Mexico’s Zapatista Guerrillas Get Bad News On Two Fronts Major Party Drops Support And The Government Refuses To Withdraw Troops

Rebels here in the southern border state of Chiapas were dealt a double setback Friday, as the Mexican government rejected their conditions for negotiating peace while a major national party withdrew its backing of the guerrilla movement’s political wing.

President Ernesto Zedillo’s government, which waged a five-day pursuit of rebel leaders that sent their rank and file fleeing into the Chiapas jungle last week, rejected a key rebel demand that army troops withdraw from their newly seized positions. Rebel spokesmen already had emerged from hiding earlier this week, saying they would not agree to peace talks unless troops pulled back.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s largest liberal opposition party withdrew its support of Chiapas’s “rebel government in transition” and formally recognized the rule of Gov. Julio Cesar Ruiz, who was installed by Zedillo’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) following the resignation Tuesday of governor Eduardo Robledo.

Recognition by the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution of PRI rule over Chiapas removes a big political barrier for Zedillo at a crucial moment in his efforts to win multi-party support for a plan to bring a national economic crisis under control. Chiapas has been one of the main flash points of tension and investor uncertainty in Mexico since the Zapatistas launched their uprising on Jan. 1, 1994.

With Democratic Revolution no longer blocking Zedillo in Chiapas, the president’s hand is strengthened to prod the Zapatistas toward peace talks. Until Friday, the party had claimed that its gubernatorial candidate in state elections last August, Amado Avendano, was robbed of the governorship through widespread vote fraud committed by Zedillo’s long-ruling party.

Democratic Revolution also backed Avendano’s formation of a “rebel government in transition” on Dec. 8 - the same day as Robledo’s inauguration - while throwing its support behind the Zapatistas’ agenda of far-reaching social and political change.

In exchange, the Zapatistas recognized Avendano’s rebel government. On Dec. 19, they expanded their year-old rebellion to central and northern portions of Chiapas, seizing several towns and erecting signs declaring them to be under Avendano’s authority, with all taxes and utility bills to be paid to him.

The rebellion’s apparent expansion, both politically and militarily, helped prompt the flight of billions of dollars in foreign investment from Mexico, leading to the Dec. 20 devaluation of the Mexican peso and a subsequent crash of the Mexican stock market.

Democratic Revolution thus far has refused to back Zedillo’s efforts to combat the economic effects of the devaluation but hinted Friday that progress had been made toward a new era of cooperation. The party said Robledo’s resignation, the halt of Zedillo’s military offensive against the Zapatistas and an offer of amnesty to rebels who turn in their weapons “open the possibility of initiating with seriousness the dialogue.”