CHIAPAS TIMELINE

January 1, 1994: The primarily indigenous Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) stages an armed uprising in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, demanding democracy, liberty, and justice for all Mexicans. The EZLN's General Command issues the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, and the municipalities of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, Altamirano, Chanal, Oxchuc, and Huixtan are all taken by the rebels.

January 12, 1994: Following nearly two weeks of heavy fighting, with casualties in the hundreds or possibly thousands, a cease-fire is declared by the Mexican government, and honored by the EZLN.

January 18, 1994: The EZLN recognizes Manuel Camacho Solís, former mayor of Mexico City, as the official government representative for negotiations.

February 21, 1994: The first direct dialogue between the EZLN and the federal government, moderated by San Cristóbal bishop Samuel Ruiz García, begins in the cathedral of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

March 2, 1994: The peace talks in San Cristóbal come to an end. 24 "tentative" agreements are reached based on the government's responses to 34 demands of the EZLN. The government has refused to make commitments regarding political issues on a national level. The EZLN declares that the results of the talks will be submitted to a long consultation among all the Zapatista communities and civilian bases of support.

March 24, 1994: The EZLN's consultations are temporarily suspended due to the assassination of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.

April 9, 1994: Bishop Samuel Ruiz, mediator in the peace talks, is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the first time.

May 30, 1994: Consultations end in the Zapatista communities.

June 12, 1994: The Second Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle is issued by the EZLN. The results of the consultation are made public: 97.88% reject the government's proposals for reaching a definitive solution to the conflict, while only 2.11% are in favor of signing peace. However, only 3.26% manifest a desire to return to hostilities, so the decision is made to continue abiding by the cease-fire, while opening a new dialogue with Civil Society. The EZLN calls for the realization of a National Democratic Convention.

June 16, 1994: The government negotiator, Manuel Camacho Solís, resigns his post while accusing the PRI's new presidential candidate, Ernesto Zedillo, of sabotaging the negotiations.

August 5-9, 1994: The National Democratic Convention (CND) is held in EZLN territory, Chiapas, with more than 6,000 people from around the country in attendance to dialogue with the Zapatistas.

October 11, 1994: The EZLN breaks off all talks with the federal government, citing continued repression, a build-up of the Mexican army's forces around their territory, and increased military provocations.

October 26, 1994: Bishop Samuel Ruiz proposes the formation of a plural, National Intermediation Commission (CONAI).

December 1, 1994: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León takes office as President of the United States of Mexico. Declares that "there will not be violence in Chiapas on the part of the government".

December 8, 1994: The EZLN considers the 11-month old cease fire to have been broken with the fraudulent imposition of Eduardo Robledo Rincón as the new governor of Chiapas.

December 19, 1994: Bishop Samuel Ruiz announces a Fast for Peace in response to the government's attempts to remove him from his role of mediator of the conflict. He calls for international support.

December 19, 1994: The EZLN launches a new, "nonviolent" military offensive in Chiapas with the help of the civilian population. Overnight, over half of Chiapas is declared "rebel territory" without a single shot being fired, as Zapatistas appear in the municipal heads of 38 municipalities.

December 21, 1994: The peso is devalued, losing almost half its worth overnight. The government blames the Zapatista uprising, but cannot suppress news about government economic mismanagement and Salina's attempt to conceal the true state of the economy.

December 24, 1994: the EZLN and the federal government recognize the National Intermediation Commission (Conai) as a valid mediator.

December 27, 1994: The federal government orders its troops to halt military operations in Chiapas. In response, the EZLN reopens the zone to civilian transit, and suspends further offensive operations.

Chiapas Timeline -- 1995

January 2, 1995: The EZLN issues the Third Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, calling for the formation of a new "National Liberation Movement". Declares that peace will only come "hand in hand with democracy, liberty, and justice for all Mexicans".

January 15, 1995: The EZLN meets with the Conai and government representatives, including Interior Minister Estéban Moctezuma, in the Lacandon jungle. Both sides agree to work for the establishment of a stable cease-fire and a reopening of negotiations.

January 16, 1995: The EZLN announces a "unilateral and indefinite cease-fire" of all threatening, hostile, or offensive military actions.

February 9, 1995: The federal government suddenly announces arrest warrants for those it accuses of being the "top Zapatista leadership", unilaterally breaking the cease-fire, and launches a vast military offensive against the EZLN and their communities of supporters, both inside and outside of Chiapas. The EZLN, however, retreats into the mountains, as do most of their support bases, and refuses to return fire against the government troops.

