"The government says it wants peace," said a Zapatista militiaman who stood guard at the entrance of Tierra y Libertad, a rebel-controlled town. Just three miles away stood a new Mexican army post in Amparo Agua Tinta. "If they want peace, why are they doing this?"
On December 17 in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Indian peasants in brown rebel fatigues felled trees to block highways and barricaded towns and villages. The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) threatened to renew an insurgency after the recent national elections failed to bring change to the impoverished inhabitants of one of Mexico's poorest states.
More than 600 Indian peasants took part in the peaceful highway blockades. "In this free and rebel territory, we prohibit the entrance of military personnel, of public security, judicial police... or any person from the government," declared one banner across a road leading from San Cristobal de las Casas. Three huge banners on the highway to the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, proclaimed: "Welcome to Zapatista territory."
December 19, Sub-Commander Marcos of the EZLN announced that the rebel movement had extended its control to include 38 of the 110 municipalities in Chiapas, the centre of Zapatista activity. The EZLN said that between December 11 and 14, thousands of rebel soldiers from the EZLN's Infantry Divisions 75 and 25, First Entity of the Southeast Army, broke through the Mexican National Army (ENM) encirclement. The movements of the EZLN militias were completed without being detected and without firing a shot. From December 15 to 18, according to the EZLN, the units took up positions in municipalities in northern Chiapas, the highlands and areas bordering Guatemala. "The entire rural zone of the state is Zapatista," Marcos told reporters. "What remains for the government is the cities, the municipal presidencies (not all of them) and the highways. But the Zapatistas control the main roads the paths and the sierras."
The Mexican government at first denied that the rebels had taken more territory. The New York Times repeated the government's position. But witnesses say that one hundred armed and masked Zapatistas took control of the town of Simojovel on December 19, destroying municipal records and distributing a Zapatista communique, while unarmed demonstrators about 500, according to the authorities used stones and tree trunks to block five highways around San Cristobal, Ocosingo, and Tuxtla Gutierrez. Hundreds of ENM troops and judiciales (officers of the state judicial police) arrived at Simojovel on the night of December 20 with a column of 30 armoured vehicles, including small tanks mounted with heavy machine guns. The guerrillas had disappeared. Simojovel's white and mestizo residents cheered the troops, but 90% of the municipality is indigenous, according to the local parish priest, Joel Padron, who warns that the rebels will be back.
As the British Financial Times [12/22/94] notes, since their first offensive in January 1994, the Zapatistas "have been joined by a plethora of other groups inspired by or reacting against the uprising... [P]olitical institutions in the state are barely functioning." On the right, ranchers have been building up paramilitary groups; some members are reportedly "veterans of nearby Central American wars." On the EZLN's side, there are at least three other armed campesino groups, and journalist Amado Avendano Figueroa has set up a "parallel government" which he says is supported by between 34 and 58 municipalities. Avendano's government is officially recognized by the EZLN and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas' Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Simojovel is the centre of one of five "autonomous regions" proclaimed by the Council of Indigenous and Campesino Organizations (CEOIC) on October 12. Residents say that until the December 20 military operation, not a single police officer had been in the town for months. In Jaltenango de la Paz, a municipality of some 22,000, the Francisco Villa Campesino Popular Union (UCPFV) reportedly controls 90% of the territory, including five estates and three access roads. Land seizures and other conflicts continue in Huixtan, Palenque and many other Chiapaneco communities. For the rest of December, the Zapatistas issued no statements, but dug huge ditches and chopped down trees to block roads and airstrips in their territory in the Lacondon jungle. "Of some 50 runways in the area, the Zapatistas have blocked 45 of them with trenches," army Capt. Luis Gomez told the Mexico City newspaper Reforma.
The Mexican military has responded by setting up roadblocks and encampments around Zapatista-held territory and has stationed between 40,000 and 60,000 troops throughout Chiapas. Along with this enormous contingent of soldiers, the Mexican military has transported large numbers of tanks and light armoured vehicles in its latest attempt to encircle the rebels.
But many are worried that the build up of the Mexican military will only lead to human-rights abuses. "We are gravely concerned about the situation in Chiapas and are calling on the Mexican authorities and the EZLN to ensure the full respect of the human rights of the population," Amnesty International said. In October, Amnesty International wrote a memorandum to Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, the presidential candidate for the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), who took office in December, expressing its concerns about the human rights situation in Mexico, and Chiapas in particular. The memorandum includes more than 70 recommendations, particularly an urgent call for an end to the impunity benefiting the perpetrators of abuses in Chiapas and other regions of Mexico.
According to Marcos the EZLN wishes to continue peace talks but rejects a proposal from Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon for a mediation commission composed of all four parties represented in the federal Congress. "The government can't be a party to the confrontation and also the mediator," Marcos said. The EZLN backs efforts by the National Mediation Commission (CONAI), headed by Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal de las Casas, and also demands "recognition of the social forces which are organized behind Cuauhtemoc Cardenas [the centre-left opposition presidential candidate in national elections last August] and the Democratic National Convention [CND] as the peaceful, civic and honest opposition." On December 19 Bishop Ruiz began a hunger strike to encourage a peaceful solution and to protest "the involuntary hunger" of the people of Chiapas.
