http://www.eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Norman Mikalac <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 12:58 AM
Subject: Re: [CHOMSKY] 'Mexico Rebel Chief'... Today's TM-New
YorkTimesCommentary


>can tony or someone else out there compare the rights of Amerindians
>(Mexindians?) and Mexicans?  what are the ethnic and legal differences?
>can the Amerindians vote?  since most Mexicans are mestizos, how to tell
>the differences?  what exactly do the Amerindians want?  their own state
>and legislature?
>
>where to find the text of the San Andre's accords?
>
>thanks for your help.
>
>norm
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
>Tony Abdo wrote:
>>
>> Here, we find the puny, sickly, leader of a ragtag mob, confused over
>> the receipt of an olive branch of peace.      Quite a contrast to the
>> article full of such respect for the leader of the Colombian death
>> squads, that appeared in their pages a month ago.      That thug, Carlos
>> Castanyo, was then described as the leader of 'a lion let loose'...
>> according to the genteel paper of note!      He was also described as
>> 'outspoken', whereas Marcos is only capabe of 'a rare moment of candor'.
>>
>> Below, America's 'liberal voice', the New York Times
>> pleads........."Let's Give Peace a Chance'.
>>
>> Tony Abdo
>> _________________________________
>> Mexico Rebel Chief Says the Fight Is Now for Peace
>> New York Times
>> January 30, 2001
>> By Ginger Thompson
>>
>> SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, Jan. 28 - There was a different kind
>> of
>> fight in the rebel leader's voice.
>> The urgency was unchanged from the day seven years ago when he first
>> declared war against the Mexican government on behalf of a ragtag mob of
>> Indians called the Zapatista National Liberation Army. Their cause, the
>> pursuit of equal rights for all of Mexico's 10 million indigenous
>> people,
>> remained their primary goal.
>>
>> But in an interview in the jungles of Chiapas, his first with an
>> American
>> newspaper in four years, the elusive Subcommander Marcos made it clear
>> that
>> the masked rebels want peace.
>>
>> "We want to stop being what we are," he said, his dark eyes so intense
>> that
>> the ski mask covering the rest of his face could not conceal his
>> expression..
>>
>> "We are people without faces, armed and fighting for what we believe."
>>
>> "We would like to show our faces," he continued. "We would like to put
>> down
>> our weapons, but to keep fighting for our beliefs like people in every
>> other
>> part of the world."
>>
>> Although his words at times shifted from caution to outrage, the message
>> that rang like a church bell was that peace could soon come to Chiapas.
>>
>> In seven years, there have been only a dozen days of combat between the
>> Zapatistas and government troops, leaving 145 people dead. But hundreds
>> have
>> been killed in clashes between rebel supporters and pro- government
>> paramilitary groups. Thousands of others have been forced to flee their
>> homes.
>>
>> "I'm optimistic," the guerrilla leader said. "I think we will have a
>> successful dialogue with the government, that the war will be ended and
>> that
>> we will be able to move on to new work."
>> For a man and a movement that have been shrouded in mystery, it was a
>> rare
>> moment of candor. It comes one month before he and a 23- member
>> commission
>> of Zapatista leaders are planning to march on Mexico City in a caravan
>> snaking across at least six states and more than a dozen cities, and
>> culminating in an address before Congress. The rebels will campaign for
>> the
>> passage of a series of new Indian rights - known as the San Andre's
>> accords -
>> which, if passed, would mark the most significant achievement of the
>> movement. It would also mark the Zapatistas' first step toward becoming
>> a
>> legitimate political organization.
>>
>> During the interview, Subcommander Marcos, who has become an idol to
>> leftist
>> groups around the world, shunned his signature theatrics and sharp
>> sarcasm
>> to talk forthrightly about the lingering obstacles to peace, about the
>> achievements of the Zapatista movement, and about his own postwar plans.
>>
>> He and another rebel commander known as Tacho had sneaked on horseback
>> into
>> the tiny village of La Realidad. They came with no body guards, and they
>> did
>> not orchestrate any gimmicky displays of force.
>>
>> Perhaps because of the larger- than-life image of the subcommander that
>> has
>> been perpetuated by leftists around the world, he seemed surprisingly
>> small,
>> perhaps 5 feet, 8 inches, with narrow shoulders and hands that looked
>> ill-suited for combat. His eyes were watery, and he sniffled from a
>> cold.
>> The automatic rifle slung across his back seemed the only threatening
>> thing
>> about him. When asked about it, he said it was not loaded.
>>
>> Seated in a tumbledown mess hall, dimly lit with candles, he
>> acknowledged
>> during the 90-minute interview that a brewing political storm in the
>> Mexican
>> Congress could wreck the prospect for peace. But what worried him most
>> was
>> whether Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox, would respond fully to a
>> list
>> of rebel demands and keep the stalemated Zapatista conflict moving
>> toward a
>> resolution.