Central Committee of the CP of M (M-L)
Mexico
January, 1994

To Public Opinion
To the People of Mexico

In regard to the events that are taking place in the south of the country, the Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist) declares that:

1) The events in Chiapas are a clear reflection of the critical situation to which the PRI government and the financial oligarchy has brought Mexico. Therefore, the central government is the only one to blame for the violence that has been unleashed.

The legality of the constitutional framework has been placed in the service of the bourgeoisie since 1917, being utilized or violated by the rulers in favor of the capitalists and landlords, betraying the popular struggles for which Zapata, Villa and thousands of Mexicans eager for social justice gave their lives. In Mexico for a long time there has not been a genuine State of Law and the government itself has been the principle violator of the constitutional provisions.

The recent changes to the Constitution have further deepened this situation, overturning legality to accommodate it to the interests of the big national and foreign capitalists, violating national sovereignty, signing NAFTA with the United States and Canada, affecting communal lands and other communal property, handing over the resources of the country to the North American imperialists.

2) The PRI government is leading the country towards a social upheaval by its anti-democracy, presidential authoritarianism and neo-liberal schemes, called "social liberalism," which benefits only a few while impoverishing millions of Mexicans and handing over our labor and riches to the imperialist greed of the United States.

3) The class struggle in our country, in the framework of the neo-liberal capitalist model of savage accumulation, is leading to a situation of inequality that is deeper each time, which has led the oppressed masses to confront these measures in various forms, to try to limit the social inequality and the deterioration of the conditions of life of the majority of Mexicans. This resistance has given rise to a wide spectrum of rejection and struggle in the whole country, by means of diverse forms: from marches against NAFTA, the popular seizure of San Lázaro against the reforms of the tenant law, the vigils of those who have been laid off from enterprises such as PEMEX [the state oil company], the workers' protest for unemployment [insurance], etc.; to the denunciation, mobilization and seizure of municipal palaces against the fraud and bribery in various states of the republic such as Guanajuato, San Luís Potosí, Nayarit, Guerrero, Yucatán and Mexico State recently, in which the electoral processes failed to recognize the popular will. Although the results of these elections are being manipulated in favor of the PRI-PAN [PRI: ruling party, PAN: conservative opposition party] pair by means of the so-called agreement which conceals the way of the imposition from above, they form part of the struggle of the Mexicans against the anti-democracy of the regime. The armed uprising in Chiapas signifies the adoption of another form of struggle of the Mexican people faced with the so-called neo-liberal economic "modernization" subordinated to North American imperialism.

4) Just as in all the states and regions of Mexico in which peasants and indigenous communities live, the central oligarchic power maintained by the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari with its program of service to the big capitalists and landlords, has generated the economic, political and social causes which have given rise to the armed uprising of the peasants and indigenous people of various ethnic groups in Chiapas.

In 1993 in this one state alone 15 thousand indigenous people have died due to hunger, misery, lack of health, repression and political assassinations sponsored by the local chiefs. Furthermore, various indigenous people were jailed, accused of "treason to the fatherland" for their participation in legitimate struggles for land and the defense of their lives and families faced with armed gangs sponsored by the landlords with the complicity of the military commands and the state government.

This devastating reality also exists in states such as Oaxaca, Veracruz, Puebla, Michoacán, Guerrero, Morelos, Mexico State, Sinaloa, Sonora, Chihuahua and Tabasco, among others.

With the entry into effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), particularly with the change of Article 27 of the Constitution, the indigenous communities and thousands of peasants are losing still more the possibility of demanding justice and a solution to their age-old problems, and they are losing, as will the nation as a whole, the possibility of maintaining and defending their sovereignty over their lands and the riches found within them. Therefore, it is just to demand the removal of the chiefs, cattle ranchers, landlords, forest destroyers and corrupt authorities, who have historically been protected by the central government. Therefore, it is not by chance that the current Secretary of the Interior Patrocinio González Garrido, had been governor of Chiapas until just a few months ago.

