AUT: English Chiapas al Dia 169 I

[CIEPAC <ciepac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ENGLISH VERSION OF "CHIAPAS AL DIA" BULLETIN No. 169
CIEPAC
CHIAPAS, MEXICO

SPECIAL BULLETIN 01


AUGUST:  CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR (I/III)

We are gathering together in this Bulletin a chronology of the events from
August 1 to 15, 1999.  The information has come from the state and national
press and from denunciations and press conferences held by various
organizations and bodies.

8/1/99:  The Chiapas government withdrew the police that had been guarding
the communities of Canaan and Rafael Cal y Mayor in Santa Maria Chimalapas.
 Zoques and Zapotecas lifted their blockade in Tapanatepec, Oaxaca (this
was later denied by the communities affected).

8/1/99:  Closing of the First "Democratic Teachers and Zapatista Dream"
Encuentro between teachers and zapatistas in La Realidad.  The EZLN asked
the democratic movement to support the UNAM student movement and the
Electricians Union, who are against the privatization of that sector.

8/1/99:  Gilberto de Los Santos, candidate for the state PRD leadership:  A
strategy is being put in place in Chiapas to boycott the formation of an
opposition alliance for the year 2000 elections.

8/2/99:  Emilio Rabasa Gamboa visited Chiapas.  He met with journalist
Amado Avendano, in order to propose that he be a link between the
government and the zapatistas.  Emilio Rabasa insisted on a direct meeting
with the EZLN.

8/2/99:  Arturo Luna Reyes, Bishop of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, stated that
lumber, cattle and drug trafficking interests are behind the Chiapas
government's attempts to appropriate Oaxaca land in the Chimalapas region,
and, by building a highway between Cintalapa and Oaxaca, the chiapaneco
government is provoking violence.

8/3/99:  Emilio Rabasa stated that the Secretary of Government, Diodoro
Carrasco, is willing to meet with Subcomandante Marcos and "to negotiate
the five conditions of the EZLN and to answer each one of them," and the
solution cannot be unilateral.  Emilio Rabasa said the armed conflict will
not be resolved "with hate, rancor, division or intolerance, and even less
with arms."

8/3/99:  Benigno Aladro, Senator and member of the COCOPA, said that this
commission is reviewing the five points the EZLN set as a condition for
renewing dialogue.

8/3/99:  Ernesto Zedillo, President of the Republic, stated that
privatization is not a step backwards, "economic reform will allow the
government to fulfill its responsibilities to those who have the least."

8/3/99:  Roberto Albores Guillen and Jose Murat, Governors of Chiapas and
Oaxaca respectively, agreed to intermediation by the Secretaries of
Agrarian Reform and the Environment, in order to resolve the problems in
Los Chimalapas.

8/4/99:  Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, Independent Senator, expressed his
belief that Albores Guillen's government is escalating a conflict of
serious dimensions in the region of Los Chimalapas, by publishing, in
newspaper display ads, and on radio and television programs, completely
false reports of what happened five years ago.  He said the government is
trying to inflame chiapanecos and to provoke a lynching and confrontations
against him.

8/4/99:  The Mexican Army reinforced their 15 camps and checkpoints in the
Selva Lacandona, and they set up others in the towns of Cintalapa, Paraiso
and in the mountainous region.  They also reinitiated patrols in those
areas close to zapatista communities.  The Flores Magon Autonomous
Municipality reported that, in that region alone, 6000 soldiers arrived on
July 15, under the pretext of "planting little trees" in the Montes Azules
biosphere reserve.  They added that, on Thursday, the 22nd, 70 eight-ton
trucks entered the region, along with 5000 Army troops.  They believe that
the purpose of the Army presence is to support the redistricting process,
since the new municipal seat will be Palestina, which will have the new
name of "Lacandonia."  They reported that, on July 24, the Army entered the
community of Francisco Villa and set up a camp.

It was reported that the Army is keeping some 30 indigenous communities in
the canada of Taniperla, and within the reserve, under a state of siege.
Meanwhile, there are 20 military camps and 8 checkpoints along a stretch of
approximately 200 kilometers on the Palenque-Marques de Comillas highway.
The command centers for the new settlements are located in Cintalapa,
Palestina and Taniperla.  Among the military camps that have been
reinforced are those established in Crucero Corozal, Frontera Corozal, Boca
Lacantun, Crucero Real, Monte Libano, Ocotalito, Taniperla, Crucero
Palestina, Yaxchilan, El Calvario, San Caralampio, San Quintin, Chancala,
Pico de Oro and San Jeronimo Tulija, among others.

