Following passage by the Mexican Congress last month of an Indigenous Rights law with the indigenous rights stripped out, the EZLN, calling it a betrayal to the peace process, has broken off negotiations with the government.

The bill was first drawn up in 1996 as part of the San Andres accords, aimed at ending the war in Chiapas. Called the Cocopa law, after the initials of the congressional peace commission that attempted to mediate the conflict, the proposed constitutional amendment is key to ending the EZLN's seven year war against a vile government. The PRI government of Ernesto Zedillo stalled on presenting the law to Congress, and negotiations broke down. President Fox, recently elected on a platform of reform, promised to push for passage of the law. His first legislative act was to send the bill to Congress.

Twenty-four comandantes of the EZLN traveled in February to Mexico City, under provisions of the accord, to lobby Congress for passage of the law.

The Senate, after secretly changing essential portions of the proposed law, passed it unanimously on April 25. The Chamber of Deputies passed it two days later with a vote of 386 to 86. The EZLN immediately rejected the bill.

"The EZLN formally refuses to recognize this constitutional reform on indigenous rights and culture. It does not embrace the spirit of the San Andres Accords. It does not respect the "Cocopa legislative proposal." It completely ignores the national and international demand for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture. It sabotages the incipient process of rapprochement between the federal government and the EZLN. It betrays the hopes for a negotiated solution for the war in Chiapas. And it reveals the absolute alienation of the political class regarding popular demands."

The EZLN laid the blame at Fox's booted feet. "Senor Fox hailed the current reform, knowing that it is not even remotely similar to the one he [presented to the Congress]. This proves that Fox only pretended to embrace the `Cocopa proposal,' while negotiating a reform with hard-line groups in Congress which do not recognize indigenous rights."

The unanimous Senate vote included senators of the leftist PRD, which has again raised questions about the PRD's commitment to effective reform.

The PRD representatives in the Chamber of Deputies, blind-sided by their Senate colleagues, were unable to introduce a counterproposal and could only vote against the Senate's measure. They were joined in opposition by representatives of the Workers' Party (PT), and by five PRI deputies, all from the state of Oaxaca. These deputies, from districts with large indigenous populations, said they would have liked to have voted for the bill, and were pressured to do so. But, decrying the secrecy and lack of indigenous representation in the bill's revision, they said they wouldn't be able to face their constituents had they voted to pass it.

The representatives of the Green Party of Mexico (PVEM), who campaigned as part of a coalition with Fox's PAN, also voted in favor of the PAN/PRI version of the bill.

The new law backpedals even from the PRI's "revisions" of the Cocopa proposal by president Zedillo that the EZLN rejected five years ago.

Subcomandante Marcos says the law should be called the "Constitutional Recognition of the Rights and Culture of Landowners and Racists." It includes provisions to protect corporate investments and to prevent indigenous autonomy from derailing exploitation of lands, resources, and people.

The latest government maneuver is a predictable response. The government needs peace in Chiapas to fulfill its dreams of globalized development, particularly in Mexico's south. Peace means agreeing to indigenous autonomy. At the same time, such autonomy would only undercut the development that the government and their corporate affiliates desire.

The current strategy (which is the same as the old strategy) seeks to isolate the Zapatistas by painting them as intransigent. Pointing to the law as fulfillment of his promise, Fox, abetted by the corporate news propagandists, continues the bait-and-switch of politicians everywhere.

Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar has rejected the bill as a "triumph of conservatism." The PRD has called upon Fox to veto the bill as a necessary step toward negotiating real reform. Fox has indicated he has no intention of penning such a veto. Still needing to be ratified by a majority of state legislators, the law isn't quite a finished process. Its opponents in Mexican civil society have indicated they will now turn their attentions to the states.