The coordinators of the senate blocs of all three leading political parties - PAN, PRI and PRD - have issued a warning that the new strategy announced by the Zapatista leader, 'Subcomandante Marcos' (WR-03-29), could lead to armed conflict. Only the PRD's Jesús Ortega qualified this by noting that the events in Chiapas were 'an attention call' to congress for dragging its feet on reforming the indigenous rights legislation.
In the lower chamber, congressmen called for the revival of the legislature's peace commission, Cocopa - while admitting that it did not make much sense when a new congress will be installed within a month.
Meanwhile, Marcos added to the list of things the Zapatistas intended to do. Apart from their traditional Internet presence, they will launch shortwave broadcasts through their own station, Radio Insurgente (on 5.8 megahertz; if there is government jamming, 'move your dial as you would your hips in a cumbia, and find us'). Worth noting: while the Internet is a 'cool' medium for the affluent, radio is a hot medium that directly addresses the population at large.
Dissident governor
The Zapatistas will also set up five juntas de buen gobierno to coordinate the 30 'autonomous' Zapatista municipalities in Chiapas and act as their official links with the outside world. It was this last initiative which allowed Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar to break ranks with the politicians who were ringing alarm bells. He said, 'No community that seeks ways to improve their lives is breaking the law.' This was in flat contradiction with the attitude of the Chiapas bar association, which had said the state and federal authorities should deal with Marcos's announcements as an ultimatum, 'intransigent, inopportune and very hostile [and aimed at] breaking the rule of law.'
Even the bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Felipe Arizmendi, had bowed to the mood of the political milieu, noting that while the changes announced by the Zapatistas were 'licit', they should be carried out 'within the framework of legality'.
Salazar, a former PRI senator who served on Cocopa, broke with his party to run for the governorship in 2000 as the candidate of a broad civic front. In his campaign he promised to review state legislation passed by his predecessor, Roberto Albores Guillén, with the purpose of neutralising the San Andrés agreements - the selfsame ones the Zapatistas now intend to implement in their 'autonomous' municipalities.
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