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TITLE: Weekly News Summary |
AUTHOR: |
DATE: January 24, 2001 |
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Mexico Solidarity Network January 15 - 21, 2001
Contents: Fox: No More Military Withdrawals in Chiapas PAN Deputy Threatens Arrest of Zapatistas if They Leave Chiapas Chihuahua Governor Shot; Motive Uncertain Economic Outlook Drops Again; Fox Claims "Clouds on the Horizon"
Fox: No More Military Withdrawals in Chiapas
Following a week of confusing statements and actions from overnment sources concerning the military troop withdrawal in hiapas, President Vicente Fox declared during his weekly radio ddress on January 20 that there will be no more military withdrawals in Chiapas. "In the case of our position regarding the withdrawal of the Army," said Fox, "we have already done so in four of the places signaled by the Zapatistas, and now we're done. Now, we are waiting for a response from the other side. We have completed the [military] withdrawal; we have freed the [Zapatista] prisoners; we have placed the initiative of the COCOPA [before Congress]; and now we ask for a signal from the other side in order to restart the dialogue!" Withdrawals from seven of the more than 250 military positions maintained by the federal government in Chiapas are among the actions demanded by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) to prove the good faith of the government before restarting stalled negotiations. So far, as Fox noted, only four positions have been dismantled. The other conditions demanded by the Zapatistas are the release of the more than one hundred Zapatista political prisoners, of which just eighteen have been freed (contrary to Fox's statement); and the constitutional implementation of the 1996 San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, by way of congressional approval of what has become known as the COCOPA initiative, a measure toward which Congress appears lukewarm, at best. Shortly before Fox's radio address, he met with representatives of the Mexican business sector, who complained about both the military withdrawal in Chiapas and the planned visit of a high-level Zapatista delegation to Mexico City in March. Many of those in the private sector have been increasingly critical in recent weeks of Fox's strategy toward the Chiapas conflict, alleging that the administration is "ceding too much ground." Fox's declarations came after several days of confusion regarding the military withdrawals. On January 16, presidential spokesperson Martha Sahagún declared that there would be "no new orders" for military withdrawals in Chiapas "in the near future." On the following day, however, the Mexican Army withdrew completely from its base outside the Zapatista community of Roberto Barrios, leaving it in the hands of the community. This was the fourth withdrawal carried out by the federal army since Fox took office on December 1, following military withdrawals from Amador Hernández, Jolnachoj, and Cuxuljá. The remaining army encampments whose evacuation is demanded by the EZLN are those of Guadalupe Tepeyac, La Garrucha, and Río Euseba (outside the Zapatista community of La Realidad). On January 18, "official government sources" told the press that Fox planned to order the military withdrawal of these last three points "in the next few days," so that the government will have complied with the Zapatista demands for demilitarization before they begin their journey towards Mexico City on February 25. However, it was just the following day when Fox declared the military withdrawals over. Later, in a meeting with members of the COCOPA, Fox assured the legislators that "I am not going to cede any more? I am not going to expose the Chiapas citizens" to what he considered conditions of "insecurity and irreconcilable internal conflicts." END
Pan Deputy Threatens Arrest of Zapatistas
Federal deputy Armando Salinas Torre, a member of the ruling PAN arty, suggested this week that the 1995 Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace only protects members of the Zapatista Army from arrest while traveling within the "conflict zone" of Chiapas or on their way to formal negotiations. Thus, said Salinas Torre, the members of the EZLN who plan to participate in the Zapatista delegation to Mexico City in late February can and should be arrested once they leave southeastern Chiapas. Salinas Torre, who is the president of the Public Security and Governance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, said that he and the other members of the legislative commission went "over and over" the law for dialogue this week, and came to the conclusion that "no matter how you look at it, if Marcos leaves [Chiapas] he must be arrested." This interpretation, which is rumored to be supported by federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, was sharply attacked by the PRD party as well as by PRI deputy and COCOPA member Jaime Martínez Veloz. Martínez Veloz accused Salinas Torre of being part of a "hardline, right-wing sector" of thePAN which is trying to promote a public image of the government as "flexible" and the Zapatistas as "intransigent," in order to maneuver public opinion toward support for a military solution to the conflict in Chiapas. "As in 1995," said Martínez Veloz, "the temptation [to attempt to arrest the Zapatista leadership] exists, and the same people who in that year convinced Ernesto Zedillo to issue arrest warrants against the leaders of the [Zapatista] movement are now part of this new campaign to create a favorable context in public opinion for the detention of the Zapatistas. I have no doubt