"Peaceful Uprising" In Mexico Coming If Rights Ignored

by Diego Cevallos

This is the moment to put an end to the marginalization and racism suffered by Mexico's 10 million Indians, said the participants in the third National Indigenous Congress, held last weekend in the central state of Michoacan.

The 24 leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) currently on their way to the capital in a convoy that has drawn international attention stopped to take part in the Indigenous Congress.

A "peaceful national uprising" will be staged if the "powers-that-be" fail to recognize the autonomy of Mexico's Indian communities and other rights, states the final document adopted at the gathering, which drew 3,383 delegates from 40 of Mexico's 62 ethnic communities, all of them sympathizers of the EZLN, a mainly Native rebel group from the southern state of Chiapas.

More than 44 percent of Mexico's Indians are illiterate, one million only speak Native tongues, and 95 percent scrape by on an average income of a dollar a day. In addition, 58 percent of Indian children are below standard on height-for-age charts, while 58.3 percent are malnourished.

The marginalization of Native communities has been fully acknowledged by the government of Vicente Fox.

The observers and guests invited to the National Indigenous Congress, including 255 foreign nationals, were more than double the number of delegates.

The observers were drawn to the gathering by the presence of the Zapatista leaders, especially the charismatic Subcomandante Marcos, who has remained in the media spotlight since the EZLN burst on the scene in 1994 and engaged in 12 days of fighting with the army before an armed truce was agreed.

The stance taken by the National Indigenous Congress is its own, and does not represent all of Mexico's Native communities, because "many of us believe the grouping is essentially a forum through which to express solidarity with the EZLN," said Julio Atenco, a spokesman for the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Sierra de Zongolica.

Although there are a number of Native organizations in Mexico, most Indians do not belong to any. The EZLN is the highest-profile of all of the groups. The rebel group's presence drew the world's attention to the plight of Mexico's impoverished native peoples, according to historian Enrique Krauze.

Although 40 percent of Mexico's Native peoples live in Chiapas, the EZLN does not represent all of the country's ethnic communities, and its struggle seems to focus on "discourse" and speeches, said Senator Francisco Fraile of Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN).

"The fight for who can steal the most 'camera' and who speaks the prettiest prevails," said Fraile, a member of the Senate Commission on Indigenous Affairs.

Fox, whose election interrupted 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), says he backs the guerrillas' demands on indigenous rights, although the EZLN accuses him of being a hypocrite.

In Congress, Fox has endorsed a bill on Native rights and culture drawn up in 1996 by a commission of lawmakers on the basis of the San Andres accords, the only agreements signed in the peace talks between the EZLN and the government of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000).

Zedillo rejected the bill, on the argument that it granted excessive rights and autonomy to Mexico's Native people.

Fox, however, said the bill merely reflects legal instruments already recognized at the international level, such as International Labor Organization (ILO) convention 169.

The EZLN wishes to contribute to the development of the country, and is demonstrating its interest in all of the country's Native peoples by supporting the bill on Native rights, said Fox.

The delegates to the National Indigenous Congress said they believed the Zapatistas but did not trust Fox, who they said wanted to sign a peace deal with the EZLN without addressing the pressing problems facing Mexico's Native peoples.

Despite the government's attempts to make contact with the EZLN with a view to reviving the stalled peace talks, which broke off in 1996, the rebels have refused to talk to official spokespersons until the law on Native rights has been passed, additional military detachments have been pulled out of Chiapas, and all EZLN sympathizers in prison have been released.

The government has already withdrawn four of the seven military detachments that the EZLN wants out of Chiapas, has helped secure the release of more than 50 Zapatista inmates, and has resubmitted the bill on Native rights to Congress. It warns, however, that approval of the bill will be up to the legislators.

But Marcos complains that the government has not yet done enough, and far from praising Fox's actions, has continued to lash out against the president, who in response has reiterated that he backs the cause of the Zapatistas.

Furthermore, Marcos, who called for democracy and for the parties to take turns in power while the PRI was in office, has not recognized Fox's triumph in last July's elections -- described by observers as the cleanest in Mexican history -- as positive in any of his speeches and interviews.

The future of the peace talks is uncertain, say analysts, because a number of objections have been raised against the bill on Native rights in Congress, while several PRI and PAN lawmakers have argued that the EZLN does not represent all of Mexico's Native groups.

Marcos speaks of democracy, "but threatens to impose the approval of a law by force and with uprisings," said PAN parliamentarian Felipe Calderon.