1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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projects perceived to be of benefit to the government. Nonindigenous Flash Points: Afro-Americans/
Mexico's Indians are, at best, little better off economi- East Indians
cally than Indians in other Latin American countries,
and they also encounter policies that promote adop- In the African-influenced areas, especially parts of
tion of mestizo culture. Government-sponsored devel- Brazil and the Caribbean, there is also potential for
opment projects, expansion of the oil industry, racial or ethnic conflict, especially if a black con-
relocation of mestizo settlers in Indian territories, and sciousness movement should develop. The root causes
government ignorance of or attempts to suppress of friction among members of African- and Asian-ori-
Indian culture are all factors that contribute to conflict gin groups are quite different from those that involve
between Indians and the state. American Indians and representatives of the Hispanic
states.
Other sources of potential conflict include land dis-
putes between Indian communities and the presence Brazil, the Guianas, and the West Indies have large
of Guatemalan refugees. Most conflicts over land are Afro-American populations. In Brazil, African minor-
highly localized and involve differences between ities are not normally separated spatially from the
neighboring towns over the boundaries of communal main culture as are Indians. Rather, they live in the
land holdings. Many of these disputes originated dur- same cities and towns, and they usually share, to a
ing the colonial period. The migration of refugees greater or lesser extent, most elements of the common
from the Guatemalan civil war into the Mexican state national culture. However, despite disclaimers about
of Chiapas and their relocation to settlements in the absence of racial prejudice, clear differences exist
Yucatan is also problematic. Although some of these in the social and economic attainment of blacks and
refugees have returned to Guatemala in response to whites in Brazil. So far, these differences have not
government repatriation programs, several thousand resulted in racially based conflicts. Nevertheless,
others will probably remain in Mexico. It remains to given the myth of racial equality, if a black conscious-
be seen what sort of long-term relationships these peo- ness movement should emerge in Brazil, it could pro-
ple will work out with the Mexican Government and vide a base for development of racial friction-
with neighboring Mexican Indian and mestizo com- although the potential for this to occur does not seem
munities. very great.
The rebellion of the Zapatista National Liberation In some islands Afro-Americans are a single, domi-
Army in January 1994 is an example of the influence nant ethnic group; these areas have little potential for
of the factors noted above. Despite its rhetoric, the ethnic conflict. Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad and
Mexican Government has done little to incorporate Tobago have mixed populations comprised of Afro-
the Indians of Chiapas into the national economy. Americans, East Indians, and-in Suriname-
Land the Indians had traditionally considered to be Javanese. 6 Creoles-Afro-Americans and Mulat-
theirs was claimed by mestizo farmers and ranchers toes-and East Indians tend to belong to different
and, in some cases, incorporated into large landhold- political parties, to live in distinct areas, and to inter-
ings. Resettlement of Guatemalan refugees contrib- act largely within their own communities. In Trinidad
uted to conflict, as did the Salinas de Gortari and the Guianas, where Afro-Americans and East
government's decision to eliminate the constitutional Indians share national territories, conflict reflects, to a
protections of ejido land. The final straw for the rebels
was approval of the North American Free Tr'ade D espite their location on the mainland, Guyana and Suriname are
whihoa wasofeenbythe IdiansFe as settin culturally and historically much more closely linked to the Carib-
Agreement, which was seen by the Indians as settig bean than they are to their culturally Iberian South American
the stage for further concentration of economic neighbors.
resources in the more developed northern regions of
the country at the expense of Indian and peasant farm-
ers in the south.
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