February 9-March 11, 1995: The government continues its offensive, destroying and permanently occupying communities such as Guadalupe Tepeyac, bombing and wreaking havoc in others such as El Prado, and forcing over 20,000 indigenous supporters of the EZLN to flee into the mountains. The army is never able to locate the CCRI-CG(General Command) of the EZLN in order to apply the arrest warrants. However, several dozen people in Chiapas, Mexico State, Veracruz, and Mexico City are arrested, tortured, and jailed on trumped-up terrorism charges for supposedly being members of the EZLN.

February 14, 1995: Eduardo Robledo, Governor of Chiapas, steps down, and is replaced by Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro.

February, 1995: Global Exchange, a San Francisco based organization that supports public education and human rights all over the world, responds to Bishop Ruiz's call for international support and establishes an international peace house in San Cristobal de las Casas.

March 11, 1995: Upon tacitly recognizing the failure of the military operation, the Mexican Congress approves (and the President signs) the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas. The law calls for a reinitiation of peace talks, a suspension of military operations against the EZLN, a suspension of arrest warrants against its supposed leadership, as long as the dialogue continues. A legislative commission, the Commission on Concordance and Pacification (Cocopa), will be in charge of facilitating and laying the bases for this new dialogue.

March 17: The EZLN accepts the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas.

April 9, 1995: A delegation of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN meets with representatives of the federal government, the Conai, and the Cocopa in the village of San Miguel (municipality of Ocosingo) in order to agree upon the logistics and the agenda for the upcoming peace talks.

April 20, 1995: The EZLN and the federal government representatives meet for the first time in San Andrés Sacamch'en de los Pobres (Larrainzar), a Tzotzil Zapatista community in the highlands north of San Cristóbal, which will be the "permanent site of negotiations" between the two sides.

April 21, 1995: The federal government temporarily suspends the first meeting of the new peace talks, allegedly due to the presence of several thousand indigenous supporters of the EZLN who had arrived at San Andrés in order to take part in the civilian security cordons for the protection of the EZLN comandantes. The talks are renewed as soon as the CCRI-CG thanks their supporters, and asks them to return to their communities.

May 10, 1995: The EZLN rejects the government proposal to resolve the conflict by essentially cordoning off the insurgent troops of the EZLN into "autonomous" areas of relocation, which some compared to US style Indian Reservations, or even to concentration camps.

May 16, 1995: The EZLN and the Federal Government, meeting for their second major session in San Andrés, agree on minimal procedural guidelines for the continuation of the talks.

June 8, 1995: The EZLN, frustrated by the government's refusal to negotiate anything on a national level, and by the continued insistence that the EZLN's presence, influence, and demands are "limited to four Chiapas municipalities", decides to convoke a massive national and international Consulta(consultation, or plebiscite) to let all Mexicans, and even foreigners, vote on the EZLN's demands, as well as on the very future of the rebel organization itself. The dialogue with the government, meanwhile, seems to have stagnated.

August 27, 1995: The Consulta Nacional e Internacional is carried out, with the participation of over 1.2 million Mexicans, and more than 100,000 people from outside of Mexico. 97.5% of national voters expressed agreement with the principal demands of the EZLN; 92.7% agreed that all the democratic forces in the country should unite in a broad social and political opposition front in order to fight for those demands; 94.5% approved of a "profound political reform" in order to guarantee democracy; 93.1% agreed that women should be guaranteed equal representation and participation at all levels of civil and governmental responsibilities; and 52.6% suggested that the EZLN should convert itself into a new and independent political force (while 48.7% suggested this should be done through a unification process with pre-existing organizations). This was, indeed, the greatest success yet of the EZLN's attempts to dialogue with civil society.

September 10, 1995: The EZLN lays out its proposal for the rules of the dialogue and the installation of working groups to deal with six major themes for the dialogue: Indigenous Rights and Culture; Democracy and Justice; Welfare and Development; Reconciliation in Chiapas; Rights of Women in Chiapas; and, finally, the Cessation of Hostilities.

