Mexican Government, 8 Political Parties Sign Reform Pact

The Mexican government and eight political parties signed an agreement Thursday calling for sweeping and unprecedented electoral reforms in an attempt to end a peasant uprising in the southern state of Chiapas.

The agreement took a giant step toward meeting one of the central demands of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, which launched a New Year’s Day insurgency calling for indigenous rights and political empowerment through clean and just elections.

It also held out the prospect of loosening the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party’s grip on Mexican politics. The party has dominated the government for 64 years, often through the use of electoral fraud. The agreement calls for, among other things, independent electoral authorities, an end to the use of government funds by any political party and a prosecutor to pursue those accused of electoral fraud. It also calls for fair treatment of all parties in the Mexican media, which traditionally have given most of their coverage to ruling-party candidates.

Interior Minister Jorge Carpizo MacGregor, announcing the agreement, said special sessions of the Mexican Congress will be called if necessary to change laws to codify the reforms.