WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #255, DECEMBER 18, 1994 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Southern Mexico: War or Peace? 2. Conflicts Spread to Tabasco, Mexican Left 3. Mexico Looks for New Bailouts in New York 4. Summit of the Americas: Chile to Join NAFTA 6. UN Pushes Trade Agenda on Indigenous Peoples Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information from them, but please credit us, and send us a copy. We welcome your comments and ideas: send them via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org. * 1. SOUTHERN MEXICO: WAR OR PEACE? As of Dec. 10 the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) guerrillas of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas had formally notified the International Committee of the Red Cross, in accordance with the Geneva Convention, that the guerrillas considered their ceasefire with the Mexican army at an end and that armed conflict could resume at any moment. Mexican Health Secretariat personnel had already left the neutral zones of San Miguel and Guadalupe Tepeyac, according to the EZLN's "Major Moises," who had carried out the notifications. Reporter Hermann Bellinghausen of the daily La Jornada found Guadalupe Tepeyac residents resigned to the possibility of all-out war. "If we're going to die, then we're going to die together," an indigenous woman told him. The towns of Ocosingo, Altamirano and Las Margaritas were said to be "virtually encircled" by the Mexican army, and residents say that military reconnaissance flights have been stepped up. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/11/94] Several peace efforts are under way. The National Mediation Commission (CONAI) has issued a "call to the nation" for a "political solution to the problems of democracy, a solution rooted in the people themselves." [Reprinted in Mexpaz Bulletin #3, 12/14/94] Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, presidential candidate of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the Aug. 21 elections, visited Chiapas on Dec. 13 and met with the EZLN's "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" in an effort to start movement toward a political solution. "We are in a situation of serious risk of going once again into hostilities," Cardenas told reporters, saying that he blamed the government for the crisis. [Reuter 12/13/94; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/14/94 from EFE] The EZLN has proposed that Cardenas and the EZLN- sponsored Democratic National Convention (CND) form a "broad opposition movement to install legality, legitimacy, order and national sovereignty." [Mexico Update, Equipo Pueblo, Vol. 3, #12, 12/14/94] On Dec. 14 Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon announced that he would send a commission from the federal Congress to explore ways to reopen peace talks. All four parties in the Congress are to be represented, although the PRD says it will not participate unless the government makes its proposals public and gives some indication of a serious will to negotiate. A separate Congressional panel visited Chiapas the week before and named Deputy Rosario Ibarra de Piedra (an independent elected on the PRD slate) as its intermediary with the EZLN; Ibarra is the president of the CND. [ED-LP 12/15/94 from AFP, 12/16/94 and 12/18/94 from AP] Meanwhile, the Council of the Transitional Government in Rebellion--the "parallel government" of the PRD's candidate for governor of Chiapas, Amado Avendano Figueroa--reports that the state has had at least 13 cases of cholera since Dec. 9, one fatal. All the victims had attended Avendano's Dec. 8 counter- inauguration in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez; the outbreak may be due to sanitation problems in the city. The council has published a list of urgently needed medical supplies. [Posted and translated by National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, USA (NCDMUSA) 12/11/94] A caravan carrying supplies from the US to Chiapas is to assemble at El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 20. For information, call 713-224-4025, fax 713-224-4026. [NCDMUSA press release 12/8/94] 2. CONFLICTS SPREAD TO TABASCO, MEXICAN LEFT On Dec. 10 the PRD's Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his supporters headed back to the oil-producing state of Tabasco after a weeklong sit-in in Mexico City's central plaza. The protesters charge that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) used fraud to keep Lopez Obrador from winning Tabasco's governorship in the Nov. 20 state vote [see Updates #252 and 254]. As of Dec. 10 PRD supporters were blocking access to installations of Pemex, the national oil company, in Tabasco's Cunduacan municipality. The army set up roadblocks to defend installations in Ciudad Pemex and the indigenous region of Nacajuca; there were no reports of confrontations with protesters. In a radio interview he gave as he was leaving Mexico City on Dec. 10, Lopez Obrador said he would lead the "civil resistance" at the petroleum installations starting the next day. He is threatening to set up a parallel government like Amado Avendano's in the neighboring state of Chiapas if the official winner in Tabasco, the PRI's Roberto Madrazo Pintado, attempts to take office as scheduled on Dec. 31. [LJ 12/11/94] The tense situations in Chiapas and Tabasco brought out divisions within the PRD's National Council, which met Dec. 9-11. Some PRD leaders condemned the blocking of petroleum installations in Tabasco as "desperate." The main dispute was over author and PRD member Eraclio Zepeda Ramos' decision to accept the post of government secretary in the cabinet of the official PRI governor of Chiapas, Eduardo Robledo Rincon. In Chiapas as in Tabasco, the PRD insists that the PRI won the state government through massive fraud. Other state governments are making similar offers to PRD leaders. National Council delegate Alejandro Encimas said on Dec. 10 that he had turned down an offer from the Federal District (DF) government, which is directly appointed by the federal president, for the newly created position of DF ecology secretary. On Dec. 9, PRD founder Cuauhtemoc Cardenas sent a letter to the National Council, threatening to leave the party if it didn't censure Zepeda. Since September the PRD has been debating how to relate to the PRI governments that the leftists consider illegitimate. The main tendency in the National Council meeting seemed to support negotiations, but only negotiations that would involve all social sectors on a national level, including the EZLN. In the end, the Council voted to censure Zepeda--although delegate Carlos Navarrete called Cardenas' threat to resign "one of the blackest nights of Stalinism." The council seemed to agree on the idea that individuals could not participate in a government unless the