October 3, 1995: Installation of the negotiating table in San Andrés regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture. The EZLN announces that, in accordance with the governing procedures for the San Andrés negotiations--which allow for an unspecified number of "advisors" and "guests" to join each side at the negotiating table--it has invited more than 100 intellectuals, activists, and representatives of social, cultural, and indigenous organizations to become "advisors" to the EZLN during the talks on Indigenous Rights and Culture, thus opening up the negotiations to representatives of civil society throughout Mexico.

October 18-22, 1995: The first phase of talks is held between the EZLN and the Federal Government with regards to Indigenous Rights and Culture. The working groups are divided into the following: 1) Community and Autonomy: Indigenous Rights; 2) Guarantees of Justice to the Indigenous Peoples; 3) Political Participation and Representation of the Indigenous Peoples; 4) The Situation, Rights, and Culture of Indigenous Women; 5) Access to the Means of Communication; and 6) Promotion and Development of Indigenous Culture.

October 23, 1995: The Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) announces the October 21st arrest in Mexico City of Fernando Yañez Muñoz, previously accused by the Federal Government of being "Comandante German" of the EZLN. The EZLN, in turn, declares the arrest to be a direct violation of the Law for Dialogue and Reconciliation (which specifically prohibits the arrest of those accused of being members or leaders of the EZLN, as long as the dialogue between the two sides continues). The EZLN declares a "red alert".

October 27, 1995: Under pressure from the Cocopa, Yañez Muñoz is released and charges against him dropped.

October 28, 1995: The EZLN suspends the "red alert", and announces it will attend the upcoming second phase of peace talks in San Andrés regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture.

November 13-18, 1995: The second phase of talks regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture are held in San Andrés (with the same working group themes as phase I).

December, 1995: As the EZLN begins preparations for the New Year's celebration of the Second Anniversary of the Zapatista uprising, the Mexican Army heavily increases its presence in and around the indigenous communities of Chiapas. Tension is especially high surrounding the four new "Aguascalientes" being constructed in the villages of La Realidad, Oventic, La Garrucha, and Morelia.

December 31, 1995-January 1, 1996: Despite continuing threats of a new military offensive by the Mexican Army, the Zapatistas go ahead with their New Year's celebrations, and inaugurate the amphitheaters of the new Aguascalientes in La Realidad, Oventic, Morelia and La Garrucha. The Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle is issued by the EZLN, calling for the formation of a new Zapatista organization--the Zapatista Front of National Liberation (FZLN)--which is to be a national, nonviolent, and independent civilian political force with its base in the EZLN. This carries out the EZLN's promise to abide by the results of the Consulta Nacional e Internacional held five months earlier.

Chiapas Timeline -- 1996

January 3-10, 1996: The National Indigenous Forum is held in San Cristóbal de las Casas. The Forum, called for by the EZLN and its advisors, as well as the Cocopa and the Conai, was devised so as to receive the opinions and thoughts from indigenous peoples and representatives all over Mexico whose decisions and proposals were to be taken up by the EZLN in the San Andrés talks. The Forum was attended by 24 comandantes of the EZLN, as well as nearly 500 representatives of over 30 indigenous groups from throughout the country.

February 16th, 1996: Following a prolonged consultation with the indigenous civilian bases of the EZLN, the Zapatistas and the federal government sign the first set of accords resulting from the Dialogue of San Andrés: 40 pages of national reforms to be undertaken regarding Indigenous Rights and Culture. But Comandante David warns: "This is only a small agreement, on paper. We will not be tricked into thinking that what has been signed is a peace agreement." Meanwhile, arrangements are made for the second major set of talks, dealing with Democracy and Justice, to begin in San Andrés on March 5th.

February 29th, 1996: The EZLN proposes that the participants in the National Indigenous Forum constitute themselves into a Permanent National Indigenous Forum (later to become the National Indigenous Congress).

March 4th, 1996: The EZLN announces its list of advisors for the talks on Democracy and Justice. The list includes more than 125 people and organizations, from Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas to former leaders of the PRI and the PAN parties; representatives of the national debtor's movement El Barzón; the government in rebellion of Tepoztlán, Morelos; independent union representatives; journalists; authors; intellectuals; and cultural groups. It quickly becomes clear that with closed-door talks on "the reform of the State" underway between the leaders of the PRD, PAN, and PRI in Mexico City--with no participation whatsoever from civil society--the Zapatistas are attempting to use the talks on Democracy and Justice to broaden the negotiations on national political reforms to include substantial input from Mexican civil society.

