Zapatista Rebels Raise
National Issues
MExico CITY, FEBRUARY, 1994
Since the start of the armed
conflict in the southern Mexi-
can state of Chiapas, when the
Zapatista National Liberation
Army (EZLN) led an Indian
uprising and seized several
towns on New Year’s Day, the
rebels have used communication
through the media as an effec-
tive tool to air their grievances.
Faced with an armed force that
is vastly superior in numbers and
weaponry, the insurgents occu- pied San Cristobal de las Casas,
Las Margaritas, Ocosingo, Altamirano and six smaller
towns on January 1 to draw
attention to the injustices and
abject poverty endured by the indigenous population of Chia-
pas. Three days later, the main
guerrilla body withdrew to the
mountains and the jungle of
Lacandon, where many insur-
gents returned to their everyday
farming activities. Of the ten
municipalities seized by the EZLN, sixas of mid-Febru-
aryremain in the hands of
councils designated by insurgent popular assemblies. And on Feb-
ruary 12, the EZLN began col-
lecting a “war tax”a sales tax
ranging from 7% to 15%in the
areas under their control.
The death toll in the conflict
up to the January 16 cease-fire
is estimated to be somewhat
over a thousand, about 45%
guerrillas, 35% government so!-
diers, and the remainder civil-
ians. Probably triple that num-
berin about the same
proportionshave been wound-
ed. A broad spectrum of Mexi-
can and international non-gov-
ernmental agencies (NGOs) have accused the army and gov-
ernment security forces of seri-
ous human rights abuses. These
include bombings of civilian
populations after the cease-fire,
arbitrary detentions, torture,
summary executions, assassina- tions and disappearances.
When the insurgent guns fell
silent, the rebels began firing
press communiques in almost
every direction. Written by the
EZLN’ s military chief, “Deputy
Commander Marcos”appar-
ently the only rebel leader who
is not an Indianthe rebel com-
muniques have included dramat-
ic exhortations to all Mexicans
to become actively involved in
the unfolding situation, and con-
vert the peace talks between the
EZLN and the government into a
dialogue involving the entire nation. The EZLN has dramati-
cally raised the national issues of
fixed elections, land reform, and
growing poverty. Recently, it has adopted a more conciliatory
stance, dropping its initial
demand that President Salinas
resign, releasing the ex-governor of Chiapas, and agreeing to
peace negotiations. In direct, somewhat ironic
language, the rebel leader has
sent long messages to the Mexi-
can daily La Jornada expound-
ing on the ancestral social
inequities in Chiapas. The news-
paper has even published special supplements with the EZLN
communiques. In a recent com-
munique, Marcos said he and
his guerrillas were “unmoved by
all the military paraphenalia with which the federal govern-
ment tries to cover the great
sewer of injustice and corrup-
tion which our actions have
uncovered.” In another message,
he called the state anti-poverty
program PRONASOL “that
small speck of social democracy
that is now sprinkled on the
Mexican state.. .a mocking cari-
cature which draws tears of
blood among those who struggle
under this sun and rain.”
Marcos has also pointed an
accusing finger at all those peo-
ple, from government officials to
“corrupt indigenous leaders,” who have forgotten “that human
dignity is not only the preroga-
tive of those whose basic living
conditions have been satisfied.”
His messages have struck a pow-
erful chord among the poor. “It
seems to annoy the powerful
senores,” he wrote, in a passage
that has become well-known,
“that poor Indians now go to die
in the cities, and stain the streets
which have so far only been lit-
tered with the discarded wrap-
pings of imported goods. They would prefer that Indians die in
the mountains, away from good
consciences and the tourists.”
InterPress Service
Army Offensive Pushes
Recontra Forces To
Accept Disarmament
Talks
MANAGUA, FEBRUARY 11, 1994 T hroughout January, northern Nicaragua was the scene of
the heaviest fighting since the
end of the Contra war in 1990.
At least 51 combatants from
both sides were killed after the
army launched a fierce offensive
against rearmed former Contras
from the Frente Norte 3-80 (FN
3-80), the country’s last remain-
ing rebel group.
The fighting during January was described by the Sandinista
Popular Army as the heaviest
since rearmed combatants from
the Contra war first took up arms
three years ago. According to Col. Javier Carrion, a top official
in the Army high command, a
total of 36 clashes during the
month of January resulted in the
death of 42 rebels from the FN 3-
80, as well as nine Sandinista
soldiers. Carrion added that four
rebel leaders were killed in the
Vol XXVII, No 5 MAR/APRIL 1994 1N EWSBRIEFS
fighting, including Elvin Talav-
era (“El Chacalin”), brother of the
FN 3-80’s top commander, Jose
Angel Talavera (“El Chacal”). Additional casualties included 18
wounded among rebel ranks, six
wounded Army troops, and one
wounded civilian.
The FN 3-80 is one of several
“recontra” groups that were
formed by ex-combatants of the
22,000-strong Contra army which disarmed after President
Violeta Chamorro took office in
1990. Many demobilized Con-
tras, including those who joined the FN 3-80, have complained
that the Chamorro government
has consistently failed to meet
the commitments agreed to as
part of the disarmament process.
