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Yours in solidarity
Per Rasmussen
Denmark
Students United for a Responsible Global Environment -
www.unc.edu/surge
MEXICO SOLIDARITY NETWORK
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
APRIL 8-14, 2001
Contents:
1. PAN deputies rebel against Fox fiscal reform proposal
2. "Indigenous law" based on San Andrés Accords to be prepared
by the end of April
3. Fernando Yañez Muñoz, Luis Alvarez meet to discuss handover
of army bases in Chiapas
4. Briefs
1. PAN DEPUTIES REBEL AGAINST FOX FISCAL REFORM PROPOSAL
President Fox is facing a new and unexpected sector of
opposition to his fiscal reform plan: senators and deputies from
his own National Action Party (PAN).
The PRI, PRD, PT, and PVEM parties had already expressed
vehement disapproval of certain elements of the plan, especially
Fox's controversial move to apply the national 15% tax on goods
and services to food, medicine, books, and education. But now
additional opposition has emerged from within the PAN itself, as
an internal survey of PAN deputies carried out this week
suggested that only 106 (51%) support the plan. Twenty percent
of the legislators said they would vote against it, and 29% did
not respond.
Even Luis Pazos, the right-wing PAN economist currently serving
as president of the Budget Commission in the Chamber of
Deputies, declared this week that "it is clear" that the fiscal
reform package will not be approved "as is," without serious
changes to the taxation measure.
Because the PAN bench comprises only 207 of the 500 members of
the Chamber, Fox needs more than just his party's support in
order to approve the fiscal legislation. Therefore, senior PAN
officials are said to be working with the president on a
possible compromise proposal which would reduce the tax to 10%,
but still apply it universally. PAN leaders hope such a plan
would be able to win back not only the support of their own
dissident deputies, but also those of other parties,
particularly the PRI.
Although the PRI has launched a high-visibility public relations
campaign against Fox's taxation proposal, the party has
seemingly backed away from its initial posture of staunch
opposition to the fiscal reform, and now claims to be
"analyzing" both Fox's plan and the suggestions which have been
made for altering it.
The PRI deputies thus abstained from the first major debate in
the Chamber of Deputies on the fiscal reform, held on April 9.
The debate was dominated by PRD and PT speakers assailing Fox as
a "reverse Robin Hood."
Meanwhile, representatives of the World Bank announced their
full support of the fiscal reform package this week, explaining
that with the higher taxes, the government will obtain more
resources with which to conduct directed anti-poverty programs.
According to Olivier Lafourcade, the director of the World Bank
in Mexico, a large part of the fiscal reform "is destined toward
the reduction of poverty, which is also the goal of the World
Bank, and therefore we support the [fiscal reform] process."
2. INDIGENOUS LAW BASED ON SAN ANDRES ACCORDS TO BE PREPARED BY
THE END OF APRIL
A proposal for constitutional implementation of the San Andrés
Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture appears closer than
ever to congressional approval.
The government's failure to implement the San Andrés Accords
after they were signed in February 1996 was the direct cause for
the five-year suspension of peace talks between the rebel
Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and federal
authorities.
The original bill for implementing the accords was drafted in
October 1996 by the Commission on Concordance and Pacification
(COCOPA), the congressional commission in charge of overseeing
the peace process, following consultations with both sides. But
after approval by the EZLN it was vetoed by then-president
Zedillo, and was never brought before the legislature. It lay
dormant for the rest of Zedillo's tenure in office.
In December 2000, newly-elected President Vicente Fox finally
introduced the COCOPA measure to the Senate as a piece of
executive-sponsored legislation, in an attempt to jumpstart the
peace process.
The EZLN, meanwhile, insisted that the measure must be approved
without serious modifications before it will open a direct
dialogue with the government, and the primary objective of the
recent journey of unarmed rebel commanders to Mexico City was to
speak out in favor of the legislation.
This week, COCOPA president Félix Castellanos announced that
work on the COCOPA's indigenous rights bill in the Senate is
expected to be completed in the coming days, and that it will
likely be put up for a vote before the end of the regular
legislative session on April 30.
