War at heart of Sunday vote in Mexico's Chiapas

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (Reuters) -- Amid rising tension, voters in Mexico's turbulent state of Chiapas will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new governor in a race seen as crucial to ending the 6-1/2 year-old Zapatista rebellion.

Sen. Sami David, candidate for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), closed his campaign on Wednesday night by releasing a white "dove of peace" before an estimated 20,000 supporters in the state capital's sprawling central plaza.

That gesture epitomized both candidates' calls for renewed peace talks between the government and the Zapatista rebels, who rose up in arms on Jan. 1, 1994 for Indian rights.

"I'm betting on peace with justice and dignity," David told a news conference earlier.

While the election has drawn attention for its potential role in resolving the armed conflict, it will also provide the next test of Mexico's embattled ruling party after its historic loss to Vicente Fox in a July 2 presidential election.

And Chiapas voters may be ready to write another chapter for the history books.

David's rival, independent Sen. Pablo Salazar, holds a commanding lead in opinion polls. If elected, he would become the state's first non-PRI governor since the party was founded 71 years ago, and its first non-Catholic, Protestant governor.

Backed by an eight-party coalition that includes Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN), Salazar has taken up the same brash mantra that was used by Fox in his campaign.

"We've already won!" Salazar tells cheering crowds across this dirt-poor state long known as PRI territory. "The PRI is a political cadaver, and cadavers have no future."

The new governor will take office in December and replace a series of interim governors appointed by the ruling party amid political and social strife in this state of nearly 4 million largely poor and indigenous inhabitants.

Activists say the vote should take a step toward confronting the underlying conditions of poverty, racism and political favoritism that gave rise to the Zapatista revolt.

"These elections represent not only the possibility of reaching political stability in Chiapas, but also a historic opportunity to address basic questions of equality and justice for the majority of Chiapas citizens," said Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan indigenous activist.

Salazar, who was elected senator on the PRI ticket and held state offices under the PRI before breaking with the party last year, blames it for decades of neglect in Chiapas.

The government has fomented violence through an increased military presence and is responsible for the impasse in peace negotiations, stalled since 1996, Salazar says.

"The government has been a factor of war and not of peace," he told Reuters. "In the first hours of the new government we will step out of the ring and take off the gloves."

A former member of a Congressional peace commission in Chiapas, Salazar has called for an immediate reduction of troops in the conflict zone and for implementation of the San Andres peace accords to kick-start dialogue.

Once running mates on the same political ticket, Salazar and David now accuse each other of seeking to stir up age-old political, social and religious conflicts in their campaigns.

Earlier this month David was attacked with sticks during a campaign swing in his opponent's home town of Soyalo, prompting David to charge Salazar with instigating violence.

Salazar, meanwhile, says his opponent has played up the religious question in a state where conflicts between Protestants and Catholics have often turned violent.

Tensions between Zapatista sympathizers and PRI supporters have also mounted.

Earlier this month 20 pro-PRI families were forced from their homes by assailants identified by the government as Zapatista supporters. Days earlier, some 60 pro-Zapatista families were forced to flee in Yajalon when they were attacked by members of an armed civilian group linked to the PRI.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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