March 21, 1996: The negotiations on the issue of Democracy and Justice finally begin in San Andrés Sacamch'en de los Pobres. The dialogue quickly becomes a monologue, however, as the government's representatives refuse to discuss any of the EZLN's proposals; in fact, they seldom utter a single word. To the press, however, they insist that they are only interested in resolving local issues of "democracy and justice", not national reforms. The talks are further marred by increasing repression against indigenous and campesino groups in Chiapas; whenever the negotiations seem to be on the verge of moving forward the police respond with attacks, detentions and arrests.

April 4-8, 1996: The First Continental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism is held in the Zapatista Aguascalientes of La Realidad.

May 2nd, 1996: A judge in Tuxtla Gutiérrez finds journalist Javier Elorriaga and Tzeltal campesino Sebastián Entzin guilty of "terrorism" for supposedly belonging to the EZLN, and sentences them to 13 years and 6 years in prison, respectively. This provokes a severe crisis in the already strained dialogue, and on May 11th the EZLN declares a "red alert" among its troops.

May 5, 1996: The PRI affiliated paramilitary group, los Chinchulines, in Bachajon, municipality of Chilon, attack homes of opposition members and the local parish. They burn down houses and several people are killed. Families take refuge in the surrounding hills.

June 6th, 1996: An appellate court revokes the sentences against Elorriaga and Entzin, and releases them. The EZLN responds by standing down from its state of alert.

June 15, 1996: Paz y Justicia, a paramilitary group linked to the PRI in the Northern Zone of the state attacks Zapatista base communities, burning down entire villages and creating more than 2,000 internal refugees.

June 28th, 1996: On the one-year anniversary of the massacre of more than a dozen campesinos in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero by judicial police, a previously-unknown armed group identifying itself as the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) makes a dramatic appearance at the events commemorating the killings.

June 30th, 1996: The Special Forum on the Reform of the State, sponsored by the EZLN, begins in San Cristóbal de las Casas. The Forum is organized in a similar manner to the National Indigenous Forum of January, in the way that it attempts to open up the San Andrés talks on Democracy and Justice to otherwise excluded representatives of Civil Society.

July 27th, 1996: The First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism begins in the Zapatista Aguascalientes of Oventic, Chiapas, with the participation of nearly 5000 people from 42 countries. Over the course of the following week, the participants hold meetings and discussions on a variety of political, economic, and social issues relating to the global struggle against neoliberalism in all five of the Aguascalientes.

August 6th, 1996: The final plenary session of the talks on Democracy and Justice begin in San Andrés, with only minimal participation from the government's representatives.

August 12th, 1996: The plenary session on Democracy and Justice ends with no agreement between the parts. The government attempts to close the negotiations on the theme, and move on to a new set of talks on other issues. This is firmly rejected by the EZLN.

August 29th, 1996: The EZLN, following a process of consultation with its civilian bases, suspends its participation in the peace talks of San Andrés. In a communiqué published on September 2nd, the EZLN lays out the five "minimum conditions" which it insists must be fulfilled before the EZLN will return to the negotiating table:

  1. Liberation of all the presumed-Zapatista prisoners across the country, and of the members of the EZLN's civilian base being held in the Cerro Hueco prison in Chiapas.
  2. The appointment of a government negotiating team with decision-making capacity, political will to negotiate, and respect for the Zapatista delegation.
  3. Installation of the Implementation and Verification Commission for the San Andres accords, and the immediate fulfillment of the agreements already signed between the EZLN and the government on Indigenous Rights and Culture.
  4. Serious and concrete proposals on the part of the government for the negotiations on Democracy and Justice, as well as the commitment to reach an accord on this topic.
  5. An end to the climate of military and police persecution and harassment against the indigenous communities of Chiapas, as well as the disappearance of paramilitary groups (or the promulgation of a law which officially recognizes them and gives them uniforms so they do not operate with impunity).

October 9th, 1996: The EZLN announces that Comandante Ramona will be the Zapatista representative at the meeting of the Permanent National Indigenous Congress, beginning in Mexico City the next day. She is the first Zapatista to appear publicly outside of Chiapas.

