Zedillo Should Go to Chiapas

For four years the Indian citizens of Mexico’s Chiapas state lived amid uncertainty and anxiety. Their brief January 1994 rebellion against distant rule from Mexico City and steady oppression by land barons had ended in political failure and broken promises. Then, last week, the cloud that hung above them thundered into violence again. The slaughter of dozens of Indians at a church sent fears surging to new heights and triggered an exodus in which 6,000 Tzotzil Indians are reported to have left their impoverished villages to seek refuge in the forest.

Only the presence of President Ernesto Zedillo in the region can still their flight. Zedillo should go to Chiapas to offer his condolences to relatives of the massacre victims and to establish himself as a personal guarantor of the safety of the people there. A presidential visit, and orders, would underline Zedillo’s demand for a no-holds-barred investigation to find not only those who pulled the triggers but those who issued the orders.

As it stands today, there is little legitimate power in Chiapas. There is no central rule but there are many strongmen and mini-armies throughout the state. This is clearly anarchy. Zedillo should reaffirm the power of the national government to revive the now-abandoned peace agreements that were signed after the 1994 rebellion. To implement them, Zedillo, his aides and the citizens of Chiapas could examine the model of countries like Spain, where leaders committed to peace and democracy found a workable approach by recognizing the cultural values of distinct regions.

Zedillo should require that the federal army be absolutely neutral in ensuring fair implementation of the peace agreements. Once the army establishes itself as the protector of peace and the rebel Zapatista army is dissolved, military weapons would be turned over to legal authorities. Law and order is the final step in bringing this distant but important border state fully back to Mexican law and acceptance. Only then should the army return to its barracks.

This is a chance for Zedillo to expose the opportunism of those politicians seeking to use this tragedy to advance their own agendas. He must not refuse the responsibility.