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>
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SPAN/--Strategic Pastoral Action
& Shoestrings & Grace
Wes Rehberg, Ph.D.
+607-546-2250, phone & fax
wrehberg@spanweb.org
http://www.spanweb.org/
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> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> NEWS SUMMARY FOR NOVEMBER 19 - DECEMBER 12, 1997:
>
> 1. Government officials call for resumption of dialogue, while
> assailing COCOPA's indigenous rights proposal
> 2. EZLN responds: No dialogue until the five "minimum
> conditions" are fulfilled
> 3. Paramilitary assassinations continue unabated in Chenalhó
> 4. Briefs
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>Coldwell and Chuayffet call for Resumption of Neogiations, while Assailing the
>COCOPA's Indigenous Rights Proposal
>
>
> Mexican government officials--primarily peace negotiator Pedro Joaquín
> Coldwell and Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet--have gone on a new
> public relations offensive in the national press recently, making
> repeated calls for an "immediate" reinitiation of dialogue with the
> EZLN and for rapid compliance with the San Andrés Accords on
> Indigenous Rights and Culture, while simultaneously attacking the
> constitutional reform proposal of the Commission on Concordance and
> Pacification (COCOPA) which would make such compliance possible.
>
> In a speech to Presbyterian ministers from Chiapas in late November,
> Coldwell said the COCOPA's initiative was "well intentioned", but that
> it contained "errors and insufficiencies which could be dangerous". He
> added that dialogue with the EZLN would be facilitated if the rebels
> "officially withdrew their declaration of war".
>
> For his part, Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet told the press that
> the government "is not opposed to that which was signed in San Andrés
> Larrainzar", and that "the government is open to any initiative"
> toward a resumption of negotiations. Several days later, he added that
> "the federal government is prepared to take all the necessary steps
> toward reinitiating the dialogue in Chiapas".
>
> Chuayffet said that the government "will honor the accords in the
> exact terms in which they were signed", but that the proposal of the
> COCOPA for implementing the Accords is nevertheless "perfectionable".
>
> Meanwhile, Bishop Samuel Ruiz, the official mediator between the
> government and the EZLN, said that as long as the violence continues
> in Chiapas, it will be impossible to reiniate the negotiations. "As
> long as the repression and the model of violence generated in the
> northern zone are not detained, then we can wait until the end of the
> world and there will still be no dialogue", he said. He added that if
> the government's words are to have any effect, they must be backed up
> with concrete actions.
>
> The President-in-turn of the Commission on Concordance and
> Pacification (COCOPA), PRD Senator Carlos Payán Velver, also lamented
> the government's apparent "double discourse", pointing out the
> incongruency between Chuayffet's recent remarks in favor of approving
> the San Andrés Accords, and his refusal to withdraw the government's
> counterproposal on indigenous rights and culture, "which was the
> element breaking the dialogue in the first place".
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>
> EZLN: NO DIALOGUE UNTIL THE FIVE MINIMUM CONDITIONS ARE FULFILLED
>
> The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) issued its own
> response to Coldwell and Chuayffet's statements last week, in a letter
> and a communique clearly laying out the EZLN's position (again) with
> respect to a resumption of negotiations.
>
> Both documents--one issued on November 24th, and the other on November
> 29th-- reiterated the five preconditions for peace talks layed out by
> the EZLN when it suspended its participation in the negotiations in
> late August, 1996:
> 1. Fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and
> Culture (in this case, including approval of the COCOPA's
> constitutional reform initiative on the matter, which was also
> initially approved by the government and the EZLN before the
> government suddenly rejected it);
> 2. Serious proposals from the government for the second round of
> talks, dealing with national issues of democracy and justice;
> 3. Withdrawal of the federal army and paramilitary groups from
> indigenous communities in Chiapas;
> 4. Liberation of all presumed-Zapatista prisoners; and
> 5. A government commissioner with decision making capacity and
> respect for the Zapatista delegation.
>
>
> "There is now a new government campaign in place", say the rebels:
> "the deliberate amnesia on the part of the federal Executive tries to
> provoke confusion in public opinion by attempting to present the EZLN
> as "intransigent" and that which refuses to dialogue, whereas the
> government's actions have demonstrated that it, in compliance with the
> state of Chiapas, is that which is opposed to a true and profound
> dialogue in order to construct solutions to the just demands of the
> Zapatista uprising".
>
> "As long as the five preconditions are not met", continues the
> November 29th communique, "we will not dialogue with the federal
> government.
>
> "The government's game of accepting and later rejecting the COCOPA's
> initiative not only represents a lack of compliance with the Accords
> signed between the federal Executive and the EZLN at the table of San
> Andrés Sakamach'en de los Pobres, but it also puts into total crisis
> the path of dialogue as a method of resolution for the war in Mexico",
> they added.
>
> In a separate letter, Subcomandante Marcos also layed out the current
> status of the five preconditions, showing that all remain unfulfilled
> by the Mexican government.