Castellano's predictions were echoed by PRI senator Manuel
Bartlett, previously an opponent of the COCOPA bill, and PRD
senators Demetrio Sodi de Tijera and Jesús Ortega, who pointed
out that differences among the parties with respect to the
indigenous rights legislation have been significantly reduced,
and currently are centered on nothing more than "legal
technicalities."
However, since the bill which will eventually be presented to
Congress for approval will not be an exact copy of the original
COCOPA proposal, it remains to be seen whether the modifications
made to it while it is discussed in committee this coming week
will in fact be nothing more than "legal technicalities."
The EZLN, for its part, has yet to stake out a clear position
regarding which of the proposed changes it would accept, and
which it might reject as a "unilateral attempt to renegotiate"
the San Andrés Accords.
PRI sources in the Senate suggest that the final bill will be
ready by April 23, and will be approved first by the Senate and
then by the Chamber of Deputies before the end of the month.
3. YAÑEZ MUÑOZ, ALVAREZ MEET TO DISCUSS LIMITED MILITARY
WITHDRAWAL IN CHIAPAS
Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) special envoy Fernando
Yañez Muñoz met in Chiapas this week with government peace
commissioner Luis H. Alvarez to discuss details of the imminent
withdrawal of the Federal Army from its bases in Guadalupe
Tepeyac and Río Euseba (near La Realidad).
The meeting, the third such encounter between the rebel
representative and the government negotiator, was held in the
abandoned Tojolabal village of Guadalupe Tepeyac, which served
as de facto EZLN headquarters before coming under Mexican Army
occupation in February 1995.
The limited military withdrawal is scheduled to be completely
carried out by April 17, thereby fulfilling one of the three
pre-conditions set by the Zapatistas before entering peace talks
with the government of Vicente Fox. Five other small army bases
in the state, out of a total of 259 positions occupied by
military forces, were previously dismantled in compliance with
the Zapatista demand.
The remaining conditions are congressional approval of a
specific constitutional reform bill for the implementation of
the 1996 San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture;
and the liberation of all Zapatista political prisoners.
The indigenous rights bill is slated to be approved by the end
of the month, thus complying with the EZLN demand provided its
substance is not altered in the process. And of the more than
one hundred Zapatistas who were imprisoned when Vicente Fox took
office in December, all but eleven have now been freed, most
with suspended sentences rather than actual amnesty.
4. BRIEFS
- The first "G-3" summit between the presidents of Mexico,
Colombia, and Venezuela concluded in Caracas this week with an
agreement to vigorously promote the proposed Free Trade Area of
the Americas. The meetings between Vicente Fox, Andrés
Pastrana, and Hugo Chavez lasted two days, and also resulted in
an agreement to solicit funds from the Inter-American
Development Bank in order to promote regional integration of
energy policy between the three nations. Mexican president Fox
took the opportunity to plug his proposed "Puebla to Panama"
development initiative, which he said was just "one step" on the
way to a hemispheric free trade zone, which the three leaders
said they hoped would become reality by the year 2005.
- The Chiapas state government of Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía
announced this week it had created a Rapid Reaction Force
Against Land Invasions in order to force a halt to the practice
in the state. Land invasions are often carried out by campesino
or indigenous groups dissatisfied with the slow process of land
reform. State statistics indicate that rebel civilians
affiliated with the EZLN maintain 275 land plots which were
invaded between 1994 and the present, and that 669 other groups
have requested purchase of 71 thousand hectares of land
comprising 276 plots, and that 22% of these have also been
illegally occupied by campesinos. The state government
denounced such invasions, and Salazar announced that his
administration plans to "protect all forms of property on earth:
the ejidal, the communal, and the private."
______________________________________________________________
SOURCES: La Jornada, Milenio, El Universal, El Financiero,
Reforma.
This report is a product of the Mexico Solidarity Network.
Redistribution is authorized and encouraged provided that the
source is cited.
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