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Mayor says he will not be intimidated by Fox

By Diego Cevallos

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 16 (IPS) — Mexico City’s leftist Mayor Andrés López Obrador accused the government of plotting against him by using information provided by Washington, and said Apr. 16 that he would face without fear, and without toning down his allegations, a probe by the Attorney-General’s Office.

The entire state apparatus is being used to attack city hall, he told reporters, adding that he would not be intimidated.

The clash between the mayor — Mexico’s most popular politician and a possible candidate for the 2006 presidential elections — and the administration of conservative President Fox, whose popularity also remains high, reached breaking point on Thursday.

Javier Hidalgo, a spokesman for López Obrador’s leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the country’s third-strongest political force, told IPS Friday that the party might cut off relations with the government.

López Obrador alleges that the government and “the right” are plotting against him and were behind the broadcast of a video in which former municipal finance minister Gustavo Ponce could be seen gambling away huge sums of money in a Las Vegas casino.

He also alleges that the government was responsible for leaking another video showing his former secretary, René Bejarano, receiving thousands of dollars from Argentine-born businessman Carlos Ahumada, who faces money laundering charges and has been arrested in Cuba, to be extradited to Mexico.

Since the scandals broke in March, the mayor has defended himself by arguing that he is the target of a smear campaign. But his response has drawn harsh criticism from his opponents and analysts, who demand that he admit to the problems of corruption in the city administration, and publicly face up to them.

Alluding to the mayor, Fox said Apr. 16 that the important thing is to fight corruption, instead of trying to divert attention to other matters.

López Obrador directly accused the Attorney-General’s Office and the Finance Ministry Thursday of using an investigation of Ponce, that they had opened in February, for political purposes, with the support of the US Treasury Department.

To back up that argument, he displayed a confidential US Treasury Department document that had been handed over to the Mexican government.

According to the mayor, the video showing Ponce gambling large sums of money was obtained by Washington and given to Mexico, where he said it was leaked by government authorities.

It was broadcast by the local media on Mar. 1, before the city government had been informed of the alleged wrongdoing by the former municipal finance minister, who today is on the run, and before any attempt was made to obtain cooperation in arresting him, argues López Obrador.

However, a source in the Finance Ministry told IPS that representatives of the city government had been informed of the suspicions hanging over Ponce, between Feb. 27 and 29.

The Fox administration’s public response to López Obrador’s allegations was that the mayor “deceives and manipulates.”

The government turned down López Obrador’s request to a meeting with Fox, in which he wanted to present his evidence directly to the president.

The US Embassy in Mexico denied that the US government was involved in taping the video that shows Ponce gambling, or in leaking the tape.

A visibly irritated Fox said the mayor’s accusations were “serious and unfounded,” and that the government would not lend itself to “political games, or evasion of responsibilities.”

Shortly thereafter, the Attorney-General’s Office announced that it had launched an investigation of the mayor and Mexico City’s chief prosecutor Bernardo Bátiz, for going public with confidential documents from Washington that form part of an ongoing probe.

Local laws provide for sentences of four to 10 years for revealing confidential documents.

The document in question was reportedly furnished to Bátiz by the government itself.

On Feb. 18, the Finance Ministry asked Washington for reports on financial movements in US banks and casinos by Ponce and his wife Esperanza Gonzáles, after coming across evidence that they had made large transfers of money.

Washington’s response came on Feb. 25 and began to be studied on Feb. 27, along with local reports. Three days later, over the weekend, the video showing Ponce in Las Vegas was broadcast on TV.

The Finance Ministry source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that up to the day that the video was aired, no investigation against Ponce had been opened, and there were no clearly defined charges against him, although there were indications that the city official had been making large bank movements and had been betting thousands of dollars in casinos.

López Obrador has merely acknowledged that a few minutes after the video was broadcast, he spoke with Ponce by telephone, and was assured by his then finance minister that he would not flee, and would meet with the press.

But what Ponce actually did was go to his office, erase all of the files on his computer, pack his bags — and vanish.

After Ponce fled, the Attorney-General’s Office filed formal charges against him for money laundering, and the Mexico City prosecutor’s office did the same, accusing him of embezzling city funds.

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Zapatistas, supporters attacked by paramilitaries

Compiled by najwa

Apr. 21 (AGR) -- In a show of solidarity with the families of Zinacantan, Chiapas, about 4,000 Zapatistas and supporters held a nonviolent march through the town of Jech’vo on April 10th. The Zapatistas, bringing 45 thousand liters of drinking water for the people of Jech’vo, were well received by the families of the small town who have been on the receiving end of police violence and paramilitary repression for the past months.

Another nameless group, however, greeted the Zapatista march with rocks, sticks, firecrackers, and gunshots. Backed by the local police, the members of this violent group are alleged to be members of a paramilitary presence that has been on the rise again in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The results of this attack were dozens of injured marchers, many from gunshot wounds, and at least two gravely injured. Lorenzo Perez, 33 years old, suffered a perforated thorax, and another, still unidentified, received a bullet wound to the head.

