By John Ward Anderson
                  Washington Post Foreign Service
                  Sunday, October 4, 1998; Page A36

                  ACTEAL, Mexico—Nine months after 45 people from this tiny hillside
                  hamlet were killed in a Christmas week massacre, things have returned
                  more or less to normal.

                  Residents are back in their homes -- mostly single-room huts housing as
                  many as three Indian families. The residents have no land of their own.
                  About half the adults have jobs doing handcrafts but no salaries since their
                  labor is part of a collective effort to feed and clothe the community.
                  Children spend time listening to music and playing volleyball because there
                  is no school -- or clinic, or running water, or for that matter any other
                  services to distinguish this village of 520 people from an unkempt,
                  makeshift camp clinging precariously to the side of a mountain.

                  In that and other respects, Acteal is not dissimilar from many other towns
                  and villages in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas. And that helps explain
                  why, almost five years ago, this impoverished state spawned a
                  revolutionary uprising by masked Zapatista rebels demanding greater
                  Indian rights and political, social and economic reforms.

                  It also helps explain why so many people are unlikely to vote in elections
                  Sunday to select a new 40-member state legislature and mayors in
                  Chiapas' 111 municipalities. Election results, many from remote, rural
                  communities, are not expected until midweek.

                  Mexico has a busy election season this year. Important governors' races in
                  10 states are seen as a harbinger of the presidential race in 2000, when
                  analysts say opposition parties have a good chance of taking Mexico's
                  highest office away from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party,
                  known by its Spanish initials as PRI, for the first time in 70 years.
                  Opposition parties have won two of the six governors' races held so far,
                  an outcome that many see as a healthy sign that the country is becoming
                  more open and democratic, with freer and fairer elections.

                  Chiapas, which political analysts say the PRI has long ruled as a fiefdom,
                  is a different story.

                  Besides PRI power brokers, it is hard to find anyone who believes that
                  Chiapas should be staging an election Sunday. The Zapatista National
                  Liberation Army -- as the rebels are officially called -- has no candidates
                  and its supporters are considered unlikely to vote. Between 50,000 and
                  70,000 Mexican army troops are stationed at roadblocks and in
                  encampments around the state. And at least six and possibly as many as
                  14 paramilitary-style groups of armed civilians -- most aligned with the
                  ruling PRI -- operate in many parts of Chiapas. One of these groups was
                  blamed for the massacre here.

                  In some cases, elections are being held for mayors of municipalities that
                  include huge groups of people who do not recognize the authority of the
                  state or local government and who -- like the residents of Acteal, about
                  four hours northeast of Chiapas's capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez -- have
                  declared themselves and their communities "autonomous."

                  On top of all that, floods ravaged many parts of the state earlier this
                  month, particularly the low-lying coastal areas, killing at least 185 people
                  and isolating dozens of communities. The state has postponed voting in
                  coastal areas containing about 328,000 voters, or about 17 percent of the
                  1.9 million electorate.

                  On a tour of Chiapas 10 days ago, President Ernesto Zedillo said that
                  redressing the state's problems is one of his administration's top priorities
                  but that much still needs to be done.

                  "Chiapas is much more than a natural disaster, more than a political
                  conflict," he said. "It is a challenge of social justice for millions of
                  Mexicans." Saying Chiapas receives more federal aid than any other state
                  -- almost $7 billion in the last three years for building schools, hospitals,
                  roads, water systems and other projects -- Zedillo declared, "The
                  attention of the federal government is not new and will not fade."

                  Claiming that 68 percent of the Chiapas voting population comes from
                  flood-ravaged areas, or parts of the state where residents are subject to
                  intimidation by armed groups, the Civic Alliance, a pro-democracy group
                  and respected independent election watchdog, recommended postponing
                  the balloting -- a position backed by many independent observers.

                  "Many here are displaced people from other communities and it's not
                  possible for them to go home to vote because the countryside is full of
                  [Mexican army] soldiers and paramilitaries," said Augustin Vazquez Ruiz,
                  a community leader in Acteal whose niece, her husband and their three
                  young children were killed in the massacre. About 90 people have been
                  arrested in the killings. Many are members of a paramilitary-style group
                  aligned with the ruling PRI, including the mayor of the municipality, the
                  equivalent of a county, in which Acteal is located.

                  Despite the calls for postponement, the state government is pushing
                  forward with the balloting out of eagerness to restore a semblance of
                  normal life in this conflict-weary state -- and fear that a delay would be
                  seen as a sign of weakness. The rebel group, which boycotted and
                  actively impeded voting last year, released a statement yesterday saying it
                  would neither participate in nor distract from voting.

                  In the highly charged atmosphere surrounding the election, opposition
                  political leaders have accused the PRI of using governmental flood relief to
                  buy votes. Zedillo and Chiapas Gov. Roberto Albores Guillen have
                  denied the charge. Insisting that, "there will be free elections," Albores said
                  tying aid to votes would be irresponsible. He added: "We cannot give aid
                  [to further] party or political goals."

                  Be that as it may, Chiapas continues to rank at or near the bottom of
                  almost every human development category in comparison with other
                  Mexican states -- particularly those in the north. More than two-thirds of
                  the state's roughly 4 million people are malnourished, for example, and
                  almost 60 percent of children between 5 and 14 do not attend school.

                  A report by the Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights earlier this
                  year said evidence collected in Chiapas "strongly suggests that Mexican
                  government programs to alleviate poverty and social inequality in Chiapas
                  are cosmetic in nature, and that the government has abdicated its
                  responsibility to ensure the provision of neutral health care to civilians in
                  the conflict zone."

                  Many observers think it is no coincidence that the state has one of the
                  highest percentages of indigenous peoples in Mexico -- about 35 percent
                  of the people are descended from Mayan Indians.

                  Following the Acteal massacre, Zapatistas demanded the disarming of
                  paramilitary groups as a condition for resuming peace negotiations, and
                  the government promised an aggressive crackdown on armed civilian
                  groups. Virtually no action has been taken against any of the groups, some
                  of whose leaders have been identified publicly as PRI members of the
                  state legislature. Zedillo even flew to Chiapas and gave a government
                  check to one of the groups, Peace and Justice, widely recognized by
                  human rights workers as one of the most violent paramilitary-style
                  organizations in the state.
 

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