8/4/99:  Noe Castanon Leon, President of the Redistricting Commission and
of the Supreme Court of the State of Chiapas, announced that 22 new
municipalities, almost all of them in zapatista lands, will be added to the
111 in the state of Chiapas, by the end of the year at the latest.  He
added that the creation of the following nine municipalities are under
review:  Taniperla, Amparo Aguatinta, San Quintin, El Limar, Patihuitz, El
Censo and San Jeronimo Tulija.

8/5/99:  In the Congress of the Union, the PRD held the Governor of
Chiapas, Roberto Albores, responsible for any "spilling of blood" that
might occur, since, through his desire to slander Independent Senator Pablo
Salazar, he is trying to precipitate a confrontation among the indigenous
of Los Chimalapas who live in Chiapas and Oaxaca.

8/5/99:  The PRD in Chiapas postponed the release of the results of the
election of that party's state leader, until after the resolution of
irregularities presented by the five lists of candidates participating.

8/5/99:  The "Ricardo Flores Magon" Autonomous Municipality denounced that
Public Security Police and PRIs, Carlos Lopez Diaz and Ricardo Lopez
Sanchez, had been holding Pedro Lopez Hernandez, an EZLN sympathizer, for
twelve days in the Nueva Palestina ejido, where he was being held prisoner
in a Public Security Police camp latrine.  Pedro Gomez Aguilar and Jesus
Lopez Hidalgo, who had been accompanying him, were released, while Lopez
Hernandez remained held.

8/5/99:  Approximately 20 Chiapas NGOs demonstrated against the visit by
Francisco Labastida Ochoa, an aspirant for the PRI nomination for the
President of the Republic, saying:  "We have not forgotten the
police-military operations in the Autonomous Municipalities."

8/6/99:  Carlos Payan, Acting President of the COCOPA, called on the
federal government to stop the "provocations by the Governor of Chiapas,
Roberto Albores Guillen, in opening a new battle front in Los Chimalapas?"
At the same time, he asked for guarantees for Senator Pablo Salazar
Mendiguchia, because he could be the object of attacks following "Albores'
irresponsible attitude."  He added that, since he had become interim
governor of Chiapas, Albores had been provoking a "a strategy of low
intensity warfare."

8/6/99:  Roberto Albores and Jose Murat, Governors of Chiapas and Oaxaca
respectively, called for the intervention of the Federal Army in Los
Chimalapas region, in order to reforest the region consumed by fires in
previous years.

8/7/99:  Francisco Labastida Ochoa visited Chiapas as a candidate for the
presidency of the Republic.  He called for a peaceful solution to the
conflict with the EZLN and asked that they [the EZLN] transform themselves
into a political force after the year 2000 elections.  He stated that, if
he were to become President, he would commit himself to not persecuting the
rebels, to providing a negotiator of stature, to participating directly at
the end of the peace process and to incorporating the rebel commanders into
public security forces once peace accords are signed.

8/8/99:  In Zinacantan, Chiapas, Francisco Labastida, proposed the
disarmament of civilians, excluding the EZLN.  He stated that "there is no
exchange of gunfire, there are no military operations," but rather a
"climate of hostility, of permanent tension," that must be resolved with
patience and flexibility and through attention to the causes of poverty.
He rejected the "violent changes and those that are the product of
deception."  Concerning Roberto Albores' government, he stated:  "I see it
as a state that is making a positive transformation, not just for the
respect for the rule of law, but also because it is achieving (?) strong
promotion of investment and attention to demands.  I say he is quite
stubborn - in the good sense - half stupid."  He noted that he had come to
try to close the "wound" that Chiapas meant for the entire country, for the
"insulting" inequalities and the poverty of the indigenous peoples.  He
added:  "Don Samuel will soon be retiring, we'll see who comes in as bishop."

8/8/99:  Humberto Roque Villanueva, aspirant for the PRI nomination for the
presidency, condemned interim governor Roberto Albores Guillen's bias,
because of the logistical and economic support he has lent Francisco
Labastida Ochoa's political campaign.

8/10/99:  Roberto Madrazo, aspirant for the PRI candidacy for the
presidency, presented - to Fernando Gutierrez Barrios, the President of the
Commission for Internal Processes of the PRI - a challenge to the Governor
of Chiapas, Roberto Albores Guillen and Francisco Labastida, for the
support the chiapaneco governor has given to Francisco Labastida's campaign
efforts.

8/10/99:  Lumber of the People of the Southeast, Action Network for
Pesticides, Jalisco Association in Support of Indigenous Groups, and
Franciscan Family International, in a letter to the Secretary of the
Environment, Julia Carabias, questioned the presence of the Army in the
Montes Azules reserve in Chiapas for their alleged participation in
reforesting in the region.

