's electoral rules requires more than 42 percent. As such, the new president will be forced to consider compromise from the start; he will find his time absorbed in the task of coalition building, appealing either to the PRI or to the leftist PRD-led Alliance for Mexico. Preliminary results show the leftist alliance winning 19.1 percent of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies and 19.3 percent in the Senate.
Fox also faces potential problems from within his own coalition, an unlikely marriage of his own conservative PAN and the Ecological Green Party (PVEM). His pro business agenda will be under close scrutiny from the PVEM. Fox has also vowed to form a broad-based administration, with representatives from all parties. He may have no choice. Without decisive control of Congress, and facing entrenched opposition at all levels of the Mexican bureaucracy, Fox has little choice but to compromise. His supporters, expecting dramatic change in reward for rejecting the status quo, are in for a disappointment.
(c) 2000 WNI, Inc.
Stratfor.com , 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701, Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025, Email: info@stratfor.com
END
Chiapas and The Presidential Elections: Where Do The Candidates Stand?
Mexico Solidarity Network ~ June 25
As July 2 approaches, and the situation in Chiapas continues to reflect preparations for a military offensive against the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), it is worth asking the question: where do the candidates stand with respect to Chiapas, the Zapatistas, and the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture?
The three leading candidates, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD); Francisco Labastida, of the ruling Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI); and Vicente Fox, of the National Action Party (PAN), have all made the "indigenous issue" part of their campaigns.
For Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a just solution to the conflict in Chiapas and the implementation of the San Andrés Accords have been key tenents of his campaign from the very beginning. For Fox and Labastida, it has only been in the last few weeks that they have defined their positions on Chiapas and indigenous rights - though it should be noted that the declared position of Fox does not correspond to the position taken by his party in the last few years.
The following are thus the positions of Cárdenas, Fox, and Labastida. (Those of minor party candidates Manuel Camacho Solís, Gilberto Rincón Gallardo, and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo - who in any case is no longer a candidate, having joined the Fox campaign, though his name will appear on the ballot anyway - are not included.)
Cuauhtémoc Cardenas Solorzano (PRD/Alliance For Mexico)
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas is considered the candidate politically closest to the Zapatistas. Although the PRD and the EZLN have serious and strong differences - differences which have been aired in public on many occasions - Cárdenas himself has visited EZLN communities several times, has met personally with Subcomandante Marcos, and in 1996 he participated in the peace talks in San Andrés at the invitation of the EZLN. For the most part he enjoys the respect of the Zapatista communities and leadership, though this respect falls short of open support.
Although the EZLN does not endorse candidates (and in the past has openly sabotaged the electoral process in Chiapas), this year it declared it would not interfere in either the federal or state elections. The Zapatistas also gave tacit support to Cárdenas by affirming the positive role of a left-wing political party in Mexico, while rejecting the notion that voters should exercise the "pragmatic vote" for Fox instead of Cárdenas only because the polls show that Fox has a better chance of winning.
In late May, Cárdenas toured Chiapas - where he will also officially end his campaign on June 28 - and made an energetic plea to the other presidential candidates to join in his demand for an "immediate withdrawal of the Federal Preventative Police from Chiapas" and for the federal government to "order the armed forces that are in the territory to return to the positions they held prior to January 1994." In the same tour, Cárdenascalled on all candidates to "commit ourselves, regardless of the results of the elections, to respect the San Andrés Accords...and to also commit ourselves to send to the Congress of the Union the initiative on indigenous rights and culture prepared by the senators and deputies of the COCOPA."
The following is the official platform of the Cárdenas campaign with respect to Chiapas and indigenous rights:
"The Indigenous Question and the Nation"
"The indigenous peoples in Mexico are the fundamental basis of the nation's cultural diversity. Therefore, the full implementation of the accords of San Andrés Larrainzar will create the necessary legal conditions such that the indigenous peoples make their own decisions with respect to the access, use, and enjoyment of their natural resources in their lands and communities, their forms of social and political organization and their internal normative systems.
"It will be necessary to promote an educational policy which returns to the Mexican people the right to all of their cultural expressions and which also serves to appreciate the wisdom, technological knowledge, practices, and forms of the indigenous cultures."
"Peace in Chiapas and Mexico"
"The armed conflict in Chiapas, unleashed on January 1, 1994, is stagnant and without a solution in sight. Since 1997, the Zedillo government has opted for the path of confrontation, after rejecting the proposal for constitutional reforms drafted by the Commission on Concordance and Pacification and thus mocking the San Andrés Accords.
"The construction of peace in the country will begin with the recognition of the commitments signed in San Andrés; demilitarization; the investigation and clarification of the Acteal massacre; and the assigning of responsibilities for that massacre and for other ominous acts which the current government leaves as its inheritance in a framework characterized by impunity.
"The construction of peace in Chiapas will be achieved with the immediate resumption of a process of dialogue with the EZLN, a dialogue which will favor a wide range of reforms that include, together with those specific to the indigenous peoples, agrarian reforms, political reforms, and those which respond to the social and economic demands of their majority population.
"The achievement of peace in Chiapas requires a general program of development committed to the necessities of the population and to the preservation of the environment. This will open the doors to the achievement of peace in the nation as a whole.
"The negotiations with the EZLN should be a guide for a wider process of dialogue and negotiation with other armed groups. Violence should become nothing more than a museum piece in the Mexico of the new century."
Vincente Fox Quesada (PAN/Alliance For Change)
On February 26, 1998, as governor of Guanajuato (but already a self-declared presidential candidate), Fox declared that it would take him only "fifteen minutes to smoke the peace pipe with the political and strategic head of the EZLN," Subcomandante Marcos. For the next two years, this ranked as Fox's greatest soundbite: that he would resolve the problem in Chiapas in fifteen minutes.
The PAN, meanwhile, refused to back the COCOPA's initiative for implementation of the San Andrés Accords - that which was backed by the EZLN and the PRD, and initially agreed upon jointly by the Zapatistas and the Federal Government - preferring instead to present its own initiative on indigenous rights and culture to Congress in 1998. The PAN's initiative differed from the San Andrés Accords even more so than that of the Federal Executive, itself a "counterproposal" to what was already negotiated and signed in San Andrés.
Fox has now officially taken a position contrary to that earlier expressed by his party, and claims to fully support the COCOPA's draft resolution for constitutional reforms in order to begin implementation of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture. Like Cárdenas, he has also called for the disarming of paramilitary groups and for the Army to return to the positions it occupied prior to January 1, 1994.
On June 13, in a Mexico City press conference held with "representatives of Mexico's indigenous groups" - an event generally considered a failure, in that most of those invited ended up going to a meeting with PRI candidate Labastida instead - Fox read a statement to the press outlining his "indigenous policy" in full:
"For a New Relationship Between the State and the Indigenous Peoples: Commitments of Vicente Fox with the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico."
"It is time for the indigenous peoples to stop being the poorest of Mexicans; It is time for the indigenous peoples to stop being persecuted in their own country; It is time for the indigenous voice to be heard and respected. Enough of continuing to offer little mirrors to 15 million Mexicans! It is time to respond with commitments to the legitimate demands of the indigenous communities across the country.
"In order to establish in my government a new relationship with the indigenous peoples, today I commit to them and to all of Mexico to:
"1- Create the National Council for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples, made up of representatives of the indigenous peoples and outstanding personalities familiar with the indigenous situation. The Council will be authorized to evaluate the actions of the Federal Executive in the indigenous zones; make recommendations for the creation of public policies; and propose necessary reforms to the National Indigenist Institute, the Direction of Indigenous Education, and the General Direction of Popular Cultures.
"2- Incorporate indigenous intellectuals and professionals into positions of leadership within the indigenist institutions.
"3- Create the Institute of the Original Languages of Mexico which will be in charge of the study, development, and dissemination of the more than 60 indigenous languages in Mexico.
"4- Materialize the political rights of the indigenous peoples by way of reforms to promote the representation and participation of the indigenous peoples in all levels of government.
"5- Dedicate official time of the Federal Executive for the promotion of indigenous culture and traditions in the media.
"6- Include content in textbooks which permit new generations to value indigenous culture and traditions.
"7- Generate regional development programs with investment and with the participation of the indigenous communities themselves, which increase their capacities, their economic sufficiency, and their sustainability in the long term.
"8- Reorganize and restructure the organs of procurement of justice, especially the figure of the Ministry Public and judges of first instance in the judicial districts with strong indigenous presence; training them in the knowledge of the indigenous cultures and in the systems and practices utilized by the communities in the resolution of conflicts.
"9- Guarantee respect for the human rights of all the indigenous peoples, granting greater independence to the State Human Rights Commissions of the Executive and Judicial Powers of each state, and broadening their composition with representatives of the indigenous communities and of civil society, as well as the recognition of the work of non-governmental human rights organizations and a strengthening of communication with them.
"10- Recognize and support the work of organizations of civil society that work with the indigenous peoples.
"We are also aware that a new relationship between the State and the indigenous peoples cannot be constructed without a peaceful solution to the conflict in Chiapas.
"We cannot expect that the solution will come from a government which has its hands stained with corruption and impunity. Who can trust the word of a candidate who, in January of 1998, made a commitment to the Mexican society to achieve peace, and the only thing he accomplished was an increase of violence in the state. [Ed. Note- this passage refers to PRI candidate Francisco Labastida, who was named Interior Minister in January 1998, shortly after the Acteal massacre.] Who can trust the word of a candidate who has said he will include in his Cabinet someone who tolerated the conditions which led to the massacre of Acteal. [Ed. Note - This refers to Labastida's promise to include Emilio Chauyffet in his cabinet; Chauyffet preceded Labastida in the Interior Ministry.]
"It is time for an open, honest, and respectful dialogue in order to achieve peace. All that is needed in order to dialogue and to honor commitments is will power. I have that will. Therefore, I commit myself to:
"- Convert the document of the COCOPA into an initiative of the Executive and send it to Congress on the first day of my government, for its discussion and the implementation of the San Andrés Accords.
"- From the first day of my government, proceed to disarm the paramilitary groups and ask the Federal Attorney General to carry out all necessary investigations in order to arrest those who have violated human rights.
"- Create the conditions for the Army to return to its original positions.
"- Promote and give greater importance to the COCOPA as an organism of assistance [in the peace process] and grant effectiveness to the Commission of Implementation and Verification [for all agreements signed between the EZLN and the government].
"- Call on the EZLN to meet with representatives of the Federal Executive to begin a dialogue on the pending issues of the San Andrés talks.
"- Name a commissioner [for dialogue] who has the recognition of the Zapatista Army and of the independent indigenous organizations, and who is obligated to periodically inform Mexican society of the advances in the peace negotiations.
"We recognize that the indigenous uprising of January 1994 is based on legitimate demands, and is a product of the conditions of margination, poverty, and the systematic violation of human rights tolerated by successive PRI governments. We recognize that the absence of conditions for peace is the result of a government blind to injustice, deaf to indigenous demands, indifferent to paramilitary violence, and incapable of honoring its word.
"Peace can only be achieved through the sum of wills.
"To all the indigenous people who have lost confidence in the State, to all the peoples who have had hope beaten out of them, I tell you that I am aware that I will have to gain your trust and that I can only do so through responsible commitments.
