Zapatistas Aim to Reshape Mexican Politics: 01-02-06

Zapatistas Aim to Reshape Mexican Politics: 01-02-06
AP Published: January 2, 2006

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- Wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, the leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels railed against the country's government and free trade to kick off a six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.

Standing in front of a mural of Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata -- the rebel group's namesake -- the Indian rights movement's spokesman Subcomandante Marcos said Sunday the enemy ''has many faces but one name: capitalism.''

About 15,000 rebels and sympathizers, waving banners ranging from black and red anarchist flags to communist hammer and sickles, had accompanied him in a march to the center of the mountain city, the first stop on the nationwide tour.

It was the first time in four years the rebels have left their jungle strongholds in southern Mexico. The group plans to travel to all 31 states and Mexico City to reach out to leftist groups across the country ahead of Mexico's July presidential election.

The rebels have pledged to move away from armed struggle and toward politics, but have not clearly defined their new political role 12 years after seizing several towns in southern Chiapas state in short-lived revolt for Indian rights and socialism.

Marcos, who has never revealed his true identity but has been identified by the government as a former university instructor in Mexico City, said the tour would consist not of big marches, but of meetings with ordinary people.

''We will listen to people in the places where they work, in the places where they are exploited, where they suffer racism,'' he said.

Thousands of supporters cheered earlier Sunday as Marcos roared through the village of La Garrucha on a black motorcycle with a Mexican flag tied to the back and the initials of the Zapatista military army, EZLN, painted in red on the front.

In the town's main square, regional rebel leaders offered kind words to non-Zapatista leftist groups, some of which they have fought in the past.

''To the brothers who aren't Zapatistas, we respect all of you, whatever your organization, party or religion,'' said a masked man, introduced as the leader of La Garrucha. ''We aren't looking for a fight with anybody.''

The rebel-sympathetic village, accessible only by dirt road, is 75 miles from San Cristobal de las Casas, where the Zapatistas started their rebellion on New Year's Day 1994. Thousands of gun-toting Indians took over the mayor's office and declared war on the Mexican government.
A cease-fire with government forces quickly ended the uprising, but there has been sporadic violence between rebel supporters and other Indian groups in southern Mexico since. The rebels were last seen publicly outside Chiapas in 2001, when they took a tour to Mexico City in the name of Indian rights.

Former Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, is favored to win the July elections, but Marcos has criticized the candidate. President Vicente Fox, whose 2000 victory ended 71 years of single-party rule, is barred from running again.
Marcos, known for the pipe and guns he often carries in public, has said the Zapatistas will not run for office or join Mexico's political mainstream.

Alejandro Cruz, a rebel supporter and 33-year-old high school teacher from Mexico City, said the Zapatistas could be looking to become an organization like the Brazilian landless peasant movement Sin Tierra, which has no candidates of its own but has a strong influence on elections.

''The tour is clearly part of a Zapatista strategy to get legal recognition,'' Cruz said. ''Without that, they have a very uncertain future.''

Ricardo Mendez, 28, a Zapatista farmer and native speaker of the Mayan tongue Tzeltal, said the rebels want to expand their influence.

''We will never die. Look how many of us there are,'' Mendez said, pointing to thousands of masked men and women and children in the village square.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Mexico-Zapatistas.html
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Related EZLN Link:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ezln.htm
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