May 2, 2001

EZLN Reject Mexico's Indian 'Rights' Bill

CONSTITUTIONAL DENIAL, by Adelfo Regino Montes

Autor(a): (translated by Agustin J. Avila-Sakar) Fecha: 10:16am 29 Abril 2001

La Jornada, Saturday April 28, 2001 original source: http://unam.netgate.net/jornada/012a1pol.html

The constitutional denial of Indigenous claims and fundamental rights is deeply rooted in the history of our country. In 1824 the first constitution, the same that gave birth to the present Mexican State, actually treated us as foreigners. Then, with the constitution of 1857 came an aggressive campaign of compelled sales of Indigenous communal property, aggravating the conditions of poverty, isolation and exploitation suffered over centuries by our ancestors. In 1917, after a painful revolution, a constitution was promulgated which, though guaranteeing the protection of Indigenous lands, laid the grounds for an ethnocidal institutional policy.

Today the Senate of the Republic has issued a dictum on constitutional reforms regarding Indigenous rights which, if approved by the Chamber of Deputies, will nullify the basic demands of our peoples and will be inefficient in the context of factual reality. The rationale is very clear: the idea is to acknowledge certain rights so that everything stays the same. We are specially concerned about the right to free determination and autonomy. As a matter of fact, the second article, section a, of the dictum "acknowledges and guarantees the right of peoples and communities to free determination and, as a consequence, autonomy...", but the mechanisms and forms that should make that possible and efficacious are not established.

Thus, the legislators of the Mexican Senate eliminated altogether fraction IX of article 115 of the Law Initiative put forth by Commission of Peace and Concord (Cocopa), that establishes the respect for "the exercise of free determination of the Indigenous peoples within each domain and at every level where they assert their autonomy, which may cover one or more Indigenous communities, according to the specific circumstances of each federal entity." In this sense, we have stated numerous times that free determination and autonomy are processes that require the communities themselves to define the domains (political, judicial, economic, cultural and social) and levels (communal, municipal, regional) of validity. Unfortunately, such right is completely nullified in the dictum approved by the Mexican Senate.

In a similar manner, the Senators ignored the second paragraph of the Cocopa Initiative, which states: "The Indigenous communities, as public right entities, and the municipalities that acknowledge their pertaining to a given Indigenous people, shall have the right to free association in order to coordinate their actions." In contrast the Mexican Senate dictates that only the state legislatures have the ability to establish the terms of free determination and autonomy, as well as the rules for recognizing Indigenous communities as public interest entities. This eliminates in one blow the possibility of including the possibility of including in the Carta Magna the criteria, mechanisms and forms that can make autonomy possible and efficient in the actual daily life.

In the absence of constitutional mechanisms that enable free determination and autonomy, Indigenous rights are being mutilated. Without constitutional recognition of the Indigenous community and municipality, and without the possibilities of their association - rights proposed in the Cocopa Initiative- the reconstruction and development of the Indigenous peoples will remain only in speeches, instead of being part of an actual construction enterprise. As long as the territorial rights of our peoples continue to be nullified, their potential for sustainable growth with identity will be too far away, as far away as we are from peace today. If this is so, then the much desired constitutional reform on Indigenous rights is being cancelled, like in former times. What we got is not a reform that that truly benefits the Indigenous peoples, but only a set of limited declarations that will have no positive impact on the life of our peoples. This truth must be known by the civil society. We therefore ask the Chamber of Deputies to assume a responsible attitude and seriously retake the Cocopa Initiative. Like their predecessors they will be accountable to History.

NYT REPORT

Subject: NYT,Congress Approves Altered Rights Bill,Apr 30
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 09:01:00 +0200

April 30, 2001

Mexico Congress Approves Altered Rights Bill

By GINGER THOMPSON

MEXICO CITY, April 29 - After days of intense debate, the Mexican Congress over the weekend overwhelmingly approved a bill, widely compared to American civil rights reforms of the 1960's, that would grant new autonomy and protection from discrimination to Mexico's 10 million indigenous peoples.

But Indian leaders opposed the bill because of last-minute changes that would reduce or modify the conditions of autonomy.

The new powers that would be granted to Mexico's 62 indigenous populations include the right of Indian groups to preferential use of natural resources like wood and water on their territories to meet their own needs. The bill also guarantees the right to preserve and promote Indian languages and culture and the power to elect Indian officials according to customs that often involve a vote by an open assembly, rather than by a secret ballot.

The bill contains a strongly worded clause prohibiting discrimination based on a variety of human conditions, including race, gender, religion, marital status and "preferences," widely interpreted to mean sexual preferences.

Because the bill requires a change in the Constitution, it must be approved by more than half the states.

The Indian rights law was forged five years ago during negotiations between the government and the Zapatista rebels of Chiapas, but it was shelved at that time by President Ernesto Zedillo. Critics worried that granting wide autonomy to Mexico's Indians could balkanize the nation and reduce government power to uphold federal laws in Indian areas. Many worried that it would weaken protections for Indian women.

But in their march from Chiapas to Mexico City last month, Zapatista leaders stirred public support for the law, and warned that they would not re-enter peace talks with the fledgling government of President Vicente Fox unless the bill was passed.

Mr. Fox sent the bill to Congress and became one of its most outspoken supporters, urging the reluctant leaders of his National Action Party to give it their full support.

The Mexican Senate unanimously approved the bill last Wednesday. Leaders of Mr. Fox's party, however, made several modifications. Those changes became the focus of rigorous debate in the lower Chamber of Deputies, where members of the left- wing Democratic Revolutionary Party renounced the bill as a scheme. The bill was passed with the modifications late Saturday, but many Indian leaders said during the debate and today that they rejected the measure with the changes.

Among the most criticized changes is one that would give state governments the power to set conditions for self-government. The change, critics said, would make it impossible for Indian groups spanning several states - the Mixtecos, for example, who have communities across the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero - to maintain unified recognition of their people.

The modified version of the law also limits the legal control Indians have over their lands.

Leaders of the National Indigenous Congress flatly rejected the new law, raising speculation that it would also be rejected by the Zapatista rebels. Luis Herna'ndez, a journalist for the daily newspaper La Jornada who has served as a political adviser to the Zapatistas, said, "I don't see any way that the Zapatistas can emerge saying that they accept this law."

But Mr. Fox said today that every Mexican, particularly every Mexican Indian, should be "jubilant" over the passage of the bill.

"Here, what must be seen is the part of the glass that is half full, not that which is half-empty," he said. "If there is more that remains to be done, we will keep working. But we cannot discredit what has been a bold effort. We have achieved something that people believed impossible just six months ago."