Mexico 1998: Above and Below, Masks and Silences

Endeavor, however, those of you who go into politics, that your
mask be your own work as much as possible, make it yours
yourselves, in order to avoid that your enemies or fellow
politicians might impose one upon you; and do not make it so
inflexible, so impervious or impermeable that it suffocates your
face, because, sooner or later, you will have to show yourself."

Leaning against my shoulder, the sea sighs when it sees the complex blueprint of this new construction, drawn up through long and silent mornings, thought out from behind the masks that we are. And suddenly a gust of wind arrives, whipping the trees which are our windows, and shaking the large sheets of paper, full of drawings, of staggered scales, incomprehensible logarithms, of illegible letters that look more like obscure formulas of alchemy than scientific calculations.

It is the middle of the year 1998 in Mexico, and a wind arrives to break silences and pull off masks.

After a long and heavy dry period, the rains begin to appear on the horizon of this country whose leaders are determined to take it to catastrophe. Protected by a trail of cloud, and from the privileged and golden balcony offered to me by the sea for such occasions, damp and amazed, I see half of 1998 go by and the last death rattles of a century which refuses to leave without scandals and abuses.

Far from here the World Cup concentrates and summons emotions. The spell that is cast each time the ball rolls has been well understood by two South Americans: one to describe it, and the other to practice it. Eduardo Galeano, collector of these daily rains which some call "the history from below," and Diego Armando Maradona, who uses the ball to sing and to demonstrate that magic does not necessarily have anything to do with potions and esoteric formulas.

But from up here I do not see either Don Galeano or Don Maradona. Neither do I manage to see Olivio exercising his vocation of breaking nets ("and heads," says the sea, while trying to hide, to no avail, the slingshot that Olivio abandoned in his flight, after splitting Marcelo's head open). I do see, however, millions of Mexicans in the role in which the powerful have always wanted to see them, as spectators.

With national history stopped each time the Mexican football team faces off, the leaders of this country won a respite which reality had relentlessly denied them. Millions of eyes glued to French soil allowed the Power a short rest. The pleasure was short-lived, defeat arrived and the impasse which the role of spectators allowed them has come to an end.

On this side of the world, the tragicomedy of national political life also became a spectacle, and the disorderly charade which is displayed every day in the halls of Power in Mexico received no applause at all. For some time now, the majority of Mexicans have stopped being simple spectators to the scandals with which the governing class plans to end the century...and the country. Millions of nationals are now the victims of mega crimes and jumbo frauds.

If for the powerful communications media, the shameful acts of the Mexican political class are merchandise whose successful presentation is measured in "rating" points, then for the immense majority of those who struggle and die between the Bravo and the Suchiate Rivers, they are only a continuation of the State crime which spans almost the entire century.

Determined to alert the citizenry to the growth of delinquency and violence, some communications media (those tied to the government) conceal the essential: the bloodiest and most brutal delinquents hold government positions (or are closely tied to them), and violence finds the federal government to be its primary executor, its largest promotor and its apologist par excellence.

In the spectacle of "great" Mexican politics, the confusion of masks and speeches keeps one from knowing for certain who is the judge and who is the criminal, who is the fraudulent and who the defrauded.

But it becomes more and more clear that the most criminal face of Mexico at the end of the 20th century is the State one party system. In this Mexico, the growing State criminality (that which is exercised by the political Power) sees itself only equaled by the impunity given to it by money, influence and proximity (or professed or embarrassed membership) to the select circle hovering around what some people still call (not without blushing, certainly) "El Señor Presidente."

Half of Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León's six-year term has indelible marks, but the bloodiest of those is the daily crime of an economic model imposed through the indisputable arguments of bayonets, jails and cemeteries. Every so often, this crime of State manages to show dismal signs. Aguas Blancas in Guerrero in June of 1995. Acteal in Chiapas in December of 1997. El Charco in Guerrero in June of 1998, and Union Progreso and Chavajeval in Chiapas in June of 1998.

This face, the most irrational which the Mexican State has had in all its history, conceals its terrifying image behind another mask. And the sound of the blood which it collects day after day, is quieted behind silence.

To conceal and to quiet, to reveal and to speak, masks and silence. These are the signs that will help to understand the end of this century in Mexico.

Yes, this is a country of masks and silences. I tell this to the sea, and she answers me, from behind her ski mask, with a silent gesture of paradox, which is more than eloquent, as she rolls up and guards the great plans.

But I tell you, and I tell myself, that there are masks and then there are masks, there are silences and then there are other silences.

"I have heard of your paintings, too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance."

What is the government's role in society? What should its role be? These questions are asked by the political parties, the analysts and by society. There are many responses to each question, but the Mexican government has its own and, despite the madness of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — Zedillo, Labastida, Green, Madrazo, Gurria, Ortiz, Rabasa and Albores (yes, I know that I mentioned 8, but four are horsemen and four are beasts, you decide) — they impose them with blood (contributed by those from below) and fire (from those above).

Lacking the legitimacy which can only be obtained by the governed, these characters from the Mexican tragedy at the end of the century supplant it with a mask made 'ex profeso,' the mask of the State of Law. In the name of the "State of Law" they impose economic measures, they kill, they imprison, they rape, they destroy, they persecute, they make war.

Without rational arguments, without legitimacy, without morals, the government of Mexico makes use of its only resource: violence. But the government does not direct this violence against organized crime or against delinquency (in other words, it does not use it against itself), but against the most impoverished, that is, a now immense majority, but which continues growing at the same rhythm as the country is collapsing.

It could seem to us that a collapse would have a thunderous sound, but, in this case, a silence covers it and announces it, the silence of amnesia.

