The EPR: Mexico's "Other" Guerillas
Gatsiopolous, Georgina
Mexico's "other" armed movement, the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), made its first public appearance this past June 28, at a memorial service in the state of Guerrero commemorating the...
...The governor of Guerrero invited the EPR to lay down its arms and talk, but to no avail...
...Because they emerged at a particularly delicate moment in talks between the government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), and because of their penchant for hard-line Leninist rhetoric, the EPR guerrillas have yet to capture the imagination of the Mexican press-at least not to the degree of the "good guerrillas" of the EZLN...
...The EPR, despite its hard line, has sought to work with other political organizations and activists...
...Dozens of masked men and women dressed in military uniforms and brandishing high-caliber weapons suddenly appeared at the service in the village of Aguas Blancas...
...Yet the government has since increased its military presence in southern Mexico and elsewhere, particularly the region known as the Huasteca, comprised of parts of the states of Veracruz, San Luis Potosi and Hidalgo...
...Less than a week later, the the army in EPR confirmed the claims of "Oscar" and "Vicente," sur- several states put prising Mexico by launching simultaneous operations on to rest the August 28 in different parts of the country...
...Clashes government's between the EPR and govern- theo that the ment troops in several states ry that th resulted in at least 12 dead- EPR is a "tiny the highest toll in the lush resort town of Huatulco on group of the Pacific Coast of the state of Oaxaca, where about a delinquents...
...Meanwhile, yet another new guerrilla group has appeared in the north of Mexico...
...In his last state of the union address, for example, President Zedillo called the EPR nothing more than an unfortunate incident...
...In an interview with reporters from Proceso and the'opposition daily, La Jornada, held in a safe house "somewhere near Mexico City," the two guerril- las claimed the group was on the verge of demonstrating Clashesbetween its ability to strike through- the EPR and out the country...
...Now, local officials say they are no longer willing to negotiate with the guerrillas, and will allow the police and the military to handle the problem...
...After reading a manifesto in Spanish and Nahuatl in which they described their origins-"we come from the sadness of widows and orphans, from the absence created by our disappeared loved ones"-the armed group called for the overthrow of the "unjust and illegitimate" government...
...Mexico's "other" armed movement, the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), made its first public appearance this past June 28, at a memorial service in the state of Guerrero commemorating the massacre of 17 campesinos by state police the year before...
...That description was repeated by interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet, as well as leftist politicians and most columnists in Mexico's opposition press...
...Attacks in three other states-Guerrero, Puebla and Mexico-put to rest the government's theory that the EPR is just a "tiny group of delinquents...
...Meanwhile, despite Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet's claim that the EPR is a "pretend" group of delinquents numbering less than 300, the military now has an additional 10,000 troops in Guerrero, and is routinely rounding up and questioning dissi- dent peasant leaders who have no connection with the guerrillas...
...Former opposition presidential candidate CuahtLmoc Cardenas, who attended the Aguas Blancas memorial service and witnessed the EPR's debut, referred to the group as "a grotesque pantomime...
...The Mexican government initially attempted to minimize the significance of the second rebel group to appear in Mexico...
...Marcos, speaking for the Zapatistas, denied any relationship with the group...
...dozen armed men and women attacked the local police and military .offices...
...In a recent letter to the editor pub- lished in the Mexican daily, El Financiero, the Procup member said that his organization as well as the EPR were members of a political umbrella orga- nization called the People's Democratic Revo- lutionary Party which is comprised, he said, of 14 organizations...
...Two months after the EPR's first appearance, the cover of the Mexico City newsweekly, Proceso, fea- tured two red-hooded men, identified as EPR mem- bers "Oscar" and "Vicente," under the headline: "This is not a pantomime...
...Lauding both the EPR and the EZLN for "their heroic efforts on behalf of the marginalized social classes," the Revolutionary Army of the Popular Insurgence (ERIP) announced its existence on November 20, the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1910-1917 Mexican Revolution...
...The EPR sent a message back saying, "we don't talk to assassins...
...we are operating throughout the entire country...
...After numerous press reports claiming that the EPR was the military arm of an older Mexican guerrilla group, the Clandestine Workers Revolutionary Party and People's Union (Procup), a member of Procup finally spoke up...
...As quickly and mysteriously as they had appeared, they melted back into the mountains...
...And the Mexican left is, at best, ambivalent...
Vol. 30 • January 1997 • No. 4
