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[Gopher]

News from Chiapas.

CNN reports that SubComandante Marcos, the mysterious and charismatic leader of the Indian EZLN guerrilla movement operating in the southern Mexican jungles for the last twelve or so years, but not always in outright rebellion, is preparing to get into national politics, now calling himself "Delegate Zero," although no one from his movement is running for any office.

For those of you not familiar with this organization, it is a very specific rebellion. The Zapatistas oppose neoliberalism and stand for Indian rights in Mexico -- and the rights of all marginalized peoples and cultures throughout the Third World. The Zapatistas emphatically assert that they are not a Che Guevara-style organization -- that is, they are not interested in Marxism-Leninism but rather democratic reform and human rights.

They've been somewhat effective, and if embarrassing the govt and surviving is any measure, then they've been very effective. Some have speculated that the Bishop of Chiapas is somehow behind the movement, but this issue has never been conclusively settled.

SubComandante Marcos has great style, wit, and public relations savvy. His letters, faxes, and emails from Chiapas made the Mexican govt look foolish and entirely ineffective when his group came out with AKs and ski masks years ago.

Mexico's ruling party, the PRI, has been on the ropes for some time. If Marcos can get a grass-roots political movement going this year, which seems to be his intention, then this trend will continue, and Mexico will be forced to accept increased political pluralism, something that comes hard in Latin America and the Caribbean, due to profound and chronic authoritarian and personalist tendencies.

For more on Marcos and the EZLN, see the following...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/31/zapatistas.emerge.ap/index.html

http://www.zmag.org/chiapas1/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0853459185?v=glance

[robitusson]

The U.S. will soon put a stop to that. As Kissinger once infamously said, "if democracy breaks loose, we'll make the economy scream."

[Hater Depot]

In case you haven't noticed, democracy is breaking out in Mexico. This new gambit comes from Marcos not having anything to position himself against anymore.

[Gopher]

[Gopher]

[robitusson]

[Gopher]