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MEXICO:
Zapatistas Issue
Enigmatic 'Red Alert'
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) - A ”red
alert” issued by the Zapatista
rebels in southern Mexico, with
no explanation of either the
reasons or the consequences, is
apparently linked to unusual
recent military movements in the
state of Chiapas and a growing
presence of paramilitary groups,
a human rights organisation said
Tuesday.
In the southern state of Chiapas
”a tactical repositioning (of
troops) is occurring” as part of
a continued low-intensity
warfare campaign, the Fray
Bartolomé de las Casas Human
Rights Centre said in a message
sent to IPS. ”In other words,”
it added, ”the army is not
withdrawing, it is
reactivating.”
Nevertheless, a spokesman for
the government of President
Vicente Fox said Monday that
”everything is completely
normal” in Chiapas, despite the
fact that the Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN) ordered
its barely-armed ”troops” to
stand ready.
The Fox administration
”categorically” states that
there is absolute peace and
tranquillity in Chiapas today,
said official spokesman Rubén
Aguilar, after declining to
speculate on why the EZLN
declared itself in a state of
alert.
In the communiqué dated Jun. 19,
the EZLN leadership reported
that the group had closed its
local autonomous community
government centres in villages
and towns in the remote rural
areas under its control, and
that it had ”quartered” its
troops.
The message also announced
future actions, although without
specifying what these might be.
The government's Commissioner
for Peace in Chiapas, Luis
Alvarez, said there were no
grounds for the ”red alert”.
The insurgent indigenous group
originally burst on the scene on
Jan. 1, 1994, engaging in less
than two weeks of skirmishes
with army troops before the
government of then president
Carlos Salinas (1988-1994)
declared a unilateral ceasefire.
Since then the Zapatistas have
not fired a single shot.
Almost simultaneously with the
EZLN's communiqué, the Defence
Ministry reported that soldiers
last week destroyed four
hectares of marijuana plants
growing in the guerrilla group's
area of influence.
Parliamentary Deputy Francisco
Espinosa, the current chair of
the congressional peace
commission, said the EZLN alert
came as a ”total surprise.”
”We do not understand the
reasons, because the situation
in Chiapas has been very calm in
the past few months,” Espinosa,
a member of the small Labour
Party, said in an interview with
IPS.
”We are not going to speculate
on the EZLN's motives, but we
don't believe there will be any
clashes, because there would be
no reason for that to happen,”
said the head of the commission
set up 10 years ago, comprised
of lawmakers from all of the
country's political parties, to
contribute to the Chiapas peace
process.
The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
Human Rights Centre, however,
believes the Zapatistas are
responding to harassment. ”For
the past two months there have
been movements of army troops
(in the area under EZLN
influence) - the biggest
military movements since 2001,”
said the organisation.
The Human Rights Centre, which
works in Chiapas, reported that
it had documented troop
movements in at least seven
indigenous communities under
Zapatista control, as well as
renewed activity by anti-EZLN
paramilitary groups.
With respect to the reported
destruction of marijuana
plantations, the human rights
group warned that it is
dangerous ”to link the question
of drug trafficking with the
conflict in Chiapas, because it
distorts the situation, and even
more so if it is used to justify
an escalation of violence.”
Patricio Benavides, an academic
who specialises in political
science, told IPS there must be
well-founded reasons for the
alert declared by the EZLN, even
though they are not yet fully
known.
But based on reports from human
rights groups and the accounts
of people who have visited
Chiapas, there is conjecture
that the rebel communiqué may
have been issued in response to
the presence of paramilitary
groups that harass the
Zapatistas and their supporters,
said Benavides.
The government denies the
existence of these groups.
According to the analyst, what
the message does clearly
indicate, above and beyond the
specific reasons for the
announcement of a state of
alert, is that the guerrillas
are staging a return to the
political scene after several
years of silence.
The Zapatistas and their
charismatic masked leader known
as 'Subcomandante Marcos'
initially kept a high profile,
and drew strong international
support in the first few years
after they appeared in public
demanding ”democracy, justice
and freedom.”
But they disappeared from the
limelight after early 2001, when
the rebel leaders made a highly
publicised trip to the Mexican
capital, with government
protection, to urge Congress to
pass a bill on indigenous rights
and autonomy that had been
agreed upon in peace talks with
the government of Ernesto
Zedillo (1994-2000), which broke
off in July 1996.
The bill was passed, but only
after the introduction of
amendments that the indigenous
group rejected.
The EZLN said at the time that
it would only return to the
negotiating table when the
original version of the law on
indigenous rights and autonomy
was approved.
Since then, the rebels have
stayed in the remote mountainous
jungle territory under their
control, where they have adopted
what they describe as autonomous
indigenous forms of local
government.
But in an open letter addressed
to Massimo Moratti, the
president of Italy's Milan FC
football club, Subcomandante
Marcos insinuated last May that
the ”match” between the EZLN and
Mexico's political establishment
was about to resume.
Marcos also invited Moratti to
bring his team to play a game
against the Zapatistas.
Reports by the Fox
administration, which are backed
up by researchers, indicate that
the group maintains political
and administrative control over
15 percent of the state of
Chiapas, Mexico's poorest, with
a total territory of 75,600
square km along the Guatemalan
border.
Anyone wishing to enter the
Zapatista-controlled area must
undergo a security check, and
the government's social
programmes do not operate there.
The area is home to around
100,000 inhabitants, nearly all
of whom are indigenous people
living in dire poverty - a
condition they share with most
of Mexico's Indians, who make up
approximately 10 percent of the
total population of 104 million.
The Zapatista ”insurgents”
themselves number around 5,000.
The EZLN's control over part of
that territory was temporarily
rolled back in 1995, when the
Zedillo administration ordered a
military offensive in the area.
In response, the Zapatistas and
their supporters simply
retreated to inaccessible
mountain hideouts.
The government offensive was cut
off under pressure from civil
society and political leaders,
and the Zapatistas gradually
returned to their land.
The area under Zapatista
influence is surrounded by
hundreds of troops deployed in
91 camps set up after the EZLN
made its appearance in early
1994.
When Fox took office in December
2000, he ordered the army out of
the areas closest to the
Zapatistas. But human rights
organisations said the move was
nothing more than a tactical
relocation.
The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
Human Rights Centre reports that
violence continues between
indigenous groups in Chiapas,
who are divided along religious
and political lines, and that
army troops continue to bully
the Zapatistas.
”From a human rights standpoint,
we have seen virtually no change
under the current (Fox)
administration, neither in terms
of respect for indigenous people
nor with regard to an end to
military harassment,” Michael
Chamberlain, an activist with
the Human Rights Centre, told
IPS last January.
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