"I make these commitments with the responsibility which comes with being at the front of the electoral preferences.
"I make that commitment before society, the indigenous communities, and the independent organizations which represent them."
Francisco Labastida Ochoa (PRI)
Francisco Labastida was named Interior Minister in early January, 1998 in the aftermath of the Acteal massacre in which 45 indigenous men, women, and children (mostly women and children) were murdered by paramilitary forces in Chiapas.
Shortly thereafter, rather than proceed to disarm the paramilitary organizations, the Federal Army began "disarmament campaigns" against Zapatista communities and, together with state security forces under interim governor Roberto Albores, invaded and occupied a number of important Zapatista communities with the intent of "dismantling" the system of Autonomous Municipalities created by the EZLN base communities in 1994. Hundreds of Zapatista civilians and sympathizers were arrested during such incursions, and more than a dozen were killed by Army forces.
Labastida has not made any clear or specific statements in his campaign about the strategy his government would take with respect to resolving the conflict in Chiapas. However, it is not likely that such a strategy would differ greatly from that employed in the last two years of the Zedillo government, preferring a strategy of force and low-intensity warfare over dialogue.
On June 13, in a public event with thousands of Otomí trucked in by the PRI to the Otomí Ceremonial Center in the state of Mexico, Labastida outlined his ten vague "commitments" to Mexico's indigenous population, offering a "new indigenist policy":
1- Combat poverty through investment, in order to take care of the most needy.
2- Guarantee the application of justice with clear respect for the legal achievements and the rights of the indigenous peoples.
3- Safeguard the right to the use of the resources of the indigenous peoples "within the framework of the national interest."
4- Promotion of employment and a salary hike.
5- Promotion of an integral development program in the countryside.
6- Promotion of a productive and social infrastructure, including investment in the countryside and in industry.
7- Safeguard social and labor rights of agricultural workers.
8- Special support for productive projects and social enterprises.
9- Special training for employment.
10- Support, preservation, and strengthening for indigenous languages.
END
PRI Steps Up Effort To Derail Opposition
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 16 (IPS) -- Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is rapidly -- and some say carelessly -- deploying its political machinery to block the leading opposition candidate, who has a real chance of unseating the party from its 71-year reign in the upcoming presidential elections.
The PRI is currently "waging war," acknowledged the party's leaders.
In response to the PRI's intensified campaign measures, presidential candidate Manuel Camacho, of the tiny Democratic Center party, launched a motion that ultimately united the major opposition candidates.
Vicente Fox, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), and the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party's (PRD) Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas signed an "anti-fraud alliance" with Camacho last evening.
The three promised to defend the electoral process and fight actions "by the regime that are contrary to the equality and free exercise of the vote." If there is fraud, we will stand together against it, they stated.
The opposition candidates do not doubt the professionalism of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) - which for the first time is independent of the government in overseeing presidential elections - but the three do question the mechanisms they say the PRI is using to hurt their campaigns.
Fox, the candidate for the alliance between PAN, the Ecologist Green Party and a range of other groups, is the front-runner according to some polls, while in others he runs head-to-head with PRI candidate Francisco Labastida.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have denounced an alleged joint operation of the government and the PRI to "buy" votes, demand the support of government employees, threaten retaliation if social program beneficiaries did not vote for the PRI and disseminate the idea that chaos will erupt if the opposition wins.
In addition, the government's advertising presence in the major media has increased recently, far surpassing that of the candidates. IFE studies, meanwhile, indicate that the PRI receives more radio and television coverage than the other parties.
It is illegal for the Mexican government to use public resources to support a candidate or a party.
But president Ernesto Zedillo has followed the tide, declaring his electoral bets are on Labastida, criticizing the campaigns of the PRI candidate's rivals and refusing to withdraw ads about government works from the media, as IFE had asked, pointing out that no law requires him to do so.
"Yes, the federal programs (...) are resources and programs of PRI-led governments and we are going to use them to win the presidency," acknowledged Manuel Bartlett recently, one of the PRI campaign directors and former Interior Secretary.
"We are at war," said Bartlett.
The electoral offensive of the PRI, which could face fines by the IFE in some cases, has put the opposition in a state of alert.
The NGO Civic Alliance, meanwhile, with its extensive experience in observing elections in Mexico and other countries, asked the president to demonstrate "with actions" that he is determined to ensure a clean electoral process.
The July 2 elections are expected to be the most transparent - and most closely contested - that Mexico has seen since 1929, when the PRI was installed in the government.
Governing party candidate Labastida warned earlier this month that if he does not win by a broad margin, Mexico would be thrown into turbulence.
His rival Fox, meanwhile, responded that he will not recognize a PRI victory if it is less than 10 percentage points - insinuating the potential for vote rigging. Cárdenas, who has no real chance of winning but has had an agenda-setting role in the presidential campaign, spoke of leading massive civil protests if there is any evidence of fraud.
Eric Olson, director of the Mexico project at the Washington Office on Latin America, an NGO, charged that the government is using its resources to ensure that the PRI wins and is spreading fear among the poor sectors of the population that they will lose their social programs if a different party takes power.
Sidney Weintraub, of the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, made similar denunciations. The Zedillo government is stepping up public spending in order to favor the PRI in July's elections, he maintained.
A survey by the Mexico's Civic Alliance organization shows that 40 percent of respondents believe that a range of government- sponsored social programs, including Progresa - the major poverty-fighting initiative -, belong to the PRI itself.
In addition, 24 percent of Mexico's poor are not aware that their vote is free and secret, but instead believe that authorities can know who they voted for, says the Civic Alliance study.
Four percent of those polled affirm they have received visits by government officials who have said they must vote for the PRI if they want to continue benefiting from social programs.
According to IFE, electoral fraud is impossible on July 2 -- when deputies, senators and local authorities are also to be elected -- because there are several levels of control mechanisms and security measures in place.
If technical tampering is impossible, the transparency and equality of the elections are still cast into doubt by both the new and old PRI strategies to pressure the voting public, say critics.
END
Voters Wary Despite Strong Performance
By Pilar Franco
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 15 (IPS) -- Despite a sharp first quarter rise in consumption reflecting the current economic boom, Mexican voters and investors fear a new round of instability given the crises that break out whenever power changes hands in this Latin American country.
The National Institute of Economy, Geography and Informatics reported today that private sector consumption was 9.2 percent up on the same period of 1999, while total production of goods and services was up 11.9 percent.
But the strong performance of the economy, which posted 7.9 percent growth in the first quarter of the year -- the highest rate since 1981 -- is overshadowed by the specter of the crises that have arisen at every transition period in the past 25 years.
Nearly 60 million voters in this country of 100 million are registered to elect a new president and parliament on July 2, in what has been described as the most hotly disputed race in Mexican history.
But despite the economy's positive performance, "what is foremost in the minds of Mexicans is that this is an election year, and that from 1976 to 1994, setbacks occurred every time the government changed hands" every six years, said economic analyst Mauricio González.
Even amid the positive signs, Mexicans feel that "something bad is going to happen, and that economic instability will unavoidably return," he added.
According to opinion polls, only one out of four Mexicans believes employment prospects are looking up, while less than 20 percent say wages improved under the Zedillo administration.
A World Bank report revealed that 42.5 percent of Mexicans scrape by on the equivalent of less than $2 a day, and that the annual income of Mexican workers stood last year at around half the 1980-85 average.
The rise in consumption, added to an 11.6 percent first quarter increase in private and public investment, confirm that the economy is moving along at a brisk pace, said analyst Enrique Qintana.
But the risk does not have to do with how fast the economy is growing, but with what the chances are that the growth will be sustainable, he added.
In the remote but still possible chance of a financial crisis linked to political instability in the wake of the elections -- which might be won by the opposition for the first time in 71 years -- "the economy is more vulnerable with faster growth than with a more moderate rate of growth," said Quintana.
"Does anyone know for sure what will happen in the elections?" he asked. "Can anyone predict with certainty what will happen after the elections? I doubt it."
This week, the financial markets began to pull out of a brief period of instability. Some observers say the peso's slide against the dollar and the slump on the Mexican stock exchange in the early part of the month reflected investors' uneasiness over the tight race for the presidency.
The candidates of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in power since 1929, and the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) are side by side in the polls.
The economy has been infected by politics, said González, who pointed out that at the start of the campaign, the financial sector seemed to be "egged on by the democratic game."
But as the race became tighter, "the prospects of change and the possibility that the parties might start alternating in office have given rise to a sense of uncertainty," and the virtual draw in the opinion polls has led the parties to adopt strategies that have "economic implications," he added.
For its part, the governing party has tried hard to eliminate any reference to the term "crisis." The secretariat of finance's under-secretary of expenditure Santiago Levy admitted today that the economy would suffer "slight ups-and-downs" due to the elections.
However, he ruled out unwelcome surprises when the government changes hands in December, and reiterated the pledge by the Ernesto Zedillo administration that the transition would be orderly and calm.
END
Gov't Fights Specter Of Transition Period Crisis
By Pilar Franco
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 14 (IPS) -- The Mexican government is struggling to banish the specter of economic crisis that has hovered over every change of government, as the peso began to slide in the last stretch of the tightest presidential race in the country's history.
Mexico's financial authorities are prepared to do "anything we have to" in order to maintain order in the national markets, Finance Secretary José Angel Gurría declared early this week.
Mexico's central bank said the recent financial turmoil was not a prelude to a general economic slump, but rather a reflection of the volatility that characterizes any election year, especially given the fact that the poll is less than three weeks off.
Pres. Ernesto Zedillo reiterated his promise that "there will be no "six-yearly setback to frustrate the efforts and hopes of Mexicans" this time around.
The peso declined for most of last week, before it began to rally on June 9. On June 12, the local currency was strengthened by close to 11 centavos, and by 3.2 centavos yesterday, although by early this afternoon it had weakened slightly, to 9.8 to the dollar.
The financial jitters arose "in a context in which people are hanging on what the candidates say," said Gurría. But, he added, "the important thing is the conviction shared by the markets."
For the first time during the present election campaign, the peso and Mexico's stock exchange showed vulnerability last week, in response to remarks by the leading presidential candidates.
Francisco Labastida, running for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in power since 1929, and Vicente Fox of the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), who are neck-and-neck in the polls, have blamed each other for the recent market swings.
Labastida, a former governor of the northern state of Sinaloa and former secretary of the interior, alluded last week to the risk of political unrest in the wake of the July 2 elections, which was enough to cause nervousness in financial circles.
But Labastida was simply repeating declarations by Fox, a former governor of the central state of Guanajuato and former Coca Cola executive.
Some analysts attribute the reaction by the markets to the fact that whoever wins the elections will become president by a very narrow margin.
Labastida has made no reference to what the ruling party's stance will be in case the opposition triumphs by a relatively small number of votes. He has simply predicted a clean and transparent victory by the ruling PRI.
But analysts say the market nervousness is the result of uncertainty as to the position the PRI old guard will take in the case of an opposition victory.
The governing party, which has never lost a presidential election, has resorted in the past -- before the recent attempts to guarantee the autonomy of the federal electoral institute -- to a broad range of tactics to assure itself sweeping triumphs, from the stealing of ballot boxes to providing transport for hundreds of thousands of voters and rigging the electoral rolls.
