Shake-Up by Zedillo Seen as Redress to Chiapas

In a major step to resolve the ongoing conflict in the southern state of Chiapas, President Ernesto Zedillo on Saturday replaced his interior minister--considered his top political operator--and ordered a new peace strategy for the impoverished region.

Despite the president’s moves, which follow international outrage over the Christmas week massacre of 45 peasants, a wave of fear swept Chiapas on Saturday after a report that the army had occupied strongholds of the Zapatista rebels, including La Realidad, the jungle headquarters of the charismatic rebel leader, Subcommander Marcos.

The military denied seizing any rebel centers, and Zapatista supporters acknowledged that there had been no violence. Peace negotiators were still trying to confirm the reports late Saturday.

The Zapatistas, made up mainly of Indian farmers seeking greater rights, launched an uprising in Chiapas in January 1994. At least 145 people were killed before the rebels and Mexican military reached a cease-fire and peace talks began.

But as the negotiations sputtered and then stalled, sporadic clashes broke out between Zapatista supporters and pro-government gangs, leaving at least 150 people dead in the past three years. A gang linked to Zedillo’s political party is suspected of carrying out the Dec. 22 massacre of 45 peasants, mostly women and children, in the town of Acteal.

For the first time since the peace talks broke down in September 1996, Zedillo took a major step Saturday toward reviving the dialogue by replacing unpopular Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet Chemor with Francisco Labastida Ochoa, the agriculture minister and a veteran politician.

In Mexico, the interior minister is one of the most powerful people in government, overseeing domestic security and representing the president on political matters.

Chuayffet has been widely criticized for not stopping the attacks by armed gangs in Chiapas that led up to the recent massacre.

Human rights groups accuse Chiapas officials of tacitly allowing violence by groups supporting the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The Zapatistas had traded angry communiques with Chuayffet in recent weeks, and they made it clear that they did not trust him.

“I have instructed Minister Labastida, after he does the necessary consultations, to propose a new strategy for Chiapas,” Zedillo declared in a brief nationwide address.

He insisted that the government has an “inalterable commitment” to bring peace to the state.

Zedillo said Chuayffet resigned for personal reasons. But a presidential spokesman confirmed that the Cabinet change was, in part, an olive branch offered to the rebels.

“The Zapatistas have argued they need a change in the Interior Ministry for them to continue advancing [in peace talks]. Now this excuse doesn’t exist,” spokesman Antonio Ocaranza said. “Therefore, we hope that this process of dialogue starts up again.”

There was no immediate response from the Zapatistas to the appointment.

It was also not clear whether opposition politicians will be much happier with Labastida than they were with Chuayffet.

The conservative National Action Party blasted his appointment, charging in a communique that Labastida has resorted to election fraud in the past to help the PRI.

Meanwhile, in recent days the Zapatistas have expressed mounting concern as troops have been pouring into Chiapas. The government says it has ordered soldiers to search for arms because the attackers in the Dec. 22 massacre used AK-47 automatic rifles and other weapons legally restricted to the army.

Rebel leader Marcos has accused the army of planning a clash with the Zapatistas. La Realidad is several hours’ drive from the areas where armed pro-PRI gangs have been skirmishing with Zapatista supporters, raising questions about why the army would be extending its search to the rebel area.

The military has not pursued the Zapatistas into their scattered strongholds since February 1995, when soldiers briefly tried to arrest Marcos.

The Zapatista Front, the rebels’ civilian arm, distributed a communique from its Mexico City office saying the soldiers had occupied the open-air meeting hall in La Realidad, the remote headquarters of Marcos, on Saturday.

“There was no fighting. But there is great tension,” said the communique, which gave no further details.

However, Associated Press reported from La Realidad that troops in jeeps had stationed themselves around the rebel stronghold but didn’t occupy it. The military presence was the strongest in the area since the Zapatista uprising, prompting villagers to fear an attack, the agency reported.

Army leadership in the region denied any hostile occupation. In a brief communique, it “denies categorically that there has been any occupation [of towns] or that any leader . . . of the Zapatista army has been detained.”

Zapatista supporters in the capital demonstrated Saturday to protest the army’s patrols in Chiapas.

Labastida vowed to meet with the different political forces to seek a solution to the Chiapas violence.

In naming Labastida, the president said the new minister will also focus on Mexico’s soaring crime and on completing Mexico’s democratic transition.

Labastida, 55, was previously energy minister and also governor of the northern state of Sinaloa. His replacement was not announced.