The Hindu : International : Indigenous rebels in Mexico plan change of strategy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 24, 2005

International

International

Indigenous rebels in Mexico plan change of strategy

Jo Tuckman

MEXICO CITY: The Zapatista guerilla leader Subcomandante Marcos has called on commanders, footsoldiers and supporters of the movement for indigenous rights to retreat into hiding to discuss a fundamental change of tactics in the group's 11-year struggle.

Mr. Marcos said the Zapatistas, based in the southern Mexican State of Chiapas, would be on ``red alert'' throughout the ``consultation''.

They have already pulled political officers out of villages in rebel territory, advised foreign sympathisers there to leave, and shut down their radio station.

In the latest of a series of communiques, released on Tuesday, the pipe-smoking leader said: ``The high command is proposing to the support base a new step in the struggle.''

He gave no details beyond saying: ``It implies risking what we have achieved and sharpening persecution against Zapatista communities.''

The Mexican Government insists Chiapas remains calm, and denies the rebels have any reason to fear a military attack.

Ragtag army

Mr. Marcos's ragtag indigenous Zapatista army, with their ski-masks and rudimentary weapons, burst out of the Chiapas jungle on New Year's Day 1994 to fight a bitter 10-day battle with the army and become an international cause celebre.

Negotiations in 1995 broke down when the Government launched an offensive which it aborted midway.

The stalemate since has included periods of tension when paramilitary groups attacked Zapatista-linked villages, and high media drama when Mr. Marcos toured the country in a bus in early 2001.

In recent years the Zapatistas have been largely forgotten both in Mexico and the rest of the world.

Some think Mr. Marcos is preparing to enter the electoral arena, ahead of presidential elections in 2006. Others see a defensive reaction to the military's recent announcement that it discovered marijuana plantations in rebel territory. Still others see little more than a media ruse to return the world's attention to a forgotten cause.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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