The historic "crash" of the vote-counting system in 1988, when president Carlos Salinas won the elections, remains fresh in the memory of many Mexicans, most of whom blame the incident on then-interior secretary Manuel Bartlett, an influential member of the hard-line sector of PRI.
But Zedillo points to the millions of dollars in state funding that have gone into providing the federal electoral institute with resources to ensure the credibility of election results, while he rules out any risk of post-election political instability.
Although Labastida has insisted in the past few days that whoever wins, the election outcome must be respected, there is concern among broad sectors of society, as well as the market, as to how the so-called "dinosaurs" or veteran hard-liners of the ruling party will react.
Zedillo, who took office in the midst of the worst economic crisis in 50 years, believes the transition period will be relatively smooth this time, due to the economy's strong growth and low inflation, which stood at 0.37 percent last month.
According to official figures, exports will amount to $155 billion this year, nearly three times the figure posted when Zedillo was sworn in, while gross domestic product grew eight percent in the first quarter of the year.
Analysts say the December 1994 collapse of the peso was triggered by the privatization of the banking sector, with financial institutions sold to the highest bidders regardless of their experience in managing the strategic sector. They also blame the 1994-1995 meltdown on the indiscriminate granting of loans.
Meanwhile, they underline that the situation today is very different than it was in late 1994, which could safeguard the economy from the normal transition period turmoil.
Mexico's economy today is less vulnerable as a whole, with over $30 billion in foreign reserves, a free-floating peso and recent progress in opening up to new markets in order to curb dependency on the United States, its biggest trade partner by far (the market for around 90 percent of Mexico's exports).
The government, in the meantime, said things are different today mainly due to the absence of serious factors of instability like the 1994 assassinations of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and the ruling party's secretary-general Francisco Ruiz.
END
More Police Sent To Nothern Border
By Pilar Franco
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 14 (IPS) Mexico dispatched hundreds of police officers to its border with the United States today in a bid to stem the trafficking of undocumented emigrants. The Federal Prevention Police (PFP) increased the number of border agents from 170 to 700, posting them at points along the line separating the two countries, where surveillance from the border patrol on the U.S. side has proved to be inadequate for reducing the flow of Mexicans to their northern neighbor.
The police deployment on the Mexican side is also intended to prevent the deaths of people trying to reach the United States in search of jobs, and to crack down on the traffickers known as "coyotes" or "polleros," said the PFP. But according to the human rights group Sin Fronteras (SF), "History has shown that no police control measure can reduce the emigration flow -- which is itself a response to several factors -- but police actions do increase risks for undocumented emigrants."
The Mexican government's decision to reinforce border patrols "fits the policy of the United States in the sense that it calls for treating emigrants as criminals," Mario Vargas, SF institutional development coordinator, told IPS today. In addition to PFP efforts to identify, pursue and arrest those involved in trafficking of emigrants, the Mexican government created the "Beta" group to support operations against the people who illegally bring migrants into the United States. This new force includes agents from the National Migration Institute (INM) and state and municipal police, and has been assigned to cover a 30-km stretch between Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, in Sonora State on the Mexican side.
The beefed-up police presence in the area is one of the commitments made during the 17th meeting of the Mexico-United States Binational Commission three weeks ago in Washington, and is partly a response to recent incidents on the Arizona-Sonora border, where a Mexican emigrant was shot to death by U.S. ranchers.
From October 1999 to March 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrested 856,000 Mexicans along the 3,000-km border that separates the two nations.
According to a report by the Center for Border Studies and Promotion of Human Rights, based in Reynosa, in the northern state of Tamaulipas, arrests of undocumented Mexicans on the U.S. side increased 10 percent from 1998 to 1999. The total surpasses the 587,000 people deported by INS officials, according to the INM reports.
The data, however, show that the phenomenon of Mexican migration to the United States is still far from being controlled by the authorities. The advanced technology used by the INS to monitor the border has not been able to stem the flow of undocumented migrants, but it does mean greater safety risks for the people trying to cross the border illegally, said Vargas.
More than 320,000 Mexicans, primarily from rural areas, are able to make it across the border each year, eluding the range of surveillance measures used by U.S. authorities.
The Mexican government's statistics indicate that 160 Mexicans have died so far this year in their attempts to cross the border illegally. Last year, the 356 died, and in 1998 the total reached 324.
The reinforcement of police patrols in one area tends to push the migratory flow to other parts of the border, often to higher-risk terrain, Vargas pointed out. These circumstances confirm that more drastic measures "are not the solution to the problem.Instead, it demands the implementation of an effective system to regulate seasonal workers" as they cross the border, he added.
Mexican emigrants risk crossing the border for economic reasons, not with the idea of staying to live in the United States permanently, according to Vargas. "In addition, their labor is contributing to the current U.S. economic upswing," he said. "The Mexican government must promote a revision of the binational migration policy, with the idea of turning the common border into a space of coexistence for the two cultures, doing away with the criminal slant currently dominating the issue," he explained.
According to official data, in the first five months of this year, the PFP arrested nearly 80 presumed "coyotes" and provided assistance to some 1,200 undocumented Mexicans in the border zone. The PFP agents, who act independently of the Beta group, try to dissuade undocumented Mexican emigrants from risking their lives in attempting to reach the United States, according to the police organization, which also specializes in combating drug trafficking.
END
Ambush Leaves 10 Dead In Chiapas
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 13 (IPS) -- Ten people were killed yesterday in Chiapas, including seven police officers, undermining claims by the Mexican government that there is "essentially social peace" in this southern state.
The authorities now have a pretext to step up the military presence in the region, instigate violence and pressure the Zapatista guerrilla movement, said a statement released today by the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, which also condemned the killings.
In the rural village of Bosque, seven policemen were ambushed and shot yesterday by gunmen whose faces were covered in mud and who carried high-powered weapons typical of the guerrillas, according to the Chiapas state prosecutor, Eduardo Montoya.
Zapatista rebels have not engaged in any significant armed activity in several years. However, local residents have complained about increased activity in the area by paramilitaries and other armed groups.
Montoya called the killings cowardly and promised to do everything in his power to find those responsible.
Peasant sympathizers of the insurgent Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) are caught up in land disputes in Bosque with backers of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who in turn say the rebel supporters are defended by the army.
More than 20 people have died in the Bosque area in various violent incidents since March 1997. Most of the assassinations remain unpunished.
In rural areas of Chiapas, violence is on the rise again. The authorities say it originates in revenge, political problems, land disputes and religious conflicts.
Several local human rights organizations, however, attribute the violence to the government, which they say is waging a "low-intensity war" in the area. The army and police are also at fault, according to the activists, because they turn a blind eye to the dozen or so paramilitary groups active in the region.
But the government sees a quite different reality. Just last month, Pres. Ernesto Zedillo declared that in Chiapas "there is essentially social peace," that violent incidents are "isolated cases" and that the law, unlike in the past, is now upheld in the state.
Following the latest incidents, as on previous occasions, the prosecutor general and the government announced they would mobilize more police and military forces in the southern state to investigate and arrest those responsible for the assassinations.
There are already an estimated 30,000 police and soldiers stationed in Chiapas, where the EZLN took up arms in January 1994 in the name of indigenous rights. The guerrillas established a truce with the government after just two weeks of fighting that remains in effect despite its shaky history.
"We have been warning the public about a possible governmental strategy to create a climate of violence and instability before the (July 2 presidential) elections," states the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center.
The Center, headed by former bishop of Chiapas Samuel Ruiz, denounced the operations to investigate the crimes saying they almost always "are resolved against the Zapatista communities." The Center is calling on authorities to respect the human rights of the entire population.
Three other killings were reported yesterday in the municipality of Ocozocuatla, 30 km from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas.
According to police, three people were found dead alongside a road, with indications they had been killed by gunfire from a distance.
"The fact that these tragic events occur...during the run-up to federal elections cannot go unnoticed," said the Human Rights Center.
On July 2, Mexicans will chose a new president from a field of six candidates, with PRI candidate Francisco Labastida and the opposition National Action Party (PAN) candidate Vicente Fox as the two front-runners, according to polls.
Labastida says he, like Zedillo, will take an "integral" approach to the problem of poverty in Chiapas and ask the EZLN to return to the negotiating table. Fox, meanwhile, promises to maintain an open dialogue with the rebels, remove the PRI from the conflict and reposition the army troops in the region.
The Zedillo government and its party, the PRI, periodically repeat that Chiapas enjoys peace and that the guerrilla movement is solely responsible for the failure of the peace talks. But the opposition and the EZLN insist that it is the government that engages in deception and fuels tensions in the area.
Since 1994, Chiapas has had five governors and received financial support from the government. But today, it continues to be one of the country's most violent and poverty-stricken states.
END
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
JUNE 8-14, 2000
CONTENTS:
1. Seven police officers killed in Chiapas ambush
2. Campaign 2000: Fox faces campaign finance scandal
3. "Electoral climate" pushes peso lower
4. Briefs
Police Vehicle Ambushed In El Bosque; Seven Dead, Two Wounded
Seven public security and municipal police officers in Chiapas were killed on June 12 when the vehicle they were travelling in was ambushed by a group of ten heavily armed assailants as it passed near the community of Las Limas, in the municipality of El Bosque. Two other occupants of the vehicle were wounded, including the son of the official (PRI) mayor of El Bosque. The attackers seized the weapons of the dead officers before fleeing.
El Bosque - formerly the site of the Autonomous Municipality "San Juan de la Libertad" before being taken over and dismantled in a violent military invasion almost exactly two years ago - is one of the municipalities in Chiapas which has most strongly supported the rebel Zapatista insurgency.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and suspects have not been openly named by government investigators. Nevertheless, it is suggested in the press that such an ambush would be "out of character" for the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), and that more likely suspects include drug traffickers or the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), which is known to have bases of support in Chiapas. Local campesino organizations, meanwhile, blame the attack on PRI-backed paramilitary organizations attempting to provoke a military response against the EZLN before the July 2 presidential elections. The EZLN itself has expressly denied having participated in the attack, which it blamed on the state and federal governments.
In Chenalhó, to the south of El Bosque, Zapatista bases of support suggested that the characteristics of the aggressors in Monday's ambush - dressed entirely in black, armed with AR-15 rifles, and with the tactic of shooting their victims point-blank after they were already dead - reflect those of the Anti-Zapatista Indigenous Revolutionary Movement (MIRA), the paramilitary group located in the highlands which is widely considered responsible for the December 1997 massacre in the community of Acteal.
Víctor Manuel Pérez López, leader of the Indepedent Central of Campesinos and Agricultural Workers (CIOAC), which has a strong presence in El Bosque, added that apart from the MIRA, there are a number of small paramilitary groups in the zone which were originally created out of dissident groups from the Labor Party (PT). Such groups were armed by the state government in order to intimidate members of the CIOAC and the PT in neighboring Simojovel when that town's administration was controlled by the PT between 1997 and 1998; and after the PRI regained the mayorship, according to Pérez
López, they were abandoned by the government, and subsequently became involved in common robberies and drug trafficking.
Pérez López also denied that the attack could have been committed by the EZLN, since even among the "more radical groups" of Zapatistas there are "ethical norms which would impede them from carrying out such an aggression."
