HEADLINE: MEXICAN REBELS SAY COLOSIO MURDER PRELUDE TO ATTACK
BYLINE: By Eduardo Kragelund
DATELINE: SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, March 25
Mayan rebels accused hardliners in Mexico's government Friday of being
behind the assassination of ruling party presidential candidate Luis
Donaldo Colosio as part of a strategy to squash democratic reforms.
''The hardliners and the militarist option inside the government planned
and brought to completion this provocation to end all the peaceful intent
of democratization of the country,'' the Zapatista National Liberation Army
said in a communique from southern Mexico.
The communique was the first reaction from the rebels to the killing of
Colosio, 44, who was shot in the head and abdomen Wednesday after a Tijuana
campaign rally.
The Zapatistas said hardline factions within Mexico's ruling class were
opposed to the reforms passed this week by the Mexican Congress that would
clean up the country's elections and loosen the grip of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has ruled Mexico since 1929.
Also, they said the hardliners wanted to abandon efforts by President
Carlos Salinas de Gortari to bring a peaceful end to the uprising in
<Chiapas,> which was launched in the name of social justice and political
empowerment of Mexico's indigenous people.
This same group, the rebels said, ''is the one that ordered the
assassination of (Colosio) ... and now tries to top off its infamous action
with breaking of the ceasefire and the restarting of the war,'' the
communique said.
The rebels, who began their New Year's Day uprising by seizing several
<Chiapas> cities, also said there were ''clear signals'' that the
government was planning to move militarily to end the rebellion and accused
the Mexican army of breaking a ceasefire that took effect January 17.
They said the Mexican army dropped four ''incendiary devices''
containing some kind of gas near a highway in rebel-held territory March 19
and said the army has been moving troops into the area in prepartion for
combat.
Mexico City newspapers recently reported an influx of troops into the
conflict zone, but the army issued a statement this week saying that it was
only rotating troops in and out of the area.
The rebels have been negotiating with peace envoy Manuel Camacho Solis
since February to end the crisis. At least 145 people died in the early
days of the uprising but fighting stopped when a January 17 ceasefire took
effect.
The Zapatistas have moved into jungle strongholds and still control a
large swath of <Chiapas,> which borders Guatemala. They said their troops,
estimated to number at least 2,000, are on ''red alert'' for an attack and
that they have mined all entrances into their areas.
In the first round of peace talks, the rebels and Colosio reached
preliminary accords to end the uprising. The rebels have been discussing
the accords, but no new round of talks has been set.
Colosio was buried Friday in his hometown in the northern state of
Sonora.
Attorney General Diego Valades said Thursday that Mario Aburto Martinez,
23, confessed to killing Colosio, but Valades would not comment when
reporters asked about his motive.
Aburto was transferred to a maximum security prison near Mexico City
Thursday night.
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Communication of the Comite Clandestino Revolucionario Indigena-Comandancia
General del Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional. Mexico.
March 24, 1994 To the people of Mexico, to the peoples and governments of
the world, to the national and international press:
Brothers:
The CCRI-CG of the EZLN addresses you to denounce the following:
1. On March 23, at night, through the radio, we learned of the cowardly
assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, candidate of the PRI to the
presidency.
2. Once again the CCRI-CG of the EZLN condemns explicitly the use of
terrorism to accomplish any end.
3. The CCRI-CG of the EZLN profoundly laments that the governing group is
notable to resolve its internal struggles without covering the country with
blood. The hard line and the militaristic tendency within the federal
government planned and executed this provocation so as to annul every
peaceful intent to democratize the political life of the nation.
4. The CCRI-CG of the EZLN declares that Mr. Colosio always referred to our
movement with prudence and respect. His last declarations marked a clear
committment to compete equally with the other political forces. He
recognized that the country is held back by great injustices and he took
distance from the regime of Salinas and its economic and social policies.
The forces against the hope in a peace with justice and dignity, which was
born in the dialogue of San Cristobal, have chosen Mr. Colosio as the
sacrifice which is the signal to avoid the peaceful movement towards
liberty, democracy and justice.
