cannabisnews.com: Mexico Negotiator Calls for Rebel Talks on Drugs 





Mexico Negotiator Calls for Rebel Talks on Drugs 
Posted by FoM on January 17, 1999 at 10:31:59 PT

MEXICO CITY, The Mexican government's negotiator in a five-year-old guerrilla conflict said recent troop movements in troubled Chiapas state were part of the war on drugs and did not aim to upset a fragile peace, local media reported on Saturday. 
Negotiator Emilio Rabasa called on Zapatista guerrillas to reopen talks with a congressional panel on the issue of marijuana plantations which he said existed in rebel strongholds. ``The federal government has evidence of other marijuana crops within the so-called conflict zone and cannot renounce its obligation to destroy them,'' negotiator Emilio Rabasa told Reforma daily. The Mexican army on Wednesday destroyed 58 marijuana plantations and fired tear gas at residents who opposed the operation. Zapatista guerrillas rose in arms against the government on New Year's Day 1994 to demand improved rights for the country's nine million Indians. They reached an uneasy truce with the army after a bloody 10-day fight that killed about 140 people. But hundreds more have died since in related violence which reached a head on Dec. 22, 1997, when pro-government paramilitaries gunned down 45 Indian refugees at the village of Acteal. Human rights groups have alleged that the army either trains or turns a blind eye to paramilitary groups, and is in any case violating the constitution by engaging in policing and leaving barracks in peacetime. But Rabasa said the army was keeping the peace. ``The dialogue coordinating body reiterates yet again that the Mexican army is not in Chiapas to attack civilians or even the Zapatistas themselves,'' he said. Zapatista leaders walked out of talks with official negotiators in September 1996, charging that the government had reneged on writing signed agreements on Indian rights into law. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 17, 1999 at 12:17:28 PT
You're Correct!
Thanks Paul for your comment and I agree it is wrong. Hopefully our political leaders will listen, learn and change these laws! If they want a lot of votes they will have to listen!
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Comment #1 posted by PAUL on January 17, 1999 at 11:35:54 PT:
THIS AINT RITE
I DON'T SEE WHAT THE PROBLEM WITH MARIJUANA IS. ITS SAFER THAN CIGARETTES AND IT HELPS PEOPLE. IT GETS ANYONE HIGH JUST THE SAME AS ALCOHOL. SO WHATS WRONG WITH IT. NOTHING. IT SHOULD BE JUST LIKE CIGARETTES. YOUR ALOUD TO BUY THEM WHEN YOUR 18. 
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