ANNOUNCEMENT - TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO:
In response to Bishop Samuel Ruiz' document, "Towards a new stage in the peace process," and the communique, "For peace: a greater participation by society," issued by the CONAI, released on June 7, 1998, in which they state that one stage in the peace process has concluded, and for which reason they believe that the CONAI has completed their work in the mediation of the conflict being experienced in Chiapas and Mexico, the Monitoring Commission of the National Indigenous Congress sets forth for the consideration of the indigenous people, communities and organizations that they make up, and to national society in general, the following points:
1.The virtual disappearance of Mediation between the EZLN and the federal government is the direct result of the government's strategy. In their speech, the federal and state governments say "that a dignified and just peace is their objective," but in their deeds they have attacked and undermined all the initiatives and civil organizations for dialogue; they have permitted and encouraged paramilitary bands; and they have violated the Federal Constitution and the Law for Dialogue and Conciliation, with the advance of tens of thousands of soldiers, tanks of war, federal Army planes and helicopters, into the indigenous communities, provoking confrontations with the people and with the EZLN. The federal government has sought to eliminate civil mediation, as well as national and international observation, without anticipating its grave consequences. Given current conditions, no one can fill the vacuum left by the CONAI: no national personality or institution has by itself the moral authority, nor the influence in local circles, which the CONAI possessed. Not even the COCOPA can count on autonomy, nor sufficient confidence by the parties, to achieve effective mediation; on the contrary, they are subordinated to the strong tensions of partisan and governmental interests, which look to the this year's electoral process in Chiapas, to the end of the six-year federal term, to approval of the fiscal reform package, to internal competition for political hegemony, etc.
\The recent occurrences of assassinations, massacres in the making such as Acteal, the dismantling of Autonomous Municipalities, the attacks against opposition municipal authorities, the constant provocation and the imminent clash with EZLN members, prove that the federal government is incapable by itself of moving towards a peaceful solution to the conflict. For that reason it is essential to analyze, with the utmost seriousness, the alternative of demanding that the CONAI reintroduce, and with greater force and respect for the parties in conflict, the essential role that it has been carrying out, or, failing that, of convening the United Nations to play a role in international mediation, which, accompanied by broad civil participation, would avoid our falling into the most terrible catastrophe of a spiral towards general civil war.
2. The climate of the dialogue process is ever more adverse for a political, peaceful, just and dignified solution. For four years now, thousands, and even millions, of indigenous and mestizo Mexicans have been living in a situation of war. The government's failure to carry out the San Andres Accords, and their mad interest in striking at the zapatista social base, have generated a spiral of institutional violence, which, if it cannot be contained, and a dialogue be re-established with a mediation like that the CONAI offered, it will be more difficult now to establish direct dialogue, when there is no guarantee of seriousness or compromise on the part of the government, neither with negotiations, nor with the completion of the agreed Accords, nor can one perceive any assurance of the physical integrity of the EZLN and their support bases.
It is evident that the negotiation model was systematically neutralized and abandoned. The federal legal framework of the Law of Concordance and Peace, of March 11, 1995, is still in force, which recognizes the EZLN as a nonconforming group of Mexicans with just demands. It is necessary to correct and to adjust the current situation within the legal framework, in such a way that will permit the real achievement of a peaceful, just and dignified solution to this conflict, which is out of control and threatens to become an abyss with no escape. It is imperative that the people of Mexico analyze and decide to order the Legislative Power, represented by the Congress of the Union, to grant by law the status of Belligerent Force to the EZLN, in order to apply, without restrictions or pseudo-nationalistic excuses, international law in the interest of protecting the lives of the civil population, and of establishing just rules for negotiating definitive and rigorously obligatory peace accords.
3. The disappearance of the CONAI can only be useful insofar as it strengthens a greater civil participation in the conflicts. Only if this event is converted into a seed which rapidly germinates into the creation of a social body which is broader, more active and more participatory, will there be any hope of stopping the strategy of war and death. Only a general mobilization will force the federal government, the Congress of the Union and the international community to take the path to a true solution of the conflict. The government is making a multimillion dollar deal with the people of Mexico, selling our present and trying to mortgage our future, and within this transaction would appear to exist the life, the justice, the democracy and the liberty which the zapatistas claim for all Mexicans. The climate of war surrounds our daily life in many states of the Republic, and threatens to become one more link in the chain with which we seem to be entering the 21st century, if we do not manage to reverse this tendency.
