Good words from Cardenas and Salazar Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - amanecer@aa.net Wed May 17 23:35:09 2000 Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada Translated by irlandesa La Jornada Monday, May 15, 2000. Cardenas Asks Four Candidates to Demand Demilitarization of Chiapas He Also Suggests They Commit to San Andres Accords Andrea Becerril, correspondent. Cintalapa, Chiapas. May 14. With the aim of responding to demands he has been hearing constantly during this two day trip to the state, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas called on the other "four candidates" for the Presidency of the Republic to join together in demanding that the federal government immediately withdraw the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) from Chiapas and demilitarize the state. He also called on his political opponents - those who remain in the campaign - to make a commitment to respecting the San Andres Accords, regardless of the outcome of the July 2 elections. He further called on them to send the Congress of the Union the legislative proposal on indigenous rights and culture, drawn up by legislators in the Commission of Concordance and Peace (Cocopa). Through these commitments, "definitive signals will be given" that peace is being sought in Chiapas, and not confrontation and the situation of jeopardy that is currently in place, Cardenas added. He made these statements during a rally attended by thousands of Zoque indigenous and campesinos who live in this valley of Cintalapa. The plaza was full - the same as in the other two municipalities which the candidate for the Alliance for Mexico visited yesterday - teaming with close to 7000 chiapanecos from this area and from the neighboring towns of Arriaga, Pijijiapan and Tonala. The crowd responded with applause to Cardenas' initiative, in appreciation of the fact that he understands the most deeply felt demand of the chiapanecos. "There has been a demand which I have heard constantly, throughout all the places I've been to on this occasion. The demand is for an effective peace in Chiapas. The chiapanecos do not want any more confrontations, neither with the armed forces, nor with the police. They know that if there is no peace in the state, it is because the highest officials in the country have lacked the will." Because of that, "I am calling on the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic, on the other four candidates who are still running, for us to commit ourselves, whatever the results of this election, to respect the San Andres Accords beginning on December 1, and for us to commit ourselves also to sending the Congress of the Union the proposal on indigenous rights and culture which was drawn up by the deputies and senators in the Cocopa." Search for Agreements With Zapatistas The purpose, he noted, is that that could form the basis for agreements reached with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), "and we could have a definitive and effective peace in the state of Chiapas." Cardenas also called on Francisco Labastida Ochoa, Vicente Fox, Manuel Camacho Solis and Gilberto Rincon Gallardo - although he never mentioned them by name. "Together, the five of us, adding myself, will be able to demand that the government of the Republic immediately withdraw the Federal Preventive Police from the state of Chiapas, and that they should order the armed forces in the state to retake the positions they held prior to January of 1994. Nor did Cardenas mention the name of Porfirio Munoz Leda, although in his speech he already assumed him eliminated. He said he is waiting for a response from "the other four candidates still running for the Presidency of the Republic," in order to make that call, for the withdrawal of PFP troops deployed in the conflict zone and for the relocation of the Army, since that would help ease the climate of violence and confrontation which exists in Chiapas. Under these conditions, he added, those aspiring to govern the country "will be making progress towards responding to the primary demand which chiapanecos have today: that there be peace for Chiapas and that there be peace for the Republic." He referred, then, to other demands being made by the Chiapas indigenous: that justice prevail and impunity end, and that measures be put in place to take them out of marginalization and poverty. And it was Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, opposition alliance candidate for governor of the state, who described the demands and feelings of his countrymen. He said the people of Cintalapa have grown weary of being offended. The fight which residents of this community have been waging against high electricity costs and for better maize prices, he added, has sent many of them to prison. Salazar Mendiguchia made note of the fact that residents of Cintalapa have confronted a "deaf" government, which ordered them to build a jail instead of the university they had asked it to construct. Similarly, in Tecpatan, Cardenas' first stop yesterday on this election swing through chiapaneco lands, Salazar Mendiguchia noted to the presidential candidate that the people of Chiapas are on their feet, determined to opt for change. Cardenas said that impunity, crime and attacks against the people must be put to an end in Chiapas. He said that these had caused thousands to be displaced from their communities, and they go unpunished because "because everything points to the fact that the violence unleashed in many regions of the state originates from the Government Palace in Tuxtla Gutierrez." Therefore, "if we want to end the impunity, we will have to investigate Roberto Albores and, if he turns out to be guilty, than he shall have to be held responsible." That is what is necessary, he stressed, for Chiapas to never again be governed with corruption and impunity." Also, and in response to a complaint he received yesterday from residents in Tecpatan - a town situated in a green hollow close to one of the state's hydroelectric plants - the candidate stated that a regime of justice must be developed. He said it is no longer valid for a state which generates a very important part of the country's hydroelectric energy to pay such high fees. Motivated by the large numbers drawn to the gathering - it is estimated that more than 15,000 chiapanecos have attended the three public acts he has led - in Ocozocuatla, the last stop on his agenda, Cardenas told them that he knows they are a people "who are in civil insurgency," and that they will be listened to. "Know and have confidence that we have demonstrations as strong as this in many parts of the Republic. And nothing, and no one, will be able - given this mobilization, given this capacity for response which we have today - to rob us of victory on July 2." He promised that he would return to Chiapas before his campaign is over. All Candidates Should Endorse Call: Salazar Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia was circumspect at all moments, and he made no declaration of support for the PRD candidate, At the rallies, he introduced Cardenas with the sentence: "I leave you, engineer, with these people who have filled the plaza in order to listen to your message." He considered Cardenas' call to the other candidates to be timely and of extreme importance for Chiapas. I believe all the candidates should endorse it, he added. Questioned by reporters at the end of the trip, Salazar Mendiguchia said, as he had done with Cardenas, he would also receive and accompany Vicente Fox, who will be visiting the state at the end of the month, as well as Camacho Solis, since he is the compromise reached among the parties of the opposition alliance for Chiapas which is supporting his candidacy. "Your supporters, where are they going?" the reporters insisted. "The PRDs supporting my campaign go to Cardenas' acts, and the PAN, to Fox's. There is liberty here. We have been measured, so that we can discuss differences in the electoral arena." ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.18.00-13:17:55-14544