Special Report: Mexican Irregular Forces/Rebel Groups
Special Report: Mexican Irregular Forces/Rebel Groups
The well-known Subcommander Marcos, head of the Zapatista
National Liberation Army in the southern state of Chiapas,
Mexico's biggest rebel force, said in November 1996 that several
other guerrilla movements were active. ``There are three or four
armed groups that the government does not want to recognize in the
states of Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Puebla,'' he claimed.
The most active Mexican insurgencies are centered in the south but
one group claims it is moving its operations to areas where the
military has been weakened by the need to keep troops in the south.
Zapatista National Liberation Army
The first of the groups, and by far the most deadly and well-
known, appeared suddenly in Chiapas state. The Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN) launched an armed uprising in the
southern state of Chiapas on New Year's Day 1994. The Zapatista
rank and file is primarily Maya Indians. About 150 people died in
the first days of fighting. The rebels and government began a series
of on-and-off peace talks shortly after the rebellion flared. The
guerrillas have said they want to lay down their arms and fight for
Indian rights and democracy through peaceful means. For more
than 2 1/2 years, Zapatista leaders and their troops have been
bottled up by an army cordon in Chiapas, blocked from the capital
and other parts of Mexico where they claim support.
The Mexican political structure rather than the army has done well
in containing this one brushfire. Whether it could repeat the hat
trick a second time is open to question. The ability of the Mexican
Army to win a guerrilla war in the hinterlands without large-scale
slaughter and a scorched earth policy is questionable.
Popular Revolutionary Army
The second of the rebel forces is the Popular Revolutionary Army
(EPR). The EPR initially appeared in the southern state of
Guerrero on June 28, 1996. Between June and September, the
group staged nearly two dozen attacks on Mexican police and
military targets in which about 25 people were killed. Their most
impressive operation came on August 28-29 when they attacked
several states at the same time, including one military target in the
state of Mexico adjoining Mexico City. The government said 15
were killed and 22 wounded in those attacks.
The EPR unveiled itself June 28 in a poor rural hamlet in
southwestern Guerrero state and also appears to have strength in
southern Oaxaca state. Both states have widespread poverty and
remote, tree-covered mountain ranges, conditions ideal for guerrilla
activity. The EPR has also appeared in Hidalgo, Puebla, Tabasco
and Chiapas states, in addition to the central state of Mexico,
where the latest reported attacks took place. But apart from the one
spectacular operation in several states in late August in which at
least 15 people were killed, it has largely limited its military
operations to ambushes. Several soldiers had been killed or
wounded in each of them. Some of the most recent attacks were in
the in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City. In one, the
EPR said it had ambushed a Humvee military vehicle with 10
soldiers aboard as it patrolled a federal highway leading west from
Mexico City to the city of Toluca. The EPR claimed it wounded
eight soldiers, an undetermined number of them mortally. The EPR
also said it had attacked an army barracks near Mexico's famed pre-
Columbian pyramids of Teotihuacan east of Mexico City,
wounding or killing several soldiers. "With these actions the...EPR
ratifies its disposition to continue developing its political-military
action of self-defense against the war declared by the federal
government on the people and their revolutionary forces," the EPR
statement as saying. The statement also called on residents of
Mexico City and state to "close ranks and halt the government's war
against the people."
The EPR has modern arms. When it unveiled itself in the troubled
state of Guerrero, the leaders showed off shiny new assault rifles at
a ceremony marking the anniversary of a peasant massacre.
Russian-made RPG anti-tank missile launcher and 70 mm anti-tank
missiles belonging to the EPR have been seized by government
security forces. Since the appearance of the Popular Revolutionary
Army (EPR), there have been occasional bomb threats in some
Mexican cities. Although the EPR has denied responsibility for the
threats, the possibility cannot be ruled out.
Self-described leaders say their movement is socialist. They claim
the guerrilla group has 23,000 combatants in the state of Guerrero.
In September Leftist Mexican guerrillas said they might target some
of Mexico's leading business people for attack and called for
investigations into their vast fortunes, El Financiero newspaper
said.
