On August 20, Chiapas elected a new governor. Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, representing the Alliance for Chiapas, won with 535,860 votes (51.5%) while Sami David, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) received 475,267 votes (45.7%). In the 24 districts where elections were held, the opposition candidate won in fifteen and the candidate of the former ruling party in nine.

According to the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), there were 2,090,545 eligible registered voters, of whom less than 50 percent voted. Voter turnout was 10% lower than in the July presidential elections.

The Alliance for Chiapas, which was formed to back Salazar and which for the first time united eight parties from all political tendencies, won the most important cities: Tuxtla Gutierrez (the state capital), Tapachula and San Cristobal de las Casas. These were the most heavily observed elections in the history of Mexico. More than 4,000 national observers and almost a hundred internationals, accredited by the State Electoral Council (CEE), fanned out across all of Chiapas.

Election Day

Although violent incidents, threats, rumors, and strong verbal attacks between the opposition and pro-government groups characterized the pre-electoral atmosphere, the state elections were unusually calm. There were neither the usual Army nor Immigration checkpoints, and soldiers in the area were confined to their camps.

The Zapatistas did not take a position on the election, nor did they carry out actions to impede or block the vote in their area of influence, as they did in 1997. High levels of abstentionism were noted in their principal area of influence, the Lacandon Jungle, where in the midst of general calm, considerably less than half the electorate voted. The PRI won by a slim margin of 1,305 votes in the Ocosingo electoral district.

In the northern region and in the Chiapas highlands, there was greater and more evident tension. The Alliance for Chiapas won handily in the former (a traditional stronghold of the alleged paramilitary group Development, Peace and Justice), despite the climate of tension and threats and the overall control of the electoral process by PRI loyalists.

In these regions, around five thousand displaced people had to travel to their places of origin or to the district capitals in order to vote, since special polling booths were not installed in the refugee camps.

Irregularities and advances in the electoral process

In spite of overwhelming administrative difficulties, the CEE acted with an independence and impartiality that Mexican electoral organizations did not have, especially in Chiapas, before the reforms that began in 1996.

Despite the advances noted in the CEE, there were formal complaints about votes being bought, coerced or induced; the use of government social programs as campaign propaganda; and violation of the secret vote, especially in the rural areas which comprise most of the state. (For more information, see “Report on Electoral Observation” on the SIPAZ website: www.sipaz.org).

In the aftermath of the elections, on October 16 the state Congress approved a series of electoral reforms that were criticized as a step backwards in the democratization process. The reforms passed on the basis of the PRI’s majority and despite the opposition of the other political parties. The reforms include prohibiting alliances among political parties in local mayor and state congressional races; replacing the figure of citizen counselor with that of electoral counselor; and changing the structure of the State Electoral Tribunal. In response, the President of the State Electoral Council, Eduardo Pineda, resigned in protest, and opposition political parties announced that they would ask the Supreme Court to declare the reforms unconstitutional.

Agrarian conflicts

The pre-electoral campaign took place in an atmosphere of great tension due to various conflicts linked to land.

Only two weeks before election day, the tone of violence was increasing. On lands in Progreso and Paraiso, in the county of Yajalon, a uniformed paramilitary group violently displaced approximately 60 Zapatista families from their homes. In Ocosingo, latent friction due to agrarian disputes among PRI supporters, Zapatistas and independents was on the rise. It should be noted that in this region there had previously been confrontations between Zapatista supporters and independent peasant organizations in several places.

Last June, the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (CDHFBC) filed a complaint against the Mexican Army on behalf of the residents of the Amador Hernandez ejido (communal landholding) in the county of Ocosingo. It was accepted by the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH). The basis of the complaint is the dispossession of ejido residents and the ecological damage caused by the Army when it entered the village on August 9, 1999. According to ejido members, after originally occupying five hectares (about 12.5 acres), the Army expanded to occupy eight. In addition to the CNDH case, CDHFBC also filed suit in federal court.

In an executive decree published October 18, President Zedillo expropriated 3.5 hectares of the Amador Hernandez ejido. According to the decree, the expropriated land is to be used for the construction of military facilities. In response, CDHFBC observed that the expropriation demonstrates that the entry of the Army in that place was for counter-insurgency purposes. CDHFBC also expressed its confidence that the courts would not allow themselves to be used to uphold such a violation of social rights.

Final results July 2 elections

San Andres Accords

President-elect Vicente Fox declared several times that he would withdraw the Army from Chiapas, but only upon the re-establishment of the dialogue with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). In one of his speeches, he declared that the problem of Chiapas is regional (and not national), but it needed to be resolved. According to Fox, this is a propitious time to resume talks and to find a peaceful solution to the problems facing the state. He stated that one of his first priorities when he assumes power on December 1 will be to send to Congress the legislation proposed by the congressional Commission for Agreement and Pacification (COCOPA). Drafted in order to implement the San Andres Accords, the proposal requires congressional approval. Some PRI deputies have said that they will support the proposal. However it is likely to face competing proposals, and its future is uncertain.

