Weekly News Update on the Americas, Issue #578
February 25, 2001

A caravan carrying 24 masked but unarmed commanders of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) left San Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas on Feb. 25 to begin an unprecedented march on Mexico City. The delegation was headed by the rebels' best-known figure, EZLN spokesperson "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos," who symbolically surrendered his M-16 rifle, his 38 Super pistol and his ammunition--but not his ski mask--to "Major Moises" before leaving the rebel stronghold of La Realidad in eastern Chiapas on the morning of Feb. 24, Mexico's Flag Day, with six other leaders. The full contingent of 24 rebel commanders assembled in San Cristobal that evening; they were welcomed by some 10,000-15,000 supporters, mostly indigenous campesinos from the area, in one of the largest demonstrations in the small city's history.

The commanders will tour 12 southern and central states, arriving in the capital on Mar. 11 for a lobbying effort in support of legislation implementing the 1996 "San Andres accords" on indigenous rights [see Updates #573, 574]. Organizations from Mexican and foreign "civil society" are escorting the caravan, which will also be guarded by nearly 2,000 agents under the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), a largely military police unit formed in 1999 ostensibly to fight drug trafficking and terrorism.

During the welcoming ceremony in San Cristobal on Feb. 24, the EZLN commanders announced that their liaison with federal legislators will be the architect Fernando Yanez Munoz, who was arrested in Mexico City in October 1995 on charges of illegal possession of weapons and of being "Commander German," supposed "maximum leader" of the EZLN; federal authorities released him six days later but the charges apparently remain open [see Update #300]..[La Jornada (Mexico) 2/25/01; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 2/25/01 from wire services; Clarin (Buenos Aires) 2/25/01; CNN en Espanol 2/25/01 with info from Reuters]

The start of the "Zapatour" followed several days of angry exchanges between the EZLN and the government of Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada of the center-right National Action Party (PAN). The rebels charge the government with creating what they call a "peace of lies"--a public relations operation giving the impression that negotiations will start during the march and quickly lead to a peace agreement. The EZLN insists that negotiations will not start until the government meets keys demands to withdraw troops from EZLN communities, release all EZLN prisoners and legislate the San Andres accords. On Feb. 22 Sub-Commander Marcos accused the government--specifically, Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge G. Castaneda, a former leftist-of "blocking" the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) in escorting the caravan. [Chiapas al Dia #230, 2/15/01; LJ 2/23/01]

President Fox insists that his administration is supporting the march and that Marcos is using Castaneda as a "punching bag." Comparing the EZLN caravan to the "great marches of Martin Luther King" for civil rights in the US in the 1960s, Fox told a Feb. 23 press conference that his "priority" is "for the march to turn out well. I'm putting my presidency at stake, all my political capital. Marcos has to be given an opportunity." Meanwhile, Governance Secretary Santiago Creel Miranda expressed concern about "subversive groups"--other rebel organizations operating in southern and central Mexico that have been "leaving communiques in each one of the places where the march is going to pass," groups that "from time to time appear at midnight shooting bullets in the air." [LJ 2/23/01]