But the 'Indios' remember:
Huerta, Alberto
rests delivered a thumping body blow to the organization. Still, Marcos/Guilldn, or whatever his name, is the Zapatistas' big enchilada. Putting him away quickly could burnish Zedillo's badly...
...Mexico must now put up as yearly collateral $6-billion worth of its nationalized oil, some of it from Chiapas, for U.S...
...For example, he steamrolled legislation and constitutional amendments through a pliant Congress dominated by his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI...
...laid for Emiliano Zapata...
...Then, he stayed largely on the sidelines while Bill Clinton dominated Mexico City headlines-first, for battling the U.S...
...Next, he looked on as Serra Puche's replacement, Guillermo Ortfz Martfnez, sought to propitiate bankers and investors...
...But the pelting by 500 PRI landowners of the cathedral of San Cristobal de las Casas as the police stood by for two hours made Zedillo appear insincere...
...By contrast, Salinas often exercised executive power without respecting the law, the constitution, or other branches of gov ernment...
...ALBERTO HUERTA Alberto 1Juerta, S.J., is an associate professor in the Deparuneni of Modern and Classical Languages at the University oJ'San Francisco...
...If Zedillo had hoped to upgrade his image as a tough president by ordering the arrest of the Zapatista leaders, the cease fire put him in a quandary: How likely were the fugitives to negotiate when there were outstanding warrants for their arrest...
...The governing party's Ivy-League-educated brain trust delayed information about Mexico's economic situation until after the August elections, devalued the peso in December...
...Putting him away quickly could burnish Zedillo's badly tarnished image, which suffered another setback in midFebruary when the right-wing PAN candidate trounced his ruling party opponent for the governorship of Jalisco state...
...then, in bypassing American lawmakers to craft a $50-billion bailout in concert with the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of International Settlements, and other financial institutions...
...Since Mexico's oil was nationalized in 1938, it has been jealously protected as a national treasure...
...and then blamed the Chiapas uprising for the peso's fall...
...Those close to Ruiz said Robledo's action was an orchestrated strategy by Zedillo to remove "the meddlesome and maverick bishop " Some Mexicans are angered and most are skeptical...
...As one Zapatista said: "Don't forget April 10, 1919, and the trap...
...and foreign investors...
...But the 'Indios' remember Commonweal 10 March 1995: 5...
...Bishop Ruiz, the Zapatista mediator and TaticFather-to the Maya, has refused to resign, and has five years before mandatory retirement...
...Purportedly, Zediila agreed to an amnesty plan that included the Zapatista leaders...
...He also removed from office the governors of half the country's thirtyone states, often because they had embarrassed his administration...
...But many Mexicans, including the Maya in Chiapas, see this as a flashback to the days of Porfirio Dfaz (1830-1915), the dictator who practically gave the country's natural resources to foreign interests and was a cause of the 1910 revolution and Zapata's insurgency...
...The reason is simple...
...Today's Zapatistas will scrutinize whatever offer the government makes...
...And he disdained primary elections to select PRI candidates in favor of hand-picking nominees in a procedure called the dedazo of which Zedillo is a beneficiary...
...Ironically, Salinas-impelled reforms have made it more difficult for the politically inexperienced Zedillo to emulate his predecessor's decisive actions...
...military actions in Chiapas, were temporarily relieved when he called for a cease fire...
...Nor are Mexicans happy with the implications of the $50billian bailout, including the increase in interest rates...
...For now, they want the army to leave the jungle as a good faith gesture in the peace process, something the army has not done...
...Congress on behalf of a $40-billion stabilization scheme...
...The Zapatistas, deep in the Lancanddn jungle, were not taking any chances with Zedillo's flip-flops...
...In addition, he worked ceaselessly to undermine the balkanized, leftist-nationalist Democratic Revolutionary Party, while boosting the stock of the center-right PAN...
...Third, the sharp reduction in import permits and other regulatory devices in an ever-freer market obviates the need for so many patronage jobs, while reducing a source of boodle exicans, dig i led about President Ernesto Zedillo...
...Mexicans expect their leaders to act decisively...
...Columnists in local newspapers-from the highly respected Reforma to the tendentious Unomasuno-have literally shouted the question: "Who's running the Mexican government...
...First, opposition-party control of at least one-quarter of the expanded, 128-seat Senate provides an important tribune for critics of presidential initiatives...
...Second, the economic liberalization highlighted by NAFTA has undercut key interest groups-trade unions, peasant organization, and government workers-that form an integral part of the once-cohesive PRI political machine...
...Many PRI leaders, especially old-guard "dinosaurs," deplore the effort by Zedillo, a convinced democrat, to distance the presidency from his own party...
...Indios have long memories and expressed suspicion and fear of walking into a legal and political ambush...
...But since taking office in December, Zedillo has seemed the ineffective prisoner rather than the articulate master of events...
...The populist revolutionary hero was shot by government troops during peace negotiations...
...He remained missing-in-action as Finance Minister Jaime Serra Puche bungled the Christmas-time peso devaluation, emerging only to fire his long-time confidant in late December...
...Zedillo must also decide about the call of the formergov ernor of Chiapas, Eduardo Robledo Rincbn, for the resignation of Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal de las Casas...
Vol. 122 • March 1995 • No. 5
