Nestled in Sierra Madre del Sur, below the Trans-Volcanic
Cordillera ranging through the southern state of Chiapas Mexico,
is the colonial town San Cristobal de las Casas. It's existence
is a tribute to the quiet struggle of this hamlet since 1528.
It holds the dubious historical distinction of being the most
likely city to be captured by invading forces from the south.
It is surrounded by spectacular and diverse landscape. Mountains
tower over the Lancandona rain forest. The town's unique culture
is preserved, in part, by it's remoteness. Much of its sixteenth
and seventeenth century architecture escaped ruin. Mayan Indian
women weave brilliant clothing with designs singular to their
sect. The Catholic Church makes its ostentatious presence known
with a large, ornate building on the square of the town. An
air conditioned opera house built by the Mexican government
to appease criticism of its wretched treatment of its poorest
people gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "let them eat
cake".
In January1994 Indians of Chiapas calling themselves Zapatistas,
after the legendary people's revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata,
carried out a daring revolt, protesting the heavy handed treatment
by the government and its patrons. They captured San Cristobal
de las Casas in addition to several other communities in the
region. Although to a casual observer this town would appear
quite peaceful, it was the site of a bloody struggle and only
a few miles away from the on-going, tense stand-off after a
tentative cease-fire was negotiated. Years after the two weeks
of death subtle evidence remained. The scars of fire-damage
still adorned the white building on the square from which sub-commandente
Marcos announced the takeover and the beginning of the Zapatista
revolution.
After the January revolt the Mexican government offered peace
negotiations, but its act proved to be a hollow gesture. In
accordance with an agreement in 1996, a proposed bill of Indian
rights, known as the San Andres Accord , was tendered to then-president
Zedillo by the Zapatistas but never put to a legislative vote.
The first ray of hope for a political remedy occurred when
the PRI, the prevailing political party for over seventy years,
lost the presidency to Vicente Fox of the PAN party. Although
conservative, Fox took the position that a peace must be negotiated.
The leader and spokesman for the Indians is a mysterious and
secretive man simply called Marcos. Three demands were made
by Marcos as a condition of restarting the peace negotiations:
troop withdrawal from seven key areas; release of Zapatista
prisoners; and passage into law the San Andres Accord. Fox submitted
the rights bill to Congress on December 1st, his first day in
office, and soon started troop withdrawal.
In response to these actions a delegation of twenty-four commadantes
left the protection of their jungle stronghold on February 24th
to journey to Mexico City. The last time such a human-rights
march was made to Mexico City was in 1914, lead by the man whose
name they adopted, Zapata. In a dramatic candlelight ceremony
in front of the ornate columns of the Catholic Church in San
Cristobal, Marcos turned his AK 15 automatic rifle over to fellow
Zapatista, Major Moises. The twenty-four delegates traveled
unarmed, by bus twenty-one hundred miles to Mexico City for
their March 12th meeting with the Mexican government.
The overwhelming entrance of these commandantes was epic in
proportion. An eclectic crowd of Indians, farmers, businessmen,
students, factory workers, scholars, politicians, police and
many others crowded into the square in the City known as Zocalo
Plaza; ironically, built on the ruins of the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan which fell to Cortez in 1521. The last speech was
by Marcos. He spoke elegantly, poetically, provocatively to
a gathering estimated to be two hundred and fifty thousand by
supporters and half that size by others. The colonial facade
of the National Palace presented its unspoken presence as a
backdrop for the speakers.
The movement took on a broader scope than only rights of the
ten million indigenous Indians, reaching out to all people.
One banner read "We are all Zapatistas", another "No estan solos".
Marcos, to the delight of the crowd, proclaimed, "What they
fear is that there is no more 'you' and 'us' because we are
all the color of the earth"
In the following days the Zapatistas met considerable resistance
from the legislators. They could not get the audience they wanted
to argue for the passage of the San Andres Accords. Fox offered
to meet with Marcos, " . . . it's time we meet face to face
. . . ", but the offer was surprisingly declined. Marcos felt
the offer was merely an attempt to upstage their efforts. Instead
Marcos announced that he intended to return to his jungle stronghold
if demands of an appropriate audience with Congress were not
met. During this time Fox demonstrated his willingness to work
out a peace pact not only with his words, but also his actions.
All seven military bases were closed or being closed and Zapatista
prisoners were released. In a last minute effort the Congress,
after much heated debate, approved a meeting of a joint session
for Wednesday, March 28th to hear the arguments of the Zapatistasas.
The vote was 220 to 210. Officials in Mexico City and thirty-one
states were invited to attend the special session.
This capitulation by Congress caused a dramatic conversion
of life-and-death tension to tranquility among many leaders
of the movement.. Even though the passage of the Indian rights
bill is still problematic, Marcos has shown a personal side
that he has kept to himself, hidden behind revolutionary rhetoric
and a ski mask. Military intelligence has long felt that Marcos
is Rafael Guillen, a former professor. In a recent interview
Marcos admitted that he was the son of a middle class family.
He also revealed what was always suspected. He is the leader
of the military arm of the Zapatistas and not the subcommandante
he called himself. His most insightful disclosure concerned
his feelings about his role as a military commander. He declared
that further armed conflict would be a "failure". The man always
seen with an automatic rifle crooked in his arm, a pistol in
his belt, and bandoleers crossing his chest, said that traveling
across Mexico unarmed was not a burden but a "relief".
The hearing in front of Congress was mixed with new hope and
disappointment. Fox's own party boycott the meeting, turning
the audience of one hundred of the six hundred and twenty-eight
Congressmen and Senators into members of a committee instead
of the intended joint session. Comandante Esther, a self-proclaimed
poor Indian woman, spoke in behalf of the Zapatistas. Her selection
is testament to the revolution-within-the-revolution. In recent
history a woman could be bought as a wife for a cow or pig.
Now fully half of the Central Counsel are women. Marcos' noticeable
absence was explained by the spokeswoman: "Our warriors have
done their job." For the first time President Fox was praised
by the Zapatistas: "His orders have been a sign of peace." The
controversial issues before the legislature address Indian self-governing,
promotion of Indian languages, promotion of Indian customs,
independent judicial system, and greater land rights. Since
the dramatic confrontation of Zapatista leaders with the lawmakers
in the capitol, the path to resolution appears to be mired once
again in ideological debate, politics and legal confusion. Led
by Fox's own party the original San Andres accords have been
watered down considerably. The Zapatista rebels call the final
version "an insult". To become law, the Congressional version
of the Indian Rights Bill must be ratified by the states as
a constitutional amendment. The ironic twist to this political
intrigue is that the Zapatistas themselves are campaigning against
passage of the rights bill.
The question still remains whether anything accomplished in
Mexico City will have any real effect on those who can't read
the treaty or the press releases. The mother with her child
sick with a preventable disease or, the farmer forced to provide
for his family working barren land take little interest in rhetoric
or party platforms. Their's is a simple quest for survival with
dignity.