The Mexican government says that the EPR is not a new guerrilla
organization, but rather a merging of various leftist groups, some of
which have existed since the 1970s. There may well be come
justification for that. The EPR, reportedly received advice and
support from the Shining Path, the Peruvian guerrilla organization
that nearly overran Peru in the 1980s. According to reports the
EPR, which first appeared in southern Mexico in June, received
advice from former Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman. A
document seized in a March, 1991 raid described contacts between
the Shining Path's Political Bureau and a group identified as the
Communist Union of Mexico, a possible precursor of the EPR. In
the document the Mexican group agreed to establish a "Mexican
Support Committee for the Popular War in Peru.''
In December the EPR said it would temporarily suspend offensive
military operations to concentrate on a propaganda campaign. "We
have decided not to attack, in the course of this campaign, either
police or military positions, reserving the right to repel with arms
any governmental aggression,'' the EPR said. That EPR statement
was signed by the "General Command'' of the guerrilla group. It
criticized government corruption and the unequal distribution of
wealth in Mexico, calling for "a country where big capital serves
the workers with an aim toward resolving their needs.''
Backtracking from its previous stated goal of seeking a direct road
to power through arms, the EPR said it would concentrate on a
propaganda campaign. "In the framework of this campaign, we have
decided to transmit our proposals and our political ideas through
armed revolutionary propaganda,'' the statement said. Since then
armed rebels have shown themselves in southern towns, passing out
propaganda. In some cases they have seized town halls and held
them briefly. By the time that troops arrive on the scene the rebels
have disappeared.
"Revolutionary Guanajuato Army''
In the central state of Guanajuato a "Revolutionary Guanajuato
Army'' has engaged in propaganda actions. They are reportedly
linked to Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) and appear to be
more oriented toward statements than bullets. There is serious
question about their warfighting abilities, if indeed they exist as a
paramilitary force at all.
Revolutionary Army of Popular Insurgence
In November a shadowy new group proclaimed itself to be Mexico's
third major guerrilla force. Unlike the EZLN and the EPR, which
operate primarily in southern areas, the new group claimed it would
mount an offensive in the north and center of the country. (The
Zapatistas have operated in the southernmost state of Chiapas and
the EPR has mostly attacked in the southern states of Oaxaca and
Guerrero.)
In the seven-page manifesto sent to newspapers on Revolution Day,
the new group called for an end to what they said was President
Ernesto Zedillo's repressive'' government. The self-styled
Revolutionary Army of Popular Insurgence (ERIP) declared it was
"an army of the people and for the people'' as it proclaimed itself on
the 86th anniversary of Mexico's 1910 Revolution. The ERIP
manifesto said it saluted and supported the ''heroic gesture'' of the
armed struggle launched by the Zapatistas and the EPR in defense
of Mexico's exploited poor. After demanding the government's
resignation, the group made 15 specific demands, including the
suspension of foreign debt payments, land reform, universal health
care and better wages, jobs and homes for all. ``The ERIP is the
armed expression of the popular masses who are rising up to
oppose the anti-popular, repressive and servile policy of the current
State which has been usurping power through fraudulent elections,''
the manifesto said. The new group said it was made up of peasants,
Indians and workers as well as nationalist small businessmen who
had been ''oppressed and exploited by the PRI-government and
monopolistic groups in the service of transnational capital.''
Some armed formations have been reported in the mountains of the
remote Papaloapan region of Oaxaca, about 145 miles southeast of
Mexico City and close to the border with Puebla state. Some
assume this is the ERIP, which local residents have dubbed the
"army of the mountains of the Sierra Negra.''
Armed Front for the Liberation of the Marginalized People of Guerrero
In December, a matter of hours after the EPR claimed it was
reverting to propaganda actions, another self-proclaimed guerrilla
army emerged from nowhere. The Armed Front for the Liberation of
the Marginalized People of Guerrero (FALPMG) sent a manifesto
to the media claiming it was ready to act. "As of this moment we
begin pressure tactics so that we are heard... and most importantly
we initiate a project that carries with it the proposal... to seek a
solution to the inconformities brought forth by the peasants and
marginalized Indians of the state of Guerrero,'' the statement said.
The statement had a hand-drawn letterhead showing assault rifles
and a pair of hands breaking free of chains, underscored by the
FALPMG letters. It said the FALPMG was concerned because
other guerrilla forces have been taking casualties from the army.
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