November 7th, 1996: After a serious of "tripartite" talks between the EZLN, the Cocopa, and the Conai, the Implementation and Verification Commission (Cosever) for the San Andrés Accords is finally installed in San Cristóbal de las Casas, with representation of the EZLN, the federal government, and civil society. Around this time, violence towards NGOs working for peace in Chiapas is stepped up. CONPAZ offices are vandalized and firebombed, their accountant and his family are abducted and held for two days, and members of various NGOs receive death threats.

November 24-29, 1996: The Cocopa, Conai, and EZLN continue meeting in San Cristóbal in order to work out a legislative initiative of constitutional reforms for the implementation of the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture. The Cocopa is given the authority by both the government and the EZLN to draft the final proposal, to which each side will have the opportunity to respond with a simple "yes" or "no"- without any further observations or corrections on the document.

November 29th, 1996: The Cocopa presents its "final" proposal of constitutional reforms on Indigenous Rights and Culture to the EZLN delegation, and faxes a copy to the Interior Minister, Emilio Chuayffet. While signaling that the Cocopa's proposal skips over many points of the San Andrés Accords, the EZLN accepts it in order to begin the implementation of the Accords and to move closer to a reinitiation of peace talks. The government also signals its acceptance in a private meeting with the Cocopa.

December 5th, 1996: The Interior Ministry backtracks on its original decision, and meets with the Cocopa to inform them that it no longer supports their proposal. This decision unleashes the beginning of the most profound crisis to date in the peace process, and leads many to comment that the Zapatistas' original warning about the peace process may be coming true--that the federal government is prepared to sign everything, but with no intention of actually carrying out anything.

December 7th, 1996: The Cocopa meets with President Zedillo to request that he intervene and accept the document before the entire peace process falls apart. The President decides to temporarily withdraw the comments of the Interior Ministry, and writes a letter to the EZLN requesting a 15-day period with which to "examine" the Cocopa's proposal with his constitutional advisors and to "clear up any doubts" he might have on the matter. The EZLN delegation accepts the Executive's request for an time extension, and on December 15th leaves San Cristóbal to return to their communities in the jungle and highlands.

December 19th, 1996: The Cocopa receives the President's "response" to their proposal, and passes it along to the EZLN. The response is, in reality, a counterproposal (and not a simple "yes" or "no", which had previously been agreed upon), with 27 observations and changes to the original document.

Chiapas Timeline -- 1997

January 11th, 1997: The EZLN meets with the Cocopa in La Realidad, and rejects the government's counterproposal. The EZLN reiterates that it will not return to the negotiating table until the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture are implemented. Marcos further calls on the Cocopa to defend its original proposal, and announces that the EZLN will await a public pronouncement of the Cocopa regarding the situation before making any further decisions.

January 19, 1997: Intracommunity violence in El Paraiso, Sabanilla, in the Northern zone. The Public Security forces arrive on Jan. 20, and force members of the PRD to fell the police shot tear gas into their homes and dropped grenades from helicopters. PRD supporters flee into the mountains and Public Security and PRI members remain in the community.

January 12th-March 4th, 1997: Military and police presence and repression dramatically increase in Chiapas while the country waits for the Cocopa's "public pronouncement".

February 1st, 1997: 9,000 civilian Zapatistas march through San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, demanding that the government honor the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, and that it accept the Cocopa's constitutional reform proposal.

March 4th, 1997: After more than 50 days of suspense, the Cocopa finally issues its public declaration on the situation: a confusing and contradictory document conveying its decision to withdraw its constitutional reform proposal from legislative consideration. Five days later, the EZLN responds by criticizing the decision of the Cocopa, and suggesting that their decision may actually have made matters much worse.

March 7th, 1997: Public Security forces in the state of Chiapas violently expel 65 families belonging to the indigenous organization Xi'Nich from their homes near Palenque.

March 8th, 1997: State judicial police violently detain two Jesuit priests--one of whom was an advisor to the EZLN--and two leaders of Xi'Nich, supposedly in connection with the previous day's events, although none of the four arrested were even in the region when the expulsions occurred. The four are tortured, held incommunicado for 48 hours, and eventually charged with the murder of police officers.

March 13th, 1997: The two Jesuits and two leaders of Xi'Nich are freed unconditionally by a judge in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, citing the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution.

March 14th, 1997: Members of the public security forces, the judicial police, and the Mexican army take part in an attack against civilian Zapatistas in the community of San Pedro Nixtalucum, Chiapas (municipality of San Juan de la Libertad, formerly El Bosque). Four unarmed Zapatistas are killed, and 29 are beaten, detained, or disappeared. The remaining Zapatista civilians from San Pedro--more than 80 families--are expelled from their homes.