8/10/99:  The 'All Rights for All' National Network of Human Rights
Organizations - made up of 48 groups in the country - met with the
Secretary of Government, Diodoro Carrasco, in order to express their
concern for the spiral of violence in Chiapas and the death threats.  They
presented the "SOS Chiapas" initiative, a document which addresses the need
to reactivate the peace negotiations.

8/10/99:  Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, Independent Senator and candidate of
the opposition alliance in Chiapas, said that Governor Roberto Albores
Guillen, by trying to resuscitate the conflict in Los Chimalapas, was
attempting to block the construction of an opposition alliance for the year
2000 elections, and that he wanted to "to wrap the social ethos in an
absurd warlike spirit, in order to defend a land and a sovereignty
threatened only in his fevered imagination."

8/11/99:  The Xi'Nich organization denounced the detention of two of its
members when 24 soldiers entered the Mariscal community, and on August 7,
when 19 other soldiers entered the community of El Pedregal, municipality
of Ocosingo.

8/11/99:  Norberto Santiz Lopez, identified as one of the leaders of the
MIRA paramilitary group and PRI Federal Deputy, attended the 51st Session
of the Subcommission for the Protection of Minorities of the UN Human
Rights Commission, in Geneva, Switzerland.

8/11/99:  The COCOPA and the Episcopal Commission for Reconciliation in
Chiapas met in Mexico City, for the purpose of finding a solution through
dialogue in Chiapas.  Senator Carlos Payan stated the possibility that
someone would manage to ignite the Chiapas conflict with a view to the year
2000 elections.  He said this conflict in Chiapas could be used as a scene
of confrontation in order to wreak political profit.

8/11/99:  Meeting between the EZLN and the National Caravan in Defense of
the Cultural Heritage (August 12 to 15 in La Realidad).

8/12/99:  On at least two occasions, the Chiapas government bought up all
the editions of La Jornada in Tuxtla Gutierrez, in order to prevent the
distribution of information addressing their repressive policies in the state.

8/12/99:  The interim governor visited San Quintin, in the Selva Lacandona,
where he gave a ferocious speech against the zapatistas, said he would not
take one step backwards, and called on chiapanecos to demonstrate in
support of his policies.  He added that the EZLN is a paper tiger.

8/12/99:  The Episcopal Commission for Reconciliation in Chiapas visited
the state, for the purpose of overcoming the stalemated dialogue between
the EZLN and the federal government.  They met with Governor Roberto
Albores, and they announced a new proposal for mediation, national and
civil in nature, that would be presented to the parties in conflict.  They
met with representatives of the displaced and led an act of reconciliation
in the municipality of Chilon.

8/13/99:  In San Cristobal de Las Casas, Emilio Zebadua, election advisor,
stated that the threats of political judgments and administrative
complaints against him were for the purpose of preventing him from
continuing his visits in Chiapas and drawing up an analysis of the
political-electoral situation in the state prior to the year 2000 elections.

8/13/99:  Raul Vera Lopez, coadjutant Bishop of San Cristobal de Las Casas,
said:  "The election process is creating many conditions and difficulties
for the achieving of peace.  Nor can we discard the possibility that the
powers will engage in violent acts."  Meanwhile, the President of the
Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), Luis Morales, noted that the
presidential candidates "cannot forget or leave out the Chiapas problem."
The Episcopal Commission bishops visited the northern region.

8/13/99:  Deputies from Oaxaca and Chiapas, members of legislative
committees - except for the PRIs - agreed that both states should
investigate in depth all available documents (resolutions, decrees and
agreements), in order to solve the border, agrarian and environmental
problems of Los Chimalapas.

8/13/99:  Cruz Aguilar, ejiditario from Los Chimalapas, said:  "The
governors of Chiapas - including Albores Guillen prior to July of this year
- never helped us in the defense of our rights as ejiditarios."

8/14/99:  A Mexican Army bus fell into a ravine located along the
Tuxtla-San Cristobal de Las Casas highway, causing 16 serious injuries.

8/14/99:  Representatives of the PRD, PT, PVEM and PAN parties and the
Movement of Hope for 2000 - headed by Senator Pablo Salazar - warned that
Governor Roberto Albores' actions regarding the conflict in Los Chimalapas
had exacerbated the political and social climate.  The counterinsurgency
strategy developed in our state - promoting purported disarmament of
purported zapatista militants - have not only violated the law for
Concordance and Peace, but it has also deepened the social contradictions
inside indigenous communities in the conflict zone.

