This manifesto was committed to overthrowing the government and replacing it with a new one based on respect for human rights and the need for economic and political change. The guerreros' appearance took Mexico, and Cardenas himself, by surprise however. The background to the EPR is still rather vague, though it is known to have links with PROCUP the Revolutionary Worker/Clandestine Union of the People Party, which comprises the Party of the Poor, a rebel group active in Guerrero during the 1960's.
On August 7th, a clandestine news conference was given by Comandante Jose Arturo at an unknown location in the Eastern Sierra. The EPR called for a provisional revolutionary government which would reverse the current free-market policies. It proposed overthrowing President Zedillo by force and reportedly distanced itself from the Zapatistas' policies of negotiation and international pressure, employing a discourse "more reminiscent of the Marxism of 1970's guerrilla movements". Jose Arturo stated that the EPR had carried out bank robberies and kidnappings in order to finance the guerrilla, and that a new front had been forged in the Eastern Sierra.
Several low-level attacks took place in Oaxaca and Guerrero states, in the Southern Sierra. Police and soldiers were killed in the towns of Huatulco and Tlaxiaco in Oaxaca, and at an attack on an army barracks in Guerrero. State officials estimated the number of guerrilleros involved in this attack as being at least 130. The police station in Tixtla, near the Guerrero state capital Chilpancingo, was shot up.
The Zedillo government's response has been one of increasing militarization. In a State of the Union address on September 1st, President Zedillo declared he would not negotiate with the EPR and launched a new campaign committing an even greater proportion of the army to counterinsurgency operations in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tabasco and Mexico City - on top of the troops already present in Chiapas. Top Mexico City police officials have been replaced with military commanders under General Enrique Salgado.
The counter-insurgency campaign is being fought with US- built military equipment and an alleged disrespect for fundamental human rights. The OCSS - Organisation of Farmers of the Southern Sierra - have reported various incidents of arrests and torture of its members, in an area which has already attracted the attention of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch after the Aguas Blancas massacre of 17 farmers last year.
Meanwhile, the Zapatistas have denied any links with the EPR. The law governing their negotiations with the government precludes them from any contact with other armed groups. The EPR's more extreme militarism and its apparent ideological differences with the Zapatistas would certainly appear to bear this out.