April 13, 1997: Pilgrimage for Peace takes place in Tila. 20,000 parishioners and supporters of the Diocese march to Tila to call for an end to violence in the Northern Zone. Members of the Mexican Episcopal Council (CEM) join with Bishop's Vera and Ruiz to call for reconciliation and peace in the zone.

April 24-28: "Wejlel March" 150 representatives of the displaced people from the Northern Zone to Tuxtla Gutierrez, to demand release of political prisoners, and a solution for the crisis in the North. They begin a sit-in protest in front of the State Capitol. 12 international observers are expelled from Mexico for accompanying the marchers.

April 27th, 1997: Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, former tourism secretary, governor of Quintana Roo, and PRI secretary-general, is named as the new head of the government's negotiating team in Chiapas. Coldwell replaces Marco Antonio Bernal, who resigned in order to run for a congressional seat on behalf of the PRI in the upcoming July elections.

April-July, 1997: Militarization of indigenous communities continues throughout the Mexican republic. Dozens of indigenous people in Chiapas, mainly civilian Zapatistas, are killed by paramilitary squads or by police in the northern zone of Chiapas.

July 6th, 1997: Federal mid-term elections are held throughout Mexico. The victory of opposition parties from both the center-right and center-left manages to take away the PRI's absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in nearly 70 years. The center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution declares that peace in Chiapas "will be a priority" for the PRD in the new Congress, and that it will make an attempt to approve the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture. In the indigenous communities of Mexico, meanwhile, the elections are held in an atmosphere of increased tension and militarization. In Chiapas, the Zapatistas call for a boycott and abstention rates reach levels greater than 80% in some municipalities.

July 9th, 1997: President Ernesto Zedillo declares that the victory of opposition parties in the July 6thelections legitimizes the PRI and the Mexican political system, and that as a result "there is no longer room for radicalism" operating outside the electoral sphere.

July 16th, 1997: Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, chief government negotiator with the EZLN who had not made contact with the Zapatistas in his three months as chief negotiator, declares to the press that "the conditions exist for the EZLN to incorporate itself into institutional life and political competition under the new equal and transparent rules of Mexican democracy, thanks to the July 6th elections"--a statement counter to EZLN's position and goals, ignoring of the reasons for the suspension of the dialogue process between the EZLN and the government in the first place.

Early August, 1997: The COCOPA decides it will not attempt to present an initiative for constitutional reforms regarding indigenous rights and culture until after September 1st, when the new Congress is inaugurated.

September 8, 1997: 1,111 members of the EZLN begin a "motorized march" from their communities in Chiapas to Mexico City in order to be present at the Founding Congress of the FZLN and the Second National Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress, as well as to demand immediate government compliance with the San Andrés Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture.

September 26, 1997: The new members of the COCOPA are finally chosen in the Chamber of Deputies [due to the July 6th elections, all the previously serving federal deputies on the COCOPA left their posts on September 1st when the new Congress was inaugurated; senators, meanwhile, were not affected]. The new members of the COCOPA are thus the following: Roberto Albores Guillén (PRI); Javier Guerrero García (PRI); Gilberto López y Rivas (PRD); Carlos Morales Vázquez (PRD); Felipe Vicencio Alvarez (PAN); Germán Martínez Cázares (PAN); Aurora Bazán López (PVEM); Miguel Angel Garza Velázquez (PVEM); Gerardo Acosta Zavala (PT); and José Luis López López (PT).

November 4, 1997: The PRI-backed paramilitary group Paz y Justicia opens fire with automatic weapons on a caravan of church workers from the Diocese of San Cristóbal, including Bishops Samuel Ruiz García and Raúl Vera López. Three catechists are wounded in the attack, which is roundly condemned by the Church, the Conai, the Cocopa, and the EZLN.

November 5, 1997: PRD Senator Carlos Payán Velver (the founding director of the La Jornada newspaper) is named to the COCOPA. On the same day, Senator Payán denounces members of Paz y Justicia, by name, on the Senate floor, demanding a full investigation into the previous day's assassination attempt on Bishops Ruiz and Vera.

