resisting arrest with violence
28th June 2005, 15:29
http://www.indiana.edu/~jah/mexico/images/ilan2.jpg
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...er/11987659.htm (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/11987659.htm)
Posted on Sun, Jun. 26, 2005
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT (The Miami Herald)
Subcommander Marcos may lay down weapons
ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
[email protected]
MEXICO CITY -- The biggest puzzle in Mexico these days: whether Subcommander Marcos, the masked guerrilla leader who led the Indian-backed Zapatista insurrection in 1994, is about to give up armed struggle.
Top Mexican law enforcement officials say privately that the Zapatista rebel army is in disarray, and that Subcommander Marcos -- a former Mexico City college professor named Rafael Sebastian Guillén -- is engaged in a bitter dispute with ultra hard-liners within his armed movement.
The Zapatistas have been largely inactive -- and surrounded by government forces -- since they declared a cease-fire after rising up in arms 11 years ago in the southeastern state of Chiapas. Still, they are armed, and control several Indian communities in the state.
Whether they are disintegrating or not, something strange is going on within the Zapatistas.
Last week, Mexican media carried a series of contradictory communiqués signed by Subcommander Marcos, including one hinting that he may retire from guerrilla warfare.
On Monday, a communiqué signed by Marcos announced that ''as of today, the Zapatista National Liberation Army has put the entire rebel-held territory under a red alert.'' He announced the dissolution of Zapatista ''governing councils,'' called on Zapatista troops to go into hiding, and warned outsiders to ''leave rebel territory'' or ``stay at their own risk.''
The announcement drew big headlines in Mexico City. Newspapers speculated the Zapatistas were preparing a new armed offensive, coinciding with the unofficial start of the race for the 2006 presidential elections. Marcos needs to do something bold, to avoid being eclipsed by the upcoming political process, political analysts said.
REVISED STATEMENT
But on Thursday, Marcos issued a new statement, saying that the rebel army ''is not planning or discussing a renewal of offensive military activity,'' but rather ''something else.'' Even more intriguing, he mentioned ''a new step in the struggle.'' And in what sounded like a goodbye note, he wrote that ``the mistakes that were made [by the Zapatistas] are exclusively of the Zapatista leadership.''
The latest statements led a second wave of political analysts to conclude that Marcos is about to retire from guerrilla warfare.
What's going on?, I asked top Mexican officials. A well-placed member of President Vicente Fox's Cabinet told me the two communiqués were not written by the same person, and reflect a split within the Zapatista leadership. The first communiqué, announcing the ''red alert,'' was written by somebody else, he said. It lacked Marcos' characteristic ironic, joking style, and the construction of the sentences was completely different.
Another government official directly involved in Zapatista affairs told me that the rebel army commanders' are divided between the hard-liners, led by Marcos' former wife, Commander Ana Maria, and moderates, led by Commanders Zebedeo and Tacho. The ''red alert'' statement was put out by the first group, and forced Marcos to disclaim it, he said.
SERIOUS MESSAGES
Either way, Zapatista watchers agree that this week's communiqués are the most serious ones Marcos has issued in years. In recent times, Marcos had only drawn occasional media attention for writing a detective novel, and challenging Italy's Inter soccer team to play a game against Zapatista players. In Mexico, only one major newspaper, the leftist La Jornada, was taking him seriously in recent years.
My conclusion: Marcos may be preparing for a new career as a guerrilla-clad clandestine politician in Mexico City, and around the country.
He's clearly a man of the city. (When I interviewed him in the Chiapas jungle a few months after the 1994 Zapatista rebellion and asked him what he missed most about city life, he smiled behind his mask and said, ``Chocolate. The jungle offers you everything, except sweets.'')
THE SHOWMAN
More importantly, as late Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz once said about the Zapatista leader, Marcos is a showman, and showmen who keep performing the same show over the years end up boring their audiences. Marcos may have finally realized that.
