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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 12, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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More evidence of mass anger in Mexico

By Andy McInerney

When the People's Revolutionary Army (EPR) announced its existence at a peasant rally June 28, the Mexican government dismissed it as an isolated group, a "pantomime" of a rebel group.

Then the EPR carried out coordinated military and political operations across Mexico on Aug. 28. Now politicians in Mexico City and their backers in Washington are eating their words.

The actions, launched at night, ranged across seven states in Mexico. In the state of Guerrero, where the group first emerged, the EPR attacked police headquarters in Tixtla and Acapulco as well as military barracks in Ciudad Altamirano and Petatlan.

In Oaxaca state, they struck a police office, a naval base and the town hall in Huatulco. The EPR also staged attacks in the states of Mexico State, Tabasco, Guanajuato, and Puebla.

In the southern state of Chiapas, EPR members set up roadblocks and distributed leaflets. The Aug. 30 edition of "Heartbeat of Mexico" reported that an EPR activist told journalists the group refrained from military actions there "out of respect for the peace talks between the government and the Zapatista Army."

A total of at least 12 government troops were killed in all the actions, along with two EPR soldiers. Over 20 were wounded. The EPR carried out smaller actions the next two days, too.

The Mexican government responded with a wave of military sweeps through the seven states where the EPR struck. While troops could not find any rebel units, they did use the occasion to harass peasant activists.

Four peasant leaders were arrested in Guerrero, the scene of heated struggles between peasants and landowners. Summonses were issued for 41 others.

President Ernesto Zedillo, stunned at the boldness of the EPR campaign, lashed out at the rebel group. "Who has given them the right to try to take power by force?" he wailed. In his Sept. 1
state-of-the-union address, he pledged to fight the EPR with the "full force of the state."

Mexico's ruling class weighed in with a call for all-out war against the rebels. Carlos Abascal, president of Mexico's employers' association, said, "With a belligerent group like this that uses high-powered weapons, you can't fight them with holy water."

In Washington on Aug. 30, White House spokesperson Mike McCurry told reporters that the Clinton administration condemns the "violent actions of what appears to be a very ruthless, small, armed organization of obscure groups dedicated to the overthrow of the Mexican government."

Misery fuels resistance

In a political statement issued to coincide with the Aug. 28 attacks, the EPR called for "political struggle by all the people ... to build the historical and social strength that will allow the nation to free itself of the oppressive state."

Historically, the EPR has been linked to the Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party-People's Union and the Poor People's Party. These are Marxist groups that have operated for two decades. The government also says the EPR has links to many peasant groups operating in Guerrero.

Politically, the EPR calls the Mexican government a "minority of oligarchs im posed by the bourgeoisie." It calls for Zedillo to resign, and for Mexicans to build a "transition government" paving the way for a socialist "workers' republic."

"We don't want war and we won't declare war," Vicente, an EPR militant, told reporters Aug. 25. "But we can't stand by with our arms folded when crime and impunity become a form of government."

Although its primary base remains in Chiapas, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) has won nationwide support. Now the ruling class must contend with the emergence of another challenge, from a group that appears to have a national political apparatus and modern weaponry.

The EPR's arsenal of AK-47s has been financed by bank heists and kidnappings of wealthy business owners.

The new guerrilla campaign takes place amid dire social conditions for Mexican workers and peasants. Zedillo touts an economic recovery. But in reality, poverty and sharp social contradictions are rampant.

Half the population in Guerrero has no running water. Forty percent of the state's population has no electricity.

These conditions have fueled a wave of militant actions by unions and peasant groups. Over 100,000 workers broke with the pro-government union federation to march on May Day against Zedillo's pro-International Monetary Fund policies.

Nationally, the inflation rate was 15.3 percent in July. Unemployment is officially 5.6 percent-but everyone knows that's a ridiculous undercount. Victor Manuel Díaz Romero of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers said that despite the recovery, workers would still have to "get used to living in a culture of crisis."

Peasants have stepped up land seizures, battling landlords. Poor neighborhoods have sacked trainloads of food to feed their families.

Revolutionary future

The current stage of mass struggle in Mexico opened on Jan. 1, 1994, when the EZLN launched an armed uprising in Chiapas demanding democratic and social reforms. Since then, the EZLN has been a pole for the Mexican left, emboldening the mass struggle around the country.

However, the EZLN has been mired in negotiations with the government. Some important concessions have been won, especially regarding recognition of indigenous peoples' rights in Chiapas. But the government has refused to address any broader political and social demands.

Now the EPR is sharply posing the question of the class character of the state and openly fighting for workers' and peasants' political power.

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