party as a whole had decided to enter into a coalition government. [LJ 12/11/94; New York Times 1/13/94] 3. MEXICO LOOKS FOR NEW BAILOUTS IN NEW YORK On Dec. 11 Mexican finance secretary Jaime Serra Puche announced a $109 billion budget for 1995. The proposal allows for no increases in spending and for no stimulus measures for small and medium businesses, but it gives President Zedillo about $11 billion in "discretionary spending." Serra, who was one of the forces behind the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the previous administration [see Update #253], will be in New York on Dec. 19 to meet with brokerage houses and investment bankers to drum up more foreign investment. [Mexico Update 12/14/94] The Wall Street Journal says Serra "may have a difficult time" meeting his goal of 4% growth for 1995. [WSJ 12/16/94] According to the British Financial Times, the finance secretary is planning "an ambitious new privatization and foreign borrowing program designed to raise $5.5 billion next year." Much of the money is to come from privatizing ports and toll roads, although Serra may also be planning to sell off some Pemex plants and even the railroad system; this last would probably require a Constitutional amendment. With the cash infusion from privatization Perra apparently hopes to avoid a devaluation of the peso. Mexico's foreign reserves are reportedly down to $17 billion, increasing pressure for a devaluation. [FT 12/16/94] [Other sources say the figure may be as low as $10 billion; see Update #254.] The Bolsa de Valores, Mexico's stock market, fell by 0.95% on Dec. 15, its third consecutive drop in the week. [United Press International 12/15/94] It fell another 2.15% the next day. The market is now down by 19.77% (against the US dollar) since the beginning of the year. [NYT 12/17/94] On Dec. 13 the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development, an economic coordinating group for the industrialized nations, reported that in 1993 only China and Thailand had larger debts than Mexico. The 1993 external debt was $116 billion, 17% more than in 1988 when the country began its plan to settle accounts with the international finance institutions. [Inter Press Service 12/13/94] 4. SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: CHILE TO JOIN NAFTA Leaders of Canada, Mexico and the US, the three partners to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), announced on Dec. 11 that they had agreed to admit Chile to the trade pact. The long- expected announcement came near the end of the Dec. 9-11 Summit of the Americas in Miami, a meeting of all 34 heads of state in the hemisphere except Cuban president Fidel Castro. Negotiations for Chile's admission will probably take another year. The plan is for the pact to extend eventually to the entire hemisphere, with the name changed to Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The original plan to name the new agreement AFTA (American Free Trade Agreement) was scrapped when the Brazilians noted that afta was Portuguese for mouth sore. [New York Times 12/11/94, 12/12/94] [The word means the same in Spanish; in English the medical term is "aphtha."] On Dec. 11 Jorge Mas Canosa of the rightwing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) used the Miami summit as an occasion to bring between 40,000 and 50,000 anti-Castro demonstrators to the Orange Bowl stadium. The rally featured Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) and Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), who are jointly sponsoring new legislation to "internationalize" the unilateral US embargo against Cuba. The Gilman-Torricelli bill would deny US visas to foreign executives whose corporations "buy, rent or operate" with "stolen or confiscated US properties," including properties nationalized by the Cuban government 35 years ago. "Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, we may be very divided," Torricelli told a press conference. "But on one thing, opposition to Fidel Castro, we are totally united." Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo used the summit to raise his country's objections to California's Proposition 187, a statewide law approved by voters on Nov. 8 which is intended to cut off health care and education services for undocumented immigrants. About 100 people demonstrated in downtown Miami to call for a similar measure in Florida. After chanting "187 yes, Mexico no" and "Zedillo go home," the group burned a Mexican flag. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/11/94, quotations retranslated from Spanish] [On Dec. 14, a US federal district judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction against Proposition 187 barring the state of California from carrying out most of its provisions until a ruling is reached on a challenge to the measure by a number of civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups. The decision by the judge, Mariana R. Pfaelzer, could block enforcement of Proposition 187 for a year or more. [New York Times 12/15/94]] 6. UN PUSHES TRADE AGENDA ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Latin American representatives attending the United Nations (UN) Dec. 8 inauguration of the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples criticized the UN for ignoring the needs of indigenous people. Guatemalan Mayan leader and Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchu refused to make her planned speech during the inauguration. "They put a lot of conditions on her," Marcial Arias, a Kuna leader from Panama, told New York daily El Diario- La Prensa. Also attending were Jesus Avirrama, a Coconuco leader from Colombia; Aukan Huilcaman, a Mapuche leader from Chile; and Noeli Pocaterra from Venezuela. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/13/94] A day earlier, the Latin American indigenous representatives expressed scepticism over an initiative by the UN Development Program (UNDP) to support trade between native communities in the Western hemisphere. Mapuche leader Huilcaman said that trans- regional trade may force indigenous communities to compete with big business and multinational corporations on open markets: "Is it that UNDP wants us to get used to the new economic realities?" he asked. Huilcaman said trade pacts like NAFTA and the recently- announced deal between Chile and the US "may be the annihilating blow to indigenous communities." [Inter Press Service 12/7/94] Meanwhile, an "anti-summit" of trade unionists and other social activists was held in Venezuela to draw up a charter on social rights, which participants consider to be all but ignored at the Americas Summit. The "Latin American Social Charter" lists 90 rights and grievances; it will be presented to governments in the region by the Latin American Workers' Association (CLAT), which organized the meeting. [Inter Press Service 12/9/94]