File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9709, message 292


From: Michael Hoover <hoov-AT-freenet.tlh.fl.us>
Subject: M-I: Zapatistas say govt attacks force them to keep arms (fwd)
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 97 14:58:49 18000


Forwarded message:
> Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 09:39:40 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Victor O. Story" <story-AT-kutztown.edu>
> To: chiapas <chiapas-l-AT-profmexis.sar.net>, ATWS <thrdwrld-AT-sphinx.Gsu.EDU>
> Subject: Zapatistas say govt attacks force them to keep arms (fwd)
> 
> On Sun, 14 Sep 1997
> 	 
> 	 MEXICO CITY (Reuter) - Mexico's Zapatista rebels said Sunday
> the government is escalating ``a dirty war'' against indigenous 
> Mexicans in poverty-ridden southern Chiapas state. 
> 	 Companero Isaac told a crowd from the National Indigenous  
> Congress that increased militarization in the nation's poor 
> south is a plot to destroy leftist Zapatista rebels. 
> 	 ``In recent months the militarization in all our indigenous  
> zones has grown considerably, the formation of paramilitary 
> groups or federally paid and armed white guards ... with the 
> goal of destroying our organization,'' he said. 
> 	 Such attacks have forced the Zapatistas ``to keep their  
> faces covered and their guns loaded,'' Subcommandante Marcos 
> said in a statement delivered from the jungle Saturday. 
> 	 In a message to a rally of rebels in Mexico City, he pledged
> the guerrillas will continue their armed struggle in Chiapas. 
> 	 About 1,100 Zapatista guerrillas completed a four-day,  
> 750-mile trek from the jungle last week to descend on the 
> nation's capital. 
> 	 ``The war continues in southeast Mexico and the Zapatistas  
> will continue to be armed and ready to fight,'' the pipe-smoking 
> rebel leader told about 5,000 followers, many dressed in 
> traditional garb and barefoot. 
> 	 The Zapatistas caught the world by surprise on Jan. 1, 1994,
> when the indigenous rebels first took up arms and declared war 
> on the Mexican government. 
> 	 About 40,000 supporters greeted the rebels in Mexico City's  
> Zocalo city center Friday, not quite filling the square. 
> Analysts have said the rebels have lost some of the public 
> appeal they enjoyed when they first took up arms. 
> 	 Almost four years after the initial rebel uprising, Marcos  
> said that ``peace is still far away.'' 
> 	 Marcos' message was read by Indians wearing their now-  
> trademark ski masks at a congress for the National Zapatista 
> Liberation Front (FLZN), a new political organization. 
> 	 But the charismatic rebel leader said the leftist political  
> body will not replace the armed defense in the jungle of 
> Chiapas, one of Mexico's most impoverished states. 
> 	 ``When we formed the FLZN we thought that peace was near and
> that our rebel activity would have to look for new expression,'' 
> Marcos said in his statement. 
> 	 ``But we were wrong. Peace is not near,'' he added, accusing
> President Ernesto Zedillo of dragging his feet in negotiations. 
> 	 Mexico City's incumbent mayor, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, welcomed
> the Zapatistas Saturday at the first day of their assembly. 
> 	 ``Thousands of citizens realize the merit of the Zapatista  
> cause, but we also said that weapons would not be the path to 
> their victory,'' the leftist leader said. 
> 	 Until the current march and rally, the Zapatistas had  
> largely faded from the spotlight, their talks with the 
> government stalled and their protests essentially dormant since 
> their first months of violence. Last year they were overshadowed 
> by a new Marxist rebel group, called the EPR, which launched 
> surprise bloody attacks in the countryside. 
--


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