Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 07:21:49 -0700 (MST)
Subject: SUBCOMMANDER MARCOS'S INTERVIEW IN "BRECHA"{URUGUAY}10-28



*Part 4 of 4*  The original Spanish version can be read at 
http://chasque.apc.org/brecha/
URUGUAYANS IN THE LACANDON JUNGLE

Subcommander Marcos refers several times to Uruguay in the course of the 
long interview.  "The best homage to the Tupamaros is that I don't 
remember the name of the officer who wanted to kill Rau'l Sendic when he 
came out during the shoot-out screaming 'I am Rufo and I don't 
surrender'", he recalled.  "My generation grew up admiring the structure, 
the technico-military aspects and the creativity of the Tupas, and, 
besides, in political terms, the layout of an all inclusive, non-sectarian 
movement.

However Marcos refuses a "mate" (a bitter tasting type of infusion drank in 
Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. n.o.t.), which gives him a 
pretext to comment:  "I always wanted to be an Argentinian or an 
Uruguayan writer.  When I discovered that there was a relationship 
between literary quality and "mate", I decided to become a guerrillero."

Once the laughter stops, he is asked about the origin of his humor:  He 
replies, with humor:  "When we joined the orgnization we had to be 
serious, respectful, boring.  Rock was counterrevolutionary, 
imperialist.  Anything that wasn't 'fatherland or death, we shall 
overcome' ('patria o muerte, venceremos')and protest songs, was bad.  If 
you listened to classical music, they didn't shoot you but you were 
already under suspicion; and if the books you carried were not 
Materialism and empirical criticism and were for instance 'Historia de 
cronopios y de famas'( a book of vignettes by famous Argentinian author 
Julio Corta'zar, about human urban archetypes) or benedetti's love poems, 
they stared at you in a strange way."

Benedetti's mention (B. is one of Uruguay's leading living authors, t.n)
led him to recall his first days of work in the Indigenous communities, 
"when we taught literacy with Juan Gelman's poems and 'The Open Veins of 
Latin America' ( Eduardo Galeano's masterful analysis of the plundering 
of Latin America by the various imperialist powers since 1492) was a 
grammar text.  But Mario Benedetti played a key role for our troups:  his 
love poems were textually transcribed to seduce "compa~eras."
By the way, I thought Galeano would be around here."

THE GRINGOS' PRESENCE

SUBCOMMANDER MARCOS DENOUNCED THE PRESENCE OF U.S. AND GUATEMALAN MILITARY 
ADVISORS IN CHIAPAS, AND THAT OF ARGENTINIAN MERCENARIES WHO HAD 
PREVIOUSLY OPERATED IN HONDURAS.

"Regarding the U.S. government's interference, we know that at least 
since June, 1994 they have been sending a group of advisors, rangers or 
their equivalent, under the denomination of a System of Secret and 
Covered Operations.  The man in charge is a certain Propp, a U.S. Army 
major.  We detected him since June of 94 in San Crist'obal de las Casas, 
and he reappears again on February 10, 1995 in Guadalupe Tepeyac, 
together with the unit that takes over that community.

We know from the prostitutes that service the army, that they had been 
taking care of a group of soldiers we asume were from the U.S., because 
they were tall, blond, blue eyed and they spoke in English. Obviously we 
did not see their passports.  Then we learned that Propp was in San 
Quinti'n, and that he was already showing off his lieutenant colonel's 
insignia.  He got promoted right here, in Chiapas; they promoted him from 
major to lieutenant colonel.

We know that the U.S. government intercepts our communications and passes 
them on to the Mexican authorities.  At least it was doing so during the 
talks in San Andre's.  It intercepted the communications we had with 
our delegation and it had them delivered to the governmental delegation.  
That has also been confirmed.  To do that one needs technology the 
Federal Army lacks.  Another bit of information we have is that the 
U.S. army was functioning as an intermediary in bringing here the 
Argentinian mercenaries who are present in Chiapas; there are those who 
claim they are with the paramilitary squadrons, with the "white guards".  
The Federal Army denies that it has Argentinian advisors.

We have the pictures of some of those advisors, from when they were 
training others in Honduras.  We located one of them here, preparing 
explosives and training people on the use of mortars.

In Las Tacitas, in the canion of Las Tazas, there is a military unit that 
advances on San Francisco, the "ejido" of La'zro Herna'ndez, the PRI 
deputy (representative), and some observers saw four or five Guatemalan 
army officers.  We never confirmed this.  On the other hand we did 
confirm that the Mexican army received counterinsurgency training from 
the Guatemalan kaibiles.  
END (trans.ML.)





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