Although many Zapatistas were carrying machetes on their belts, when they chose to respond to the violent attack, they did so with the rocks that were thrown at them by their attackers. The attackers then blocked the road with felled trees and proceeded to run for shelter in their homes and in the mountains.

The Zapatistas had gathered in the area to bring water and show support for hundreds of Zapatista supporters. Since last December, the government supporters of the surrounding communities, with the support of the municipal government, have suspended the supply of water to all of the Zapatista families. Since then, the threats and harassment have been constant, and the mayor has dedicated himself to downplaying the issues.

Worry spread among the Zapatistas in charge of security when they saw that some 20 individuals from Paste had posted themselves in the road and begun to construct an enormous barricade with rocks that had been piled by the roadside for some unfinished construction project. The Zapatista rebels, a majority wearing black ski masks, congregated at the side of one house that was 100 meters from the barricade and stood watching incredulously.

The government supporters, some in a state of inebriation, grew from 20 to about a hundred. Two municipal patrols, both pick-up trucks, had remained on the outskirts of Jech’vo after 2 o’clock, during the Zapatista meeting and the delivery of water supplies to the affected communities. Before concluding the meeting, the police moved back some few hundred meters and posted themselves behind the government supporters that were putting the road blockade in place.

Around 4:30, as the Zapatistas decided to conclude their demonstration early to avoid problems, the municipal police decided to intervene, doing so by stationing both vehicles on the road behind the barricade, and thus joining the blockade.

At 4:40 the Zapatistas began running towards the blockade, whose authors had stationed themselves in the hills and in neighboring houses, from where they rained down rocks on the Zapatista sympathizers, who had begun to remove the rocks and the police vehicles from the road. While the Zapatista sympathizers advanced along the road, the aggressors fired two shots in the air and then launched large fireworks against them.

The patrol vehicles were rolled over into a ditch and progressively destroyed with pieces of wood and rocks by the Zapatistas. In just a few minutes the road was cleared and the close to 150 buses and trucks that were transporting the indigenous rebels could pass through, although at this point the majority was walking in front and to the sides of the vehicles.

The Zapatistas also threw rocks at their aggressors and at the roofs of a few houses. Along the mountainsides between Jech’vo and Paste, groups of government supporters had concealed themselves and threatened the marchers. At that point the Zapatistas spread out through the hillsides to surround the ambushers.

The caravan of vehicles and indigenous proceeded slowly. Around 5:20, when the last Zapatistas were leaving Jech’vo, shots began to be fired against them. Many dove for the ground behind the vehicles, while others continued moving forward, now running.

After finding that large trees had been felled across the road and chopped into smaller pieces with axes and saws, the front of the caravan reached Nachig, sometime after 5:30. From the back of the column began to arrive, first, news of the attack, and then the injured who, as it goes without saying, came at the end. One by one, lying in the beds of four trucks, bleeding and completely surrounded by their compañeros, they came out of the mountains of Zinacantan.

On the highway exiting Zinacantan, the state authorities were directing traffic. The traffic was of such magnitude that no way around it was possible. The authorities filmed everyone in the Zapatista cars. The government supporters continued shouting at the Zapatistas and making fun of the wounded. For the hundreds of Zapatistas no hostility seemed to exist. They dedicated themselves to getting the injured out of Nachig and leaving in complete order.

The Zapatistas reported 35 injuries, 18 by firearm and 17 by rocks, sticks, and machetes. Two of the injured are still in critical condition.

Eight injuries are also reported from among the aggressors, all with contusions — none of which were serious. They were driven by municipal authorities to the private clinic Ornelas, in San Cristobal de Las Casas. All are inhabitants of Paste.

That night, the Mexican Red Cross, diffused a list of 17 injured persons, adding to those mentioned here three other Zapatistas.

The government supporters from Jech’vo and Paste corralled the Zapatista families of Jech’vo into one house and have destroyed the other homes. It is reported that they are armed and that they fear a massacre. 109 families, a total of 484 people, have fled their homes to take refuge in San Cristobal de las Casas and the surrounding mountains, joining thousands of other displaced Zapatista supporters.

Sources from the Red Cross indicated that there were two Zapatistas dead (Mariano Gomez Lopez, 18 years old, and Juan Jose Hernandez Ruiz, 25 years old), and other gravely injured persons, who would be tended to in the medical clinic at the Oventic caracol. This version of the events has not been confirmed.

In response to the April 10th attacks, the Good Government Board of the indigenous rebels released a fourteen-point response. The response states that the increased attacks on Zapatista supporters is “a problem between those who, like the PRD (the ruling government party), only see the political as a business and are willing to commit crimes to win, and those who truely seek the recognition of the rights and culture of the indigenous in Mexico.”

