The Political Situation In México - Part I:
Editor's Note - This is the first of a two part series in a political analysis on the political situation currently taking root in the southern half of our nation. The objectives of this article are 1) to provide our movement north of the militarily imposed border a revolutionary perspective on the realities of the masses of Mexicano people and urgency to struggle for a new society; 2) give clarity on the different tendencies that have developed within the Mexicano political landscape; and 3) to ideologically arm our movement with the need to struggle within the belly of the beast (occupied México/Aztlán) and build a movement that will move our people closer to peace, justice and democracy.
VENDE PATRIA PRI\PAN GOVERNMENT ESCALATES ITS WAR AGAINST LAS MASAS MEXICANAS: RESISTANCE INTENSIFIES
During the last several months the deepening crisis in the southern half of our nation has developed itself through the heightened repression and resistance shown throughout the the south eastern most part of México. It is clear that while history is definitely on the side of our gente, U.S. imperialism and its PRI/PAN puppets are not going down with out a fight as they wage both a physical and ideological war of aggression against el pueblo Mexicano. This can be seen not only in the brutal physical aggression in the form of the massacres such as Acteal in December of 1997, but other heinous acts that are part of the counterinsurgency which include, but is not limited to: the disappearance of political activists, torture, incarceration and the overall psychological implications that come from a militarized zone.
The PRI/PAN government has pulled out all stops to fend off and defeat the aspirations of the Mexicano working class and poor peasants who strive and struggle for a just and democratic México. The concessions we have witnessed over the last few months in the political landscape in México have not been made out of strength or the will to democratize México, but out of weakness of the crisis the current social, political and economic situation that exists in the southern half of our nation. For the first time in over 60 years the PRI finds itself without a legislative majority, with the the PAN- which is the same as the PRI (a bunch of vende-patrias)- and the PRD- which it cannot stand. Our nation is also witnessing a democratic space, which it never envisioned. This is due not to the generosity of the “Estado de Derecho” that Zedillo and the rest of the bourgeoisie and imperialists insist is evolving and thriving in México, but due to the resurgence of the popular movements currently taking root in every sector of the Mexicano people (workers, campesinos, indigenous, educators, etc.).
Another reason for this transformation is due to the fact that civil- above ground organizations- struggling in defense of las masas Mexicanas, are challenging the repression and fascism in México; and the power structure is less able to instill fear than ever before. In short, it is due not to the strength and benevolent evolution of the PRI/PAN government that there seems to be more openness, but to the fact that the people are so fed up with living under such miserable conditions that they have pried open a democratic space with a crowbar.
Even as the PRI/PAN talks of the success of neo-liberalism and the economic prosperity México is “beginning to experience,” the people are organizing against an economic and social model that has in mind the making of more millionaires at the expense of the masses of Mexicano people. Even as the bourgeoisie has prospered on the new “economic openness” (more like runaway capitalism) the value of the Peso continues to sink and everything needed to live (right down to tortillas and fish for cuaresma) is faced by skyrocketing inflation. In addition, workers continue to face layoffs, downsizing, and less pay for more hours in unsafe conditions. Teachers are fighting a battle for their own survival as the government attempts to close down the Normales (teachers colleges and home to intense political struggle in the sixties, the seventies and today) in an attempt to weaken the guarantee of every Mexicano to an education. Campesinos and indigenous étnias are faced with mounting terror at the hands of the army and paramilitary goons as they attempt to protect their land from the money grubbing trans-nationals. These are the conditions our people are faced with and are struggling against.
We have spoken many times about the new frente and organizations that have been formed during the last four years. All of them, from the Convención Nacional Democrática to the Frente Zapatista de Liberación Nacional to the Frente Amplio por la Construcción del Movimiento pare la Liberación Nacional have played an important role in bring the demands of our gente to the national and international arena for dialogue and for the forming of a new, democratic, worker, campesino México. This has shown, for all of the internal struggles we have documented and contradictions that have arisen, that there is a will to struggle and this transcends the sectarian politics that have plagued the “left” in México since the seventies.
We have also seen the resurgence of armed struggle on a national level in México and have come to terms with the reality that if this is what it takes to liberate la patria, then this is the path we must take. It is clear now, more than ever, that the defeat of the armed movements of the seventies and the “Left’s” attempt to become respectable and legitimate- struggling within the electoral arena- from the 1982 elections have not dampened the combative spirit of the people.
DESDE EL EZLN HASTA EL EPR: LA REVOLUCIN MEXICANA EN MARCHA
The EZLN was one of the movements that forced an opening of the political process in México due to its clever use of technology (i.e. the internet, publications, etc.) and the dialogue process. The EZLN has been able to survive the attacks of the government because of the national, as well as international pressure. It has also been aided to a great extent by the resurgence of other armed movements throughout México. Principal among these is the Ejército Popular Revolucionario (EPR).