whatsoever that they will try to do so." Martínez Veloz added that Salinas Torre clearly "is not familiar" with the Law for Dialogue, which suspended the arrest warrants against the Zapatista leadership as long as the dialogue process continued, and said that there is "nothing" which legally impedes the EZLN delegation from leaving Chiapas and traveling to Mexico City to defend the COCOPA proposal on indigenous rights before Congress. The proposal to arrest the Zapatistas is not backed by all members of the PAN, and while President Fox has yet to stake out the position of his administration regarding the upcoming Zapatista visit to the capital, the vice-coordinator of the PAN bench in the Chamber of Deputies, César Nava, declared this week that "the Zapatistas have the right to come to Mexico City." Voices from the Mexican private sector, meanwhile, have become louder and louder, expressing their open opposition to the Zapatista march and warning President Fox that investment and tourism will fall drastically if the march is permitted.Alberto Fernández Garza, president of the important Managerial Confederation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX), said that "too many concessions" have already been made to the Zapatistas, and that it would be a "grave error" for the government to allow the march to take place. END
Chihuahua Governor Shot, Sent To Phoenix To Recuperate
Patricio Martínez García (PRI), governor of the northern state of Chihuahua, was shot in the head by a former judicial police officer on January 17 as he descended the main staircase inside the government palace in the city of Chihuahua. Although the single shot was fired from a range of under nine feet, the wound to Martínez García's head was not considered life-threatening. After immediate treatment in Chihuahua, he was sent to Phoenix, Arizona where he is currently reported in stable condition and recuperating. The aggressor, Victoria Loya Montejano, surrendered immediately to police after the shooting and was taken into custody. Her record states that she was suspended from the state judicial police in 1996 for threatening her husband with a firearm, and later was fired from the police force in 1997 for "neurotic and violent" behavior. So far there is no reported motive being considered in the shooting, other than the psychological state of mind of the aggressor. Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists would be happy to know that two hours before the shooting, Governor Martínez García gave a radio address in which he accused drug cartels of having infiltrated all levels of the police forces both in Chihuahua and at the federal level, and announced that his administration would soon take important actions against drug trafficking and organized crime. END
With president Vicente Fox warning this week of "storm clouds" on the economic horizon, the administration's economic outlook for the year 2001 dropped yet again, now predicting GDP growth of between 4 and 4.5%. During the year 200 presidential campaign, then-candidate Fox promised that if elected, he could make the economy grow at a rate of 7% per year. After his election, the figure was reduced to 5%, while claiming 7% growth was still achievable by the year 2003. This week, Fox and his economic advisors downgraded the forecast to 4.5% after warning that low international oil prices and the slowing growth in the United States economy would have negative effects on Mexico. Economy secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez further warned that the growth of Mexican exports was likely to drop 50% due to the US economic slowdown, growing only 8% this year instead of the annual 15% growth in exports registered over the past five years. However, Derbez added that this would only have a limited effect on overall growth, and that problems in the US economic panorama were not likely to make a truly significant impact on Mexico. But Bank of Mexico governor Guillermo Ortíz believes Derbez, Treasury Secretary Francisco Gil Díaz, and President Fox may be underestimating the "storm clouds on the horizon." According to Ortíz, the economic deceleration in the United States will have a strong enough impact such that the highest growth Mexico should hope for this year is 4%, rather than 4.5%. He also predicted an average inflation rate of 6.5% as of February, and an exchange rate of 10.10 pesos to the dollar. END
- In a communiqué distributed this week to newspapers and over the internet, the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI) denied news reports that four of its members were detained in Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero, on January 10, claiming that none of the four in fact had any ties whatsoever to the Guerrero-based guerrilla group. The ERPI also denied a story reported last December that a group of "ERPI deserters" were ambushed and murdered by an ERPI commando unit in the municipality of Tlacoapa, Guerrero, for having left the organization. In the communiqué, the ERPI asserts that the ERPI had no part in the ambush, and that neither the victims nor the aggressors were members of the group. However, the rebels also went further, pointing out that "such murderous practices are the domain of bands of common criminals, and not of a revolutionary army." The ERPI added that acts of revenge and reprisals for political differences, dissidence, and evendesertions are "inhuman and antirevolutionary acts," a common theme in ERPI discourse. ______________________________________________________________ SOURCES: La Jornada, Milenio, El Universal, Proceso. This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network. END |