Title: MEXICO: Temporary Peace in Chiapas Becomes More Fragile
by Diego Cevallos
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, Jan 2 (IPS) - The Zapatista
National Liberation Army (EZLN) will honour the truce in the
southern state of Chiapas until Jan. 6, but after that ''anything
could happen,'' leaders said on Monday.
The fragile truce which has held since Jan. 13 of last year is
under threat, even though both sides have reiterated their desire
for peace negotiations over the last week.
The tension subsided briefly last Friday, when the Zapatistas
called on Bishop Ruiz to suspend his two-week hunger strike for
peace.
Yet representatives of the Catholic Church in San Cristobal de
Las Casas and the EZLN both claim that government forces are
continuing to prepare for war, in spite of official announcements
to the contrary.
''We are living through a key moment, for while there have
been peace declarations, we know that the army is mobilised and
approaching the distant strongholds of the Zapatistas,'' said
Amado Avendano, head of the 'rebel transition government' in
Chiapas.
''We are doing all we can to reestablish peace, and we hope
the truce will be extended,'' he said.
Avendano lost the regional elections in August to government
candidate Eduardo Robledo, whom the insurgents claim was
fraudulently elected.
While Avendano has his office in San Cristobal, capital of the
rebel region, Robledo works from Tuxtla Gutierrez, the official
capital of Chiapas.
Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo recently made conciliatory
moves, stopping the army advance and recognising the National
Intermediation Committee (Conai) - nominated by the rebels and
headed by Bishop Samuel Ruiz - as the official negotiating body.
In response, the guerrillas reopened local roads and
airstrips in the jungle, but this ''didn't seem to have any
effect on the government - they are still provoking us,'' said a
rebel leader known as 'Commander Moises', adding, ''we are not
afraid of war and we won't let them trick us again.''
The EZLN complains of being under constant aerial observation
and harrassed by bloodhounds, and combined their expressed wish
for a peaceful outcome to a rejection of Zedillo and his
government.
They called for a struggle on all fronts to establish a new
transition government, form a new constitution and change the
current Mexican political system.
''We reject the federal government's custody of the nation,
the flag and the Constitution,'' read the declaration.
The government said the message was ''contradictory to the
peace process,'' and stressed its desire for continuing
negotiations.
In now appears the Conai negotiators must achieve some
rapprochement between the two sides by Friday in order to avoid
renewed conflict, which many fear may spread to other indigenous
regions of Mexico. (END/IPS/tra-so/dc/dg/np/sm/js/95)
Origin: San Jose/MEXICO/
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