November 10, 1997: The Mexican government sends a "confidential" document to the COCOPA, expressing its desire to re-establish peace talks "immediately" with the EZLN--but without having fulfilled the five pre-conditions laid out by the rebels (including compliance with the first set of accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture) when the dialogue was suspended in August of 1996.

November 29, 1997: The EZLN responds to the government's calls for "blank slate" negotiations, reiterating that the Zapatistas will only return to the negotiating table when the government begins to implement the San Andrés Accords and fulfills the remaining four conditions laid out when the dialogue was suspended on August 29th, 1996.

December 22, 1997: Following several months of threats and periodic violence against civilian Zapatistas in the municipality of Chenalhó, approximately 70 heavily armed members of a PRI-backed paramilitary group descend upon the town of Acteal, temporarily inhabited by hundreds of refugees from other communities in the municipality. The attackers launch a 5-hour killing spree, murdering 45 people--mostly women and children who were trying to flee--and wounding at least 25 others. Despite their proximity to the site of the attack, the public security police do not intervene. Following the brutal attack, the military is placed on "maximum alert", and additional troops are brought in from the states of Campeche and Yucatán to reinforce the army presence in the municipalities of Ocosingo and Las Margaritas. Meanwhile, both the Interior Minister (Emilio Chuayffet) and the Interim Governor of Chiapas (Julio César Ruiz Ferro) are forced to resign in the aftermath of the massacre.

Chiapas Timeline -- 1998

January 1, 1998: Using the massacre of Acteal as an excuse to make a call for "total disarmament of all the armed groups in Chiapas", the federal government violates the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas by launching a new military campaign designed to disarm the EZLN. Indigenous Zapatista communities are occupied or put under military siege by the army, while many of the members of the PRI-backed paramilitary groups responsible for the Acteal massacre continue to roam freely throughout the state. The EZLN does not respond militarily, insisting it still wants to see a political solution to the conflict. However, it warns the government that it has no intention of giving up its arms.

January 9, 1998: General José Gómez Salazar, Commander of the Seventh Military Region, which includes Chiapas, openly accuses San Cristóbal Bishop (and CONAI president) Samuel Ruiz García of being "involved" with the EZLN. The Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas "energetically rejects" the accusations.

January 12, 1998: National and international day of protest. In Ocosingo, Chiapas during a peaceful demonstration, the state security police opened fire on the rally, killing one women and injuring two children. Demonstrations are held worldwide to protest the violence in Chiapas and demand the compliance of the San Andres accords.

January 28, 1998: Campesino professor Rubical Ruiz Gamboa is assassinated in front of his home in Tuxtla Gutierrez. He was a leader of the Independent Campesino Organization of Villa Corzo and The Democratic State Assembly of the Chiapan People (Adepech). His killers are not identified but Adepech announces that the paramilitary group Paz y Justicia had been sending him death threats.

January 23, 1998: President Ernesto Zedillo lashes out at the EZLN during a speech in Kanasín, Yucatán. Zedillo claims his government "has never utilized force in Chiapas," and insists that it is the EZLN--not the federal government--which is seeking a violent, military solution to the conflict, and that it is the EZLN--not the federal government--which is trying to re-negotiate the San Andrés Accords. PRD leaders and members of the COCOPA and CONAI are quick to point out the fallacies in the president's speech.

February 9, 1998: Six Zapatista sympathizers are released from the federal prison Cerro Hueco in Tuxtla Gutierrez. Previously the government had announced the release of 300 common criminals, portraying this as an act of goodwill towards the peace process. Protests followed calling for the release of Zapatista Prisoners, one of the conditions for reinstating the dialogue process. 41 political prisoners remain in jail.

February 16, 1998: The International Civil Commission for Human Rights Observation, a group of over 200 representatives from the European Union, arrives in Mexico to spend ten days visiting Chiapas and meeting with social organizations, NGOs and government officials. Their findings will be the basis for a report presented to the European Parliament on their return.

February 21, 1998: Jose Lopez Garcia, from the municipality of Tila in Northern Chiapas, is assassinated after giving testimony about human rights violations to the International Human Rights Commission. Eye witnesses state that the killers were members of Paz y Justicia. Samuel Sanchez, state representative and Paz y Justicia leader, declares that the commission has no right to denounce the murder of Lopez Garcia because they would be intervening in the internal politics of Mexico.