In this context, the ex-commissioner for peace in Chiapas, Marco Antonio Bernal, stated that the conditions for dialogue do not currently exist, and that in order for it to happen, it is first necessary to work on implementing the San Andres Accords.

Congress is currently in the process of determining the new makeup of COCOPA, the congressional commission created to assist with the peace process in Chiapas. It remains to be seen what posture it will adopt vis a vis the conflict.

On August 11, the President of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Erica Irene Daes, presented a report to the UN Sub-commission for Human Rights, based on her visit to Mexico last April at the invitation of President Zedillo. The report recommends that the federal government implement the San Andres Accords, and that the government and the EZLN reinitiate dialogue. It points out that the militarization in indigenous communities and the increasing use of the Army for police functions create situations of violence, an atmosphere of fear, and violation of human rights, including the right to life, to physical integrity and to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention.

Fox and the NGOs

Signaling a clear difference from his predecessors, President-elect Vicente Fox made contacts with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Mexican society. A first meeting took place in August in Mexico City (in which SIPAZ participated). Following that, Fox met with NGOs in Canada and the United states. In September, Fox’s transition team announced a proposed legislative reform that would permit Mexican NGOs to participate in the planning, execution and evaluation of public policies.

Unusual Events

Paralleling the PRI’s electoral defeats, in August in Chimalhuacan (state of Mexico), a bloody brawl took place between two PRI mobs that resulted in ten deaths, 42 wounded and 245 arrests. Guadalupe Buendia (known as “The Wolf”), who had exercised absolute power there since 1996, was charged with responsibility for the clash.

In an unusual admission, during an interview with reporters on September 29, Army General Enrique Canovas Buenrostro, who commands approximately ten military camps in an area of Zapatista influence in the Chiapas highlands, acknowledged the existence of paramilitary groups in the state. He indicated that they operate in the northern region and the Lacandon Jungle, while the highlands region is “peaceful.”

In September, the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) issued orders for members of alleged paramilitary groups that operate in the counties of Yajalon and Venustiano Carranza to turn themselves in. According to reports from that department, there are twelve arrest orders against one group and ten against another. However, and despite testimony and other evidence that indicate that they function as paramilitary groups, the PGR stated that it was only a case of violent thieves.

Nonetheless, in an impressive police operation on October 28, elements of the PGR’s Special Unit for Attention to Crimes Committed by Probable Armed Civilian Groups detained eleven members of the alleged paramilitary group Development, Peace and Justice and the Farming and Forestry Indigenous Peasant Union (UCIAF, a group formed after a split within Development, Peace and Justice ). Among them were two of the key leaders, Samuel Sanchez, ex-PRI state congress member, and Marcos Albino Torres, an ex-Army captain. Also among those arrested was Mario Cruz Perez, leader of the group that invaded the Paraiso property in the county of Yajalon (see above).

Reportedly they are accused of the federal crimes of terrorism, possession of illegal firearms, criminal association, rioting, organized crime, assault, property damage, and dispossession of property. The PGR indicated that the investigations it had been conducting intensified after the violent displacement of 60 families in Yajalon in August. Those arrested attributed their detention to political pressure exerted on the government by national and international NGOs. Top state government officials (of the outgoing PRI administration) reportedly offered economic and political support, including top-flight legal assistance, to the detainees.

Zedillo’s Report

On the first of September, President Zedillo released his last Annual Report, which was criticized by the opposition for omitting the conflict in Chiapas. Among other observations, President-elect Fox commented that it did not deal with critical issues of the last five years, including the conflict in Chiapas and the massacres at Acteal and Aguas Blancas.

Political Scandal

One day before the presentation of Zedillo’s Report, generals Francisco Quiroz Hermosillo and Mario Arturo Acosta Caparro, were arrested and accused of having links to drug trafficking. General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Attorney General of Military Justice, said that they could be sentenced to 50 years in prison if found guilty.

Fox’s Tours

Between August and October, President-elect Vicente Fox traveled to Central America (Costa Rica, San Salvador and Nicaragua); South America (Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay); North America (Canada and United States); Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and England); and Colombia to talk with government and business people, to introduce the new face of Mexico, and to discuss trade agreements.

Election in Tabasco

In a controversial election on October 22, PRI candidate Manuel Andrade was declared the new governor of Tabasco, a state bordering Chiapas. In that contest, his strongest opponent was PRD candidate Cesar Raul Ojeda. According to the State Electoral Institute of Tabasco, the PRI obtained 298,969 votes against 290,968 for the PRD. The PRD claimed widespread fraud and refused to recognize the outcome, pledging instead to appeal in federal court. It also called for a statement by President-elect Fox, who had not taken a public position on the controversy.