In order to supplant its lack of legitimacy with legality, the Mexican State (and not just the government) must carry out a complex surgical operation on the entire social order. That is, it must eradicate the historical memory from the governed. And it tries to do this by substituting the true history (in lower case), with the Official History (in upper case). And this Official History is not learned in books, but rather was created in the mental laboratories of postgraduates in foreign universities. Harvard, Oxford, Yale, and MIT are the modern "Founding Fathers" of the current Mexican leadership. And thus the Official History comes from as far away as the indicators of economic growth, and in a world which already suffers the financial terror of globalization, these indicators have the constancy of a weather vane in the middle of a storm. And so the present is the only possible history for these "blackboard boys" (as Carlos Fuentes would name them), "computer kids" (as who-knows-whom would name them), or the "Los Pinos Cartel" (as their drug trafficking associates call them). If constancy and pain and hard work are characteristic of the history of those from below, the ephemeral is the preferred place for Official History, the new name for amnesia. The "Today" of the stock markets is the historical reference of these technocrats who, thanks to the criminal Carlos Salinas de Gortari, today find themselves in political power in Mexico. This Official History has its mask.

The Mask of "Modernity." Does it seem attractive? Functional? Aerodynamic? Biodegradable? Cool? Lite? It is nothing of that, but it is sold and consumed with similar arguments. The Modernity of the neoliberal leaders in Mexico reveals an empty and dry country. In spite of publicity and marketing techniques, and notwithstanding the millions invested in cosmetics and makeup, the mask of Mexican Modernity is being steadily chipped away. And it is more and more difficult to not see what it is hiding: the destruction of the nurturing bases of the Mexican State, that is, the bases of National Sovereignty.

With 'modernity' as a backbone, a series of arguments (undoubtedly a mask) are wielded to justify (in the double meaning of "making justice" and "giving a reason for being") the dramatic destruction of all that which allows a country to keep its "national sovereignty" from being a mere rhetorical device. Ownership of subsoil wealth, of the territorial waters and air, of the lines of communication, of the businesses with social functions (education, health, food, housing, security), social policy, effective control of financial and commercial markets, currency, language, government, armed forces, history; these are some of the foundations necessary for a State. Through various means, and behind several masks, but always with the same urgency, these bases of national sovereignty have been weakened, when not outright destroyed, by the neoliberal governments of Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, Carlos Salinas de Gortari and (the student surpasses his teachers) Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León.

With the masks of "industrial reconversion," "adaptation to the modern era of globalization," the "streamlining of public spending," the "elimination of subsidies which hinder free trade and economic development," "the international fight against drug trafficking," and "the end of the populist State," the Mexican governments since 1982 until the present have operated a veritable extermination campaign against the fundamental supports of national sovereignty.

Selling off state enterprises for a song, giving in to the pressures of international markets, abandoning their social service functions (or changing their function into the buying of votes), ending supports for basic products and controlling salaries, leaving the future of the national currency to the discretion of large financial centers, yielding their governmental activities to the publicity campaigns demanded by the market on which countries are sold, awarding the national armed forces the role of neighborhood policemen in the global village, rewriting (and erasing) national history, thinking in dollars, all in all, the last Mexican governments have managed, through various means, to make this country less and less ours, and less and less a country.

Think about it. What remains of the Mexican State to allow it to claim that it is sovereign? Hundreds of state enterprises have been sold, the pompously named "Mexican Stock Exchange" looks like a branch of the Asian markets (in spite of those who peddled the idea that it would become a branch of the North American Exchanges), the only constant in the price of basic products is their upward mobility, the Mexican peso lacks a weight in the international currency market, government officials think in English and only translate into Spanish when they are directing themselves to nationals (although not with any luck, as Chancellor Green demonstrated), the Mexican federal army carries out (under orders from North American advisors) the same work in the national mountains which General Custer did with the indigenous peoples in the United States, and high officials in the Mexican government respond swiftly and with certainty to the question: "When is Independence Day?" with a conclusive, "the Fourth of July." Scandalous? Right, but for this we reach for the Forgetting. Another silence...

Yes, forget what we were, what brought us to here. Forget all the past, not just that of deception and pain, but also, and above all, that of struggle and rebellion. But the peculiarity of that amnesia is that it doesn't try to erase what came before, but rather to condemn it, be ashamed of it, regret it. As is evident, all attempts to "bring" history into the present is a subversion of "peace and tranquility." It is illegal, ultimately something to be combated. There you have, for example, those Indians who "bring" Zapata to these times of modern globalization and they have him speak and make history. And (what a scandal!) even on the Internet that terrorist cry of "Zapata Vive!" can be heard. Subversion, no less. How well off we were with that Zapata in his grave, in the museum, in the book that was never opened! Thus, those who "bring" Zapata are illegal and subversive, Zapata himself is illegal and subversive because of the nightmares he provokes, and, ergo, history is illegal and subversive — not just because it questions the present, but also because it makes one believe (and struggle for!) the idea that another present is possible. And to conceal this silence, another mask is used.....

The Mask of Macroeconomics. There you have Mr. Zedillo's speeches, a demonstration of contagious optimism, where he explains-scolds-warns us that the-economic-recovery-is- irreversible-and-the-strengthening- of-our-economic-indicators-demonstrates-that-we- can-survive-the- crisis-at-a-minimal-cost-and-how-lucky-you-are-compatriots-to- have-me-as-your-leader-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.....

"Ah, the macroeconomic achievements!" But, where are they? In the fortunes of the richest men in Mexico, and their places on the "Forbes list"? In wages? In prices? In employment? In social security? Look for them, look and you will find that, behind the macroeconomic mask, is hidden an economic model which has been imposed on this country since the beginning of the 1980's. 16 years of one economic policy, enough to evaluate it.

Results? In addition to the loss of National Sovereignty, we have an historical reversal of...30 years! Yes, Mexico '98 and Mexico '68 have in common not only an assassin heading the government with the presidential sash across his chest, but also the growth of poverty and growth in the number of the poor, the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands, and the deterioration of social services, which, at one time, eased the lives of Mexicans.

From 1968 to 1977 the percentage of the population living in poverty declined rapidly, between 1977 and 1981 this decline was accelerated. "In this way poverty was able to be reduced in 18 years, from more than three-quarters of the population to less than half. However, after 1981, there was an abrupt change in direction, in which poverty not only stopped declining, it started to grow at an accelerated rate." (Boltvinik, Julio. "Economy and Welfare. Mexico at the End of the Millenium," in Vientos del Sur, 12-13, 1998. Mexico; and Hernández Laos, Enrique. "Economic Growth and Poverty in Mexico," cited in Boltvinik, J. Ibid).