February 26, 1998: The parish priest of Chenalhó, Father Michel Henri Jean Chanteau Desillieres, is arrested and immediately expelled from Mexico for "having engaged in unauthorized activities." Both the Interior Ministry and the National Immigration Institute acknowledge that Chanteau has been expelled for declaring to the press that the government was responsible for the December 22nd massacre of 45 of his parishioners. Chanteau--a priest of French origin who has served the indigenous communities of Chenalhó for more than 32 years--is the eighth priest of the Diocese of San Cristóbal to have been expelled from Chiapas since 1994.

February 28, 1998: Chiapas governor Roberto Albores Guillén announces a "State Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Chiapas"--a thirty-page plan containing 25 key points which Albores insists will lead to peace in the region, many of which actually indicate renewed belligerence against the EZLN. The unilateral "agreement" also backs the presence of the Mexican Army in indigenous communities in order to "keep the peace," and will prohibit certain types of demonstrations as well as authorize the use of force to prevent or repel land invasions or protests which block roadways. The plan is immediately criticized by the CONAI, as well as by a wide range of campesino, indigenous, social, and political organizations in the state.

March 1, 1998: Interior Minister Francisco Labastida announces the government's so-called "new strategy for peace", and says the government will unilaterally introduce a new initiative on indigenous rights and culture into Congress for its approval, regardless of the opinions or positions of the EZLN, the CONAI, or the COCOPA.

In response, the EZLN issues a communiqué warning that a "re-negotiation" of the San Andrés Accords would be a "mortal blow" to the process of dialogue and negotiation. The CCRI-CG of the EZLN also calls on the COCOPA to stand fast in defense of its original proposal for constitutional reforms on indigenous rights and culture.

March 12, 1998: In a surprise move, the National Action Party (PAN) presents its own unilateral initiative for constitutional reforms on Indigenous Rights and Culture in the Mexican Senate. The Pan's initiative, as its supporters readily admit, is not designed to implement the San Andrés Accords, but rather to place the Pan's political program regarding indigenous issues into the Constitution.

March 17, 1998: The National Intermediation Commission (CONAI) issues a statement sharply condemning the government's counterproposal. According to the CONAI, the government's initiative "is divorced from the San Andrés Accords" and seriously threatens the peace process.

February - March, 1998: The federal government launches a high-powered national and international public relations campaign in order to convince the public that its constitutional reform proposal complies with the San Andres Accords, and that it is the EZLN which refuses to dialogue in good faith, threatens violence, and does not want peace.

At the same time, military incursions into indigenous communities in Chiapas continue; the Air Force practices bombing runs with new aircraft; the number of military flights over Zapatista Aguascalientes are doubled or tripled; and heavy artillery is seen entering military bases in the Lacandon jungle for the first time.

Meanwhile, the federal government steps up verbal attacks against both the COCOPA and the CONAI, accusing the former of being unnecessary, and the latter of being partial in support of the EZLN.

April 11, 1998: The state and federal police, along with the army and immigration officials, enter the newly declared autonomous municipality of Ricardo Flores Magon, in the town of Taniperlas. They declared that the municipality was illegally usurping governmental duties, and arrested 12 foreigners and nine Mexicans. The 12 foreigners were deported after being held overnight without being informed why they were detained. The Mexicans, including seven indigenous members of the community, Sergio Valdez Ruvalcaba, a professor doing academic research from Mexico City, and Luis Menendez, member of the Fray Lorenzo de la Nada human rights center in Ocosingo, were taken to the federal prison, Cerro Hueco, in Tuxtla Gutierrez.

May 1, 1998: Police, military and immigration officials entered the center of the autonomous municipality of Tierra y Libertad, located in the town of Amparo Agua Tinta, to dismantle the facilities of the autonomous municipality. All municipal buildings were entered by force, documents were destroyed and money and typewriters were stolen. 53 people were arrested. The authorities announce that the occupation was at the request of the U.N commission for Refugees (ACNUR), because a Guatemalan was being held in the autonomous prison. The ACNUR later announced that they had never requested a police operation, and were planning to negotiate the release of the prisoner with the autonomous authorities.

May 2, 1998: A group of 135 Italian human rights observers arrive from a variety of solidarity and political groups. They were informed by the Mexican Government that they could not visit Taniperlas, were the military-police operation had occured a month earlier. The majority of the observers went to Taniperlas anyway, and were sanctioned by immigration.