Within hours of the ambush, elite units of the Federal Army, backed by a dozen artillery-laden helicopters and fifty special "investigators" of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) arrived in El Bosque and began "combing" the area for the attackers.
Meanwhile, human rights groups, non-governmental organizations, and members of the congressional Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA) expressed their concern that the attack may be used as a "pretext" for new military operations against civilian Zapatista communities in Chiapas.
Among members of the COCOPA, Senator Carlos Payán insisted that the commission travel immediately to Chiapas in order to investigate the events, while Federal Deputy Gilberto López y Rivas suggested that the ambush has "all the signs of being a provocation" by paramilitary groups armed and financed by the state government. PRI members of the COCOPA, however, have said that such "provocations" in fact warrant greater military presence in the state, and thus it is not likely that the COCOPA will emerge from its two-year cocoon of inaction to play a role either in the investigation or in an attempt to influence government actions in Chiapas.
For its part, the "Fray Bartolomé de las Casas" Human Rights Center, based in San Cristóbal, issued a press statement in which it condemned the attack against the police officers, while simultaneously expressing its concern that "these lamentable events may be used as a pretext on the part of the authorities to create a situation of greater tension and violence in the state of Chiapas."
"It seems a strange coincidence," added the Church-sponsored human rights group, "that in the two recent ambushes, that of Chenalhó [in early May] and that of El Bosque, the authorities of the State Attorney General's office affirm that the incidents are no more than common crimes, and yet the operations end up being directed against Zapatista communities and are of such magnitude that they sow terror among the communities, with the Army and police harrassing Church catechists, members of independent organizations such as "Las Abejas," and all those who are perceived as opponents of the government."
The Zapatista Army, in a communique circulated on June 15, suggested that "clear provocation or not, the violent act is already a justification to increase the military presence across the state, even in areas far away from the aggression. In recent hours the federal barracks of Guadalupe Tepeyac in Las Margaritas, Cuxuljá in Ocosingo, Caté in El Bosque, and in the municipal centers of Simojovel and El Bosque have all been reinforced. The number of artilleried aircraft and low fly-bys in the Jungle, North, and Highlands regions have also increased." The EZLN also announced in the document that it was launching its own investigation into the attack, and would keep the public informed of the results of its investigation.
END
Fox Faces Campaign Finance Scandal
Two brothers of PAN/Alliance for Change presidential candidate Vicente Fox Quesada are under investigation for bank fraud and misuse of funds which may have been used to illegaly finance their brother's presidential campaign.
The scandal began when Juan Pablo Fox Quesada, the youngest of the Fox Quesada brothers, was accused by First National Bank of criminal default on a one hundred thousand dollar loan which he had taken out, and never payed back. According to the legal representative of First National Bank in Mexico, Jesús Horacio Rodríguez Caballero, the loan was made to Juan Pablo Fox as president of Vegetales Frescos (VF), a family corporation in Guanajuato. When Fox did not make any payments on the loan for more than two years, the bank investigated both Fox and VF, and discovered that Juan Pablo in fact was not president of the company, but rather a minority owner (1%), and had no legal right to take out loans on behalf of Vegetales Frescos. Moreover, it appears that Vegetales Frescos exists as little more than an empty warehouse in rural Guanajuato near the home of Vicente Fox, and Horacio Rodríguez suggested that it is a "ghost" company which may have been used to launder money for "non-commercial" means.
Cristóbal Fox Quesada, meanwhile, is under investigation by the Treasury Department of the United States for "strange movements of capital" which were apparently triangulated among different companies before being transferred to Mexico. The amount of money being examined in such transfers is said to exceed 30 million dollars. The investigation in the U.S. apparently seeks to discover the origins and the final destinations of the money, as well as the identities of all the participants in the transfers. It is suspected that the money may have been used to finance Vicente Fox's campaign.
While such financing would not be a crime in the U.S., is would be a direct violation of Mexican electoral law. According to Article 49 of the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Proceedings (COFIPE), any political party which receives donations of any size from foreigners, directly or indirectly, is subject to a loss of its registry. Also prohibited from making campaign donations are Mexican companies of a "mercantile" character - such as Vegetales Frescos.
Following the suit filed by First National Bank against Juan Pablo Fox, the Attorney General's office began a criminal investigation into the matter, although the investigation is likely to end soon as Juan Pablo wrote a 125,000 dollar check to First National (covering both the principal debt and subsequent interest) after the scandal hit the press this week. First National subsequently announced it will not pursue charges.
Nevertheless, both Juan Pablo Fox and Cristóbal Fox face further investigation by the National Banking and Value Commission (CNBV) regarding their presumed misuse of funds and "irregular" bank transfers, in violation of Mexican banking and fiscal laws.
Meanwhile, both PRD/Alliance for Change candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and PRI candidate Francisco Labastida have demanded that Vicente Fox "clarify" the origins of his campaign funds. Cárdenas and the PRD have gone further, appealing to the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) for an investigation into presumed illegal financing of Fox's campaign by his two brothers, in violation of federal electoral rules (as described above). The PRD claims that there is sufficient evidence to open a "quick and thorough" investigation into Fox's campaign to prove that the PAN, Fox, and the Friends of Fox organization received illegal funds from Vegetales Frescos as well as from the money managed by Cristóbal Fox in the United States.
On June 14, the Permanent Commission of the Mexican Congress unanimously approved a resolution introduced by the PRD demanding that the IFE investigate the finances of the Fox campaign. Vicente Fox, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing on the part of himself, his family, or his campaign, and has declared he is perfectly willing to be subjected to an investigation; however, he insists that PRI candidate Labastida's campaign should likewise be investigated for presumed financing on the part of Mexican drug traffickers.
In other campaign news, the electoral secretary of the National Executive Committee of the PAN, Humberto Aguilar Coronado, has said the PAN will not recognize a victory of the PRI in the upcoming elections, since there are only "two possible scenarios" for July 2: either the PAN candidate will win, according to Aguilar, or the PRI will claim victory through the use of electoral fraud.
The campaign of PRD candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, meanwhile, is picking up steam, and several of his advisors have said that the "feeling" on the campaign trail, as Cárdenas fills public plazas with supporters during the closing acts of his campaign, is "similar to that of 1988." In that year, a civic insurgency in the final months of the presidential race swept Cárdenas to victory, although massive fraud was employed to prevent him from taking office.
And in Mexico City, recent polls have given PRD mayoral candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador a 2-1 margin over his closest rival, PAN representative Santiago Creel. A poll carried out in early June by the Mexican Institute of Public Opinion gives López Obrador 51 percent of the vote, compared with 23 percent for Santiago Creel and only 18 percent for the PRI candidate, Jesús Silva Herzog.
At the national level, meanwhile, several recently published polls claim that PRI candidate Francisco Labastida has regained a slight lead over Vicente Fox, as Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas continues to climb slowly from a distant third place. The apparent advantage of the PRI candidate has renewed calls for a full investigation into the illegal use of government resources and anti-poverty programs such as PROGRESA - which has 2.6 million beneficiaries, nearly half of whom believe their aid actually comes from the PRI - to literally buy votes in support of Labastida's campaign.
END
Peso Decline Blamed On "Electorate Climate"
The Mexican peso continued its devaluation against the US dollar this week, registering an exchange rate of more than 10 pesos to the dollar on June 8.
The devaluation was sparked by statements of PRI presidential candidate Francisco Labastida, who on June 5 declared that instability would result if the PRI was not granted victory "by a wide margin" in the July 2 elections.
The fall - caused principally by capital flight of nervous foreign investors - touched off a safeguard mechanism of the central bank, which is authorized to sell up to 200 million US dollars per day from its reserves when the Mexican peso falls more than 2 percent. As of late May - according to the Bank of Mexico - the reserves were equipped with about 30 billion dollars. On June 8, the bank sold off 50 million dollars at a price of 9.99 pesos per dollar.
Meanwhile, the Mexican Stock Market (BMV) reported that foreign investment in stocks and bonds fell more than 9 billion dollars in May. And the Bank of Mexico announced a 4.2 billion dollar deficit in the current account balance for the first trimester of the year.
Although the peso recuperated much of its loss in subsequent days - on June 12 it was trading at 9.795 pesos to the dollar - analysts suggest that the peso and the markets will continue to experience increased levels of instability for the rest of the year, and especially in the short term due to the "electoral climate."
The presidential candidates of the PRI and the PAN, Francisco Labastida and Vicente Fox - now in a virtual dead heat in the polls - wasted no time in blaming each other for the fall of the peso. Fox claimed that the devaluation was caused by "stupid declarations" of the PRI candidate, while Labastida claimed it was Fox's declarations - that the PAN would not recognize a PRI victory unless it came with a margin of more than ten percentage points - which frightened away investors.
END
- Representatives of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have denied a "rumor" that the UNAM is planning to participate in a "cybernetic fraud" in the upcoming July 2 elections. The rumor, according to UNAM officials, "is so absurd it shouldn't have to be clarified."
- On June 7, organizers of an Oscar Chávez concert in the Zapatista "Aguascalientes" of Oventic, Chiapas, were threatened and beaten by judicial police at their hotel in San Cristóbal de las Casas. At least three people were injured. The concert was held anyway on June 11, with the attendance of hundreds of Zapatista bases of support. Sales from Chavez' latest recording, "Chiapas," will benefit the "Primero de Enero" Rebel Autonomous Zapatista Secondary School.
- In a visit to Mexico this week, representatives of the PEN Club of writers demanded the "immediate and unconditional release" of Brigadier General José Francisco Gallardo, imprisoned in 1993 after suggesting that a "military ombudsman" be created to investigate and rule on human rights violations committed by the Mexican armed forces. Gallardo is serving a 28 year prison term on unrelated charges which human rights groups claim were fabricated.
- The "Plan de Ayala" National Coordinator (CNPA), an independent campesino organization with a national presence, has formally asked PAN/Alliance for Change candidate Vicente Fox to decline his candidacy in favor of PRD/Alliance for Mexico candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. In its letter to Fox, the CNPA expressed that "the left is the hope, the path to follow is with the poor, and our victory is not identified with the right, whose legacy is despotism, darkness, violence, and privileges."
- Two female workers at the Congeladora del Río factory in Irapuato, Guanajuato, were arrested by state Judicial Police for having attempted to organized an independent union at the factory under the banner of the Authentic Labor Front (FAT). The employees of Congeladora del Río - a U.S.-owned firm which processes frozen strawberries - have been on strike for over a year, in demand that their union be recognized and that the company honor a contract signed with the workers last year.
END
June 1 - 7
Contents:
1. EZLN Warns of Possible Army Offensive Following July 2 Elections
2. Campaign 2000: Labastida Causes Market Scare; Fox Declares Himself "President-Elect"
3. Remaining Student Prisoners Freed on Bail
4. Briefs
EZLN: Army Attack Likely After Elections
The Chiapas-based Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) warned in a communique this week that the federal government may be planning a military offensive against the Zapatista Army and its civilian communities shortly before or in the months following the July 2 presidential elections.
Signed by Comandante David and Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, the communique was addressed to the participants of the National Encounter of Civil Society for Peace and Against the Militarization in Mexico, scheduled for June 9 and 10 in Mexico City. The letter asks for Mexican society and the political elite to be reminded, as the July 2 elections approach, that "there cannot be democracy while there is war, and that democracy is only possible when there is peace with dignity."