5) Faced with this panorama, it is justified and legitimate that the peasants, indigenous people and workers of the city rise up in arms.

The armed uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) gives an example of the exhaustion of the accords from the top among the parties, which have only used the indigenous people, peasants and workers in general to gain a space and maintain or obtain privileges without providing any real and concrete solutions to the great problems of the majority of Mexicans. Therefore, the declarations of the political parties calling for "harmony and peace" are opportunist, when in practice the injustice is national and they have thought first of all of their sinecures and afterwards of the needs and afflictions of the people: more than 67 million Mexicans live in poverty, working people of both the city and the country, workers, peasants, indigenous people, unemployed, street vendors, teachers, students, etc.

6) The Communist Party of Mexico (M-L), in regard to the events in Chiapas, demands:

- Respect for the life and human rights of the civilian population with the application of the international Geneva Accords regarding civil wars and the treatment of prisoners.

- An end to the executions of prisoners of the EZLN by the federal army.

- An end to the bombardments in populated zones and areas in which the civilian population is found.

- Respect for the indigenous communities, their forms of organization in the areas of conflict.

- Respect for freedom of the press by the government. Mexico has the right to be informed in a truthful and timely manner. Safe conduct guarantees must be given to journalists in the areas of conflict.

- The belligerent status of the EZLN is historic and undeniable. Therefore, the government must give a political treatment to any attempt at conversation with those who have risen up. Although various national sectors have demonstrated in favor of a dialogue, the actions of war of the federal army, the indiscriminate bombardments, the executions of Zapatista combatants, the official attacks in the press, do not permit one to believe there is an adequate climate to begin an approach. The official proposal of "negotiations" is overpowering and will only lead to further confrontations and the aggravation of the situation. To impose conditions on the conversations is to refuse to dialogue. No one takes up arms to put them down the following day and even less when the rebellion is justified as is the case with the EZLN.

7) The CPM(M-L) shares, together with other Mexican revolutionaries, the struggle for the establishment of socialism and the overthrow of the present regime of exploitation.

Therefore we call upon the working class and the people of Mexico to raise the struggle within a National Convergence of Popular Opposition against the bourgeois pro-imperialist regime, to break the corporate control of the trade unions, the wage limits and the cancellation of NAFTA as an attack against our national sovereignty and the interests of the Mexicans. We call for a struggle for the non-payment of the foreign debt, and for the expropriation of the riches held by 13 multi-millionaires and 33 families who have enriched themselves on the backs of the labor and poverty of millions of Mexicans.

The capitalist system reigning in the country, far from solving the social and economic problems, has made them deeper. Its very nature generates violence.

The elections of 1994 in the best of cases will serve for the reaccomodation of some and the continuation of the PRI government; the country needs profound solutions in all aspects, a true democracy with effective popular participation. Mexico needs a new legal and constitutional framework. Therefore,

WE PROPOSE:

The convocation of a Democratic and Popular National Constituent Assembly which returns the sovereignty and power to the people as primary constituent, thereby permitting their participation and effective decision in the political course of Mexico.

This Assembly should consider, among other points:

a) The creation of a new legal entity in the whole republic.

b) Trial of government functionaries who have enriched themselves through the corrupt management of state resources.

c) The handing over of the land of the landlords, chiefs and large estate owners to the peasants and indigenous communities.

d) Credits and technical assistance to the peasants.

e) Abolition of the Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration and of the Secretary of Labor and the establishment of Labor Tribunals made up of authorities elected by the workers.

f) A general increase in wages in the countryside and in the city both to employed and unemployed workers.

g) Abolition of child labor.

h) Abolition of the Secretary of Agrarian Reform and establishment of agrarian tribunals with functionaries elected freely and democratically by the peasants.

i) Respect for the self-determination of the indigenous peoples, for their lands, languages and traditions.

The socialist revolution is the only solution!

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