Under Fox, New Hope for Chiapas

While campaigning for the Mexican presidency, Vicente Fox boasted that it would take him all of 15 minutes to solve his nation’s messy political problem in the state of Chiapas. Obviously, it will take considerably longer to end the guerrilla conflict, but it is impressive and encouraging that real progress has been made in the first days of Fox’s presidency.

In his inaugural speech last week, Fox was more measured and realistic in calling for renewed dialogue to end the 6-year-old insurgency in southern Mexico. To their credit, it took the Zapatista rebels only one day to respond to his overture.

The Zapatista leader known as Subcommander Marcos laid down conditions the government would have to meet before the rebels returned to the negotiating table, including the implementation of accords agreed on with the previous government, freedom for some 100 jailed Zapatistas and withdrawal of troops stationed near rebel-controlled territory. The very next day, under orders from Fox, army troops began to withdraw from bases in Chiapas. And on Tuesday the new government sent Congress a long-stalled initiative for peace.

The Zapatistas took up arms for indigenous tribes’ rights in Chiapas on New Year’s Day, 1994, in an uprising that would leave about 200 people dead. Since then, violence has simmered.

Mexico’s Congress, where no party holds a majority, will have to seriously consider Fox’s peace initiative. It is based on the so-called San Andres accords, agreements between the Zapatistas and government representatives reached in 1996. Initially, the accords were rejected by Fox’s predecessor, Ernesto Zedillo, which led the Zapatistas to reject subsequent government overtures to renew peace talks. So it is an achievement for Fox that the rebels say they are now willing to talk.

Reaching a new agreement still won’t be easy because some of the Zapatista demands are problematic. For instance, the rebels want to turn the indigenous “uses and customs” of Chiapas into law. But what of those customs that treat women as inferior to men? That is in conflict with the Mexican constitution, not to mention the modern world.

Subcommander Marcos has said he and some Zapatista leaders may travel to Mexico City soon to personally present their case in Congress, a welcome gesture. Most Mexicans want the guerrilla war to end, and that is important. If a peace accord is to be effective it must have the support of all the people.