Marcos on Fox

[Doug Henwood]

Washington Post - December 1, 2000

Rebel Steals Mexican's Spotlight
By Kevin Sullivan

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 30 -- The Mexican guerrilla leader known as 
Subcommander Marcos has surfaced on the eve of President-elect 
Vicente Fox's inauguration, blasting outgoing President Ernesto 
Zedillo as a "nightmare" and threatening to provide Fox with the 
first major challenge of his presidency.

In an open letter to Zedillo written from Marcos's hideout in "the 
mountains of southeast Mexico," the ski-masked rebel leader accused 
Zedillo of aggravating the six-year-old rebel uprising in Chiapas, 
Mexico's southernmost state on the border with Guatemala.

Marcos said Zedillo waged war rather than negotiating with the 
rebels, specifically blaming Zedillo for the massacre of 45 
indigenous women and children by paramilitary units in the town of 
Acteal in December 1997.

"You did everything you could to destroy us, and we resisted," wrote 
Marcos, who had made no public statements since Fox was elected July 
2. "You will go into exile, and we are still here."

Marcos has reappeared on the public scene at a delicate time for Fox, 
as heads of state and business leaders from around the world arrive 
for his inauguration Friday.

Fox has pledged to resolve the Chiapas conflict. Immediately after 
his swearing-in, he is expected to announce a partial withdrawal of 
army troops from the conflict area, as well as economic aid for 
Chiapas's impoverished Indians. Fox also intends to announce 
government support for a 1994 peace accord with the rebels that 
Zedillo's government failed to ratify.

But while Marcos offered no criticism of Fox in his letter, he 
offered no support either, despite Fox's repeated pledges to 
negotiate with his Zapatista rebels. "For us, the nightmare ends 
today," Marcos said of Zedillo's term. "Another could follow, or it 
could be a new dawn."

Fox has been criticized for raising public expectations 
unrealistically with promises on a broad range of issues, including 
Chiapas. A rebuke by Marcos could add to Fox's problems in his first 
days in office.

"It's really going to be the first challenge to his campaign 
promises," said Beatriz Mariscal Hay, a professor at Colegio de 
Mexico.

On a weekend when Fox will be crisscrossing the country celebrating 
his inauguration, Marcos, who has a flair for the dramatic, has 
stolen some of Fox's thunder by inviting the media to a news 
conference in the Chiapas jungle on Saturday afternoon.

Fox will use part of his inaugural address to respond to Marcos's 
letter, said Luis H. Alvarez, Fox's adviser on the Chiapas conflict. 
Alvarez praised Marcos and the Zapatistas for keeping the plight of 
Mexico's indigenous people in the public eye. "We have to keep in 
mind our obligation to lighten the load for millions of our Mexican 
brothers," he said.

The rebels have lost considerable public support since they began 
their movement with an armed uprising in Chiapas on New Year's Day 
1994. While many Mexicans remain sympathetic to the issues that led 
to the uprising--particularly the extreme poverty in much of the 
state--Marcos and his rebels have lost much of the romantic luster 
they once had. Many Mexicans simply want the conflict resolved.

Still, human rights groups say violence in Chiapas has worsened since 
the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was toppled in the 
July elections. Fox is the first non-PRI president in 71 years, and 
Chiapas also elected its first non-PRI governor in decades, Pablo 
Salazar, who takes office Dec. 8.

"There is clear evidence that the situation in Chiapas is rapidly 
deteriorating," Amnesty International said recently. "Entire 
communities have been displaced, and many people within the region 
have seen their loved ones face violent death, arbitrary detention, 
torture, disappearance and death threats."

Human rights activist Sylvia Aguilera Garcia said that many of the 
paramilitary groups responsible for the worst violence in the Chiapas 
conflict have been controlled by the PRI. Now that the party is no 
longer in power, "We are afraid there will be no control over 
paramilitary groups," she said.