In late 1993, the majority of
these recontra groupsplus sev-
eral other organizations com-
prised of discharged Sandinista troops who also took to the
mountains after 1990disarmed
under the terms of a govern-
ment-sponsored amnesty propos- al.
The FN 3-80, however, reject-
ed the amnesty, vowing instead
to continue its fight. After laying
low for several weeks, in late
December the rebels appeared to
be regrouping their forces in
order to launch offensive mili-
tary actions again. In response, the Chamorro Administration
ordered the army to carry out its
huge offensive in January. By the second week in Febru-
arywith the recontra forces
reeling under the pressure of the
offensive, and the government
anxious to secure peace in order
to facilitate economic recovery
in the war zonesthe two sides
agreed on a tentative cease-fire,
paving the way for negotiations to disarm the FN 3-80.
On February tO, mediators
from the Catholic Church hierar-
chy and the Organization of
American States’ International
Support Commission (ClAy- OEA) departed for the north to
seek contact with Talavera’ s
forces. Sandinista Army chief
Gen. Humberto Ortega told
reporters he had given the medi-
ators a letter to deliver to the FN
3-80 leaders containing the
army’s proposal for rebel disar-
mament. Ortega, clearly encour-
aged by the prospects of putting an end to the last remaining rem-
nants of the former Contra army,
said he was anxious to see peace
restored in the north. But he
added that if Talavera rejects the
proposal, “we will end the truce
and attack them with even more
force than before.” Notisur
Sexism and Adultery
SANTIAGO, CHILE, JANUARY 7, t994
I n the name of sexual equality,
Chilean senators and deputies
are locked in a battle over
whether to decriminalize or more
evenhandedly punish adultery. Under Chile’s present law, adul-
tery, in which a married person
has sexual relations with some-
one other than the spouse, is a
crime only when committed by a
woman. The Chamber of
Deputies, controlled by the coun-
try’s ruling center-Left alliance, voted last May to remove all
penal sanctionsreferred to in
the Chamber debate as
“medieval”against adultery. The Senate, however, which has
a Rightist majority, voted this
week to punish all adulterers,
regardless of sex, with 541 days
in prison. The senators said they
agreed to end the law’s discrimi-
nation against women, but not at
the cost of breaking up the fami-
ly, “the nucleus of society.” Due
to the disagreement between the
houses, a joint commission will
meet to reach a consensus.
Meanwhile, the present law
under which no one has ever
been convictedremains in
effect. InterPress Service
Son of Former President
Wins Costa Rican
Elections
SAN JOSe, FEBRUARY 11, 1994 J
ose Maria Figuerespresi-
dential candidate of Costa
Rica’s National Liberation Party
(Partido de Liberacion Nacional,
PLN)won the February 6 gen- eral elections with 49.7% of the
vote over Miguel Angel
Rodriguez of the governing
Social Christian Unity Party
(Partido de Unidad Social Cris-
dana, PUSC), who garnered 47.5%.
In many ways, Figueres’ vic- tory over Rodriguez resembles the electoral process which took
place in Honduras just three
months earlier. In both the Costa
Rican and Honduran elections,
social democrats defeated cen-
ter-Right candidates who had
run on the governing party tick-
et. In both cases, the victors had
based their campaigns on heavy
criticism of the prevailing
neoliberal economic policies
carried out by the governing par-
ties. Figueres and his Honduran
counterpartCarlos Roberto Reinaboth promised in their
campaigns to greatly increase assistance to the poorest groups,
which have been most affected
by structural-adjustment pro-
grams. Rodriguezan economist and
businessman who once served as
a deputy in the Legislative
Assemblyhad promised to speed up the free-market eco-
nomic reforms begun in the
1980s and to channel the addi-
tional revenue generated from
increased economic growth into
health and education programs.
In contrast, Figueresan indus-
trial engineer who graduated
from the West Point Military
Academy and Harvard Universi-
tywas sharply critical of the
“trickle-down” policies of the nil-
ing PUSC government, headed by President Rafael Calderon. He
promised to immediately reorient
government spending priorities in order to substantially boost funding
for health care, education, and
other social-development projects.
Despite Figueres’ electoral
promises, however, the president- elect will face an uphill battle in
the Legislative Assembly to imple- ment his policies, since the PLN
failed to win a majority of legisla-
tive seats in the February 6 ballot-
ing. According to the most recent
figures released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the PLN will
control 28 of the 57 seats in the
new legislature. The PUSC will
have 25 representatives, while the
remaining four seats will be held
by deputies from tiny minority par- ties.
With Figueres’ victory, the
PLNthe party of Nobel Peace
Prize-winning ex-president Oscar Ariashas now triumphed in
seven of the 11 electoral contests
held since Costa Rica’s 1948 “rev-
olution,” which was led by the
president-elect’s father, Jose
“Pepe” Figueres. Notisur
Brazilian Congress Hit With
Corruption Charges
Rio DE JANEIRO, FEBRUARY 1, 1994 A
fter a three-month investiga-
tion, a special Brazilian con-
gressional commission has recom-
mended the expulsion of 18
parliamentarians for corruption, in the largest scandal of this type
in the history of the Brazilian leg-
islature.
