Zapatista leader breaks silence, blasts Supreme Court decision

Zoltan Simon, TheNewsMexico.com - 9/11/2002

Zapatista rebel leader Subcommander Marcos broke more than a year's silence Tuesday by blasting last week's Supreme Court ruling that upheld a controversial Indian Rights law.

In a brief statement published on the Zapatista National Liberation Army's (EZLN) Website, Marcos equated the Court decision to the federal government "turning (its) back on Zapatista efforts to search for a peaceful and negotiated end to war."

His comments came four days after the high court ruled it had no jurisdiction to overturn the Indian Rights Law, which was originally negotiated between the EZLN and the government to grant greater autonomy to indigenous communities.

But critics charge the law passed by Congress is a watered-down version of that agreement and actually weakens Indian communities' control over natural resources located on their land. Indigenous groups arguing they were not adequately consulted about the final legislation filed 330 constitutional challenges to have the law annulled.

Soon after Congress approved the law in April 2001, the EZLN broke off all contact with the government in protest.

The Zapatistas have maintained a tense truce with the government since staging a brief armed uprising in 1994 in the name of Indians rights and to call attention to the plight of Mexico's 12 million indigenous, most of whom live in marginalized conditions.

Marcos' communique' also coincided with a march by hundreds of Zapatista supporters in the Chiapas city of San Cristobal de las Casas who were protesting the Court ruling.

The march became violent after protesters overturned a vehicle belonging to the National Security Agency (CISEN) and threw rocks at the office of the government's peace negotiator.

Social organizations warned the Supreme Court's ruling could lead to increased violence in Chiapas, a state ravaged by political, religious, land and ethnic disputes.

Blanca Martinez, director of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center in San Cristobal, told TheNewsMexico.com Indians feel state and federal government officials, as well as Congress and the courts have ignored their demands.

"Whenever you feel excluded in this way, violence can't be ruled out," Martinez said.