"In our lands," continues the letter, "the government's war against the Indian peoples continues its course, although it may be hidden somewhat by the electoral process. The machinery of the Mexican State is mobilized in Chiapas in two ways: in order to ensure the imposition of the new "warlord," Francisco Labastida Ochoa; and to prepare for a significant military-police action against the EZLN. Rumors are floating around high levels of government of an agreement between Labastida and Zedillo. In the case that the PRI achieves its objective of imposing another six years of nightmares for the Mexican people, in exchange for covering the back of he who currently works at Los Pinos [the presidential mansion], the official candidate has received guarantees that he "will not inherit" the conflict in Chiapas. And thus the plans are being made for the "definitive" (a word much adored by Zedillo) government offensive to take place after the July 2 electoral process and before the inauguration of the new "president," in the case that the PRI manages to keep itself in power. Nevertheless, faced with the possibility of defeat, sectors within the PRI are contemplating the possibility of that offensive being carried out before the elections, in the hope of repairing the catastrophic campaign of Labastida."
The federal government responded to the EZLN's communique with a series of statements from different officials denying that the rebel worries constitute anything but a "fantasy." The government's coordinator for the nonexistant dialogue in Chiapas, Emilio Rabasa, stated that there was not a situation of war in Chiapas, but rather "a situation of political conflict, with an armed group that has declared war on the Mexican Army and government." Therefore, continued Rabasa, "there has to be an army presence in order to contain actions which could put civilian sectors in jeapordy."
The commander of the 31st Military Zone in Chiapas, meanwhile - Carlos Enrique Adam Yabur - insisted there was no military incursion being planned against the EZLN, and that the Zapatistas' statements "are just a fantasy to make people worry."
The office of the Attorney General (PGR) added that the military-police incursions currently being carried out in the Chiapas highlands "are exclusively to combat drugs and not to intimidate or repress the population." And Francisco Labastida himself replied to the accusations of an "agreement" with President Zedillo whereby the former would not "inherit the conflict" only by saying "that is totally false."
But concerns about the increasing militarization in the so-called "conflict zone" of Chiapas were echoed this week by José Luis Soberanes, president of the official National Human Rights Commission (CNDH); Felipe Arizmendi, the new bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas; Emilio Zebadúa, a councilor of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE); and Gilberto López y Rivas, federal deputy and member of the legislative Commission on Concordance and Pacification in Chiapas (COCOPA).
While addressing the issue of human rights in the state of Guerrero, ombudsman José Luis Soberanes commented on the militarization in that state, as well as in the other southeastern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. "The Army does not have any reason to carry out police functions," he stated, and added that the military presence in those three states should be "reduced."
López y Rivas called for an "urgent" meeting of the COCOPA to address the situation expounded in the EZLN's communique, suggesting the rebel group's concerns were justified. "The government's strategy is very clear," he said. "During Zedillo's presidency the militarization has advanced in the conflict zone to the point where the General Command of the EZLN is pratically surrounded and under siege. This was verified by a group of PRD legislators and representatives of civil society in a trip we made through the Jungle, North, and Highlands regions of the state last April."
Bishop Arizmendi, for his part, met with Interior Minister Diódoro Carrasco and relayed "complaints against the excessive militarization in Chiapas." He later expressed his "hope" that government troops will not attack the EZLN, "because we all desire that peaceful paths will continue to be followed in search of a solution to the problems which exist in Chiapas."
And Emilio Zebadúa, electoral councilor of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) - the agency in charge of organizing the July 2 presidential elections - declared that "the soldiers should be confined to their barracks and withdrawn from the communities and roads of Chiapas" during the upcoming electoral process, as the militarization of the state can only be detrimental to the realization of free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, authorities of the autonomous municipalities of Ricardo Flores Magón, 17 de Noviembre, and San Manuel denounced this week that twelve communities inhabited by Zapatista bases of support in the Montes Azules bioreserve are threatened with imminent expulsion by joint forces of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) and the Federal Army. It is feared that the expulsion of indigenous communities in the bioreserve - located to the east of what is generally considered the stronghold of EZLN support - will lead to the completion of the military encirclement around the EZLN and its base communities, and thus be the final step before an offensive against the rebels.
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Campaign 2000: Labastida’s Threats Send Markets, Peso Reeling
In a campaign speech on June 5, the presidential candidate for the ruling PRI party, Francisco Labastida Ochoa, predicted a "clear and transparent" victory for the PRI in the July 2 elections. In the same speech, Labastida declared that "if we do not win by a wide margin, we will have, as a result, problems in the country, demostrations and disturbances which can affect the development of Mexico."
The following day, in what economic analysts claimed was a knee-jerk reaction to Labastida's declarations, the Mexican peso dropped more than 2 percent - losing 19.75 centavos to the dollar, reaching its lowest value in more than a year - and the Mexican stock market registered a fall of 4.64%. The falls corresponded with a drop in the Mexican international monetary reserves of 813 million dollars in a one week period, although the Bank of Mexico claims the loss of reserves was unrelated to the current election campaign and investor worries of instability.
In other campaign news this week, PAN and Alliance for Change candidate Vicente Fox Quesada began taking out full page advertisements in national newspapers declaring himself "President-Elect." In speeches and other advertisements, he expanded this strategy of "vote-for-me-because-I've-already-won," citing a seemingly endless list of polls which place him in the lead over Labastida (by between 4 and 7 points) and PRD/Alliance for Mexico candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (by between 25 and 38 points).
Fox also used his advantage in the polls to call on supporters of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas to defect to his campaign: "We must recognize the struggles for democracy which have been waged by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano," said Fox to a crowd in the state of Baja California Sur, "but we are also obligated to be realistic, to recognize that he has no chance to reach the presidency....Therefore, I call on the PRD militants of the state of Baja California Sur and across the country to join us in a unitary opposition vote." In Durango a short while later, Fox also called on his supporters to mobilize in case of fraud, and to "defend your votes with your lives, if necessary."
Meanwhile, PRD candidate Cárdenas responded by accusing Fox of being a candidate without principles: "It seems that the only thing which interests Vicente Fox is winning the election, but we don't know why, since his closest collaborators, those who write his speeches and create his television ads, are declaring that this election is not about principles or commitments, but only about winning votes....Mexico cannot have a president whose mouth and tongue are moved by others and who has no ideas, no commitments, and no principles for the nation."
In another speech, Cárdenas declared that Fox "has unleashed a war of polls with the intent of tricking the population and making everyone think he has already won the election." Cárdenas added that most polls being cited by the candidates are not carried out with scientific rigor, and "one day put Labastida ahead of Fox and the next day put Fox ahead of Labastida...such that we don't know if they are really polls or simply figures scribbled on paper to try and influence electoral opinon."
Cárdenas' statement was a veiled reference to the second presidential debate, in which Fox scored points with public opinion by suddenly producing, in a sealed envelope, the "secret codes" of the PAN to access a disk which contains the names of all the individuals and corporations who were involved in the Fobaproa savings and loan scandal - a scandal which involved a bailout of hundreds of wealthy Mexicans through the conversion of their private debts (some of which were illegal) into a public debt worth nearly 91 billion dollars. The identities of those involved were not made public, but rather kept on a guarded diskette which can only be accessed with a series of codes, each one in the possession of a different political party. Fox's envelope - given to journalist Ricardo Rocha - thus supposedly contained the PAN's code, and Fox demanded that the PRI and the PRD hand their codes over as well (the PRD did; the PRI did not). But after the debate, it was discovered that Fox's "revelation" contained only scribbled, illegible handwriting.
Meanwhile, a list of names of some of those who benefitted from the Fopabroa scandal was released to the press anyway this week by PRD representative Pablo Gómez. The list, which includes 747 names - but often only last names - includes those of the families of Vicente Fox Quesada and Francisco Labastida Ochoa.
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UNAM: Remaining Student Prisoners Freed On Bail
The last six members of the General Strike Council (CGH) imprisoned for their participation in last year's student-led strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico were released on bail on June 7, four months and one day after the college campus was occupied by forces of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP). Those released from the Reclusorio Norte federal penitentiary were Alberto Pacheco Guízar, Jorge Martínez Valero, Guadalupe Carrasco Licea, Mario Flavio Benítez, Alejandro Echevarría, and Leticia Contreras.
The action came after the judge presiding over their cases, Juan Ramírez Díaz, dropped all remaining "grave" charges against the students, thus granting them the legal right to "conditional" liberty. The fact that no students of the CGH are currently in jail does not mean all charges against them have been dropped. Although the previous accusations of terrorism and rioting are no longer in effect, charges were ratified this week against 57 students for "violent dispossession of property." Many others are also only free on bail as their cases progress, and must return to the Reclusorio once a week to "sign in" at the prison.
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-A new report issued this week by the Mexican Academy of Human Rights identifies fifteen paramilitary groups currently operating with impunity in Chiapas. Of these, ten are "clearly identified as paramilitary" organizations, whereas five are composed of organized "civilians" who carry arms. The ten paramilitary organizations are listed as: Desarrollo, Paz y Justicia; Los Chinchulines; Movimiento Indígena Revolucionario Anti-Zapatista (MIRA); Máscara Roja; Alianza San Bartolomé de los Llanos; Los Quintos; Los Puñales; Los Aguilares; Organización Campesina Obrera Popular de Chiapas (OCOPCh); and Los Tomates. The remaining, smaller groups are: Los Plátanos; Los Chentes; Los Carrancistas; Frente Civil; and the Organización Clandestina Revolucionaria.
- The president of the National Association of Exporters and Importers of the Mexican Republic (ANIERM), Fernando Correa Mota, announced in an interview with the La Jornada newspaper this week that only 30,000 Mexican businesses - just one percent of the total - participate in international trade and are thus in a position to benefit from globalization and free trade agreements. Of these, according to Correa, half are maquiladoras; and of the rest, 70% are actually multinational corporations.
- June 7 marked the second anniversary of the massacre of El Charco, Guerrero, in which Federal Army troops attacked a schoolhouse where guerrillas from the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI) were meeting with local civilians. The soldiers did not accept surrender, and eleven people were murdered in the attack, some of them shot at point-blank range. One of those killed was a student from the UNAM, Ricardo Zavala Tapia, and this year a mass in his memory was held in the Mexico City Cathedral on the anniversary of his death.
SOURCES: La Jornada, El Financiero, Proceso, El Universal, El Excelsior. This news summary is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the source is cited.
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Military Intervention Feared in Lacandona
By Hermann Bellinghausen,
La Jornada Monday, June 12 Selva Lacandona, Chiapas
Air and Land Patrols Intensified in La Realidad
Anxiety in Communities Situated in Montes Azules Reserve Over Eventual Dislocation
The presence of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) and the intensification of military pressure by air and land are keeping a great many communities in a state of alarm in the Autonomous Municipalities of Emiliano Zapata, Libertad de los Pueblos Mayas, San Pedro Michoacán, Ricardo Flores Magón and Tierra y Libertad. Those towns in resistance inside Montes Azules - or in the areas surrounding it - are living in a state very close to anxiety.