The Comissao Parlamentar de
Inquerito (CPI), specially created for the probe, exposed two enor-
mous schemes for the diversion of
public funds, both centered in the
congressional budgetary commis-
sion. In the first, private construc-
tion companies paid bribes and
gratuities to legislators in
exchange for being awarded gov- ernment contracts without compet-
itive bidding. In the second, legis-
lators gave money to so-called
charities, which turned out in the
vast majority of cases either not to
exist or to have among their direc-
tors close relatives of these same
lawmakers.
The CPI brokewith court
authorizationthe secret bank of
more than 70 people, investigated
many thousands of documents
from more than 400 bank accounts,
carefully examined the tax returns
of the accused over the last 10
years, and studied their assets.
The investigation and the rec-
ommendations for expulsions had
grave consequences for Brazilian
legislative power. The entire cor-
rupt system for determining the federal budget was abandoned,
and several of the country’s most
influential congressmen had to
explain their bank accounts in
inquiries broadcast by television
throughout the country.
Massacre of Cite Soleil
Activists
PORT-AU-PRINCE, FEBRUARY 4, 1994 A
t least 12 young men, all
members of popular and
democratic organizations, were
machine-gunned to death on Feb-
ruary 2 in a home near the Haitian
capital. Details of the massacre
have been slow to emerge because
most witnesses and friends have
been forced into hiding, and all of
the bodies as well as one survivor
were taken away by soldiers.
Witnesses said four pick-up
trucks full of heavily armed sol-
diers and men in civilian clothing
arrived at Sarthe, a few miles
north of the capital, in search of a
group of young men from Cite
Soleil, a Port-au-Prince slum. The
men, some of them members of
OTAKEMPA (“Organization of
People Working Together to Com- bat the Misery of the Haitian Peo-
ple”) and others from similar pro-
democracy groups, had been hiding in the house for about a
week. They were forced to flee
Cite Soleil after being threatened
by members of the Front for the
Advancement and Progress of
Haiti (FRAPH), a right wing para-
military group. The next day, the army
announced that the young men
were “subversives,” and were
killed by explosives that they kept in the house.
“It’s part of a systematic repres- sion FRAPH and the army has
been carrying out since Issa Paul
was killed,” said a member of
OTAKEMPA, referring to the
FRAPH treasurer found dead in
Cite Soleil on December 26. “If
you are a young man in the area,
they say to you ‘If you don’t join FRAPH, you had better leave or
you will be dead.’ These guys were
always hostile to FRAPH and
fought its objectives, and that is
why they were killed.”Ha iii Info
Internal Divisions Within
Shining Path
LIMA, JANUARY, 1994 F
actions of Peru’s Shining Path
guerrilla movement have
launched a somewhat unconven-
tional public debate on the peace
proposal presented to the Fujimori government last November by their
imprisoned leader, Abimael
Guzman.
One year after being sentenced
to life imprisonment, Guzman sent
a letter to President Fujimori in
which he formally accepted defeat
and proposed a peace dialogue. Guzman’s apparent surrender dealt
a heavy blow to the Shining Path
movement and sharply divided its
members.
GuzmCn held a meeting at his
prison with other jailed rebel com-
manders to persuade them to back
his peace initiative. The rebel com-
manders who accepted his proposal
began, in turn, establishing con- tacts with the 2,400 Shining Path
prisoners held in different jails
around the country. The declared
purpose of these meetings was to
convince the militants that
Guzrnan’s letter to Fujimon was
genuine. In late January, the debate raging
within the rebel organization unex-
pectedly erupted onto the streets of
the capital. Posters appeared call-
ing on the organization’s dissident
faction to support Guzman’ s peace
initiative. The so-called Prisoners
of War Committee, a group of
Shining Path militants held at
Canto Grande prison, circulated a
document urging all Shining Path
members to back Guzman and pre-
pare for a Second Party Congress, which would promote a change in
party line. Days earlier, a new Central
Committee of Shining Path
released a clandestine communique
rejecting the call for a “cease-fire.”
This new Central Committee is
thought to be responsible for the
wave of dynamitings, car bombs,
and attacks against the armed
forces and police which have
occurred in January. The level of
guerrilla operations is, however,
appreciably less. Guzman’ s peace proposal has
also lead to desertions among
Shining Path ranks, according to
one Shining Path guerrilla who
accepted the government amnesty. In a television interview, the for-
mer guerrilla said a number of
Shining Path members in clandes-
tinity and in prison are abandoning armed struggle. Since Guzman’s
capture in September, 1992, more than 1,500 members of Shining
Path and the Ttipac Amaru Revolu-
tionary Movement (MRTA) have
chosen to accept the government’s
so-called Repentance Lawan
offer of reduced penalties in
exchange for their voluntary sur-
render to the authorities.
InterPress Service
