*ZAPATISMO NEWS UPDATE*--May 11, 1997
A service of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation.
More information regarding the FZLN and the Zapatista struggle in Mexico
can be found at:
http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln (English)
http://spin.com.mx/~floresu/FZLN (Spanish)
This and previous news updates can also be found at:
http://www.peak.org/~joshua/fzln/news.html
Please send comments to: joshua@peak.org
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NEWS SUMMARY FOR MAY 1-11, 1997:
1. Joaquin Coldwell meets with Conai, Cocopa
2. Displaced families from Palenque, El Bosque attempt to return home
3. Indigenous organizations call for an end to the official
"consultations" on the creation of new municipalities in Chiapas
4. 12 international observers in Chiapas "invited" to leave the country
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Joaquin Coldwell Meets with the CONAI and the COCOPA
The new head of the federal government's negotiating team in Chiapas,
Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, has been holding "informal" meetings with the
National Intermediation Commission (CONAI) and the Commission on
Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA) this past week, in order to
discuss the possibilities for reducing the level of violence in the
north of Chiapas.
Coldwell was named on April 27th as the replacement for former chief
negotiator Marco Antonio Bernal, who resigned in order to seek an
elected congressional seat in the upcoming July elections.
While no commitments have yet been made by Coldwell or the government,
the Cocopa has made a proposal to install a new negotiating table for
the resolution of the problems in the north of Chiapas, similar to
that installed late last year to defuse the internal situtation in San
Andres Sacamch'en de los Pobres. The negotiations would involve the
direct participation of the Cocopa, the Conai, the federal government,
the EZLN, the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia, and representatives
of the legislative and executive branches of the state government.
The next meeting between Coldwell and the Cocopa, in which they are
expected to discuss the violence in the north of Chiapas, as well as
the conditions necessary for a resumption of the dialogue between the
EZLN and the federal government, is scheduled to be held on May 14th
in Mexico City.
Meanwhile, individual members of the Cocopa are continuing to speak
about the possibility of convoking an extraordinary session of
Congress in order to discuss national legislation and constitutional
reforms on Indigenous Rights and Culture. PRI deputy (and Cocopa
member) Jaime Martinez Veloz announced this possibility during the May
7th presentation of a new issue of the magazine Este Pais, dealing
exclusively with issues relating to indigenous rights.
PRD legislators Juan Guerra and Hector Sanchez, also members of the
Cocopa, announced separately that if the EZLN and the federal
government cannot reach consensus on a constitutional reform proposal,
then it would be the task of the Cocopa to convoke an extraordinary
session of Congress to present their original proposal, approved by
the Zapatistas last December but essentially vetoed by the executive
branch of the federal government in January.
In related news, the state congress of Chiapas replaced its
representative in the Cocopa during a surprise action on April 30th,
in which only seven legislators were present. By a vote of five to one
with one abstention, Dep. Juan Roque Flores--a constitutional law
expert who had previously been elected to the position by a unanimous
vote of all 40 members in the state congress--was replaced by the
priesta Carlos Alonso Hernandez.
The move came as a surprise to the Cocopa and to Roque Flores himself,
who was in a meeting with the CONAI in San Cristobal at the time of
the vote, and wasn't informed of the decision until much later. The
Cocopa, for its part, issued a declaration praising the work of Roque
Flores, and denounced the fact that his replacement was not agreed
upon by a full plenary session of congress, nor by consensus among the
five political parties represented there.
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DISPLACED FAMILIES FROM EL BOSQUE, PALENQUE ATTEMPT TO RETURN TO THEIR
COMMUNITIES
85 pro-Zapatista families from San Pedro Nixtalucum (municipality of
El Bosque)--exiled following an attack by public security forces on
their community last March 14th, leaving four Zapatistas dead and 24
imprisoned--attempted to return to their homes on May 9th, but were
instead turned back by local leaders of the PRI party and state
police.
The 350 civilian Zapatistas notified state authorities about their
plans the day before they returned to San Pedro, hoping for assurances
that they would not be harassed or attacked when they tried to enter
their community.
"Our displaced families of the community have been suffering," they
said in a letter to state officials, "and thus we have decided to
return to our community. No one has the right to take away our goods,
those things which belong to us. No one can pull us off of our land or
from our homes.
"We continue with the will for reconciliation in our community; there
is still much for all of us to discuss," they added.
Nevertheless, when they arrived in San Pedro Nixtalucum at noon on May
9th, they were met by local leaders of the PRI and public security
forces who denied them the right to return to their homes, saying that
"no one can be made responsible for the security of any person who
decides to remain in this village."
After four hours of negotiations and discussions, the Zapatista
families decided not to take any action which could be viewed as a
provocation, and began their journey back to the municipal seat of San
Juan El Bosque.
Meanwhile, in San Pedro Nixtalucum itself, the public security forces
seem to have taken full control over the community in the absence of
true authorities, and have even seized the local schoolhouse for use
as their police headquarters. Furthermore, according to the Fray
Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center, the police been giving
military training to young members of the PRI in San Pedro, in order
to bolster paramilitary groups such as Paz y Justicia in the region.
In related news, the campesinos of Xi'Nich who were driven out of
their homes near Palenque on March 7th by public security forces on
the landholdings known as "Emiliano Zapata" and "Plan de
Ayala"--peacefully occupied and farmed by Xi'Nich since February of
1994--have decided to re-occupy those lands and return to what is left
of their homes.