4. The National Indigenous Congress calls upon all indigenous people, communities and organizations, and to all civil society of our great nation, to close ranks and push the struggle for resistance against the bad government, despite the great detractors, the disgraceful control of the communications' media, the complicity of the consumer businesses, and the minds influenced by the circus of football. The sacrifice of more than 500 years of indigenous blood spilled because of oppression and outrage is at stake in Chiapas, and in all the indigenous regions in the country. Mexico's future, with more than 50 to 100 years of an unjust, stratospheric and unpayable debt, eternally multiplied, is also at stake today. All of us united should stop this strategy of hunger, injustice and death generated by the current system of privilege which prevails in Mexico, against their own people. To create a broad social space, which stresses dialogue and peace, and also to create organized mechanisms and processes which will guarantee the real carrying out of the agreed accords, is our common task, which we cannot postpone.
Proposals for joint action:
1. Mobilization
a. Promote local mobilizations which will culminate in a large national mobilization for a just and dignified peace, and against the war, deception and the forgetting, as well as the strengthening of the caravan initiatives and the formation of civil peace bands in the conflict zone.
b. Come together in a large national assembly for peace, justice and dignity, with representatives from all sectors, whose resolutions will obligate the federal government and the EZLN to assume minimal compromises for the guarantee of a peaceful solution to the conflict through dialogue and the carrying out of the agreed accords.
c. Organize national and international campaigns of signatures, letters, informative camps, rallies and announcements for peace, justice and dignity in Mexico.
d. National bell-ringing, to take place in all public squares in the country, calling to the people of Mexico, at a set day and hour, making the bells ring in order to call ourselves together to participate resolutely in the building of a just and dignified peace, founded in a recognition of the rights of diversity, and respect for the rights of the people and communities who make up our nation.
2. Political action
a. Create new mechanisms for meetings and joint action among social sectors, making creative use of available spaces, and the creation of new spaces for meeting, reflection, accord and joint action.
b. Elaboration of a joint strategy of denunciation in front of national institutions and international bodies for violations of human rights, attacks on indigenous municipalities and communities, the noncompliance with agreements and international treaties and the growing rupture in the conditions for dialogue and peaceful transition to democracy.
c. Calls for the participation of Mexicans residing in other countries and for international solidarity.
3. Actions for the strengthening of organization
a. Promote strategies for communication and joint actions, through the exchange of experiences in the achieving of conflict resolution.
b. Define the channels and modalities for participation by organizations and persons within groups interested in the promotion of peace with justice and dignity, and the establishment of authentic intercultural dialogue among indigenous peoples, national society, government and the EZLN.
c. The holding of regional encuentros and meetings for the analysis and elaboration of announcements.
d. Formation of brigades, sharing of strategy, experiences and resources, in order to make rapid inroads in communities, towns, neighborhoods and suburbs, in the country and in the cities, with social and labor organizations, schools and academic spaces, public and private squares, in order to find the consensuses which will guarantee an enormous national mobilization.
The Commission for Monitoring of the National Indigenous Congress declares itself in permanent emergency session and will meet to analyze and take agreements every Monday at 10 AM at Tabasco 262, Colonia Roma, Mexico D.F. Telephone: 525-2545
Never again a Mexico without us!
Commission of Monitoring, of the National Indigenous Congress
************************************** For more information, please send to: Ce-Acatl, A.C. Ingenio de Zacatepec 134. Col. Rinconada Coapa, Mexico 14330 D.F. Telephone and fax: (5) 594-7516 email: ceacatl@laneta.apc.org ___________________________________________________ ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY: ceacatl@laneta.apc.org, for the NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS IN MEXICO ************************************************************** TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY irlandesa FOR NUEVO AMANECER PRESS NUEVO AMANECER PRESS- N.A.P.To know about us visit: http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm General Director: Roger Maldonado Director Europe: Darrin Wood Coordinator: USA-Mexico-Europe: Susana Saravia (Anibarro) Advisory and support team: Mexico *When reproducing NAP's translations; please give credit* *NAP's team works on a volunteer basis and does not receive any funding from any source*