>
> "And now", he added, "the government comes with its little tune of
> 'the Zapatistas don't want to negotiate', 'the Zapatistas are
> intransigent'. For example, the legislators of the COCOPA even say
> they are waiting for our response to their invitations to restart the
> dialogue. To forget all which we have layed out and explained already
> and make calls to the EZLN to restart the dialogue as if nothing has
> happened, does nothing but reinforce the governmental strategy of
> presenting us as 'intransigent', a step coming before military
> action".
>
> Meanwhile, the EZLN held its largest peaceful march ever in San
> Cristóbal de las Casas on November 29th--the anniversary of the
> COCOPA's drafting of its constitutional reform initiative--with the
> participation of 10,000 ski-masked Zapatistas. The marchers demanded
> the immediate compliance with the San Andrés Accords, the
> demilitarization of Chiapas, and the disarming of guardias blancas and
> other paramilitary groups.
>
> "Peace is where there is no persecution, torture, assassinations, or
> unjust arrests", said one of the speakers. The participants, many of
> whom came from the Chol region in the north of the state, also
> expressed their full support for their compañeros in Chenalhó, who
> have come under increasing attack from paramilitary groups in recent
> weeks.
>
> "We are losing patience with the government", they said.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>
> PARAMILITARY ASSASSINATIONS CONTINUE UNABATED IN CHENALHO
>
> Right wing paramilitary activity in the highland Chiapas municipality
> of Chenahló continues unabated, leaving at least six Zapatistas dead,
> twelve wounded, three detained, and 48 homes burned to the ground in
> the last three weeks.
>
> The lastest wave of anti-Zapatista violence began on November 18th,
> when a mixed group of public security police and guardias blancas from
> the PRI-controlled village of Canolal burst into the Zapatista
> community of Aurora Chica. At least four civilian Zapatistas were
> killed in the attack, including two Tzotzil women who had been shot in
> the back with their bodies mutilated by their attackers, and two young
> boys of only 13 and 14 years of age. Three Zapatistas were also
> arrested by police in Aurora Chica at the same time; although one of
> them was later released, it is still not clear what (if anything) the
> other two have been charged with.
>
> Then, on November 21st, the local PRI government of Chenalhó informed
> the press that one of its supporters had been wounded by gunfire in
> the community of Joveltic. The same evening, the autonomous rebel
> government of Chenalhó, based in the community of Polhó, said that
> fighting had broken out between priístas and civilian Zapatistas in
> Chimix that morning, and that two other Zapatistas had been killed in
> Acteal the previous day.
>
> "The paramilitary groups are attacking all the Zapatistas; they have
> begun a new war against those of the EZLN, and they want to provoke
> us", said Javier Ruiz Hernández, a local community leader and
> Zapatista, following the events.
>
> Over the course of the following week, roving bands of paramilitary
> priístas attacked at least seven Zapatista communities in the
> municipality--Aurora Chica, Pechequil, Tzajaukum, Chimix, Yaxjemel, La
> Esperanza, and Tulantic--burning more than 40 homes and leaving a
> dozen civilian Zapatistas wounded.
>
> Ten communities in Chenalhó are now under a virtual state of siege by
> armed PRI militants and public security forces, and more than 2,000
> supporters of the EZLN and the PRD have been forced to leave their
> homes and communities in the last few weeks out of fear of the
> paramilitary groups.
>
> According to Pablo Romo, director of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
> Human Rights Center in San Cristóbal, this latest wave of paramilitary
> activity in Chenalhó is simply one more manifestation of a problem
> which is "neither new nor recent".
>
> "The state government has been incapable of detaining this violence",
> said Romo. "There is only one way to explain this: either the state
> government is incompetent for dealing with this situation, or it
> serves as an accomplice [to the paramilitary groups]. Either way, the
> situation is grave", he added.
>
> Meanwhile, as paramilitary activity continues to rise in the Chiapas
> highlands and the north, federal army activities have also increased
> sharply in the past week, especially in the jungle canyonlands of Las
> Margaritas and Ocosingo.
>
> As of this writing, more than 100 units of the public security police
> and the Mexican Army have been mobilized in the last three days around
> the municipal capital of Las Margaritas and in the southern Sierra
> Madre mountains of the state, due to the supposed appearance of "a
> Zapatista commando unit" in Las Margaritas on December 10th, and the
> ambush of two police officers in the Sierra Madre on the same day.
>
> Increased military activity has also been observed around the
> Tojolobal community of La Realidad, in the jungle region; and the
> ARIC-Union of Unions rural credit organization expressed its concern
> to the press last week that the parmilitary group known as the
> MIRA--Indigenous Revolutionary Anti-Zapatista Movement--would soon
> begin armed attacks on Zapatista communities in the canyonlands.
>
> Tension has also been increased in recent days due to the approaching
> deadline for a "final resolution" of all agrarian land reform issues
> in Chiapas. Campesino groups such as Xi'Nich, the Independent
> Agricultural Workers and Campesinos Central (CIOAC), and the
> Cardenista Campesino Central (CCC) have all been threatened with
> violent removal from their lands if they do not voluntarily leave them
> by Monday, December 15th.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> NEWS BRIEFS:
>
>
> CONPAZ DISSOLVES AFTER FOUR YEARS OF WORKING FOR PEACE IN CHIAPAS
>
> After nearly four years of vigorous activity in favor of a just peace
> in Mexico, the Coordination of Non-Governmental Organizations for
> Peace (CONPAZ) has dissolved.