The EPR announced its existence on June 28, 1996- one year to the day- on the same spot where the massacre of campesinos at Aguas Blancas, Guerrero, took place at the hands of the PRI government- and under the bloody hand of the mafioso and feudal lord Ruben Figueroa (see April-August 1996 issues of ¡LA VERDAD!). It was under the equally bloody and sadistic rule of his father of the governor of Guerrero in the sixties that armed movements such as the Partido de los Pobres Asociación Civica, Partido Proletario de la Unión Americana flourished and took on the sistema. It was in these times that great revolutionary heroes such as Genaro Vásquez, Lucio Cabanas, and Florencio “El Güero” Medrano had their images etched in the history of the Mexican working class and campesinos forever. It was this poverty and state-sponsored violence that was the direct cause of the formation of the EPR and consolidation of different revolutionary organizations to form the Partido Revolucionario Democratico Popular (PRDP)- which continues to thrive in Guerrero, Oaxaca and other parts of México.
This resurgence of the armed struggle in other parts of México besides Chiapas effectively stalled a military attack on the Zapatistas by forcing the government to focus its attention elsewhere and to face a prepared political army whose scope was not only Chiapas but all of México. Indeed by September of 1996, the EPR had launched a series of well-coordinated armed attacks throughout southern México in which they took on army troops and the dreaded security forces. While the Mexican bourgeoisie held its breath and lashed out by attacking, torturing, unjustly imprisoning and assassinating popular, political and campesino organizations struggling against the PRI/PAN war on the people. The EPR took México by storm, announcing that it would not- under any circumstances- dialogue with the vende-patria government. It was due to this resolve that yet another page in Mexican politics was turned.
To counter this, the Mexican government launched a military counterinsurgency aimed at physically breaking not only the EPR, but also any mass-based democratic movement. As a result the PRI launched a political counterinsurgency aimed at isolating the guerrillas and discrediting the popular movements. They did this through a disinformation campaign that was put out on a national and international level. Unfortunately, they were aided in this effort by sectors of the “Left.” (Cardenas’ statement that the EPR was a pantomime, etc.)
Since the initiation of the armed struggles in México in the early sixties and continuing on to the present day, most sectors of the established “Left” have condemned armed struggle and vilified the people’s participation in it with a ferocity only equaled by the Mexican government. Many times in past issues of ¡LA VERDAD! we have documented how during the seventies and eighties, the traditional left slandered, attacked and participated in the counterinsurgency against the armed formations. However, they went one step further in their denunciations. They accused human rights and other organizations of being fronts for guerrillas.
These attacks were what allowed the government to attack the credibility of these organizations and validated their excuse to savagely repress the honest, progressive groups who were involved in the mass-based struggle. An example of the level of repression is clearly illustrated with the incarceration of Benigno Guzman, a leading member of Organización Campesina Sierra del Sur (OCSS) which struggle around Guerrero for the betterment of the miserable living conditions which currently exist. The negative effects of voicing opposition to the current living conditions is nothing new to the people of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and throughout México. Since the sixties, seventies, eighties and into the nineties the price has been imprisonment, torture, murder and other injustices against those whose only crime has been to struggle for freedom, peace,and justice.
As we go to print Unión del Barrio as receive word that in the state of Chihuahua, several compañeras who work with the human rights committee of the FAC-MLN have been disappeared for the last two months. This has been the cachet of the PRI/PAN government. We must be clear that the struggle is very much between a life of complete misery and a life of political struggle.
OPPORTUNISM AND THE STRUGGLE TO KEEP THE ARMED MOVEMENTS DISUNITED
It is interesting to note that when the Zapatista uprising came about in the early days of 1994, the PRD and the rest of the mainstream “Left” were silent or calling for the government to wipe out the EZLN. It wasn’t until they saw the masses of the people supporting the EZLN that they began to inject themselves into the movement. The PRD were determined, however, that it would be on their own terms.
The way the “Left” were able to “support the struggle” without harming their interests, was to call for “peace.” This was, in fact, something even Salinas (later Zedillo) called for. While we understand that peace is definitely something positive, we want to reiterate that peace at all cost is not.
In addition to the “restricted” support the “Left” tried to make, labeling the struggle in Chiapas as one for Indigenous Rights vs. a struggle for the transformation of Mexican society was an apologist and cowardly display of opportunism. The struggle of the Zapatistas has been to realize the promises of the Mexican Revolution; that is a society of workers and campesinos.
It was during this time period that groups for “peace in Chiapas” and indigenous rights flourished in México, the Occupied Territories and internationally. There were declarations that began “while we deplore violence from anyone,” that sought to condemn armed struggle in principle and implore the Zapatistas to “dialogue” with the government, which they did starting in February, 1994. These forces were among those who traveled to Chiapas in August, 1994 to the first Convención Nacional Democrática (CND) the EZLN called for to support the demands and project for a new México for the Zapatistas.
