Newsbriefs

ARMY MOVES AGAINST
ZAPATISTAS
MEXICO CITY, APRIL 10, 1995
On Sunday, April 9, represen-
tatives from the Mexican
government and the Zapatista
National Liberation Army
(EZLN) met in San Miguel,
Chiapas to discuss the possibility
of resuming negotiations. At
issue are both the place and the
substance of future talks. The
government wants talks to take
place in Chiapas, and to be
restricted to local and parochial
issues-it will not negotiate
indigenous or popular demands
from other parts of the country
based on EZLN proposals. It also
wants to keep EZLN leaders
potentially subject to arrest at
any time. The Zapatistas, on the
other hand, want talks to cover a
broad range of national issues,
and to be held in Mexico City.
In Chiapas itself, an ominous
situation has been unfolding.
This past February, 13 months
after the conflict erupted, the
government apparently opted for
a military solution. With surpris-
ing resolution, it attempted to
deal a spectacular blow to the
insurgency with the simultaneous
capture and assassination of
Subcomandante Marcos, and a
siege of pro-Zapatista villages
reminiscent of U.S. operations in
Vietnam. The operation was par-
tially successful. The govern-
ment failed to capture Marcos,
but succeeded in forcing a gener-
al retreat of the EZLN, and
severely punishing the pro-
Zapatista population.
The government’s successes
include the infliction upon
defenseless villagers of wide-
spread starvation, sickness and
exposure to the cold, the terroriz-
ing of unarmed civilians, and the
destruction of war-like arsenals
consisting of rag dolls and card-
board toys, jars and sacks of
beans, and family stores of corn.
The Mexican military destroyed
and deactivated dangerous tor-
tilla pans, family photos, chil-
dren’s drawings, and threatening
religious images.
Besides contaminating streams
and other community water
sources, the army deliberately
destroyed the principal symbol
of a peaceful resolution of the
conflict: the temple of Aguasca-
lientes, the open-air amphitheater
that the Zapatistas built to hold
last August’s Democratic
National Convention, the dramat-
ic encuentro of civil society and
the EZLN. The Mexican military
also fomented a new wave of
anti-Zapatista sentiment, sowing
seeds of discord in many of the
villages of the region.
In the face of the military
offensive, the EZLN-accompa-
nied by entire village popula-
tions-withdrew to the moun-
tains. The Zapatista rejection of
direct conflict was accompanied
by a new call to “civil society” to
stop the genocide. And, as hap-
pened in January, 1994, interna-
tional protest succeeded in tem-
porarily silencing the govern-
ment’s guns. The Mexican Con-
gress wrote and passed-with the
approval of President Ernesto
Zedillo-a resolution calling for
dialogue and peace in Chiapas,
and establishing the terms for the
reopening of negotiations.
All in all, the current situation
does not allow for great opti-
mism. In the first place, the gov-
ernment continues to occupy
important positions previously
controlled by the Zapatistas, and
maintains a siege of terror that
contradicts all its rhetoric and
promises. In the second place, the very congressional resolution
calling for dialogue contains an
onerous and humiliating condi-
tion for the EZLN, namely that
during the negotiation period,
arrest orders against Marcos and
other Zapatista leaders will be
temporarily “suspended.” In
other words, the Zapatistas are
still regarded as criminals.
Moreover, the government can
reconsider the “suspension” at
any time it sees fit.
Meanwhile, there has been an
increase of violent evictions of
peasants from “invaded” lands, continuing police attacks and
threats against social leaders, and
heightened attempts to turn peas-
ant leaders against the EZLN.
Zapatismo, however, has shown
itself to be extremely adept at
political maneuvering in the
most difficult circumstances.
And in the present Mexican cri-
sis, things change from one day
to the next.
-Julio Moguel
ON THE RUN FROM THE
MEXICAN ARMY
MORELIA, CHIAPAS, MARCH 15, 1995
E arly in the morning of
February 10, the first of 800
Mexican Army troops and 90
armored vehicles were spotted
advancing toward the small vil-
lage of Morelia, in southeastern
Chiapas. The night before, in a
televised address to the nation,
President Ernesto Zedillo
announced the alleged identity
of rebel leader Subcomandante
Marcos, and ordered the advance
of police and army troops inside
rebel-held territory. In Morelia,
families paced the mud floors of
their homes all night, burning
photos and ID, preparing food, and packing belongings. “Don’t
sleep, Michael, the army will
come and kill you,” shouted
Juan, a lively four year old, shaking me awake from a fitful
sleep at three in the morning.
