Higinio
Martinez Warns of Comatose State of Cocopa, Calls for Review
of Militarization in Chiapas
La Jornada Tuesday, April 25, 2000.
Andrea Becerril.
The Commission for Concordance and Peace (Cocopa) should move
out of its immobility and review the "dangerous" situation
prevailing in the chiapaneco conflict zone, due to the military
advance and to paramilitary groups, according to the acting
president of that body, Higinio Marti'nez Miranda.
The PRD member said that it is important that the information
gathered by legislators and members of civil society, who recently
visited the Selva and the Northern region of Chiapas, be discussed
by the Cocopa, since they verified the increased military presence
in the area of zapatista influence, including the decision to
build a training center for the Army and Air Force in the community
of Maravilla Tenejapa.
"I believe that, if Senator Carlos Paya'n and Deputy Gilberto
Lo'pez y Rivas, who are members of the Cocopa, proposed it,
the issue could be brought before the full commission, since
the information they obtained is truly worrisome."
The scene which this group found in Chiapas "is very different
from the one the government always paints. Now we have concrete
facts that demonstrate that, instead of decreasing, militarization
is advancing around the EZLN, for the obvious purpose of encircling
them," Marti'nez Miranda noted.
He noted, however, that the Cocopa is, "regrettably,"
going through a difficult period, since the PRI senators and
deputies who are members of it have closed off any possibilities
of it fulfilling its obligations. "The commission is in
a virtual comatose state, since the PRI companeros are more
interested in how to construct the archives or the memories
of their term."
It is within this context, he insisted, that the tricolor legislators
had shut down the possibility of holding an international seminar
on peace processes and prevented an agreement on travelling
to Chiapas and visiting the new bishop of San Cristo'bal de
Las Casas, Felipe Arizmendi. "They don't want to talk to
the President of the Republic, they don't want anything to be
done, and since in the Cocopa all decisions are made by consensus,
their vote against stopped any initiatives by those of us who
wanted to carry out our mission."
The PRD senator denied that there was the risk of the Cocopa's
disappearance. "We would not allow it, because it is the
body which guarantees that dialogue will not be declared to
be broken. What we can do is to declare a recess, so that the
government and civil society will understand that we don't want
to be accomplices to a lazy attitude towards Chiapas."
The Acting President of the Cocopa said that a proposal to that
effect had already been formulated, but PRI deputies and senators
were opposed. "They don't want there to be any activity,
but neither do they want to assume a position that could be
a call to attention to the parties in conflict, in the sense
that we want to do something during the remainder of the legislative
period in order to make progress in a solution to the conflict." |