Zapatista rebels announced the suspension of all contact with the Mexican government yesterday following the approval by Mexico's Congress of a revised bill of indigenous rights and culture.
The rebel spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, described the final version of the indigenous rights law as "extremely offensive . . . not even remotely resembling the Cocopa law".
That measure, named after the multi-party commission which drafted the legislation in 1996, would have granted limited self-rule to indigenous communities, recognising territorial rights and judicial norms.
The final version passed yesterday has watered down autonomy statutes and leaves implementation to state parliaments, where landowners hold critical influence over local legislators.
The rebels called for national and international mobilisation to press the government to return to the original accord.
"This law is stillborn," said Mr Felix Castellanos, Cocopa president. "It does not correspond to the spirit of the agreement and will be an obstacle to restarting dialogue."
President Vincente Fox sent the bill to Congress on his first day in office last December, pledging to respect the original version. "The armed conflict is over," Mr Fox said yesterday. "Now we must all work to build development opportunities in indigenous communities."
The bill was approved into law by deputies from Mr Fox's National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
"It's very disappointing," Ms Xochitl Galvez, director of indigenous affairs in President Fox's cabinet, acknowledged.
The Zapatistas put the bill to a national referendum in 1998, winning three million votes, while the recent rebel march from the jungle to the capital city reaffirmed support for the bill, with representatives of 47 of Mexico's 56 indigenous peoples backing the legislation.
On the day he assumed office Mr Fox agreed to implement three goodwill "signals" to facilitate a return to dialogue with the rebels, promising the dismantling of seven army positions, the release of Zapatista prisoners and the approval of the indigenous rights bill.