We beat the army by about
eight minutes, a terrible exo-
dus-sad and angry, but
Vol XVII, N 6 AY/JNE 995 Vol XXVIII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1995 1NEWSBRIEFS
inevitable after the previous
army invasion in January, 1994,
which cost three lives. The care-
fully laid evacuation plan,
involving a roll call and an
orderly retreat, was abandoned in
favor of a simpler approach–
total panic. Women and men
grabbed bundles of clothes, sacks
of corn, machetes, blankets-the
meager possessions of Chiapas
indigenous families. Children
were carried or dragged, the old
and sick clambered onto the only
available vehicle, and everyone
raced along the paths that led to
the surrounding, impenetrable
mountains.
The army, anticipating a
Zapatista ambush, slowed to a
crawl at the entrance to Morelia,
ensuring our escape. We spent
the next month roaming the
region, helicopters hovering
overhead, under the hot sun, with
little food and constant sickness.
Half-a-dozen villages packed up
and joined us on the road, as our
numbers swelled to over 2,000.
We found refuge in small ham-
lets and outposts of the
Lacandon Jungle. A volunteer
doctor saved dozens of lives,
delivered four babies in a month,
and testified to signs of malnutri-
tion in 90% of the involuntary
exiles. In an extraordinary show
of solidarity, every family of our
host villages accepted the call to
turn up with 24 tortillas and a
cup of beans each day, ensuring
that everyone ate a little.
Coughing, crying children slept
under the sky, while their parents
put on brave faces, wondering
aloud if they would ever see their
homes again.
Meanwhile, 25,000 displaced
villagers who fled rebel territory
after the January 1994 uprising,
were being trucked back into the
rebel zone, armed with cash
gifts, new cooking utensils, and
pledges to report on suspected
rebels still living in their com-
munities. The “independent”
refugees in the hills-now num-
bering over 15,000-have been
offered no incentives or security
to return to their villages, as the
army patrols and picks up sus-
pects, rejecting calls for with-
drawal from the zone.
The people of Morelia face
certain starvation, as the crop
cycle has been interrupted, leav-
ing them with no hope of pro-
ducing any food for the next
year. The good will of the tiny
communities sheltering the des-
titute indigenous refugees must
eventually wear out. The occa-
sional caravans of food and
medical supplies from outside
are generous demonstrations of
solidarity from the Mexican peo-
ple, and real boosts to morale,
but they cannot substitute for a
speedy return to farming among
the impatient exiles. Bad as
things are, Morelia and hundreds
of communities in the conflict
zone have decided to face death
rather than surrender their strug-
gle for basic rights, denied for
over 500 years.
-Michael McCaughan
CIA LINK TO MURDERS
IN GUATEMALA
WASHINGTON, D.C.; GUATEMALA CITY, MARCH 31, 1995
ep. Robert Torricelli, the
New Jersey Democrat prin-
cipally known to NACLA read-
ers as the chief sponsor of legis-
lation tightening the embargo
against Cuba, set off a Wash-
ington furor on March 23 when Continued on page 46
I LF S
2NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 2 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS
Ministry questioned Alpirez for six
hours and then let him go, saying
that there was not enough evidence
to charge him. The ministry
pledged to investigate the allega-
tions, but Guatemalan President
Ramiro de Le6n Carpio said he
was sure that Alpirez was inno-
cent, at least of the DeVine mur-
der. Alpirez remains in his post as
second-in-command at the La
Aurora military base in the capital.
He denies being a paid CIA agent.
-Laura Proctor
The Chase Consensus
FROM A CHASE BANK INTERNAL EMERGING
MARKET GROUP MEMO WRITTEN BY
RIORDAN ROETT, JANUARY 13, 1995:
While Chiapas, in our opinion,
does not pose a fundamental threat
to Mexican political stability, it is
perceived to be [sic] so by many
in the investment community. The
government will need to eliminate
the Zapatistas to demonstrate their
effective control of the national
territory and of security policy….
The Zedillo administration will
need to consider carefully whether
or not to allow opposition victo-
ries if fairly won at the ballot box.
To deny legitimate electoral victo-
ries by the opposition will be a
serious setback in the President’s
electoral strategy. But a failure to
retain PRI control runs the risk of
splitting the governing party….
-CounterPunch
Sources
Julio Moguel is an economist at UNAM. He coordinates La Jornada del Campo in Mexico City.
Michael McCaughan is a NACLA corre- spondent based in Chiapas.
Laura Proctor works for the news agency CERIGUA in Guatemala City.
CounterPunch is a biweekly newsletter written by Ken Silverstein and Alexander Cockburn. It is available for $40/yr. from IPS, 1601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009.