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<font size=3>Mexico: The False Narco-Smear Against the Zapatistas<br>
By
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/22/124158//user/uid:14">
Al Giordano</a>, <br>
Posted on Wed Jun 22nd, 2005 at 12:41:58 PM EST<br>
The rapid-fire sequence of communiqués in recent days "from
somewhere in the mountains of the Mexican southeast" by
Subcomandante Marcos in the name of the Zapatista Army for National
Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials), especially the Monday
communiqué that announced that the indigenous rebels of Chiapas had
called a "Red Alert," has placed various actors on all sides on
tenterhooks. <br><br>
My emailbox runneth over with pleas for "more information" or
to explain "what is really happening" and I realize how cynical
news consumers have become. Society is not used to newsmakers who do what
they say, and that, alone, makes the Zapatistas difficult for many to
understand. My response is: Read the communiques! They're
self-explanatory. I'll place links to English translations of the recent
Zapatista comms below the jump. <br><br>
On the other hand, governments, unlike the Zapatistas, never do what they
say and rarely say what they do. The Zapatista "Red Alert"
comes on the heels of a massive redeployment of Mexican military troops
surrounding the 38 Autonomous Municipalities and 1,111 or so villages
that openly declare themselves to be in rebellion and self-government
with the Zapatistas. <br><br>
The troop movements in Chiapas, in fact, are related to President Vicente
Fox's new
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/14/104713/876">
"Mexico Seguro"</a> ("Safe Mexico") simulation of an
anti-drug campaign... <br><br>
Perhaps government military commanders in Chiapas, fearing redeployment
to someplace truly dangerous for them like Nuevo Laredo (where a military
convoy was ambushed and shot at by local police earlier this month) are
just trying to "look busy" to justify their continued vacation
way down south in scenic Chiapas. And that's why the Army made a
(demonstrably false) claim that it found some marijuana plants last week
in Zapatista territory. In any case, whatever the motives, the behavior
of the Armed Forces in Chiapas in recent days has backfired and led to a
crisis, now, in Mexico's southernmost border state, too. <br><br>
<b>The Zapatista Communiqués Speak for Themselves</b> <br><br>
Here are links to the Zapatista communiqués of the past week, in more or
less chronological order: <br><br>
<a href="http://chiapas.mediosindependientes.org/display.php3?article_id=113778">
"The Impossible Geometry of Power in Mexico"</a> <br><br>
...this is so far available only in Spanish. Dated "in the sixth
month of 2005," it is a scathing (and poetic) indictment, by name,
of each of Mexico's three major political parties (PRI, PAN, and PRD) and
every one of their national leaders, from Vicente Fox to Roberto Madrazo
to Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Cuahtémoc Cárdenas. The communiqué
openly calls on Civil Society to pay less attention to the simulated
democracy of "power from above" as embodied in the upcoming
2006 presidential campaign, and more to the legitimate grievances of the
movements from below... <br><br>
Then, dated June 19, came the communiqué that placed everyone at the
edges of their seats. This one, translated by Irlandesa, is available in
English.. <br><br>
<a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/jun05/050622/008n1pol.php">
"General Red Alert"</a> <br><br>
...in which the Zapatistas announce the immediate closure of the Good
Government Councils and other self-governing entities in the Autonomous
Municipalities:
<ul>
<li>That the councils and other officials will now work in a
"clandestine and nomadic manner;"
<li>That the local health clinics (set up by the Zapatistas without
government money) have been distanced "from any of our future
actions, and we are demanding that they be treated as civilians and with
respect for their life, liberty and goods by government forces;"
<li>That all Zapatista forces (civilian and insurgent) are being
"called up" (the communiqué didn't specify what they are being
called up to);
<li>That Radio Insurgente and the Zapatista Information Center in San
Cristóbal de Las Casas (the rebels' main communications routes to the
rest of the country and world) are being closed for now;
<li>"That, simultaneous with the publication of this communiqué,
national and international civil societies who are working in peace camps
and in community projects are being urged to leave rebel territory. Or,
if they decide freely of their own volition, they remain on their own and
at their own risk, gathered in the caracoles. In the case of minors,
their departure is obligatory;"
<li>"That the EZLN releases from responsibility for any of our
future actions all persons and civil, political, cultural, citizens and
non-governmental organizations, solidarity committees and support groups
who have been close to us since 1994. We thank all of those who have,
sincerely and honestly, throughout these almost 12 years, supported the
civil and peaceful struggle of the zapatista indigenous for the
constitutional recognition of indigenous rights and culture."