Now, at the beginning of 1998, we are at the same poverty levels as in 1968, 30 lost years. In addition, today we have fewer possibilities for improving our economic situation. "(...) The opportunities for the well-being of Mexicans in 1996, after almost three 5-year periods of the neoliberal model, have not only not grown, but they are 30% lower than in 1981. This results in a two-fold incapacity in the model. One part is the incapacity to make revenue increase as rapidly as is necessary.(...) The other part is the growing incapacity to equitably distribute the revenue throughout the population (...) That is, the model was incapable of growth, but it also concentrated more and more investment in fewer hands, thus decreasing the possibilities for the wellbeing of the population." (Boltvinik, J. Ibid).

Certainly these macroeconomic facts will not be to the liking of Mr. Gurria and Mr. Ortiz (and I doubt that they can refute them), but the real fact is that there is another "macroeconomy," that of those from below: lower salaries, less and worse education, less and worse housing, less and worse health, less and poor food. Yes, behind that mask there is a catastrophe.

On top of this, add a few letters, "FOBAPROA," and you will have completed a nightmare cocktail. In addition to their poverty, millions of Mexicans will now have to take responsibility for the rescue of those other criminals, the bankers, who use the "State of Law" as an alibi, and who have an ever willing accomplice and procurer in the government.

Silence! Nothing can be done, it is the fatalism of globalization, imposing on us an indisputable silence and a religious conformity. It should concern us not that this resignation has reached all the way to Havana, but rather that the destruction of Nations (which goes hand in hand — although this can be remedied — with globalization) is presented to us as something self-evident, that is, natural, unquestionable and without contradiction.

Certainly, neoliberalism has constructed a formidable enemy, with its great financial capital, capable of dictating wars, bankruptcies, "democracies," lives and, above all, deaths in every corner of the world. However, this process of total globalization (economic, political and cultural) does not involve inclusion of different societies, incorporating their own characteristics. On the contrary, it involves the true imposition of one, and only one, thought: that of financial capital. In this war of conquest everything and everyone must be subordinated to the judgment of the marketplace, whatever opposes or impedes it will be eliminated. But, in addition, it implies the destruction of humanity as a sociocultural collective and reconstructs it as a market element. To oppose neoliberalism, to fight against it, is not just a political or ideological option, it is a question of the survival of humanity. Someone warned that to go against globalization would be like going against gravity. Well, in that case: down with the law of gravity!

The destruction of Mexico as a Nation must be hidden. And so another mask is necessary, that of Chauvinism. Motivated by an eagerness for peace, and trying to stop the extermination of the indigenous peoples carried out by the Mexican government on chiapaneco lands, hundreds of men and women from Mexico and from other parts of the world come to the Mexican southeast. There is nothing more uncomfortable for the criminals than to have witnesses of their extermination laboratory which they have set up on Indian grounds; and so from the ineffable Interior Ministry comes the double recipe: for the nationals, jail; and for those from other countries, expulsion (with a prior xenophobic campaign in the press, radio and television). Suddenly, with equally stupid explanations, the primary peddler of National Sovereignty has a fit of patriotism and, to the cry of "a good foreigner is a dumb and blind foreigner!," he sets to persecuting, harassing and expelling all those born in other lands who join their hearts to the struggle for peace with justice and dignity. The hundreds of foreign observers are left with beatings, rapes, threats, insults. For the foreign "investors" servile bowing, flattery and adulation abound.

And, as a grotesque adornment on this mask, comes the silence of Treason. Yes, treason against the word given in San Andrés. Treason against those who believed in the path of dialogue. Treason against those who fought for peace. Treason against those who thought it was possible that the government would recognize the rights of the indigenous peoples. Treason against those who hoped that the war in the Mexican Southeast could be stopped. And the treason, the destruction, the forgetting, all need a supporting ideology, a "theory" that gives those crimes the reason that history so stubbornly denies them.

And so here comes the Mask of "Intellectual Objectivity." It is carried by a few characters in Mexico's cultural life who have free passage in the salons of political, economic and religious power. Their first step was to begin criticizing the critics of the political system.

With the supposed "moral authority" which remorse confers, these intellectuals attacked their colleagues who did not follow their frenetic path towards capitulation. "The operation to discredit critical reason was led by intellectual 'beautiful people,' composed primarily of former young philosophers, former young sociologists, and former young opinion leaders who knew the paths which would take them to Lord's table, according to the ancient teachings of the seated scribe." (Vázquez Montalban, Manuel. "Pamphlet from the Planet of the Apes," Ed. Drakontos, Barcelona, p. 144). Other steps followed, and soon they were sharing the table with the high political, financial, religious, and cultural hierarchies, that is, with the wills that now drive the bloodthirsty vehicle of neoliberalism in Mexico. "Pragmatic power has relied not only on elegant teachers in order to move about with the old and new financial oligarchy, but it has also had at its disposal a chorus of organic intellectuals who have helped them to never write one line, nor have one idea of their own, and at the same time providing them with the ideology indispensable for shooting and a complete collection of dithyrambs." (Ibid.)

At some moment, these professionals of apostasy ceased being court jesters with professional studies and/or published works, and became "advisors." In exchange for sharing the crumbs from the table of Power (and the recommendations which brought them significant economic advantages), these ideologues guide and advise our leaders. Of course, things don't always turn out the way the advisors and the advised might expect. And not just because of the continuous swings in their political positions and "serious" analysis (example: Jorge Alcocer, from the Salinas gang of intellectuals, one day announces that he will form a left-wing party, and the next morning he takes a position as Undersecretary of Government), but also (and above all), because reality is not understood as it is; rather, they counsel decisions based on the premise that reality should be whatever the Power wants it to be.