>
> CONPAZ was founded in San Cristóbal de las Casas on January 4th, 1994,
> as a direct civilian response to the war in Chiapas. It brought
> together dozens of non-governmental organizations to denounce human
> rights abuses and organize the collection and distribution of material
> humanitarian aid for indigenous communities affected by the war. Other
> projects taken on by CONPAZ included ones dealing directly with
> medical, educational, artistic, and productive agricultural issues.
>
> Because of its activities, CONPAZ often came under direct threat from
> the Mexican government and paramilitary groups; its offices survived
> several firebombing attempts, and one of its coordinators was
> kidnapped and tortured along with his family in late 1996.
>
> Divisions within CONPAZ began to surface in 1996, with the voicing of
> different opinions regarding such issues as external funding,
> political neutrality, and the relationship between the organization
> and the Diocese of San Cristóbal.
>
> Hugo Trujillo Fritz, one of the coordinators of CONPAZ, indicated that
> the dissolution of the organization is not so much a "disappearance"
> as it is a transformation into a new decentralized network of
> independent organizations, as well as an adaptation to the continuing
> low-intensity war being waged by the Mexican government.
>
> "We are going to search out new paths in order to face the new
> political reality", said Trujillo. "The objective of peace is still
> our objective, that doesn't change; but the structure we currently
> have does not allow us to attend to the process of low-intensity
> warfare, which is very acute and under which we have never lived
> before", he added.
>
>
>
> IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE WILL DENOUNCE MEXICAN HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES TO
> THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
>
> During a visit to Chiapas in the last week of November,
> representatives of the Interreligious Foundation for Community
> Organization (IFCO) and Pastors for Peace promised to denounce the
> "constant human rights violations in the state of Chiapas" to the
> United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the US
> State Department, demanding that no aid be given to Mexico until the
> human rights situation in Chiapas improves.
>
> Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., founder of Pastors for Peace and Executive
> Director of the IFCO, said in a press conference in San Cristóbal that
> "the international community must be informed about what is happening
> in Chiapas, where many indigenous people are suffering from hunger,
> cold, and illness because they have been forced from their
> communities."
>
> Rev. Walker was in Chiapas with 15 other members of Pastors for Peace,
> who spent much of the week distributing more than 20 tons of
> humanitarian aid to communities in the municipalities of Chenalhó and
> San Andrés, in an attempt to partially offset the effects reaped by
> the low-intensity war against Zapatistas in those areas.
>
> CIHMA: FOURTEEN ARMED REBEL ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING IN MEXICO
>
> The Mexican Center for Historical Research of Armed Movements (CIHMA),
> made up primarily of veterans of Mexican guerrilla groups active in
> the 1960s and 1970s, reported this week that "at least fourteen"
> guerrilla groups are currently active across Mexican territory, and
> that in coming weeks "more organizations or strong offensives" could
> appear in the states of Puebla, Hidalgo, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz, or
> Guerrero.
>
> According to the CIHMA report, apparently based on public news
> sources, the following groups have been identified as active
> movements: the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), primarily
> in Chiapas; the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), in Guerrero, Oaxaca,
> State of Mexico, Puebla, Chiapas, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí,
> Guanajuato, and Michoacán; the Popular Insurgent Revolutionary Army
> (ERIP) in Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Durango;
> the Indigenous Clandestine Command of National Liberation (CCILN) in
> Oaxaca; the Clandestine Indigenous Army of National Liberation (ECILN)
> in Chihuahua; and the Clandestine Armed Forces of National Liberation
> (FACLN) in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero.
>
> And in just the state of Guerrero, the CIHMA identified the Armed
> Revolutionary Command of the South (CARS), the Génaro Vázquez
> Execution Brigade (BAGV), the Chilpancingo Insurgent Army (EIC), the
> Southern Army of Liberation (ELS), the South Sierra Liberation Army
> (ELSS), the José María Morelos Popular Liberation Army (EPLJMM), the
> Armed Forces of Liberation for the Marginalized Peoples of Guerrero
> (FALPMG), and the Popular Revolutionary Movement (MPR).
>
> It should be noted, however, that of all the groups mentioned above,
> only the EZLN and the EPR have made public appearances (the EZLN since
> 1994, and the EPR since June of 1996); and while it has been long
> rumored that other rebel groups may exist, much of the information
> gathered by the CIHMA was based on supposed communiques released by
> the groups in question, and never corroborated by the press (or by
> actions or appearances on the part of the groups themselves).
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Primary sources for all news articles: La Jornada, Proceso, El
> Universal, El Excelsior, independent human rights reports, personal
> observations, and press statements of the Zapatista Front of National
> Liberation.
>
> The primary responsibility for the content of this news page lies with
> its author, Joshua Paulson, and not necessarily with a commission,
> civil committee, or other dependency of the Zapatista Front of
> National Liberation.
>
> Redistribution and publication of these articles is permitted and
> encouraged, as long as the source is cited.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> Comments: joshua@peak.org
>
>[END]
>
>
>