________________________________________________________________________________ originally published in La Jornada, 8/29/99 by Lourdes Galaz translated by Leslie Lopez Netwar Against the EZLN * What will you have, Mr. President, beer or Sidral? * US Advisement in Chiapas * Netwar against the zapatistas related to low-intensity conflicts During the electoral campaign, candidate Ernesto Zedillo visited a market-place in Mexico City. It was hot out, and before eating, one of the locals offered him a nice cold beer. Zedillo accepted appreciatively, but asked him to, "Put it in a glass for me, so that it looks like Sidral (an apple soda)." It was at that moment--recalls my friend the anarchist--that Zedillo's profile and his personal style of governing to come was made clear. Even last night, at a gathering among friends, a general said: "Zedillo needs to define whether it's beer or Sidral," as far as military strategy in Chiapas goes. In some political and academic circles, people say that for some time now, there must have been some definition on the part of the government about confronting the problem of zapatista guerrilla in Chiapas. Moreover, the new military offensive has got to be inscribed in a Zedillista strategy conducted with US advisement, and is no doubt framed by the new perspective that US National Defense Research Institute analysts call "The Advent of Netwar." And although they say that news from Chiapas doesn't sell newspapers anymore or open the nightly news on private television and radio stations, people are concerned about the issue--above all about what Mr. President will be having: beer or Sidral? Five years ago, in his inaugural speech, Zedillo spoke about the fact that under his administration there would be a new opening up of negotiations--following the failure of the Salinista strategy--"which will bring us a just, dignified and definitive peace...there will be no violence on the part of the government, nor, I trust, on the part of those who have dissented." Two and a half months later, Zedillo personally appeared on television, live and direct, to report on the mobilization of the Army and the federal Attorney General against the EZLN, led by Rafael Sebastian Guillen (no relation to Roberto Albores), el Sup Marcos--now solidly identified by military intelligence agencies! From then on, no one knows what Mr. President is drinking; beer or Sidral? There has been no explicit definition of the Chiapas policy, even though Zedillo has gone to that southern state a dozen--or more--times. Whether the San Andres Larrainzar Accords will be accepted; or actually not, after all. Whether it will be dialogue, or there is a massacre in Acteal. Whether mediation by the Conai is acceptable, or the Conai is accused of being both a party in the dispute and a judge. That the Cocopa should be created, that it is not functional...and then whether it should be re-established because there is a new escalation against the zapatistas and there are no official groups to deal with the negotiation. Whether the Minister of Government should be removed and whether his substitute does or doesn't come with a pre-set line attached... Whether there are millions in resources with which to address Chiapan misery, the cause and reason for the guerrilla...Whether it's all about Sedeso and the poor. Whether it's the Semarnap and its reforestation of Montes Azules. Whether the road to Amandor Hernandez is a federal project, or an act of the state government. Whether generals are asking if the beer should be drunk from a glass so it looks like Sidral... The now-famous road, whose construction has officially been susbended by Ministry of Government officials, had previously been cancelled by zapatista support bases, even before the hundred soldiers in parachutes arrived. The thing is, the community taken by the Army is a six- hour walk from San Quintin, a town which you can get to with a two-hour drive from La Realidad. Amador Hernandez is located at the entrace to the mountain range of the Montes Azules biosphere, where more than 5,000 soldiers arrived "for a reforestation project." According to experts in military matters, the Army must have detachments in the EZLN zone of influence amounting to more than 16,000 soldiers in 13 camps, the majority set up during the last two months. Just yesterday, legislators from the Cocopa, led by Senator Carlos Payan, flew to the Ocosingo and La Trinitaria communities of Amador Hernandez and San Jose la Esperanza (where zapatistas and soldiers clashed, and the top commander, Cervantes Aguirre, the Secretary of Defense's brother, ended up injured). They went to observe the situation up close, a project complicated by the fact that "there is no political will" to re-establish dialogue between the government--which is presumably administering the conflict--and the EZLN--which will not return to the table with someone who didn't fulfill the first agreements. While all this is going on, at the suggestion of some anthropologists and historians who went to La Realidad for an Encounter for the Defense of Cultural Patrimony (August 12-14), it is worthwhile to bring to bear some of the conclusions from the document, "The Advent of Netwar" (1996), prepared for the US Secretary of Defense Office by analysts John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt of the National Defense Research Institute in Santa Monica, California. These analysts say that the zapatista movement--which rose up in arms on January first, 1994--has ushered in an epistemological rupture and a new model which helps us not only to understand the new movements and social actors of the 90's, but "to build new concepts necessary to develop perspectives on military organization, doctrine, strategies and technologies." According to the analysts and military strategists, zapatismo--"born out of the EZLN"--which has been joined by different sectors of Mexican and international society, could be considered a new paradigm, characterizing other social conflicts in the new world order, now that the Cold War is over. They say we need a new term to focus our attention on the fact that conflicts and crimes based on network structures are on the rise. In this perspective, the term "social netwar" applied to the EZLN is related to the low-intensity conflicts at the extreme end of the social spectrum. In 1998, the same researchers prepared another document, "The Zapatista Social Netwar," in which they warn that netwar "will probably be the most prevalent and challenging form of conflict in the emergent information age," leading them to recommend a "careful and sustained" study of the phenomenon. The netwar strategy is focused on analyzing and containing, isolating, de-structuring and immobilizing--and even annihilating--social networks, like those pertaining to narcotraffic, to terrorists, and other delinquent groups. According to "The Zapatista Social Netwar," strategy ought to focus not just on the EZLN, but on all organizations, fronts and individuals who form part of the broad zapatista support network (in which leadership is diluted). Thus, the analysts recommend, all kinds of actions and tactics should be imposed, from classic counterinsurgency methods (harrassment, threats, psychological actions, kidnapings, paramilitary group attacks, individual executions, etcetera) to disinformation campaigns, espionage, the creation of NGO's financed by the government as a counterpoint to the independent ones (linked to the network), among others. If this is the US Secretary of Defense Office's interest in the netwar of the third millenium, one understands why high-ranking Mexican military officers want to know, at the very least, what Mr. President will be having: beer in a glass so it looks like Sidral? # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org