There is a long list of failures, but by only mentioning "Chiapas," we have the one which represents all the others. The formerly independent intellectuals and now pending advisors, counseled "a strong hand" and "firmness" in the government treatment of the indigenous rebels of the Mexican Southeast. "All the costs have already been paid, we have nothing to lose," they said, to support their recommendation to use the military path to definitively resolve the conflict. They also advised a "new media campaign" (the name by which the government, and its advisors, refer to the speeches during public events, press conferences and interviews at receptions) that would be consistent with the "policy of action" (c'est a dire of war) that they were carrying out in the country's indigenous communities. Result: barking, slogans, scoldings, boasts, threats, words and contradictions ("intergovernment conflicts," the PGR would say, referring not to Colosio's assassination, but to the declarations of Zedillo, Labastida and Rabasa).

The consequences of these actions and words are suffered not only by the indigenous victims of the extermination campaign against them, not only by Zedillo who stains his hands more and more with dark blood, not just by Labastida who sees his political aspirations for the Presidency of the Republic going up in smoke, not just by Rabasa, who sees the necessity for demonstrating that there is no idiocy spoken which cannot be surpassed (by he, himself) with flying colors the next day, and not only by "Marshall" Albores, who now occupies a privileged position among the assassins and thieves of this century.

Not only by them, the consequences are also paid by the intellectuals who are not "on one side or the other." With its military and media campaign, the government has managed only to reduce even more the narrow space for intermediate opinions. And so the "neutrals" are caught in a false dilemma: support the government or support the rebels.

The courtesy of gunsights contributes to the spread of desperation and clamors for an end to the "chiapanization" of national life.

Chiapas is a problem of public opinion: with the words of war and the violent actions only on the government's side, and on the side of the rebels a silence which, to them, appears abysmal, the intellectuals of "neutrality" are uncomfortable, because if they applaud government speeches and practices, they put themselves on the side of irrationality and crime, and if they criticize them, they put themselves on the side of a few masked persons who, in addition to being rebels, are indigenous.

Their desperation is comprehensible, the war which the government is carrying out in Chiapas and Guerrero is splattering all sides now, and it threatens to stain both pens and immaculate analysis.

But there are those who are not perturbed by the dilemma, and embrace with fervent and religious devotion the task of "giving reason" to the State crime which is taking place in indigenous Mexico.

However, nothing is ever perfect, and the mistakes follow each other at a dizzying pace, provoking unease among the officious advisors. The discomfort of these intellectuals in the face of governmental stupidity hides the dissatisfaction of unheeded advice. The intellectuals of indigenous annihilation, "for reasons of State," are made uncomfortable by the government's tardiness in "putting an end" to that stone in the shoe.

Fortunately, the intellectuals of criminal objectivity (as well as their advised) are fewer and fewer, and they are more alone. Meanwhile, there are news media which have the honor of including among their pages and microphones, political analysts, journalists and artists, who refuse the juggling that the government wishes to impose on them, and who continue dissecting national problems (and taking positions on them), looking for solutions that are inclusive, peaceful and rational.

With reason, history, legitimacy and the Nation lost, the Mexican political system has little left. It thinks that there is only one mask now that could save it and take it alive (although not now healthy and whole) to the other side of this century: The Mask of War.

(Audio to be used by any news media in the service of the Supreme. Images will be those of the attacks on the communities of Chavajeval and Unión Progreso, in the autonomous municipality of San Juan de la Libertad, Rebel Chiapas, on June 10, 1998).

Look at the federal soldiers: so young, so strong, so well fed, so well equipped, so well trained, etc. Look at them fight so heroically from behind their tanks, their light artillery, their helicopters, their bombers. Look with what decisiveness and courage they shoot and confront the enemy. What dedication! What great heroism! What bravery! What disdain for danger! What commitment to the defense of national sovereignty! Aren't they admirable? Don't you just feel like singing the National Anthem, in that part where it says: "Mexicans, to the cry of war...?"

This is patriotism. It doesn't matter that on the other side, the "enemy's" side, there are only machetes, stones, sticks, hands, fingernails, teeth. It doesn't matter that on the other side, the "enemy's" side, are the indigenous Mexicans, those who first populated these lands, those who resisted the war of conquest, those who gave birth to the Nation fighting with Miguel Hidalgo, José María Morelos, and Vicente Guerrero, those who fought against the gringos in 1847, those who fought by Juárez' side against the French invasion, those who gave flesh, blood, and cries for justice in the revolution of Villa and Zapata, those who refuse to be liquidated by a model, the neoliberal model, which undertakes a war of extermination against them through all means and in all forms.

Do not look at the rapes, the beatings, the executions, the extermination of men, women, children and elderly. Do not look at the exodus of tens of thousands of refugees.

Only listen to Comandante Zedillo, the chief of those soldiers whom he has ordered to save Mexico....from those who are more Mexican than anyone.

This is nationalism! This is being a patriot! This is the "State of Law!" This is the Federal Army! The armed guarantor of the defense of National Sovereignty!

So strong and not caring that those they are facing are so weak! So brave despite the fact that those they are fighting are unarmed! So bold even though those they are fighting are defenseless!

Do not look at or listen to your commander-in-chief lowering his head, embarrassed, in front of his North American counterpart. Do not see or hear the clumsy and grotesque "translation service" with which the Chancellor tries to hide the cowardice of Zedillo's government in front of the open jaws of the empire of the stripes and murky stars. Don't look at his army, the federal army, giving military honors to the Supreme Commander of the... North American Army. Don't look at the Mexican officials accounting to and following orders from their U.S. "advisors."

Do not see or hear the silence of those indigenous Mexicans who struggle for democracy, liberty and justice.

Do not see or hear that anachronistic "For everyone, everything, nothing for us." Who would think of such things in these times of "everyone for himself?"

These indigenous people ("zapatistas," I believe they call themselves) are the primary enemy, they sell the homeland; those who want to deliver national sovereignty to dark foreign interests; those who want to rebel against economic injustice; those who demand that he who governs, governs by obeying; those who demand democracy for all; those who want a place in the Nation; those who struggle for justice; those who want housing, land, work, bread, health, education; those who defend the independence of Mexico; those who want a new world, a better one....

