Word: rebels
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Meanwhile in Chiapas, the new round of talks began between the Zapatistas, led by ski-masked Subcomandante Marcos, and a government delegation headed by Interior Minister Moctezuma. After a four-hour meeting, the government agreed to pull several hundred occupying troops out of two villages sympathetic to the rebel cause, while the Zapatistas agreed to extend a truce indefinitely. The two sides remained far apart on an accord to end the uprising, though...
...bright notes do not mean that most peasants welcomed the face-off between the guerrillas and the army. For many it has brought harsh treatment from the occupying forces. In San Andres Larrainzar, one of the rebel- infiltrated towns where the army withdrew its troops last week, residents consider both sides equally repressive. ``We just want to live in peace,'' says Miguel Lopez Gomez, an elder in the local church who wears the traditional wool tunic of the Tzotzil Indians. ``We want to work, pray, feed our families. We don't want any confrontations here...
Still, the mood in much of the state is more upbeat than it has been in months. In one of the Zapatistas' jungle strongholds, the settlement of Guadalupe Tepeyac, Tacho praised Zedillo for the sincerity of his efforts. ``The most important factor,'' said the rebel, ``was that he sent his Interior Minister as his direct representative. That shows he's taking the problem seriously.'' The Zapatistas are relatively confident that their prime demand will be met: the removal from office of Eduardo Robledo, the p.r.i. governor whose August election--in the same balloting that elected Zedillo--was deemed fradulent...
...Other rebel demands--like the re- negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and a halt to the privatization of state industries--have less chance of success. ``There have to be great changes in this country,'' says Tacho's companion, Major Moises, an M-16 automatic rifle balanced on his lap. ``And if there's not, there's going to be war and revolution...
Moises' rhetoric is overblown: the Zapatistas are thought to have a few hundred fighters at most, and few officials in Mexico City take such threats seriously. But neither, as they struggle to cope with the wreckage of Mexico's economy, can they dismiss the Chiapas rebels as irrelevant. The best the Zedillo government can hope for is to reduce the rebels' support through continued political and economic concessions. Given the region's poverty, that could take considerable time--and funds. ``I can't deny that more roads and schools are an advance,'' says Pablo Romo, an aide to Roman Catholic...