This question of indigenous struggles in Mexico has traditionally been
defined as being that of the regional and/ or rural struggles.     That
is because the indigenous Mexicans principally lived without special
status in rural areas.      Their strugggles were the community
struggles common in rural areas throughout the Third World.

These battles usually involve some sort of struggle over local resource
use.    Getting clean drinking water/ sewage drainage/ electricity,
access to land or grazing areas, getting access to scarce and siphoned
off federal monies or credits, etc.

In Mexico, these indigenous struggles centered in the Yucatan, Chiapas,
Oaxaca, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi, and Chihuahua in the highlands.....
not to be comprehensive with this list.

To a certain extent, there is some contiguity in the Chiapas struggle,
to those Guatemalan struggles that spilled over in the '80s-'90s (and
even earlier).

These issues raised regionally, and by Mexican nationals that often are
bilingual or non-Spanish monlingual in an indigenous language, fall into
an even broader Mexican political problem.... that of the neo-liberal
decimation of the Mexican countryside.

For 5 decades, policies have been promoted that deliberately destroyed
the base of traditional Mexican agriculture, which was seen as all that
was backward and that had to be eliminated in Mexican society.    The
result is Mexico City, and the desertification and deforestration of
large swaths of rural terrain.

And the result is a class struggle located principally in Mexico City
and the more indigenous regional areas, that still have some half
starved inhabitants trying to survive without necessary resources.

The larger struggle in Mexico, is over the 'hearts and minds' of the
urban populations that were temporarily bailed out of utter destitution
by the Clinton administration, in the mid '90s.       Their situation is
as precarious as the current American economy.      They are the bulk,
that sits centered in a tug of war between The Left, and the Mexican
elites financially backed by US imperialism.

Do 'the Amerindians want their own state and legislature'?     No.
The battle is more over control over local communities and the
corruption of elites that steal elections and resources, at all
levels..... whether it be state, municipal, or federal.    What use a
vote, when fraud is so totally rampant?     But all Mexican nationals
are enfranchised.

Tony Abdo
______________________________

can tony or someone else out there compare the rights of Amerindians
(Mexindians?) and Mexicans? what are the ethnic and legal differences?
can the Amerindians vote? since most Mexicans are mestizos, how to tell
the differences? what exactly do the Amerindians want? their own state
and legislature?
where to find the text of the San Andre's accords?
thanks for your help.
norm