Over there are our brave soldiers, killing the dark enemy (the color of their skin gives them away)!

Look at and listen to the war dispatch which our selfless soldiers deliver to their chief, Comandante Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, and which we offer to you exclusively on this channel:

TO: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, Supreme Commander
FROM: Operational Command Group of the Federal Army

NUMBER OF TROOPS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: 60,000 (Note: not including the number of special forces, those which the opposition calls "paramilitaries").

MILITARY EQUIPMENT OF THE FORCES OF THE SUPREME GOVERNMENT: War tanks, armed personnel carriers, Hummer vehicles, reconnaissance aircraft, combat and bomber airplanes, helicopters, howitzers, mortars, light artillery, machine guns, automatic rifles, grenades, electronic surveillance equipment.

NUMBER OF TROOPS OF THE TRANSGRESSORS OF THE LAW: 300 (including the masked joker who commands them).

MILITARY EQUIPMENT OF THE REBEL FORCES: So-called "chimba" rifles, .22 caliber rifles, sticks, machetes, stones, hands, fingernails, words, and (as discovered by our intelligent intelligence services)....silence.

.- Acteal, Chenalhó, Chiapas: 45 enemy casualties (men, women and children included), carried out by our special troops, in a tactical action they call "undercover."

.- Various indigenous communities, Chiapas: An undetermined number of decommissioned weapons (previously planted by us), subversive books such as "the gospel according to the masked joker."

.- Navil, Tenejapa, Chiapas: Two sacks of beans (which shows that the transgressors were preparing for bacteriological warfare) and some weapons which we planted.

.- Chavajeval, El Bosque ("San Juan de la Libertad" for the transgressors of the law), Chiapas: 3 enemy casualties owing to our brave and bold light artillery fire, mortars, and land and air machine guns.

.- Unión Progreso, El Bosque, Chiapas: 5 enemies executed for the crime of having rebelled against sacrosanct institutions.

.- Amparo Aguatinta and Taniperla, in the self-styled autonomous municipalities of "Tierra y Libertad" and "Ricardo Flores Magón," Chiapas: 2 wooden shacks burned, one mural destroyed, dozens arrested (alive, unfortunately).

.- State of Chiapas in general: an undetermined number of dead, wounded, and imprisoned, product of actions which are called "undercover" and the strict application of the law.

RESULT: Resounding triumph of the state of law which you so honorably represent.

PS: The selfless labours and ample intelligence of Field Marshall Roberto Albores Guillén, under whose orders we had the honor of serving the Republic, should be noted.

TO: Operational Command Group of the Federal Army
FROM: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León

Congratulations. The Federal Army will not be leaving Chiapas. Continue on with your enforcement of legality and the establishment of the state of law.

PS: A big hug (and a few croquettes) for my faithful friend and servant, Field Marshall Albores.

PS: Never before have so few (me and those who support me) owed so much to so many (federal troops).

Do not see or hear the other soldiers, those who fight the fires and help the population with the natural disasters. Don't see or hear the soldiers who fight the national and international drug traffic. Don't see or hear the soldiers dead in the fight against organized crime, which means destruction, hunger and misery for hundreds of thousands of people.

Do not see or hear the soldiers who fell, those, yes, in the carrying out of their duties.

Don't see or hear the soldiers who fight fires in various states in the country.

Look at and listen to (and applaud!) the soldiers who set fires and worship the fire in the Mexican south and southeast.

Look at and applaud the Huerta soldiers. Do not see or hear the Angeles soldiers.

Don't look, don't listen. Take your mask and your silence. Don't look and don't listen. Don't choose...

General Felipe Angeles. Official of the Federal Army in times of the Mexican Revolution, he crossed over to rebel lines and put his ingenuity and his knowledge at the service of the cause of the oppressed. He fought under the orders of Francisco Villa in the Division of the North. His brothers in arms in the government army of that time branded him a traitor to his country.

General Victoriano Huerta. Official of the Federal Army during the times of the Mexican Revolution, he put himself under orders of the ambassador from the United States of America to then-President Francisco I. Madero. He led the counterrevolution and organized massacres of indigenous people and the destruction of villages in his military campaign against a transgressor of the law, the self-named "Emiliano Zapata." His brothers in arms of the then-government army extolled him and praised him as a patriot.

1998, the Mexican Federal Army: so close to the Huertas and so far from the Angeles.

The mask of war, the silence of death always comes with it. And with death comes....

"The night will pass,
The waters can spit,
They can shoot the sparrows,
They can burn the verses.
They can cut down the sweet iris,
They can break the song and throw it into a swamp.
But this night will pass."

The neoliberal model requires, for its maintenance and growth, the perpetration of a crime that is realized through millions of small and large crimes, and the State is in charge of collecting, efficiently and in cash, from victims from below.

For this complicated (and useless) scheme, which serves as the stage for the death of the political system, to function, it is necessary to distribute large quantities of masks and silences for those from below. Anonymity, desperation, bitterness, apathy, impotence, resignation, skepticism, individualism, and cynicism, are offered with full hands to be consumed by millions of Mexican men and women who can barely survive in this country. Appearing to be free of charge, the silences and the masks which arrive from above to those from below tend to end up being very costly. The losses are exorbitant, but they are not measured in monetary terms, rather in human ones.

The masks of anonymity and isolation, which the frantic globalization tries to impose on men and women in all of Mexico, do not hide the singularity of every being, but rather the very real nightmare of the standard of living of those from below. The daily injustice which the system inflicts on Mexicans dilutes its impact precisely by the great multiplication of its small crimes: a dismissal over here, a rape over there, an unjust imprisonment there, a robbery further over there, a political disappearance on that side, a fraud on this side, hunger and misery shut away between four walls of any over there. Victims anonymous and isolated by the system, millions of Mexicans lose (in the neoliberal alchemy that converts their exploitation into a multiplied secret) the opportunity to rebel against the nightmare that isolates them in terror, because it is anonymous in the aggression which it perpetrates.