The campesinos returned quietly at dawn on May 7th, arguing that the
lands they were violently removed from two months ago "are the only
alternative" they have left in order to survive, and affirmed that
they will steadfastly resist any future attempts to remove them by
force.
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INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS, PRD CALL FOR AN END TO THE OFFICIAL
REMUNICIPALIZATION PROCESS IN CHIAPAS
Following another failed attempt by the state government of Chiapas to
carry out a "consultation" in the municipality of Ocosingo regarding
the creation of new municipalities in the region, the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) and five indigenous-campesino
organizations in Ocosingo and Las Margaritas have joined the calls of
the EZLN and the CONAI to end such unilateral actions on the part of
the government, which violate the San Andres Accords on Indigenous
Rights and Culture.
On May 7th, state PRI deputy Antonio Gonzalez--president of the
Special Legislative Commission for Municipal Reform, Redistricting,
and Remunicipalization--led a small group of state officials to the
community of Damasco (in Ocosingo) for what was supposed to be the
fifth consultation carried out by the Commission in order to discuss
the redistricting process.
However, before Gonzalez's helicopter arrived, hundreds of members and
sympathizers of the EZLN from Damasco and surrounding communities
showed up at the ejido, and rolled a truck onto the small air strip
which would serve as the helicopter's landing pad. When the helicopter
finally arrived, the landing area filled with people, thus preventing
it from landing. After circling the community several times, Gonzalez
and his entourage were forced to return to Tuxtla Gutierrez.
This was the third consecutive time in the past two months in which
members of independent indigenous-campesino organizations and
supporters of the EZLN have disrupted or blocked the consultation
process, arguing that the unilateral way in which it is being carried
out can only further divide the communities in the so-called "conflict
zone" of southeast Chiapas, and will likely have a negative effect on
the upcoming July elections.
Following the events in Damasco, deputies in the state congress
representing the center-left PRD opposition party--which pulled out of
the redistricting commission on April 17th--demanded a full halt to
the consultations for the same reasons cited above. Their call was
echoed shortly thereafter by five important indigenous-campesino
organizations in the zone.
The ARIC-Independiente, Tres Nudos, CNPI, ORCAO, and CIOAC all signed
a document on May 10th addressed to the state congress, insisting that
"the remunicipalization should be the product of consensus," and that
they will "not accept any imposition regarding the creation of new
municipalities carried out by the State."
Nevertheless, PRI deputy Antonio Gonzalez declared that his
congressional commission on redistricting and remunicipalization will
continue to carry out the consultations in "non-Zapatista"
communities, regardless of the mounting opposition to the commission's
actions.
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12 INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS "INVITED" TO LEAVE MEXICO
On May 1st, immigration authorities in San Cristobal de las Casas
"invited" a delegation of 12 European human rights observers to leave
the country within 48 hours, under the charge of having "participated
in activities not authorized in their visa of entry into national
territory."
The "invitation" to leave--which technically is one step short of
actual expulsion--came about following the foreigners' accompaniment,
as neutral observers, of the caravan-march of representatives of
displaced Chol communities in the north of Chiapas, which arrived in
Tuxtla Gutierrez on April 28th in order to demand, among other things,
and end to the recurring political violence in the region.
While representatives of the marchers confirm that the Europeans--who
come from Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and Holland--never took part
in the march, but merely observed, the immigration authorities insist
that their signatures on a statement to the press detailing their
observations confirm that they "engaged in political activities."
While most of the 12 observers have now returned to their countries of
origin (four were actually detained and deported on May 6th), a few
have stayed to fight their "invitations to leave" in Mexican
courts--and seem to be setting a new precedent for regulating the
activities of Mexican immigration authorities.
On May 2nd, with the help of nationally-known human rights attorney
Miguel Angel de los Santos (one of the defense lawyers who achieved
freedom for the presumed-Zapatista prisoners arrested during the
government's military offensive on February 9th, 1995), an appeal was
officially set in motion against the "invitations" to leave Mexico.
As of this writing, no final "sentence" on the status of the remaining
three observers has been issued; however, the official National Human
Rights Commission (CNDH) has intervened in the process on behalf of
three of the observers still in San Cristobal: Eduardo Ferr?n Iglesias
and Bozzo Pere Bargallo (both of Spanish origin), and Patrice Geerlin
(from Holland). The CNDH called on the National Migration Institute
(INM) to adopt "cautious measures" in order to avoid "irreparable
violations" of the human rights of foreign visitors. As a result of
the INM's acceptance of these "cautious measures," the three
foreigners have been granted permission to remain in the country until
their appeal has fully run its course.
According to De los Santos, the acceptance by the immigration
authorities of the CNDH's intervention is nothing short of
precedent-setting: "[The INM] is not accustomed to acting in
accordance with the law, and regularly violates individual
guarantees," he said. "At will, it seizes migratory documents; it
interrogates foreigners as if they were responsible for crimes,
without considering the principal of the presumption of innocence; and
without any further explanation gives them short periods in which to
leave the country. For all of these illegalities, which violate human
rights, it was possible for the CNDH to intervene."
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Primary sources for all news articles: La Jornada, Proceso, El
Financiero, and La Cr?nica.
The primary responsibility for the content of this news page lies with
its author, Joshua Paulson, and not necessarily with the Zapatista
Front of National Liberation.
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Comments: joshua@peak.org
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