I don't see him taking off his black ski mask and becoming a conventional politician -- yet. But the showman could be preparing to take his act on the road, reenergize a sizable part of Mexico's left, and throw a monkey wrench into the country's 2006 presidential elections.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...er/11987659.htm (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/11987659.htm)
Posted on Sun, Jun. 26, 2005
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT (The Miami Herald)
Subcommander Marcos may lay down weapons
ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
[email protected]
MEXICO CITY -- The biggest puzzle in Mexico these days: whether Subcommander Marcos, the masked guerrilla leader who led the Indian-backed Zapatista insurrection in 1994, is about to give up armed struggle.
Top Mexican law enforcement officials say privately that the Zapatista rebel army is in disarray, and that Subcommander Marcos -- a former Mexico City college professor named Rafael Sebastian Guillén -- is engaged in a bitter dispute with ultra hard-liners within his armed movement.
The Zapatistas have been largely inactive -- and surrounded by government forces -- since they declared a cease-fire after rising up in arms 11 years ago in the southeastern state of Chiapas. Still, they are armed, and control several Indian communities in the state.
Whether they are disintegrating or not, something strange is going on within the Zapatistas.
Last week, Mexican media carried a series of contradictory communiqués signed by Subcommander Marcos, including one hinting that he may retire from guerrilla warfare.
On Monday, a communiqué signed by Marcos announced that ''as of today, the Zapatista National Liberation Army has put the entire rebel-held territory under a red alert.'' He announced the dissolution of Zapatista ''governing councils,'' called on Zapatista troops to go into hiding, and warned outsiders to ''leave rebel territory'' or ``stay at their own risk.''
The announcement drew big headlines in Mexico City. Newspapers speculated the Zapatistas were preparing a new armed offensive, coinciding with the unofficial start of the race for the 2006 presidential elections. Marcos needs to do something bold, to avoid being eclipsed by the upcoming political process, political analysts said.
REVISED STATEMENT
But on Thursday, Marcos issued a new statement, saying that the rebel army ''is not planning or discussing a renewal of offensive military activity,'' but rather ''something else.'' Even more intriguing, he mentioned ''a new step in the struggle.'' And in what sounded like a goodbye note, he wrote that ``the mistakes that were made [by the Zapatistas] are exclusively of the Zapatista leadership.''
The latest statements led a second wave of political analysts to conclude that Marcos is about to retire from guerrilla warfare.
What's going on?, I asked top Mexican officials. A well-placed member of President Vicente Fox's Cabinet told me the two communiqués were not written by the same person, and reflect a split within the Zapatista leadership. The first communiqué, announcing the ''red alert,'' was written by somebody else, he said. It lacked Marcos' characteristic ironic, joking style, and the construction of the sentences was completely different.
Another government official directly involved in Zapatista affairs told me that the rebel army commanders' are divided between the hard-liners, led by Marcos' former wife, Commander Ana Maria, and moderates, led by Commanders Zebedeo and Tacho. The ''red alert'' statement was put out by the first group, and forced Marcos to disclaim it, he said.
SERIOUS MESSAGES
Either way, Zapatista watchers agree that this week's communiqués are the most serious ones Marcos has issued in years. In recent times, Marcos had only drawn occasional media attention for writing a detective novel, and challenging Italy's Inter soccer team to play a game against Zapatista players. In Mexico, only one major newspaper, the leftist La Jornada, was taking him seriously in recent years.
My conclusion: Marcos may be preparing for a new career as a guerrilla-clad clandestine politician in Mexico City, and around the country.
He's clearly a man of the city. (When I interviewed him in the Chiapas jungle a few months after the 1994 Zapatista rebellion and asked him what he missed most about city life, he smiled behind his mask and said, ``Chocolate. The jungle offers you everything, except sweets.'')
THE SHOWMAN
More importantly, as late Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz once said about the Zapatista leader, Marcos is a showman, and showmen who keep performing the same show over the years end up boring their audiences. Marcos may have finally realized that.
I don't see him taking off his black ski mask and becoming a conventional politician -- yet. But the showman could be preparing to take his act on the road, reenergize a sizable part of Mexico's left, and throw a monkey wrench into the country's 2006 presidential elections.