And the masks are accompanied by other masks; apathy and cynicism seek to multiply among those from below. They try to unite "nothing matters to me" with "only I am important to me, and so what," and in this way the power will accomplish one of its primary objectives: that of imposing immobility and hampering brotherhood.

Then the silences come. That of the bitterness against everything or no one, unleashed against anything within its reach. That of the impotence of feeling oneself to be too small in front of an overwhelming, inaccessible, and, nonetheless, omnipresent machine. That of the desperation of seeing oneself and knowing oneself to be alone, without the slightest suspicion that things could be better tomorrow. That of the resignation that assumes the inevitability of injustice and the role of victim while the murderer erases his face, becoming real in the boss, the police, the man, the mestizo, the thief, the neighbor, the other-always-the-other.

And the silence of fury explodes at any moment, a silence which accumulates and grows in situations that are absurd, unexpected, incomprehensible: the man with the woman, the gang with any passerby, the worker with the worker, the indigenous with the indigenous, the one with the other, the fury with the fury.

New forms of struggle are creating their own masks and go on forging their silences. Little by little, the honorable mask of resistance grows and multiplies, the "I will not stop," the "I will not surrender," the "I continue fighting," the "I will not give in," the "órale!" Behind the same mask of anonymity, the indigenous peoples, workers, campesinos, housewives, neighbors, unionists, students, teachers, base Christian communities, retired persons, disabled persons, drivers, shopkeepers, activists from political and social organizations, women, youth, children and elderly, all those who discover each other day by day, who resist staying like this as-if-nothing-bro'-sis'-and-now-well-we-mustn't-stop-we- have-to-fight-and-organize-and-turn-everything-around-and-remake-it-new- and-it-is-not-true-that-we-are-few-and-it-is-not-true-that-we-are-weak- and-it-is-not-true-that-we-always-lose-and-it-is-not-true-that-this- and-it-is-not-true-that-the-other-and-hold-on-man-and-now-you'll-see- and-it-is-not-true-that-it-is-not-true-and-no-and-why-not-and-no-and-why-yes- and-no-and-now-no-more-NO-NO-MORE....

And a terrible silence walks with and arises from the resistance: the silence which accuses and reveals.

Comandante Zedillo's military campaign has been brilliant. Accompanying him in this bellicose enterprise have been Mr. Labastida as Chief of Staff, Mr. Rabasa as....as....what is it that Mr. Rabasa does? Anyway, Mrs. Rosario Green in the service of not very simultaneous (nor very reliable) translation, and Mr.(?) Albores Guillén as Field Marshall.

Besides filling the Chiapas jails (having been previously emptied of the paramilitaries) with indigenous Zapatistas and members of civil society, besides promoting the use of the indigenous people's huts as target practice for the Federal Army, besides practicing summary executions which do not cause envy from those practiced by military dictatorships around the world (an advantage of globalization?), besides having tied the name of "Mexico" to the blood-stained "Acteal", "Chavajeval," and "Unión Progreso," besides having brought terror, misery and the lie to the Indian lands of Mexico, Comandante Zedillo and his team wear seven medals for the other victims they claimed.

Yes, seven are the victims of their war: peace, dialogue as the means for solution of conflicts, the indigenous peoples, national and international civil society, the movement towards democracy, the Commission on Concordance and Pacification and the National Intermediation Commission.

By continuing his personal fight against the Zapatista rebels, Zedillo did not just take peace —which was within reach— as a prisoner of war, he also attacked the hope for any future peace.

Dialogue as the means for finding solutions to conflicts is one of the most important losses of the war in the Mexican Southeast. By failing to carry out the accords which he signed, Zedillo shattered confidence in his government. Without confidence, it is impossible to reach accords. And if it is not possible to reach accords, what is dialogue for?

For their part, the indigenous peoples have been converted into the primary quota of Zedillo's "triumphs" in Chiapas: no other regime has been responsible, both directly and indirectly, for so many deaths, prisoners, tortures, expulsions, displacements and disappearances of indigenous Chiapas inhabitants as the current one.

The government's warring nature claimed another victim in national and international civil society, by ignoring its calls for dialogue and peace.

One more victim is the transition to democracy, which finds itself halted by a political system disposed for a bloodbath, so that it will not lose its privileges.

Only a nostalgic memory remains of national sovereignty. In its place are foreign military advisors, foreign arms, foreign combat tactics, foreign MRE's, foreign combat equipment. In the war in Chiapas the only thing that is national is the blood that is spilled.

Two other victims merit special mention: one was dragged away dying, the other lies irredeemably dead.

The first is the Commission on Concordance and Pacification, formed by federal legislators of all the political parties with representation in the Congress of the Union. The COCOPA has been avoided, mocked, used, despised, humiliated, and forgotten by the government. In his perverse and lethal game, Ernesto Zedillo feigned to the COCOPA his willingness to accept the legislators' offices to achieve, efficiently and rapidly, peace in southeastern Mexico. By withdrawing his acceptance of the initiative for the indigenous law, drafted by the COCOPA, the government made a fool of the legislators and robbed them of all moral authority to appear in front of the Zapatista leadership. Afterwards, Zedillo set about battering the "cocopos" who did not align themselves with his war plans (that is, almost all of them), only to then ignore the Commission for the long period during which he planned and executed the mass murder of indigenous people perpetrated in Acteal in December of 1997.

In short, the government has treated the COCOPA with ridicule, traps, blows and sabotage.

Simultaneous with the sabotages against the COCOPA, the Interior Ministry busied itself with assassinating and incarcerating more indigenous people, and in fighting a total war against the National Intermediation Commission (CONAI) and especially against its President, Bishop Samuel Ruiz García. Ultimately, words and contradictions. Labastida says what Rabasa retracts, Zedillo corrects both of them. Rabasa clarifies Zedillo, Labastida scolds Rabasa, in short, a confusion of masks and roles which would make one laugh if it weren't that it hides a brutal and uneven war.