While the PFP established - in May? - a camp in the Ojo de Agua ejido, next to Ocosingo, close to Palenque, the Candelaria community, just a few kilometers from Amador Hernández, is about to turned into another PFP camp. Meanwhile, it is "Semarnap's security base," in order to prepare for the dislocation of several communities. The land and air patrols above the Aguascalientes of La Realidad, La Garrucha and Roberto Barrios - all in the Selva Lacandona - are intense, and they are taking place at all hours and in all ways. On June 9, a disembarkation helicopter flew very low over La Realidad. The people thought it was going to land.
Since the first of May, the PFP has been established between Ojo de Agua and Flor de Cacao. For more than a month, agents have been threatening these towns with dislocation, as well as those of Nuevo Tila, Nuevo Tumbalá, Nuevo Jerusalén, Nuevo Progreso, Francisco León, El Chorro, Jerusalén Segunda Sección and Nuevo Libertad.
The Network of Community Defenders for Human Rights reports, from Rio Chancalá, municipality of Palenque, that the PFP is telling the indigenous that "the dislocation is going to happen" at any moment.
Authorities of the Ricardo Flores Magón Municipal Autonomy are fearful of violence and dislocation in Taniperla, El Censo and Palestina by the PFP, the Judicial Police, the federal Army and MIRA paramilitaries. More than 20 communities are being threatened in different ways. Some, because of oil. Others, because of the rigmarole of presidential resolutions, municipal manipulation and hidden business, all of which are clouding the situation in Montes Azules. And all of them through militarization.
Meanwhile, thousands of campesinos in the Selva Lacandona, especially in the Cañadas, are fearful that the excessive rains, which have been falling incessantly the last few days, are going to cause them to lose their crops. Many are now saying that "hunger is coming."
From one end of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve to the other, from Palenque to Las Margaritas, passing through Ocosingo and Trinitaria, ominous signs are occurring, and the voices of alarm from the communities are doing everything possible to make themselves heard. Twenty days away from the federal elections, there is growing military and police tension in the Selva Lacandona.
Police and other government agencies are adamant in their threats to dislocate zapatista and ARIC-Independent communities located inside the reserve.
A representative from Amador Hernández said categorically today: "The villages think the dislocation of Montes Azules is now." He relates that, since June 8, a Judicial Police helicopter, "blue and white in color, has been flying over the towns of the Amador Valley, at a very low altitude and in a threatening way. The aircraft, flying at less
than 50 meters altitude, is making two or three turns above Guanal, Plan de Guadalupe, Pichucalco and Amador Hernández, looking as if it is going to land."
Previously, on the 7th, two strangers arrived in Guanal and Plan de Guadalupe on foot, taking photographs. An armed man, who spoke Tzeltal, was guiding them. As they went towards Calvario, the two mestizos were "very observant, nervous, asking many questions," but only in Spanish.
The appearances of strangers continued. On June 9, in the tiny village of Nuevo Altamirano, in the Mono Blanco sierra, between Amador and San Quintín, men "dressed as soldiers" were seen, trying to pass themselves off as carpenters. They were armed with pistols and carried large rucksacks. They had very short or shaved hair, and they had green scarves on their heads. Two of them had already been seen by the campesinos, in mid-May, wearing a light brown shirt and black pants, "with six pockets, like the ones the EZLN use, but they weren't really insurgents, they wanted to disguise themselves," the Amador Hernández spokesperson also noted.
Coincidentally, the Libertad de los Pueblos Mayas Autonomous Municipality denounced that, on June 4, three strangers with a military appearance arrived in San Francisco. Two members of the new Alborista municipality, Maravilla Tenejapa, were guiding them. Their presence alarmed the population. "They stayed like ten minutes, repeating 'you have to leave,' you have to leave and you have to leave,' insisting that 'you have to leave.' And, if not, the people in San Francisco would have to deal with the next government. That it would be better if we did it willingly, otherwise it would be unwillingly."
Previously, PFP and PGR agents arrived in this community, also within the Montes Azules, by helicopter, in order to threaten them with dislocation.
Meanwhile, according to information from the ARIC-Independent, the town of Candelaria "is already a Semarnap security base." And they note that everything is prepared for it to be turned into a base of operations for the PFP, and, from there, to effect the dislocation of the towns of San Salvador, San Gregorio, Israel, El Corozal, San Antonio Miramar and Buen Samaritano.
ARIC-Independent members are worried, because the people of Candelaria "are denouncing that their own compañeros are those who are destroying and looting the mountain, in order to give an excuse for expelling them." It would appear that the ex-ariqueros have already made a pact with Semarnap to exchange land for providing the "service" of falsely accusing the other towns. Candelaria will be the first village abandoned by its residents and turned into a PFP base, with houses, cultivated land and a landing strip.
For their part, ejiditarios from Ojo de Agua, already invaded by the PFP, said the ejido has been in existence for 16 years, since its boundaries were drawn on January 15, 1984. The demarcation document was delivered by engineer Héctor Villarreal, government representative at that time. A few days previously, on January 10, Ojo de Agua had signed an agreement with delegate Luis J. Garza Torres and the community property commissioner of the Lacandona community, Juan Chambor Yuc. Nonetheless, PFP agents warned them they could be dislocating the ejiditarios at any moment.
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Last Clinton-Zedillo Meet Seals Close Ties
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 9 (IPS) Pres. Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo met today for the last time as heads of state to seal close bilateral relations, although they will leave their successors a legacy of pending conflicts. Zedillo, whose term ends in December, and Clinton, who steps down in January, met as presidents for the 11th and last time. The meeting took place on this occasion in the United States, which the Mexican president visited for two days.
As on previous occasions, the two presidents and other officials reiterated that relations between the two countries have never been better. Clinton and Zedillo witnessed the signing of an accord that took two years to negotiate, and delimits the last maritime frontier between the two countries, an area in the Gulf of Mexico.
Before the meeting between the two presidents, Zedillo got together with the heads of multilateral financial institutions, who congratulated him for Mexico's recent economic performance. Mexico and the United States, partners -- along with Canada -- in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), did $231 billion worth of trade in 1999, 2.5 times the 1994 level.
Despite repeated references to the close ties enjoyed by the two countries, the two presidents will leave pending several long- standing conflicts. The two countries continue to have different views regarding the fight against drugs, which has been tarnished, moreover, by accusations of corruption.
Illegal drug flows between the two nations are fuelled by heavy demand in the United States -- the world's single biggest market for narcotics -- as well as the growing power of Mexican drug cartels. Mexico also complains that in the U.S. approach to the problem of immigration, undocumented Mexican aliens are treated as if they were criminals, and suffer violations of their human rights.
There have also been accusations of dumping -- the export of products at prices deemed artificially low -- and failure to comply with land transport agreements. The three front-runners for the July presidential elections in Mexico have all visited the United States in the past three months to initiate contacts. George Bush, the Republican Party presidential candidate, has also made overtures to Mexico, meeting with Zedillo, for example.
The two countries share a 3,200-km border, part of which was demarcated in the 19th century, after a war and the seizure by the United States of 55 percent of Mexico's original territory. Opinion polls indicate that the next president of Mexico could represent an opposition party, rather than the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has held onto power since its creation in 1929.
The winner of the July 2 elections could be Vicente Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, who is neck and neck in the polls with the PRI's Francisco Labastida. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party, is in a distant third place.
All three candidates have pledged to review Mexico's ties with the United States. Cárdenas, however, is the only one who has talked about reopening NAFTA negotiations to push for more favorable trading conditions for Mexico. "There will be changes in the relationship with the United States after the elections," said analyst Juventino Correa. "But perhaps we should not expect too much, because this is a relationship with a dynamic rooted in long-standing problems as well as mutual benefits."
In recent weeks, the electoral climate in Mexico has caused jitters among foreign investors, including U.S. investors, with the consequent pressure on the Mexican peso.
Yesterday and today, the peso fell to the lowest level seen since February 1999: 10 to the dollar. Neighbors with different languages and cultures, the United States, the world's most powerful country, and Mexico, a developing nation, experience periodic rows, but have close ties nonetheless.
The gap between wages, income and living standards in the two countries is 25 to one, according to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico. However, many Mexican firms have made bulky investments in the United States, amounting to $661 million in 1999, the highest level of investment in the United States of any Latin American country. An estimated three million Mexicans cross into the United States every year, many of them undocumented workers. The United States is home to 20 million Mexicans. In the not-so-distant future, Latinos and Hispanics will become the largest ethnic minority in the United States.
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Zedillo Urged To Free Conservationists
By Danielle Knight
WASHINGTON, Jun. 9 (IPS) Human rights and environmental activists, along with some lawmakers, are urging the Mexican president during his visit here to release two Mexican prisoners who organized peasants against logging. Carrying placards and photos of jailed Mexican farmers who fought to stop logging, about 50 activists gathered outside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last night where Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo presented a speech.
"Environmental activism is not a crime," said Alejandro Queral an organizer with the Sierra Club, an national advocacy group based here. "This is President Zedillo's chance to show the international community that the Mexican government respects the rights of activists to protect the environment."
Last week, 40 members of Congress sent a letter to Zedillo asking him to "immediately and unconditionally" release the two farmers, who had organized peasants to block roads after loggers began felling virgin forests near their village in the mountains north of Acapulco.
The efforts of Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, slowed the logging somewhat but it infuriated wealthy landowners. In May 1999 they were arrested and reportedly beaten and tortured by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army.
According to testimony by the prisoners and Amnesty International, Montiel and Cabrera were then threatened at gunpoint and forced into confessing involvement with an armed opposition group and illegal possession of weapons. Rights activists believe that these charges were created to imprison Montiel and Cabrera for their environmental activism.
"Montiel and Cabrera's only 'crime' was to protect the forests by protesting the clear-cut logging of Mexico's old-growth forests.
The Mexican Embassy here did not have an immediate comment on the allegations and protests. In the past, government spokesman have said they were unaware of the case but that they would investigate. Sierra Club's Queral, who visited Montiel in prison in April, said both prisoners have lost weight and have been refused medical care on several occasions. "They are forced to sleep on the cold floor of the shower rooms and treated inhumanely," he said.
Amnesty International recently declared the two conservationists 'prisoners of conscience.' "These serious allegations of human rights abuse and worsening medical conditions demand attention," said Andrew Miller, the acting Americas director of the U.S. division of Amnesty International (AIUSA).
The plight of the two farmers received international attention in April when they were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, a $125,000 cash award given by the California-based Goldman Foundation to environmental crusaders.
Montiel's activism began when he became concerned for his crops when logging in the mountains of Guerrero began disturbing the forest watershed and drastically decreasing the region's water supply and quality. With only a first grade education, he wrote letters to federal officials that laws were being violated.
When the letters were never answered, Montiel formed an environmental organization, Campesinos Ecologistas or Farmer Ecologists, and his activities led US-based Boise Cascade to abandon the logging it began in 1995. But his group - called an 'eco-guerrilla' organization by the State Attorney General's Office - has infuriated wealthy land owners and the generals at a nearby garrison.
Gunman have killed several members of Montiel Flores' organization. "We aren't against anybody ... but hope that everybody will look out for the ecology, because to damage the ecology is to do damage to ourselves," he said in a statement distributed by the Goldman Foundation.