The Good Government Board report listed the names of 46 “principal aggressors” and asked that the local governments hold the attackers responsible for their actions and hold back their would-be aggressors. They have vowed to continue researching the corruption of the local governments and their use of violence to repress dissent.

Sources: La Jornada, Indymedia, Enlace Civil

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Anger mounts at abolition of Aboriginal body

By Bob Burton

Canberra, Australia, Apr. 16 (IPS) — The Australian government’s plans to abolish the elected Aboriginal peak body, called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), has angered the indigenous community and revived accusations about Australia’s insensitivity to its concerns.

Since November, Prime Minister John Howard and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Senator Amanda Vanstone have been pondering how to respond to a major review of the commission, which was first established in 1990 as a form of Aboriginal self-government.

The review, while critical of ATSIC, stressed the need to retain a representative body.

On late Thursday, Howard strode to a lectern in a parliamentary courtyard set up for one of his rare media conferences, and announced he had decided to go further than the review’s recommendation.

“We can announce that when Parliament resumes in May, we will introduce legislation to abolish ATSIC,” Howard said.

Howard bluntly pronounced that the experiment with democratic representation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was over.

“We believe very strongly that the experiment in separate representation, elected representation, for indigenous people has been a failure. We will not replace ATSIC with an alternative body. We will appoint a group of distinguished indigenous people to advise the government on a purely advisory basis in relation to aboriginal affairs,” he said.

Howard said the employment and other programs that ATSIC makes funding and policy decisions for would be handed to existing departments.

While Howard argues that funding and delivering programs though existing government departments termed ‘mainstreaming’ will be more effective, ATSIC’s acting chairman Lionel Quartermaine disagrees: “I don’t see how mainstreaming indigenous programs (will work). Where mainstreaming (has occurred it) has failed.”

“I mean, we’ve still got health issues in this country on Third World par. … we make up two percent of our population, yet we’ve got 20 percent in jail. We’ve got our education failing indigenous people, so you see, mainstreaming programs won’t work,” he said at a media conference outside Parliament House.

In truth, since Howard stripped ATSIC of responsibility of health and education responsibilities in 1996 and ‘mainstreamed’ them, conditions have got worse, says Phil Glendenning, president of the Australians for Native Title and Aboriginal Reconciliation.

“An indigenous person born today in Australia in a place like Brewarrina is going to have a life expectancy lower than children born in Bangladesh,” he said. “That is what mainstreaming has bought us. So does more of that look like a solution? No it doesn’t.”

Howard’s proposal that ATSIC will be replaced by a handpicked advisory body prompted a derisory response from within the Aboriginal community. “To even think about establishing an advisory body, just to advise government, that means a government can either take their word or ignore their word,” Quartermaine said.

Quartermaine also had a word of advice for anyone asked to act as a member of a new advisory body. “Look, I’d encourage anyone who’s on that list to actually don’t be a party to it because what they are doing is selling out indigenous self-determination,” he said.

Asked why he had decided to abolish ATSIC, Howard dismissed its advocacy of Aboriginal rights and the need for a treaty between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia as a preoccupation with symbolism.

“I do believe that it has become too preoccupied with what might loosely be called symbolic issues and too little concern with delivering real outcomes for indigenous people,” he said.

Howard’s proposed legislation, set to be introduced in the next sitting of parliament, is likely to win the support of the opposition Labor Party, which two weeks ago promised that it would abolish ATSIC though with the caveat that a new representative body would be created.

Minor parties in the Senate, the Australian Democrats and the Australian Greens, have both condemned the government decision.

While Howard has long opposed outspoken Aboriginal organizations, the opportunity to attack ATSIC head on emerged only recently.

The commission’s current chairman, Geoff Clark, was stood aside by the government last year after being convicted of obstructing police when he intervened in a bar room fracas. ATSIC angered the government when, arguing that Clark was being victimized because of his position, it agreed to fund a legal appeal by Clark.

Mike Lynskey, chief executive of The Fred Hollows Foundation, a health care charity that works extensively with Aboriginal communities, believes the government’s decision is a major setback for attempts to foster better relations with Aboriginal Australia.

“It leaves it open for people in the community to infer that indigenous people can’t run things on their own and that indigenous organizations are riddled with corruption,” he said.

“It smacks of the attitude that we have to come in a patronizing way, like the missionary activity of 30 years ago, and do it all for them. I think one would hope that we can be a more sophisticated society,” he said. “It also sends a message to indigenous people that we are not prepared to recognize their special needs.”

While Howard is confident that the death knell for ATSIC will gain broad support in the Australian community, Quartermaine insists that Aboriginal issues will not fade away.

“I guarantee you this, the sun will still shine tomorrow and I’ll still be black, and the black issues will still exist,” he said. “Black people in this country will not go away, the black issue will not go away. The advisory committee will not solve the problems. When will these people understand that?”