5. The EZLN knows that this terrible crime which now has shaken the nation
is only the prelude to a great military offensive of the federal government
against our positions and our forces, and the beginning of a dirty war
against all the honest people who in different ways are seeking the same
things we seek. With the argument that it is necessary to fortify the
regime so as to prevent acts such as the assassination of Mr. Colosio, they
want to provide a political and ideological basis for indiscriminate
repression and an unjustified end to the cease fire, and, consequently, to
the dialogue for peace.
6. There have been clear signals that the government is preparing an
attempt to find a military solution to the conflict: on March 19, 1994,
around daybreak, government aircraft bombed the area around the road
between Comitan and Altamirano, in the vicinity of La Mendoza. At least
four incendiary artefacts were dropped by these planes, setting fairly
large fires, as well as emitting strange gases which make us think of
chemical warfare. Without trial and with a list of names provided by
traitors, in Ocosingo and Altamirano the federal troops are arresting and
"disappearing" divilians whom they suspect of sympathising with our just
cause. Since March 20, there has been a clear increase in the number of
government troops and arms in the zone of conflict, they are now double the
number that was here in January. The federal troops talk of replacement,
but no one is leaving. Federal officers are taking advantage of the
situation and are receiving bribes from the landowners to patrol their
properties. Federal troops are not in their barracks, on the outskirts of
the cities, they move around belligerantly in the urban areas they control.
The troop movements which surround our territory in the municipalities
of Las Margaritas, Altamirno and Ocosingo is almost complete. Afterwards
will come the offensive which the hard liners of the government have
wanted. The same line that encourages, surreptitiously, the sabotage being
carried out by the great landowners and commercial interests against the
peace process. The same line that obstructs the efforts for peace in the
area, the same line that threatens the information media and bishop Samuel
Ruiz. The same line that is opposed to radical political and democratic
reform. This line is the same one that ordered the assassination of the PRI
candidate and which now tries to crown its despicable act with a violation
of the cease fire and a new beginning to the war.
7. The EZLN has given proof of its sincere intentions to achieve a just and
dignified peace. The government has answered with lies, kidnappings,
elimination of people, threats, bombings and now this shameful sacrifice of
a political figure. Its troops are preparing to break the cease fire. Our
forces were carrying out the process of consultation in the communities so
as to decide what would be the next step in the dialogue for peace and
reconciliation. Now we are obliged to suspend the consultation and to
prepare ourselves to defend our cause and our flag: that of democracy,
liberty and justice.
8. The EZLN is now in a red alert. Our troops are ready to defend to the
last man the zapatista territory, the accesses have been mined and our
fighters are waiting for the attack of the bad government. The
unrestricted access of the press, part of our policy of hiding nothing from
the eyes of our people, has been cancelled. Because of the imminent
government agression, we will only permit the entry of "war
correspondents", formally approved by the CG of our EZLN. All who enter our
territory will be detained and investigated at length. The flag of the
alert is already waving over our land. The trenches of the zapatistas will
now belong to everyone who want democracy, justice and liberty.
9. Our just struggle continues, we are still willing to follow the road of
peace and they want to deny it. They want to bring war back to Mexican
lands through the hands of the usurper and those who serve him.
10. The EZLN repeats to the whole world its committment to respect the
cease fire, to not obstruct the peaceful progress of the next elections,
and to not carry out any military offensive in all of the national
territory against the government forces, according to the conditions
established in our communication of January 12, 1994. If we are attacked,
our forces will defend, to the end, the just aspirations of all Mexicans.
If our country's history again asks for blood and for our deaths so as
to aspire to a true peace with justice and dignity, we will not hesitate
to pay the price. We who are without faces will defend with dignity and
valor the land where our dead are sleeping. We will never again return to
our land with shame. We will never again speak without dignity in our
words. Our steps will continue in truth even if death awaits in our path.
Liberty! Justice! Democracy! Respectfully. From the mountains of southeast
Mexico. Comite Clandestino Revolucionario Indigena-Comandancia General of
the EZLN.