A "shadow government" set up by the losing opposition candidate in Chiapas' gubernatorial election issued a statement denouncing the build-up. The "Transitional Government in Rebellion" of opposition leader Amado Avendano Figueroa has won the support of rebel villages. "These are acts that generate intimidation and social terror among the Chiapan people and in no way reflect the supposed 'goodwill' of the federal government to initiate a dialogue for peace," the statement said. The renewal of hostilities between the Mexican government and the EZLN emerged from the December 8 inauguration of Chiapas Governor Eduardo Robledo Rincon, candidate of the PRI. The Zapatistas charge that Robledo Rincon won by fraud and said they considered the cease-fire broken with his inauguration.
Amado Avendano Figueroa, the opposition candidate for governor, who says Robledo robbed him of victory, set up a "Transition Government in Rebellion" earlier this month in San Cristobal de las Casas. Several towns in Chiapas subsequently declared their autonomy from Robledo Rincon's government and pledged allegiance to Avendano. Avendano is not affiliated with the rebels, but he has championed land and other reforms for poor Indians. The Zapatistas have called on the Mexican government to recognize Avendano's government as the legitimate authority in Chiapas.
The EZLN has also expanded its demands to include a "satisfactory solution" to the conflicts over the November local elections in the nearby states of Veracruz and Tabasco. As of December 17 several hundred campesinos were blocking access to installations belonging to Pemex, the national petroleum company, in Tabasco. The protesters demanded recognition of PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who they say was fraudulently deprived of victory in the November 20 gubernatorial race. Federal police arrested 60 protesters on December 16. "Let's see who gets tired first," the PRD's Octavio Romero Oropeza told the federal Chamber of Deputies the next day, "whether the government gets tired of imprisoning the people or the people of demonstrating."
Bishop Samuel Ruiz ended his 15-day hunger strike on January 4 after acknowledging that both sides made clear steps toward a new round of peace talks when the Mexican government finally submitted to the EZLN demands that Ruiz mediate peace efforts between the government and Zapatistas. Bishop Samuel Ruiz said the danger of renewed war in Chiapas had been eased by a temporary truce issued by the EZLN between January 1 and 6, the reversal of recent aggressive troop movements by the government and concessions over formal peace negotiations. "The dynamic of war is already moving away. Not completely, but it is in retreat," Ruiz said.
After sinking steadily the week before, Mexico's stock market, the Bolsa de Valores, began what the Wall Street Journal [12/22/94] called "market meltdown" on news of the new guerrilla offensive in Chiapas on December 19. The economy's problems intensified on December 20 when in a surprise move Finance Secretary Jaime Serra Puche announced the first major devaluation of the peso since 1987. Citing the tensions in Chiapas, Serra, one of the architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), said that the government would allow the currency to sink by as much as 15% against the dollar, from 3.47 pesos to the dollar down to 4.0016. The stock market has declined 32% (measured in dollars) since NAFTA took effect at the beginning of the year.
Still worse news came on December 22, when the government announced that it would no longer prop the peso up. Trading freely against the dollar, Mexico's currency plummeted another 20% that day, ending at 4.80 to the dollar. As Serra flew to New York to meet with officials of the US Federal Reserve, hard currency reserves in Mexico's central bank were reported to have sunk to $8 billion from about $24 billion at the beginning of the year. The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury announced that Mexico could use up to $6 billion in US funds to help support the peso; Canada authorised the use of up to $1 billion (Canadian). The Peso has now fallen 40 percent of its value just two weeks before.
Although Serra tried to blame the devaluation on the EZLN offensive, independent analysts had warned throughout the fall that a serious trade deficit and very low hard currency reserves were creating pressure for a major devaluation.
The political fallout from the peso crisis has also made the government's military threat against the Zapatistas less credible. Despite briefly moving tens of thousand troops into Chiapas in late December, Zedillo seems to be trying to avoid a military confrontation at this time, which would probably further destabilize the unstable Mexican financial markets and cut into his already reduced popular support.
In the midst of the new Zapatista movements and the peso crisis, the EZLN celebrated its one year anniversary of their rebellion. As the clock struck 12 on Saturday night, January 1, in the Zapatistas' jungle stronghold the EZLN held a dance in celebration of their uprising. Guerrilla fighters danced to a ski-masked cumbia band, and their supporters ate dried tortillas and rice. During the festivities, Zapatista leader Commander Tacho promised to work toward negotiations with the government of President Ernesto Zedillo. He said Bishop Samuel Ruiz's 14-day fast for peace was instrumental in pushing the Zapatistas toward the negotiating table.
The Zapatista movement has endured for a year against enormous odds. In a face to face confrontation with the Mexican Army, the Zapatistas are sure to lose. With popular support from the villages of Chiapas and the erosion of popularity of the ruling party of Mexico, the EZLN has survived, even spawning new opposition movements against the corrupt PRI government. The next year will prove to be critical in Mexican history either leading down the path of authoritarianism and oppression or the path of increasing autonomy, decentralization and democratization.
Portions of this article originated from the Weekly News Update on the Americas, produced by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. They can be reached at 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012; by phone at: (212) 674-9499; or by email, <nicanet@blythe.org>. Updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is $25 by first class mail.