From the many elements in the CND (especially those linked to the PRD) saw this formation as a chance to put forth their reformist demands that focused on the electoral process, attaching a “social charter” to NAFTA, building support for Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, and other demands that had nothing to do with the original vision of the Zapatista. This brought them into direct conflict with the more independent, grassroots, authentic formations such as SUTAUR RUTA100, CLETA and its newspaper El Machete, independent teachers unions, Frente Popular Francisco Villa, and other authentic organizations from all over México who had supported the Zapatistas unconditionally from the beginning of the uprising. Eventually, the leader of the CND, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra who represented the reformist sector called for the CND to break apart from the “bad elements” (those who supported a complete change in Mexican society) to leave the CND and form their own organization. This absurd suggestion was and continues to be part of a government strategy to split the movement for change into factions and against each other.
It is sad to see that so many elements are 1) afraid to support revolutionary demands and not honest enough to admit it; 2) so easily duped by rumors and government propaganda; 3) actually are working for the PRI/PAN government that they will allow themselves to be used in this political part of the government’s low intensity war against our people.
On January 1, 1996, the second anniversary of the Zapatista uprising, the EZLN made the call for the formation of Comités Civiles del Dialogo to anticipate the formation of a Frente Zapatista de Liberación Nacional- the political arm of the EZLN. This had come out of a national consulta the EZLN had called for in which people had expressed the belief that the EZLN should become a political force. During this time, in early 1996, many different forces from all over México and some from the Occupied Territorios met in Acapulco, Guerrero. to form the Frente Amplio por la Construción de Movimiento para la Liberación Nacional (FAC-MLN). This was to be a political force that could unite all of the opposition currents in México around the demands for a new government, a new constitution, an end to neo-liberalism, freedom for political prisoners, and presentation of the disappeared in addition to the integration of demands of workers, teachers, students, campesinos, housewives, human rights organizations, and other popular sectors.
It is important to point out that from the beginning and up to the present day, forces involved in the Comités Civiles del Dialogo and later the Frente Zapatista have participated in this process based on the commonality of demands and the understanding of the need to unify in the face of repression and state-imposed poverty that worsen by the day.
The contradiction of the two schools of thought of the opposition was made clear when the EPR made its appearance at the anniversary of Aguas Blancas. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, speaking at the event when the guerrilleros took away his “spotlight” called their presence “unfortunate” and them dismissed it as a “grotesque pantomime” of a movement that was “not relevant” in today’s political landscape. He and his cronies in the hierarchy of the PRD- who only two decades ago were PRlistas- then exhorted the other forces in the FAC-MLN to denounce the EPR. When the independent forces refused and correctly explained that no form of struggle could be condemned in light of the brutality the PRI government was using against the opposition and the total lack of a democratic process in México, Cardenas left the FAC-MLN process. It is; however, to their credit that many democratic, authentic forces in the PRD have continued to work and build the movement.
This divide and conquer tactic was taken to it’s apogee during the EPR offensive of August and September, 1996. It was during this time that the government sought to set the EZLN and the EPR against each other by making a comparison between the “good” guerrilla and “bad” guerrilla. This was expressed not only by government officials, but through the editorials on television.
The base of their comparison was the following: the EZLN was good because they were confined to Chiapas; they did not want power for themselves; they were not using Marxist rhetoric but rather a New Age type of discourse; and at this moment, they were not fighting, but rather in the process of dialogue. The EPR, by comparison, was fighting at that very moment, had a clear political program that spelled out revolution; the fundamental shift of political power by the people and by toppling the government.
In the wake of the September 1996, an offensive took place; the government accused the EPR of being an offshoot of the Partido Revolucionario Obrero Clandestino Union del Pueblo (PROCUP). They also made the accusation that the PROCUP had originally been founded by someone from Guatemala. During this time and in the wake of these denunciations, there were tortures and killing of campesinos setting up roadblocks all over southern México, imprisoning social and political activists as EPR commandos, and attempting to terrorize the population to kill its will to struggle. One important case was that of Benigno Guzman, of the Organización Campesina de la Sierra del Sur (OCSS) in Guerrero It was their members who were massacred at Aguas Blancas and were under constant attack. The government accused Guzman, like hundreds of others like him in an attempt to criminalize and discredit the movement for change and to isolate it from the population. Guzman currently is in prison without due process in Acapulco and Unión del Barrio joins our brothers and sisters in the OCSS and the FAC-MLN and hundreds of other who have raised their voice in his defense in demanding his freedom.
The PRI government used the tactics mirrored those they had used to discredit the EZLN and subcomandante Marcos, on the EPR. The government let the rumor spreading run wild with gossip that the EPR were disgruntled PRIistas; that they were narcos; that they were terrorists guilty of imaginary atrocities, etc. Unfortunately, they were aided in their spreading of these vicious rumors by many so-called supporters of the EZLN who were only too happy to attack them.