The Human Rights Center Agustin Pro Juarez in Mexico has taken on the legal defence of both Montiel and Cabrera. But since this organization took on the case, its members have received several death threats. In August 1999, the coordinator of the Law Program, Digna Ochoa y Placido, was kidnapped for several hours by unidentified assailants and beaten. "American timber companies like Boise-Cascade have fled the United States to come to Mexico where they destroy our forests," said Ochoa y Placido on a recent visit to the United States. Queral said the imprisonment of Montiel and Cabrera is part of a pattern of intimidation against environmentalists in the state of Guerrero.
In June 1995, members of the state judicial police killed 17 unarmed farmers near the village of Aguas Blancas in Guerrero. They had gathered to protest against the governor's decision to resume logging in the area.
This past March, another member of Farmer Ecologists, Maximino Marcial Jaimes, was reportedly abducted by members of a paramilitary group, says Amnesty International, which has expressed concern for his safety.
Without someone to speak out on behalf of the ecology of Guerrero, the forests are beginning to disappear in the region, says Queral. The campaign to free Montiel and Cabrera, is part of a larger joint effort by the Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA to defend environmental activists threatened by governments and corporate interests around the world. With a combined membership of more than 1 million volunteers across the United States, the two organizations have worked together in previous campaigns to protect environmental activists in Nigeria, Russia, and Myanmar, formerly Burma. "Someone must stand up and speak on behalf of these earth defenders," said Queral.
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Sundays In Zócalo Bring Art, Music To All
By Pilar Franco
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 8 (IPS) Mexico City's Zócalo, the huge central square also known as the Plaza de la Constitucion, has become the hub of a major campaign by the center-left city government to bring art, music and film to the public. Since the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) won the city government in December 1997, the broadest repertoire of cultural events is offered in parks and plazas of this city of 20 million, with the aim of putting art and music within the reach of all sectors of society.
Thousands of men, women and children sing, dance and party every Sunday to the rhythms of local and foreign artists, like Brazil's Milton Nacimento or Cuba's Compay Segundo. The square is also the meeting-point at which protests held in the capital converge. Massive concerts, launched in the spring of 1998 by world-famous Cuban musician Silvio Rodríguez, have been added to cultural exhibitions and events celebrating Mexico's multicultural traditions and customs.
Since then, the Mexico City Cultural Institute has organized 21,500 free shows, which draw up to 100,000 spectators, as part of its "the Street Is for Everyone" program.
Events are also held in the schools and prisons of one of the most violent cities in the world, Carmen Chong, coordinator of the Cultural Institute's division of popular events, told IPS. "The aim is for people to recover our public spaces, and to offer cultural events free of charge" for those who cannot afford the equivalent of $3.50 to go to the movies, not to mention $50 for a concert by the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra.
Legendary French mime Marcel Marceau, 77, was forced to cut short his May 28 performance in the central square of the colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan on the southside of Mexico City after10 minutes due to the crush of spectators seeking a better view.
The program "June of Poetry," meanwhile, has brought the voices of around 100 poets -- like Chile's Gonzalo Rojas, Marosa de Giorgio from Uruguay, Honduran Roberto Sosa and Serge Pey from France -- to downtown Mexico City this month. Pouring rain did little to dampen the spirits of tens of thousands of people of all ages who turned out on May 21 to dance to the lively tunes of Brazil's Nacimento.
The Zócalo has become a cultural meeting-ground for sectors of society that rarely mingle, said Chong. Many local residents who have never set foot inside the city's exclusive theatres can now enjoy the music of prestigious musicians like Cuban singer Celia Cruz, Spanish singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, Joaquín Sabina, Víctor Manuel and Ana Belén, Argentina's Charly García and Mercedes Sosa, Mexico's Chavela Vargas, the Portuguese band Madredeus and the Afro-Cuban All Stars, who have all packed the central square.
A grateful audience carpeted the stage with roses after the May 7 show put on by singer Cesaria Evora -- known popularly as "the barefoot prima donna" -- from Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking island off the coast of West Africa. And while the free concerts draw crowds of up to 100,000, hundreds of thousands continue to overflow the plaza to celebrate Mexico's traditional fiestas.
Nearly half a million people paid tribute in the Zócalo on the Day of the Dead, while around 300,000 shared in the celebrations on Jan. 6 (the Day of the Magi) and during Holy Week, said Chong.
The safety of the artists and the public is one of the top priorities of the organizers of the cultural events. Civil defence groups and the women's police squad -- called the "cisnes," or swans -- aremainly in charge of protection, while male police officers are only posted around the stage and at impressive barricades set up in streets around the square, far enough away from the spectators to rule out any possibility of intimidation or friction, Chong explained.
A "Monumental Zoo" comprised of enormous sculptures by Mexican artist Juan Soriano amused and awed visitors to the plaza in March and April. A giant screen has also been set up to recreate the famous scene from the film "Cinema Paradiso" by Italy's Giuseppe Tornatore, with thousands of city residents turning the square into an enormous outdoor cinema.
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Proposal for EZLN Presentation to the Encuentro
by Civil Society Against War and Repression and for Democracy ~ June 9
The existence and continuation of the war against the zapatista indigenous is more than a short-term event. Because they are the group most strongly opposed to the regime's anti-democratic nature and authoritarianism, they have become the primary objective for elimination, through the exercise of that most cruel political practice: the war of extermination. This has been a constant over the last six years, and the operatives are a handful of technocrats and those federal army generals who have sold themselves to them, betraying their people.
Over the last days, an open escalation of the war has begun, and, since the zapatistas have not been able to be defeated politically, a definitive military strike has been decided upon. It is necessary to come to terms with the fact that they will be continuing, then, against the poor of the countryside and the city. There is nothing left for the neoliberal program, if it wants to survive.
The poor are an obstacle. Especially those who resist their policies. There has been a news blockade concerning war activities over the last few days. Even so, there are sufficient indications, if one cares to see them. There has been a growing tendency, however, to refuse to see the reality and to want to see war as only a possibility. This is a typical phenomenon in response to extraordinary circumstances. It is understandable that the war would cause it, but it would be a serious error to become paralyzed. That is precisely the government's intention. We do not have to wait for large massacres in order to mobilize. Why wait for ten or twenty Acteals?
Sooner or later, the assassination of hundreds of zapatista indigenous will come crashing down on us, and it will have a profound impact in the consciences of the excluded of the entire world. By preparing a response now, by employing a strategy that will dismantle the war, it will be more difficult later, and it will cost more lives and effort, to stop it.
It is essential that we not only mobilize, but also that we remain organized. We cannot ease up in response to a political class who see their end in government close at hand. They have said it in many ways: they have no thoughts of leaving power peacefully. This means they will cause the greatest possible damage, and they will prevent democracy from taking root in the country. That would keep them from winning the government again, which they continue using in order to enrich themselves and to favor the groups of capitalists who have known only how to exploit the people and to loot the wealth of Mexico.
It is necessary to be aware of the fact that there are many of us, throughout the country, and in various forms, who are the objects of repression and low intensity warfare. We are part of a whole that has become, for the neoliberal technocrats, a military objective. The struggle against war and repression and for democracy has today become the last front of defense against the annihilation, not just of zapatismo, but of many activists for human rights and democracy. Even so, the fact that the government has opted for open war also means that it is at its lowest level of credibility and legitimacy, and at its highest level of corruption. It is in such a state of deterioration that it has lost its hegemony and control over its own means of reproduction. That is why it is resorting to soldiers and paramilitaries. It believes that is the only way in which will it be saved and in which it will be able to continue in power.
War as a political strategy in this context aspires to achieve different objectives:
1) to strike forcefully against the political object, zapatismo, which could convoke and draw together social forces which would emerge after the election euphoria is over, and once disillusionment has set in upon seeing that neither Fox nor Labastida are going to change neoliberal policies;
2) to provoke chaos in the southeastern states and the Gulf of Mexico in order to facilitate the implementation of fraud in all its guises, and to guarantee Labastida's "winning" the election, despite everything;
3) to create so much uncertainty and fear that the number of people voting is inhibited, making the manipulation of votes easier;
4) to mitigate the radicalism of those political positions taken by different groups of intellectuals, academics, journalists, professional politicians, business elites and religious persons against the PRI, since that could lead to a majority vote against Labastida.
For all these objectives, the strategy is -through the extermination of the EZLN, by definitively striking at it - to avoid the spread of the example of doing and understanding a new kind of politics. In order to achieve this, solidarity with the indigenous peoples must also be stopped, and the protest must not become national. To defeat zapatismo militarily and to dilute their national strength. It is within this context that the annihilation of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee, the CCRI, which is the EZLN comandancia, is being contemplated.
Accompanying the government's war strategy is State terrorism. The utilization of the army and the war against zapatismo represents the possibility of reestablishing political and economic control. The logic is that of a modernization which dictates the elimination of those social groups who have neither the capacity, nor the desire, to consume the products offered by the neoliberal market.
Given this perspective, it is necessary to warn that the compañeros and zapatista brothers, and the communities which are their support bases, are going to resist and to withstand the war, at the cost of their lives. We have no doubt as to their capacity for struggle and resistance, of their decision to die for a new, democratic Mexico, with justice and liberty for all Mexicans. That is why we should not wait until massacres take place.
Responding and organizing now, in order to stop the war, will be easier than stopping it later. It is necessary to realize that the army is not going to be able to quickly exterminate the thousands and thousands of members of the EZLN and the hundreds of thousands who make up the indigenous communities which support them. And the possibility of the government extending the actions of war throughout all the land is dependent on the defeats they experience at this very moment. In addition, one must warn that the political forces and power groups who have decided on war are not the only ones in the country, nor do they have the approval of all international power groups. There is resistance to these kinds of measures, even within the armed forces. But, one more time, it must be said, that, if civil society does not offer resistance, the war could go on for a long time.
In other words, the cost and the number of deaths caused by the regime's military and paramilitary forces. But the irresponsibility caused by our not mobilizing immediately, in order to avoid massacres, will work to the advantage of the criminal government.
One cannot lose sight of the fact that struggling against the war, and the state's repressive violence, is part of the struggle for democracy. It is, therefore, a demand and a global questioning of the regime which civil society organizations, which some parties and officials and members of the PRI who want peace, are doing.
Illusory Democracy and Repressive Reality
Under current conditions, it is very difficult to successfully create the simulation between the illusory democracy and the repressive reality. Opposition parties, as well as intellectuals, will have to define themselves. We must insist that the struggle against war and repression is both one of principle and, at the same time, the struggle for democracy.
There is, most certainly, a problem which must be overcome if one wants to stop the war offensive. This is the breakdown and fragmentation among social organizations and movements. But it is a phenomenon that can be surmounted, and, during these times in which we are living, it can be achieved very rapidly.
It is also important to take into account the fact that the decision to implement war requires the willingness of the armed forces, and their conviction that they are carrying out their duties. The possibility of the soldiers' weariness must, in this sense, be considered. On the other hand, those actors who are facilitating the war must be denounced and revealed, since this will facilitate the breaking up of the alliances of the technocrats and the military. They include a group of pro-government environmental NGOs, the ecclesiastical hierarchy and cacique and business groups in Chiapas, as well as a group of army officers.
