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Column U.S. arms to Mexico repeats dark past
By MOISES SANDOVAL
With Central America's civil wars
over, arms are now flowing to Mexico at a rapid rate. The Pentagon, business
community and political leaders have apparently decided our vital interests are
threatened. And rather than urging Mexico's leaders to deal with the social
conditions that led to the rise of the Zapatistas and, more recently, another
rebel group in Guerrero, weapons are flowing southward so that Mexico can
eliminate the rebels. Thus the mistakes made in Central America in recent
decades will be repeated, this time closer to home.
Delivery of the first shipments of a $50 million weapons and
reconnaissance package began in November, according to an Inter Press Service
story by Jeffrey St. Clair. Included were 73 Huey helicopters, four
reconnaissance planes, 500 armored personnel transporters, night vision and
command control and communications equipment and many kinds of individual and
crew-served weapons.
The stated purpose of the shipments is to fight drug wars, but the
true purpose, according to St. Clair, harks back to a recommendation made in
1994 by the Chase Bank. In an advisory to its clients -- a position later
disowned -- the bank stated that the Zapatistas "should be eliminated." The
Inter Press Report quotes Donald E. Schultz, professor of national security at
the U.S. Army's War College as saying: "A hostile government could put U.S.
investments (in Mexico) in danger, jeopardize access to oil, produce a flood of
refugees and economic migrants to the north." Similar statements were often
made about Central America in the 1980s.
Kathy Vargas, a Maryknoll lay missioner based in Mexico who
occasionally accompanies her husband, Javier, on visits to Chiapas where he has
projects with indigenous groups, said recently that Chiapas has become a
garrison state. One third of Mexico's Armed Forces, 60,000 troops, are
stationed in the region. "There are encampments of 500 troops literally a
stone's throw from villages of fewer than 300 people," Vargas said. For
indigenous people, some of whom have never visited a city or even seen
automobiles, the sight of tanks, helicopters, jeeps, trucks and sophisticated
weaponry is extremely intimidating, she added.
The occupying army has brought prostitution, venereal disease,
AIDS and drug abuse. Alcoholism has worsened and rapes have increased. Over 50
rapes were reported in the conflict zone the past two years. The villagers
suffer continual harassment and intimidation, house raids, land evictions and
forced labor. They are denied freedom of movement and the right of peaceful
assembly. More than a year ago, over a thousand Ch'ol Indians were forced to
leave their homes. They are now returning, but the government will not assure
their safety.
"In Chiapas there is neither peace nor justice," said Vargas. The
war in Chiapas has not ended. It has just taken new forms.
Human rights workers, pastoral agents, teachers, social workers
and journalists have all suffered attacks and threats, Vargas said. "Three
missionary priests have been forcibly deported during the past two years and
two others have been denied re-entry into Mexico," she said.
Encouraged by the flow of arms, the Mexican government has taken a
hard line in dealing with the Zapatistas. Negotiations did not begin until a
year after Mexican troops had beaten back the Zapatistas from the townships
they invaded. Bad faith and foot-dragging characterized the talks, which were
supposed to deal with indigenous rights and culture, democracy and justice,
well-being and development and women's rights. The discussions were suspended
in September by the Zapatistas, who charged that the government had not
fulfilled initial agreements.
According to St. Clair, the Pentagon became interested in sending
arms to Mexico in 1988. During the Bush administration such shipments came to
$212 million. The Clinton administration will easily exceed that amount. When
the Zapatistas marched out of the Lacandon forest and seized five townships in
Chiapas on Jan. 1, 1994, several helicopters meant for drug interdiction were
used to transport Mexican troops to the combat zone. A 1996 General Accounting
Office report says that was a violation of the transfer agreement between the
United States and Mexico. Yet, according to reports, U.S. officials have not
insisted on strict compliance.
Instead, officials are beginning to speak more openly about
providing arms to defeat rebel groups. James Jones, U.S. ambassador to Mexico,
was reported to have said in a public telecommunications conference last
September that the United States was willing to provide increased military
support to fight rebel groups. "Whatever they need, we will certainly support,"
Jones was quoted as saying.
Forgotten -- if indeed they were ever considered -- are the causes
that lead to the rise of these movements: poverty, inequality, political
corruption, electoral fraud, economic and political manipulation of the poor to
the advantage of the rich and powerful. Decades of warfare did not solve those
problems in Central America and will not solve them in Mexico.
Moises Sandoval is editor of Revista Maryknoll, a
Spanish-English mission magazine, and editor-at-large of Maryknoll
magaine.
National Catholic Reporter, February 14,
1997
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