Zapatistas renew struggle

The new law gives indigenous communities more autonomy

By Peter Greste in Mexico City

Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement has rejected a new indigenous rights law intended to draw them back into peace talks with the government.

They have got nothing more to talk about. It is hard to know where they can go from here

Sergio Sarmiento, political commentator

The guerrilla's leader, Subcomandante Marcos, said the uprising in the southern state of Chiapas would continue.

He added that changes to the bill left the nation's indigenous people worse off than before.

The Zapatistas would only rejoin talks once the government withdrew troops from Chiapas, released all rebels and reformed the constitution, he said.

The rebels had demanded the passage of the law as a precondition to peace talks, and the legislation made it through the Chamber of Deputies over the weekend.

End to dialogue

Since then, the government has been waiting for the Zapatistas' response.

Zapatistas have suspended peace talks

On Monday it came in a written statement from their headquarters in the Chiapas jungle, in which Subcomandante Marcos said the law demonstrated a complete divorce between the will of the political powers and the needs of the people.

Rather than representing the rights of the nation's Indians, it protected the rights of landowners, he said.

He ordered his negotiators to halt all dialogue with the government until there were clear commitments to protecting indigenous people.

This was not the response Mexico's President Vicente Fox had been hoping for.

The legislation was to have been the lynchpin to peace in Chiapas, providing the protection for indigenous rights that the Zapatistas had been fighting for since they launched their uprising in 1994.

Stalemate?

The bill was one of Mr Fox's first acts as president

The package of laws gives indigenous communities the right to administer their own brand of traditional justice and local government.

But to get it through Congress the government had to water down key provisions that critics said could lead to the break-up of Mexico or that could allow human rights abuses.

The end result, said the Zapatistas, was something that failed to represent the spirit of the original agreements.

It is now unclear which way either side can move - the government has gone too far to turn back with the legislation, while the Zapatistas have made it clear that they will not budge.

Political commentator Sergio Sarmiento has predicted stalemate: "They have got nothing more to talk about. It is hard to know where they can go from here."