</font>
</ul>And it ends with the traditional signature: <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Democracy!<br>
<dd>Liberty!<br>
<dd>Justice! <br><br>
<dd>From the Mountains of the Mexican Southeast.<br>
<dd>By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General
Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. <br><br>
<dd>Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos<br><br>
</i>
</dl>The following day, dated June 20, came a new communiqué, also
available in English: <br><br>
<a href="http://chiapas.mediosindependientes.org/display.php3?article_id=113833">
"The Reasons for the Red Alert"</a> <br><br>
...it briefly explains that the centers of Good Government throughout
Chiapas are closed because all Zapatistas have been called to a
consultation about the next steps to take. <br><br>
And simultaneously, the EZLN released another brief communiqué announcing
<a href="http://chiapas.mediosindependientes.org/display.php3?article_id=113840">
The Restructured Politico-Military Organization of the EZLN</a> <br><br>
Yes, there are gaps in the details provided. Combined with the removal of
Radio Insurgente and the Zapatista Information Center, it seems pretty
clear that those gaps are intentional: It's classic Marcos,
"presence through absence." The communiqués hint at a possible
bold new action to come (if, as Marcos says, the grassroots bases of the
organization endorse it). But a reader can be certain that everything
they say they are doing, they are doing. Commentators like to label the
Zapatistas with words like "enigmatic" or
"mysterious" but they're really quite straightforward. They
tell us what they want to tell us, and they wait until later to fill in
the blanks. It's part of what is now a 12-year educational process. And
if there is anything I have learned by walking close to this movement for
most of those years, it's that it is futile to speculate too much about
what comes next. When they're ready, they'll tell the world. <br><br>
However, the actions of the non-enigmatic institutional forces, the ones
that never say what they will do nor do what they will say, do beg
analysis. I'm speaking, of course, of the Mexican government, its
sponsors in Washington and on Wall Street, and the Armed Forces with
70,000 troops in Chiapas. (Think about it: there was a huge hullabaloo
when Fox sent 1,500 troops to Nuevo Laredo and the populous northern
border this month: but he keeps a force 45 times larger than that
surrounding the most impoverished peasant farmers in the country, in
Chiapas, who don't count with a fraction of the armaments that the
Tex-Mex narcos have up north.) <br><br>
According to Hermann Bellinghausen, probably the most astute reporter on
all things Zapatista,
<a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/jun05/050622/008n1pol.php">in
today's La Jornada</a>, the context of the Zapatista "Red
Alert" is provided by recent and heavy military troop movements all
around them, and demonstrably untrue claims by the Secretary of Defense
that marijuana fields were supposedly found in Zapatista territory.
<br><br>
As Bellinghausen reveals, the Defense Secretary is very confused when it
comes to the geography of Chiapas: <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>The recent Zapatista announcements were made in the context of
out-of-the-ordinary movements, unexplained to the public, by the Federal
Army, such as the repositioning of troops in Chenalhó and last weekend's
military entrance from the Rancho Nuevo base into the Lacandon jungle
with "special" convoys (a word that was affixed in front and
back of the trucks on those convoys) bringing arms and hundreds of
soldiers in large trucks and all-terrain vehicles... <br><br>
<dd>In its recent press statements about anti-drug operations, the
National Secretary of Defense (SEDENA, in its Spanish initials) listed
the names of three official municipalities as being inside rebel
indigenous territory but that, according to the Army's own data, are not
part of the "conflict zone" or under "zapatista
influence." <br><br>
<dd>In fact, the towns of Tapilula, Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán and Rayón
(the three places where marijuana plants were found) are outside of the
the wide fence tended by the Federal Army around the indigenous region of
Chiapas since 1995. There aren't even military bases there, just Judicial
and local police encampments and bases. <br><br>
<dd>Additionally, these municipalities aren't even in the highlands
region (Los Altos) as the SEDENA press releace claimed yesterday
afternoon, hours after the EZLN declared itself in Red Alert. The press
release was the first reaction by the Armed Forces to the rebel
announcement, although the military movements were carried out, according
to the official version, on June 15 and 16... <br><br>
<dd>The geographic inexactitude was so evident that the state government
of Chiapas had to, yesterday, correct the military error. No, it said,
these places are not located in Los Altos.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>What is worrisome is that there is little chance that the Secretary
of Defense made an honest mistake. Those towns are so far outside of the
major Zapatista zones of influence that there is no wiggle room for
error. The marijuana plantations were found, rather, near the border of
the state of Tabasco, at the base of the femous El Chichonal volcano that
erupted in the early 1980s covering much of the region with green dust
(and, as hemp farmers know, volcanic dust makes for fertile soil for
their particular favorite crop.) <br><br>
Bellinghausen also recounted various other times during the 12 year
history of the Zapatistas that previous adminstrations were caught
red-handed planting drugs near Zapatista communities, or using video