After suffering a long and intense campaign of attacks and lies, the National Intermediation Commission (recognized by the parties, EZLN and the federal government, as the mechanism for mediation in the peace dialogue) was dissolved.

Take note of these names: Don Samuel Ruiz García, Doña Concepción Calvillo Viuda de Nava, Doctor Pablo González Casanova, Doctor Raymundo Sánchez Barraza, poet Juan Bañuelos, poet Oscar Oliva (these six as full members), and Pedro Nava, Salvador Reyes, Gonzalo Ituarte and Miguel Alvarez as secretaries. The 10 formed the National Intermediation Commission, one of the primary objectives for destruction by the government's strategy of war.

Their crimes? All of them unpardonable: fighting for peace with justice and dignity, representing national civil society as mediator in the conflict, believing firmly in dialogue as the solution to disputes, not submitting to the government's orders, maintaining autonomy and independence with respect to the sides in conflict, believing that peace in Mexico must necessarily pass through the transition to democracy, committing themselves to the side of the Indians in their peaceful struggles, and (the worst of all their crimes) making themselves into an obstacle to war.

For months, these persons were the victims of attacks of all kinds, including attempts on their lives, property and liberty. For months, they suffered the pressures of the entire apparatus of the Mexican State: federal, state, and municipal governments; the Army, police, and paramilitaries; the two television monopolies and the local press; businessmen; federal and local Deputies; Senators of the Republic; judges and prosecutors; leaders of political parties; the high hierarchies of the Catholic and evangelical churches. Millions and millions of pesos wasted in smear campaigns against them.

All the political, economic, ecclesiastical and military power against these 10 persons and, particularly, against Don Samuel Ruiz García, the bishop of the diocese of San Cristóbal.

On June 7, 1998, the seventh victim fell before the advance of the Zedillo war machine. Don Samuel Ruiz García resigned from the CONAI, and it was dissolved.

With the disappearance of the CONAI, a fierce resistance against authoritarianism, crime, and intolerance was ended; but for its members, the search for peace has not been concluded.

But the machine did not stop with the resignation of the president of the CONAI. Mr. Ernesto Zedillo is not satisfied with seeing Bishop Ruiz García out of mediation in the conflict. No, he wants to see him disappeared, erased, dead. With malice he nurtures the opportunity to get him completely out of his sight; if the attempt failed once, there would still be other opportunities. After all, if they could murder a Cardinal (Posadas Ocampo) with impunity, it would be easy to take care of an inconvenient bishop without any problems. And this is not one of those bad jokes that Zedillo likes to torture his cabinet with, no, the bitterness had been converted in this man into a truly personal style of government. And as for personal revenge, "he knows how to do it."

Time and again, in each of the conjugal visits made to the next ex-interim governor, Albores Guillén, Mr. Zedillo attacks, viciously and cowardly, the man who took peace and justice as his banners, and who spared neither effort nor pain to complete his work with honesty, and which is, at the end of the day, the work of all self-respecting human beings: the struggle for justice, respect and dignity.

This country owes much to these persons. Although a chapter has ended in the Mexican southeast, national history reserves them a place alongside the very best. Long afterwards, when Zedillo is forgotten or in jail for his innumerable crimes, the names of these persons will still hold a very special place in the hearts of all those who are now "Mexicans from below", especially the indigenous peoples.

Although they are outside this new stage of the struggle, the "conaítas" have made it clear that they will continue struggling in different forms and in different places for the same thing: justice for the indigenous Mexicans, the transition to democracy, and peace.

Nevertheless, the seven victims of the government's war are multiplied in other combatants who are resisting. They remember yesterday's histories in the present, like that which speaks of...

Important notice, that is, urgent warning, or however you say it: The section "Stories of the Little Sea-Horse" arbitrarily interrupts this v-e-e-e-ry serious political analysis and, just like that, leaves us as sea-sick as the tide which navigates the sea. As if it were medicine, the seahorse prescribes us a story (what else could it do!).

Old Antonio says that when he was young his father Don Antonio taught him how to kill the lion without a firearm. Old Antonio says that when he was young Antonio and his father was the old Antonio, he told him the story that he now tells me in my ear so that the sea will learn it from my lips. Old Antonio tells it to me just like this, but I call it

"The lion first tears apart its victim, then he drinks the blood, eating the heart, and leaves the rest for the vultures. There is nothing that can go against the strength of the lion. There is not an animal which can confront him, nor a man who does not run away from him. Only a force which is equally brutal, bloodthirsty and powerful can defeat the lion."

The then-old Antonio of the then-young Antonio rolled his cigarette and, pretending to pay attention to the logs which were converging in the bright star of the flames from the bonfire, looked out of the corner of his eye at the young Antonio. He didn't wait long, because the young Antonio asked him:

The old Antonio of then smiled with good humor (that is what the young Antonio of then says) and took the mirror from him.

"By showing you the mirror I meant that the strength which can defeat the lion is the lion's own strength. Only the lion himself can defeat the lion."

—Ah!— said the then-young Antonio, who said it just in order to say something.

The then-old Antonio understood that the then-young Antonio had not understood anything, and he continued telling the story.

"When we understood that only the lion could defeat the lion we began to think of how to make the lion confront himself. The oldest of the old of the community said that you had to know the lion, and they named a boy to get to know him."

The then-old Antonio agreed through his silence and, after rearranging the logs on the fire, he continued:

"They took the boy up to the top of a ceiba tree and at the base of it they left a tied-up calf. They went away. The boy was supposed to watch what the lion did with the calf, wait for him to go away, and then to return to the community to tell them what he had seen. And so he did, the lion arrived and killed and tore up the calf, and afterwards he drank its blood, eating its heart, and he left when the buzzards were circling waiting for their turn.

"The boy went to the community and told them what he had seen. The oldest of the old thought for a while, and said: 'Let the death which the matador gives be his death,' and they gave the boy a mirror, some nails, and a calf.

" 'Tomorrow is the night of justice,' said the old ones, and they returned to their thoughts.

