January 19,1997
In the recent past, I had not commented on the dialogue that exhausts itself. Perhaps because it is tiring and bothersome to write and read the same traps, the same racisms, the same dirty games and the same deceptions. So much so, that with that tireness we lose communication when the readers of these notes get lost and it becomes almost impossible for people to keep up.
In reality it is the tactic sought by the Mexican government; to tire to exhaustion the ones dialoguing, to interested parties, to narrators and readers of the process (of peace). For this reason, one more time, I will write a few of my general impressions on this absurd corner, already with no exit, in which everything seems to have come to a halt for nothing.
At the end of the second negotiating session: Democracy and Justice, in which the government delegation remained silent, in which it was impossible to come to conclusions, the Zapatista communities asked amongst other conditions, that in order to continue with the sessions of San Andre's, the accords from the first session needed to be fulfilled: Rights and Indigenous Culture. It was there that their most original contribution was, the most genuine, the one that was new to the world, perhaps an alternative of society for everyone, human, with dignity, just and with equality....
And there is were the dead end road has been. At the time to incorporate those contributions into the Constitution, society and it's elites are retreating. This new word, food for those who live giving life to everyone, this silent sentence for those who dead kill, seems to be unacceptable, intolerable, by not being something able to be assimilated.
We have arrived to the dead end road because our world of elites can not tolerate the sharing between all, of the decision making, so that no one rules if it is not by obeying. The constitutional texts have multiple rough drafts, they wanted redefine what was already signed in San Andre's in February of 1996. It was not possible to move forward. It seemed to us that all they wanted was to re-iniciate that negotiation in order to wipe out what had been accomplished by the indians and the world. And that is how it has been. When the legislators commission, the COCOPA ended up proposing that they themselves would elaborate a text with the input of both sides, which would no longer be up for discussion, it would be definite, both sides accepted it, when the text was ready, even though it was left wanting as far as the minimum accords agreed in San Andre's signed in February 96. The true men accepted it in order to seek peace, not so the government.
In reality, they wanted to put a lock on the future. The government, the PRI, reacted in this way, setting a new trap. The electoral defeat in the state of Mexico and others in 1996, placed it on guard. The political participation of the EZLN is now too threatening who, even though they would not make alliances with any party, by creating a political-electoral conscience during the electoral year of 1997 would certainly reduce the PRI's votes.
The trap set up by the government was almost simple. If the EZLN would not accept the text of Zedillos's counter proposal that voided the agreements signed at San Andre's, would not be able to move on into political public life. If, on the contrary, they accepted it in order to soon become a political force, it would do so with an obvious defeat, discredited especially before the national indigenous movement. Since the Indigenous National Congress had confirmed the San Andre's accords and had trusted the zapatistas their negotiation. For the EZLN to accept the counter proposal from the government, would have been to commit treason to all the indigenous. The EZLN could not accept for the most elemental reasons of elemental cohesion. The cost they had to pay was high, very high due to the drainage of the zapatista communities, drainage caused by the counterinsurgency played even with programs of infant nutrition.
The antizapatistas, the white guards (paramilitary), the death squads, have everything; the indigenous sympathizers of the EZLN receive the emptying of their most basic foods, military encirclements that do not let them work, violations to their rights. The EZLN could not accept that counter proposal that cancelled the San Andre's accords. It could not do it in spite of the tireness, the draining of resources and themselves, in spite of the death of their sons and daughters-children. And they did not do it. They gave the matter back to COCOPA who had committed itself to resolve it.
In reality, it is a conflict between Zedillo and COCOPA. It becomes dangerous for presidentialism, to set the precedent of real autonomy of the legislative branch, plural in its participation of different political parties. COCOPA could not accomplish a triumph at this juncture. Only the presidency has the right to take initiatives, to take steps or to pretend to accomplish them in Me'xico. No one else, not even the legislators, nor the nonconformist indians can have a political triumph in this electoral year 1997. Now they declare and publicize that the EZLN rejected the government's proposal. Who actually rejected the proposal already agreed upon, was the government. And to the waiting to absurdity, closed the last possible exit. Could not even tolerate it's own signature because it had promised justice and equality before hegemony and the new dictatorships, the ones of the free market and the insensitive economies.
It was not the EZLN who signalled the stop, who went back on his word and it's principles. It was the Mexican government, followed by statements of the north american. It is them who closed doors to peace and are getting closer to the military options that will not be solutions, not now, not ever. They can not and they do not want to accept the newness of the indian word, the one that is resulting the true one and for that reason is being condemed, buried, denied.
And, what is new in this? Remembering the past, the previous stages, the steps already walked, it does not seem that any of this is truly new for who analyzes and reads. For this reason my tendency and ours to not say it any more, not repeated again, to forget confirming it. But this is the moment, in which they hope to defeat with their tireness to everyone who still has a little bit of hope. For this reason, I once again confirm in this note, the testimony of what we have lived in this moment giving accompaniment to the indigenous in that concern that is so much theirs, to share their word, their thoughts, their philosophy, their political-economic ways.
The details would make this comment too long without bearing fruits. I say only what remains written. From the each moment more intense liking of the indigenous, from the exasperating empty confrontations with the government, unpleasant and false. I only repeat one more time this that we have been lucky to share closely. And in ending I add a confirmation to this sad word. For what remains said, in our last encounter with the Comandancia (commanders), there in La Realidad (reality) of the jungle, were the advisers to share with the indigenous what is becoming the last and final stage of the dialogue in this form that had a dead end. For that reason, the zapatista companeros called us, so that we too would be there in that final part of the process that we have accompanied as their advisers from the beginning, so to share that too, yes, as the joys, the friendships and the dreamed for dreams of steps ahead that now have banished.
The last work session, the last meeting with them, could have taken place already. That is what they told us, grateful like always, refined, kind, faithful to their true word. Perhaps it will happen that history will reunite us, and that I may once again share with you something of this long interminable process, tired as the lack of true hope. We do not know. All we know is that one stage, one way of trying to dialogue as people, with thoughts and with intelligence, with words and reason has come to an end. We know that turned out impossible before this foolishness that destroys the rights of it's people, democracy. Not everything has been for nothing. The indigenous movement has strengthen in such way, that the new century will birth with it's mark and with it's style, whether we like it or not. The new dawn (nuevo amanecer), the one awaken by the zapatismo, made inroads already. It is no longer able to be denied, neither is it reversible. It simply is, as the words of the grandfathers of old, the ones that awakened us with meaning and future. The dawn (amanecer) is here, not the night any more. We will remember in time, we will remember them for long, because wether the ones who are deciding this history against all of us want or not, the new times arrive with this new sun.
TRANSLATION BY: Susana Saravia-Ugarte, Certified Court Interpreter by the Office for the Administration of the Courts for the State of Washington. for NUEVO AMANECER PRESS