special effects to place the burning of some drug crops in locations
closer to Zapatista towns. (In Narco News'
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/chiapaspart1.html">ten part series on
the Drug War in Chiapas</a>, there are multiple other examples of this
kind of narco-simulation as well.) <br><br>
The Cocopa National Peace Commision (a governmental board set up to
mediate 1996 peace talks) doesn't buy the narco-smear either, according
to today's
<a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/jun05/050622/005n1pol.php">La
Jornada</a>: <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Senators and Congressmen agreed that it was urgent to officially
clarify the supposed seizure of marijuana in the conflict zone, since the
details offered by the Defense Secretary are very unclear. <br><br>
<dd>"For the COCOPA, it is definitely impossible that there is any
connection between the EZLN and narco-trafficking. We also know that the
marijuana seizure that SEDENA alluded to was not strictly inside the area
of influence of the Zapatistas."<br><br>
</i>
</dl>The Fox government seems to be speaking with forked tongue on the
matter, with different high officials contradicting each other, according
to today's
<a href="http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/pages/NotaImprimible.aspx?IdNota=113612">
El Financiero</a>: <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>Presidential press secretary Ruben Aguilar said that there is no
proof of any connection between the EZLN and narco-trafficking. But
Secretary of State Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Subcomandante Marcos to
"explain his relationship" with drug trafficking.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>The daily
<a href="http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=22543&tabla=primera">
El Universal</a> quotes Derbez - the recently disgraced and defeated
candidate for the chairmanship of the Organization of American States -
as saying: <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>"I think it is important that this man gives us an explanation
for why there is drug cultivation in the territories that he has taken
over.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Derbez is one of the high Mexican officials most controlled by
Washington. Indeed, that's why the Organization of American States
rejected him (see
<a href="http://narconews.com/Issue37/article1277.html">"Democracy
Triple Play: Mexico to Ecuador to the OAS,"</a> Narco News, May 1,
2005, for more details). <br><br>
The long confluence between repression of the indigenous in Chiapas and a
false "war on drugs" is one of those pesky matters that few
players want to talk about openly. <br><br>
But oh how the mighty have fallen if we trace Vicente Fox's
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/splinters.html">March 2001 declaration
in favor of the legalization of drugs</a> (precisely at the moment when
the Zapatisas were pulling up stakes from Mexico City and turning their
backs on the Fox government for its broken promises... and now, this
week, the Zapatistas have turned around and faced toward his government
for the first time since that moment four years ago...) to this month's
remanifestation of Fox as boneheaded gringo-style drug warrior from Texas
to Tapachula, it's clear that the US-imposed drug war has something to do
- we don't yet know to what extent - with the "Red Alert" in
Chiapas. <br><br>
Be on guard, kind readers: The drug war pretext is the flavor of the
month in the halls of Mexican power. The Fox administration, entering its
final year, unable to solve any of the problems he said he would resolve
"in fifteen minutes," is increasingly pulling out the
narco-brush to distract from all other grievances of a public that has
had enough. <br><br>
And what does a failed government do when the illusion of control is
crumbling all around it? In the 21st century, it plays the narco card.
<br><br>
Just yesterday, for example, Fox's press secretary Ruben Aguilar made a
bizarre and unnecessary smear upon members of Civil Society in the
northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, who have protested against the
militarization of their city through the "Mexico Seguro"
operation. Aguilar
<a href="http://www.elsiglodedurango.com.mx/secca/nID/13045/">claimed</a>
: <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>"There are indications that some citizens who have demonstrated
against the operation, particularly in Tamaulipas, in Nuevo Laredo, have
been backed, including paid and financed, by organized criminal
gangs."<br><br>
</i>
</dl>It's a potentially dangerous time when officials are so desperate to
silence speech that they paint it as criminal. That's why Mexico's
secretaries of Defense and State are running around like clowns trying to
narcotize the Zapatistas, who, as we've reported here many times, are one
of the only political forces in Mexico who, it can be definitively
confirmed, are not mixed up with the narco. The Zapatistas strictly
prohibit all use, cultivation or trafficking of all drugs, including
alcohol, in their communities. <br><br>
The drug-free Zapatistas, though, stand at stark contrast with the
government, which, now finds itself in another blossoming narco-scandal
along the Caribbean coast, where
<a href="http://narconews.com/Issue38/article1354.html">Mexican
narco-traffickers worked hand in hand with the Fox and Bush
administrations this spring</a> to give international terrorist Luis
Posada Carriles safe passage up to Gringolandia. <br><br>
Pot, Kettle, Narco. The accusers are the narcos here. And their
"Mexico Seguro" simulation has now backfired on both borders,
North and South, of the United States of Mexico.<br><br>
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