8/14/99:  Subcomandante Marcos denounced that the zapatista indigenous
communities are now suffering a true campaign of terror, led by the Mexican
Army and the Public Security Police of Chiapas.  This was stated during the
National Encuentro in Defense of the Cultural Heritage, which was attended
by 400 persons from 20 union, student, non-governmental and intellectual
organizations.

8/14/99:  The Episcopal Commission for Peace in Chiapas stated that the
failure to ratify the San Andres Accords led not only to the suspension of
dialogue between the government and the EZLN, but also to a series of
unilateral actions that have created vacuums, in particular in the rule of
law, a situation that culminated in violent incidents such as the Acteal
massacre.

8/15/99:  The Mexican Army - between 400 and 500 heavily armed soldiers, of
which 300 descended by parachute, and others in 14 helicopters from the
barracks at San Quintin and Ibarra - seized the community of Amador
Hernandez.  They set up barbed wire around their position, at the entrance
to the Montes Azules biosphere reserve.  At the same time, military
overflights, checkpoints and patrols were increased between Guadalupe
Tepeyac and San Quintin, the stretch of road along which La Realidad is
located.  Marcos stated that the "largest oil reserve in the world" is
located in the Amador Hernandez Valley, and the reserve also encompasses
the Corralchen sierra, in the Montes Azules reserve, and the Santa Cruz
sierra.  Military checkpoints were similarly reinforced between Las
Margaritas and La Realidad.  The Commander of the 39th Military Region,
Fermin Rivas Garcia, confirmed that some 400 soldiers went to the community
of Amador Hernandez "in order to protect" the company that is building the
(militarily strategic) 19 kilometer road between that community and San
Quintin, where one of the most important military facilities in Ocosingo is
located.

8/15/99:  It was reported that the military siege had been intensified,
with approximately 10,000 soldiers, fifty camps and absolute control of the
highways, with 15 checkpoints in the canadas and valleys of the
northeastern Selva Lacandona, and that they penetrated, for the first time
since the appearance of the zapatistas, into communities in the Montes
Azules reserve. This is considered to be the second massive mobilization of
troops in this region since 1995, when 5000 soldiers arrived, and another
5000 in July for a purported reforestation program. Among those new camps
and installations - which are being called Montes Azules Reforestation
Camps - are:  Frontera Corozal, Bonampak crossroads, La Arena, Laguna
Suspiro and the mountains close to La Culebra and Santa Rita.  In their
passage through the valleys and Canadas of the Selva Lacandona, they have
set up checkpoints, the majority of them intermittent, in indigenous
communities such as El Limonar, Cintalapa, La Culebra, Arroyo Granizo, El
Paraiso, Crucero Palestina, Ocotalito, La Arena, Calvario, San Jose,
Patihuitz, Lindavista, Jardin, Laguna Ocotal, San Geronimo Tulija, Monte
Libano and Taniperla.  All of these communities are being patrolled day and
night.

8/15/99:  Gilberto Lopez y Rivas, COCOPA member, said that this commission
cannot be an accomplice to the encircling of the EZLN.

8/15/99:  General Fermin Rivas Garcia, Commander of the 39th Military
Region, said that 400 members of the Mexican Army went to the community of
Amador Hernandez, in the municipality of Ocosingo, in order to "protect"
the company that is building a 19 kilometer road between San Quintin and
Amador Hernandez.

8/15/99:  The federal government, through the Department of Government,
said that it has not favored the use of force to resolve the conflict with
the EZLN, and the presence of the Army in Chiapas "is based on
constitutional and legal regulations" and it is designed to guarantee
domestic public order.

8/15/99:  Manuel Bartlett, PRI aspirant for the candidacy for the
presidency, stated that the conflict with the EZLN should be resolved
immediately, since prolonging it could cause greater problems for the
indigenous.  He emphasized that is necessary to pick back up the dialogue
between the parties, in order to put a definitive end to the conflict.

8/15/99:  Antonio Echavarria, Governor-Elect of Nayarit, held a meeting
with representatives of the state opposition alliance in Chiapas.  He
analyzed election strategies for next year's state elections, based on his
experience in his state, where the opposition alliance won.

Onesimo Hidalgo and Gustavo Soto

Center   of   Economic   and    Political    Investigations   of  Community
 Action,   A.C.
CIEPAC
CIEPAC, member of the "Convergence of Civil Organizations for Democracy"
National Network (CONVERGENCIA), and member of RMALC (Mexico Action Network
on Free Trade)

 ******************************************
Translated by irlandesa for CIEPAC, A.C.
******************************************

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