Everything indicates that the government has decided on open war, and it is hoping that that political act will achieve its goals as quickly as possible, and without the use of its entire force. That is why it began with actions that are able to sow fear and intimidation in the entire population. That single fact is already an act of repression. One cannot lose sight of the fact that repression does not always require its enemy's destruction. It is enough to impose its will.
For a National Front Against the War and Repression and for Democracy Under the conditions described, the relevance of forming an organization is beyond question. It would be absurd to deny that that there cannot be democracy with war. And so, the transition to democracy must include stopping the war. The creation of a National Front would have to bring together all social and political organizations and those people and organizations who want peace in Mexico. It would be a front whose only objective would be that of stopping the war so that democracy can exist. This Front would have to be specifically for organizing, in a unified manner, actions and initiatives against the war, and it would be respectful of the networks, groups, alliances, coalitions, coordinadoras, and so forth, who exist today for other struggles. It is imperative that the objective of this Front not be diluted with the presentation of other demands. As legitimate as they may be, they will have no prospects at all if war were to become widespread in this country. And further, Zedillo's government would be delighted if a National Front were to emerge with five, ten or twenty demands, because then it would have room to maneuver, in order to weaken the struggle against the war. Stopping the war is foremost.
After six years of low intensity war, we have not been able make the government carry out the San Andrés Accords, nor even to remove the seventy thousand soldiers from Chiapas, nor to keep paramilitary groups from proliferating. That is why it is the moment for forming a Great Front Against the War and for Democracy which will become a platform for stopping the war and for furthering a true transition to democracy. It will promote political consciousness, and it will be a shield against repression throughout the nation's lands, for every social group and movement.
The building of this great National Front will have to overcome one initial obstacle, which is lack of information, since the government is maintaining a news blockade in order to prevent knowledge of the war it is waging in Chiapas. A primary challenge will be linking the thousands of civil society organizations who are fighting locally and informing them about events and the war operations against the zapatistas. They will also have to be convinced that the primary objective is to stop the war. It will be at this National Encuentro of Civil Society where the decision will have to be made concerning the plan of action to be carried out immediately.
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Campaign Serves As Press Freedom Barometer
By Pilar Franco
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 7 (IPS) The tight race for the Mexican presidency has highlighted the local media's growing independence, but some analysts say there is still a long way to go to establish full freedom of the press here. Although government repression of the media is a thing of the past, according to the Latin American Federation of Journalists, two of the 11 journalists assassinated in the region since January were killed in Mexico.
Mexico is second only to Colombia among Latin American nations for the number of journalists assassinated for practicing their profession. In the last decade, 220 journalists have been killed in the region, while the world total for 1999 was 87 journalists assassinated, according to the latest report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Mexico's current presidential election campaign, the most hotly contested in the nation's history, has brought to light the relationship between the media and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has won all the presidential elections in the last seven decades by overwhelming margins.
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) has called on Mexico's nearly 60 million voters to cast their ballots in the presidential and legislative elections slated for July 2. Though it is far from the 83.1 percent of radio and television airtime it enjoyed during the presidential campaign 12 years ago, the governing PRI maintains a notable advantage over the rest of the parties in media coverage.
News programs on Mexican radio and television have broken with tradition by giving greater coverage than in previous years to the campaigns of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the two principal opposition parties.
Recent polls seem to indicate that the July 2 presidential elections are going to be a close call between the PRI's Francisco Labastida and his PAN rival Vicente Fox. The PRI is no longer the sole and systematic beneficiary of the unequal distribution of airtime on the country's radio news programs, according to an IFE study released today.
A study of 13 radio stations shows that the PRI receives more on-air mentions than its rivals, though the coverage of the governing party during the current electoral campaign has not exceeded 54 percent of all political coverage in any one case.
Monitor, the most important news program at the national level gave the PRI the least coverage, with 20.6 percent, compared to 48.2 percent for PAN and 10.5 percent for the PRD.
In this country, where newspaper readership traditionally has been low, making the broadcast media especially powerful, TV and radio gave just 3.1 percent of their news coverage to PAN during the 1988 elections and 1.6 percent to PRD, according to IFE data. In the elections that brought Pres. Ernesto Zedillo to power in 1994, the PRI claimed 41 percent of campaign coverage on radio and television, while PAN had 18.7 percent and the PRD 17.8 percent. "The advances Mexico has achieved in the area of freedom of the press throughout the years have been significant. But this does not mean the battle has been won," stressed media analyst Sergio Sarmiento.
The recommendation coming from the president's office that the media refrain from covering an incident in which unknown assailants fired weapons at the doors of the presidential residence was seen as a throwback to the times when information was subject to tighter government controls. But it was also interpreted as a sign of media independence from the government because "almost nobody paid attention to the recommendation," pointed out Sarmiento.
The weekly magazine Proceso, an icon of independent journalism since it began publishing in the mid-1970s, reported several months ago that the Mexican army maintains files of personal data on the country's journalists and intellectuals. The stories about such a list unleashed a wave of complaints by journalists who declared they were victims of government-sponsored espionage. Even so, organizations representing the communications media recognize the progress made in achieving greater press freedoms in Mexico. The close ties between the government and the media had reached the point that in 1963 owners and franchise holders of 455 radio and television stations joined the ranks of the PRI en masse.
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Mexican President to visit US - Mexico Solidarity Network Calls for Action
Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo will be visiting Washington, DC, on June 8 and 9, probably in a pre-emptive effort to sell "clean" elections in Mexico. (Presidential elections are scheduled for July 2 and state elections in Chiapas area scheduled for August 20.) Instead of permitting a public relations whitewash, President Zedillo should be held accountable for escalating violence and human rights abuses in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Demand that US officials pressure President Zedillo to:
- End military and paramilitary human rights abuses in southern Mexico.
- Release all political prisoners, including jailed environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel Flores, winner of the prestigious Goldman environmental award, and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia.
- Implement the San Andres Peace accords. President Zedillo's negotiators signed the accords, but now Zedillo refuses to implement them. The accords offer the best hope for a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Chiapas.
Here's what you can do:
- Join a demonstration at the US Chamber of Commerce where President Zedillo will be speaking. The demo is scheduled for June 8 at 6:30 pm at 1615 H St., NW, two blocks from the McPherson Square metro station.
- Call the State Department and demand that the Clinton administration pressure President Zedillo on the above-listed demands. Call John Dawson, Director of the Mexico Desk at the State Department, Tel: 202-647-9894.
- Call your Representative, and encourage her/him to sign onto the DeFazio Sense of the Congress Resolution on expulsion of human rights observers from Mexico and the Leahy/Pelosi Sense of the Congress Resolution on human rights abuses in Mexico. Your Representative can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
- Write on op-ed piece on human rights abuses in Mexico for your local newspaper. Your paper will likely be interested, since Zedillo's visit will generate national coverage. Attached below is a sample op-ed piece.
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Divergent Lives Of 3 Presidential Candidates
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jun. 1 (IPS) With presidential elections looming next month, the Mexican electorate is being wooed by three vocal candidates, the governing party's Francisco Labastida and rivals Vicente Fox and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, politicians with sharply differing personalities and backgrounds, whose negative campaigning has now gone into high gear.
In the final stage of the campaign for the July 2 elections, Fox, 57, a businessman with 15 years of experience in politics, and Labastida, also 57, an economist with a 38-year political career, are leading in public opinion surveys. Meanwhile, Cárdenas, a civil engineer, 66, who was also a presidential candidate in 1988 and 1994, is running a distant third. His voice has proved important, however, in shaping the political debate during the campaign, and his poll numbers are improving.
The upcoming elections will be the most hotly contested and transparent in Mexican history. For the first time there is a chance that an opposition candidate, Fox, could end the uninterrupted 71-year reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), say political observers. The winner in July will take over the presidency December 1 of a country of more than 100 million people for a six-year term.
With one month to go before the elections in which some 58 million Mexicans are called to cast their ballots, the candidates are hurling insults and recriminations at each other -- which are increasingly aggressive in tone -- and campaign advertising inundates the media and public spaces. Candidates Fox, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the PRI's Labastida, and Cárdenas, of the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), together have already laid out more than $2.5 billion for their campaigns, estimates the Mexican Consultores Internacionales firm.
"Chaparro" (shorty) and "pequeño hombre" (little man) are just some of the names Fox has used in referring to his rival Labastida in recent weeks. He has also accused Cárdenas of having "sold out to the PRI system." Labastida, meanwhile, said Fox is "incongruous" and a mere "soft drink vendor," an allusion to the candidate's past as president of Coca-Cola in Mexico and Central America. Cárdenas had his say when he called Fox an "incorrigible liar."
Fox, who is well positioned to defeat the PRI, was born in 1942 to a family of Irish and Spanish descent, owners of a large ranch in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, where he grew up surrounded by peasants. The candidate for PAN, a party founded in 1939, studied business administration in the 1960s and in 1964 began working for Coca-Cola. By 1974, he was the company's regional president. He joined the PAN in 1987 and since then has been elected to the legislature and governorship of Guanajuato.
Fox is given to using an informal speaking style and is known for his colorful jokes, irony and insults, which have set him apart from the traditional Mexican politician. His taste for wearing cowboy boots, hat and belt -- with a buckle bearing his surname -- on his nearly two-meter frame, have led to comparisons with "the Marlboro man."
Labastida, who also has a chance at the presidential palace, was born in 1942 to a family of politicians and social activists who were always linked to the PRI. He began his activism in the long-governing party in the 1960s, when he began to work for the government in the Finance Ministry.
In more than three decades of working for the government, Labastida served as assistant minister of Finance, minister of Energy, of Agriculture and of the Interior, governor of Sinaloa state on the Pacific coast, and ambassador to Portugal. With his formal mode of speech, the PRI candidate is seen as the best prepared and the one with greatest political knowledge of the three rivals. A staunch defender of his party, he emphasizes that he has the best minds of the organization behind him.
But the proximity of the PRI's old guard to his campaign, some who face corruption charges, the veiled support he receives from the government and the alleged responsibility of his party for the nation's problems have given his rivals political ammunition to use against him.
Cárdenas, the candidate with the least chance of winning the presidential seat, was born in 1934. He is the son of former president Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940) and is running for president for the third time. He has lived in the world of politics since he was a child, and is the principal leader of the PRD, a party he founded in 1989 after breaking from the PRI. As candidate for his new party, he was elected governor of Michoacán, the state neighboring the nation's capital.
His discourse is of total rupture with the PRI, which he says is a party that betrayed its nationalist principles when it privatized the state-owned companies. Political analysts point to Cárdenas as a tireless leader of the fight for democracy. A serious man with a stoic expression, Cárdenas engaged in an ongoing series of confrontations with presidents Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) and Ernesto Zedillo, whose term ends in December.
But some of his former supporters, who now ally themselves with Fox, criticise the PRD candidate as being completely unwilling to stray from his point of view. The last public office Cárdenas held was mayor of Mexico City (1997-1999), which he won in the first open elections for that post, which until then had been designated by the president. He resigned as mayor in order to pursue his presidential candidacy.
There are six candidates for the Mexican presidency, but only Fox, Labastida or Cárdenas, who emphasize their lack of common ground, have any real bearing on the presidential campaign. The other three candidates are Porfirio Muñoz, of the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM), who announced he would back Fox, the Democratic Center Party's Manuel Camacho, and Gilberto Rincón, of the Social Democratic Party.
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