"The young boy did not understand. He went to his hut and he stayed there for a good while watching the game. There he was and his father arrived and he asked him what was happening; the boy told him everything. The boy's father stayed silently next to him and, after a while, he spoke. The boy smiled while he listened to his father.

"The next day, when the afternoon had already turned golden, and the gray of the night had let itself fall over the treetops, the boy left the community and walked on foot to the ceiba tree carrying the calf. When he arrived at the foot of the mother tree, he killed the calf and took out its heart. Then he broke the mirror into many little pieces and stuck them into the heart with the same blood, then he opened the heart and put the nails inside. He put the heart back in the calf's chest and with stakes made a frame to keep it standing on its feet, as if it were alive. The boy went up to the top of the tree and waited there. Above, while the night let itself fall from the trees to the ground, he remembered his father's words: 'The same death with which the matador will die.'

"The night was full in the times of below when the lion arrived. The animal came close and, with one leap, attacked the calf and tore it apart. When he licked the heart, the lion became suspicious because the blood was dry, but the broken mirror hurt his tongue and made it bleed. And so the lion thought that the blood from his mouth was from the calf's heart and, excited, he chewed up the entire heart. The nails made him bleed more, but the lion continued to think that the blood he had in his mouth was that of the calf. Chewing and chewing, the more the lion wounded himself the more he bled, and the more he bled, the more he chewed.

"The boy returned with the lion's claws as a necklace, and he showed it to the oldest of the old of the community.

"They smiled and told him: 'It is not the claws that you should keep as a trophy of the victory, but the mirror.'

But, in addition to the mirror, old Antonio always carries his old chispa rifle.

"Just in case the lion doesn't know history," he tells me, smiling and winking an eye. On this side, the sea adds: "In case the lion or the Orive."

And speaking of ex-Maoists and ex-radicals and ex-left, today flaming advisors to the criminals of the right (who start out talking like cockatoos and now, in order to hide themselves, imitate the ostrich), Old Antonio had his own version of that one about the revolutionary and the masses and the comparison with the fish in the water, and also the counterinsurgency strategy of "taking the water away from the fish" that the confused government advisors are recommending today:

Old Antonio tells a story that the oldest of the old of his community once told him. He tells the story that there once was a very beautiful fish that lived in the river. The lion saw the fish and he had a craving to eat it. The lion went to the river but he saw that he could not swim in the river and attack the fish. So the lion asked for advice from the opossum, who told him: "It is very simple, the fish cannot live without water. The only thing you have to do is to drink the water from the river, and that way the fish will stay immobilized and then you can attack it and eat it." The lion was pleased with the opossum's advice, and he paid him with a position in his kingdom.

New important notice, but now not so urgent warning: the interruption of the little seahorse has ended, but not so the dizzy nausea. Perhaps its persistence is due to that which is shown and spoken of in...

"It is clear that in the arena of political action,(...) only he who puts the candle where the wind is blowing will triumph; never the one who hopes the wind is blowing where he puts the candle."

1998. Mexico. While the supreme government gears up for war and tries desperately to bring together the winds from above, beastly growls, and spells in order to push the heavy sails of the ship of death, these indigenous Mexicans, who have added the name of Emiliano Zapata to their history, prepare in silence the justice and the dignity which will arrive in spite of their death (or perhaps because of it).

In silence, the indigenous people watch the skies and the grounds to predict the winds from below which run through the fields of Mexico and of the world, through the dusty streets of tiny villages and ranches, through the disorderly order of the squatters' settlements, through the headquarters of the honest unions, through the offices of the committed political parties, through the theatres-movies-auditoriums-show-rooms- art galleries, through laboratories and centers of scientific research, through university cubicles, classrooms and halls, through meetings and assemblies of political and social organizations, through the churches of the poor, through the international solidarity committees, through the national and foreign non-governmental organizations, through the highways, through the roads, through the neighborhood streets, through the gravel paths, navigating in the rivers, in the lakes, and in the seas of this country, today awash in humidity, and of this world awakening, late, certainly, but awakening.

In silence they finish this new and absurd Noah's Ark and, knowing that the wind is blowing for democracy, liberty, and justice, they set high the double sail of hope, motor and light for this ship, the boat of those of always, the ship of life.

With art and science they built the ark and chose thousands of their own for the crew.

If war and destruction arrive, they will resist as they have learned to do so in the hard school of the centuries; in other words, with dignity.

If democracy, liberty, and justice arrive, they will know to share it, as they have known how to do throughout their history.

After a long silence these indigenous people speak of a ship and they call on everyone to board it.

After such a silence, these indigenous people speak of a ship, a Noah's ark, a navigable Tower of Babel, an absurd and irreverent challenge.

In case there is any doubt as to who guides and directs it, from the figurehead on the bow shines a ski mask! Yes, a ski mask, the mask which reveals, the silence that speaks. A "For everyone, everything, nothing for us" dresses the flag of the five-pointed red star over a black background which shines over the mast. In golden letters, to port, starboard and the stern, the "Votán Zapata" names the origin and the destination of this ship, so powerfully fragile, so resoundingly quiet, so visibly concealed.

"All on board!," the captain's voice is heard to shout-order-invite. The only ticket necessary is honesty. Several thousand oarsmen await, are you ready to leave? No, something is missing...

With that strange and repeated tendency to complicate the life they have, these men and women of masks and silences built their boat...in the middle of the mountain!

As was to be expected, silence is the response. But behind their masks there is a smile when they bring me a message and a bottle.

I do what I always do in these cases: I put the message in the bottle, put the top on tightly with some chewing gum of chamoy which the sea gives me, I plant myself firmly by the side of the ceiba, and with all my strength, I throw the bottle with the message as far as I can. A trail of cloud gets it and, navigating, takes it to who-knows-where-it-takes-it. There goes the bottle. Whoever finds it can, by breaking it, break the silence, and find a few answers and many questions. Perhaps he will also be able to read the...

Vale. Health, and be ready. Prepare umbrellas, raincoats and life jackets! Who will deny now that the word can summon the rains?