Mexico’s Zapatista rebels meet ahead of national caravan
LA GARRUCHA, Mexico Zapatista rebels embarked on a historic transformation today at a mass meeting intended to take them out of their Mexican hideouts.
The rebels, who have not left southern Chiapas state in nearly five years, drew more than one-thousand supporters to the jungle town of La Garrucha.The purpose is to debate and explain how the armed movement would turn itself into the “peaceful civic, nationalist, leftist and anti-capitalist” movement.The rebels will soon announce the schedule for a national tour by Subcomandante Marcos and other top combatants.The rebels staged a brief uprising in early 1994 – demanding the overthrow of the Mexican government.
They quickly settled into a tense cease-fire with the government and since then their movement has largely been nonviolent and has focused on indigenous rights. Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Mexico's Zapatista rebels to start 6-month campaign tour
Mexico's Zapatista rebels were to launch a six-month nationwide campaign tour on Sunday aimed at attracting more support from citizens.
The Zapatistas, who were emerging from their jungle hideouts, said they would carry out the tour in a peaceful way by rejecting rifles or wars.
The rebels launched a brief uprising on the New Year's Day 12 years ago, calling for more rights for Mexico's Indian minority.
During a visit to Mexico's 31 states, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos promised to
Update 6: Zapatistas Begin Tour to Reshape Mexico
Zapatista rebels met Monday with leaders of poor and Indian groups at the start of a campaign that has carried them from their jungle strongholds for the first time in four years in a bid to reshape Mexico's politics.
The rebels' ski-masked spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, arrived Monday in a caravan of minivans, SUVS and pickup trucks for the meetings with non-governmental organizations in this mountain city in southern Mexico.
The night before, Marcos formally launched the nationwide tour with a speech railing against capitalism, free trade and the Mexican government before 15,000 rebels
Mexico's Zapatista rebels head into jungle region marked by violence
Ski-masked rebel chief Marcos left San Cristobal de las Casas on Tuesday and led his campaigning band of Zapatistas toward the ancient Mayan temples of Palenque, a jungle region marked by violence between the rebels and paramilitary groups.
Leaving the motor bike on which he started his six-month tour, which will take him from the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas to the U.S. border, Marcos headed out of the mountain town of San Cristobal de Las Casas in a 10-vehicle convoy at the crack of dawn.
Dubbed "The Other Campaign" because it
Zapatistas' "Marcos" begins motorbike tour through Mexico
Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN, on Sunday began a motorcycle tour of Mexico with the aim of uniting leftist civil organizations before this year's national elections.
At about 11:25 a.m. (1725 GMT), the EZLN chief passed through the town of La Garrucha without making any public remarks or stopping to meet with the hundreds of indigenous Zapatista sympathizers, journalists and domestic and foreign activists who had gathered here expecting to hear him deliver a solemn speech.
Marcos is traveling together with other EZLN members, who
Zapatista rebel chief launches attack on Mexico's politicians
The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement emerged from hiding and for the first time in four years showed his masked face to the public, launching a broadside against the country's politicians.
He told supporters in San Rafael: ''They'll pay for everything they have done to us. They are a bunch of shameless scoundrels."
The leader, known as "Subcomandante Marcos", was speaking near the jungles of Chiapas state, where the rebels have their stronghold.
He targeted the former mayor of Mexico City and front-runner in next year's presidential elections, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "They say: 'Maybe
Zapatistas seek to galvanize Mexico's leftists
SAN MIGUEL, Mexico After four years of hiding, the charismatic leader of the Zapatista rebel movement in southern Mexico has been holding "town hall" meetings with leftists, labor leaders, students, Indian-rights advocates and other supporters in an effort to forge a national campaign to rewrite Mexico's Constitution along socialist lines.
The rebel, who calls himself Subcommander Marcos, emerged from the woods Sunday morning surrounded by 24 armed rebels for a second day of listening to the leaders of dozens of charities devoted to social work and human rights. All the rebels wore the movement's trademark
In Mexico, Zapatistas get no argument
The Zapatista rebels of southern Mexico are finding it hard to pick a fight.
Mexico's leading left-leaning presidential contender, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, refused on Monday to answer weekend criticisms of his Democratic Revolution Party by Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos.
"I'm not going to fight with Subcomandante Marcos," Lopez Obrador told Mexican reporters during a campaign swing through northern Mexico.
"I greatly respect his points of view, but I'm touring the country with another purpose," he added, referring to his presidential campaign.
Marcos recently has repeatedly criticized Lopez Obrador and the party known as the PRD, saying they have
Zapatista rebel leader plans six-month, solo tour of Mexico
Mexico's Zapatista rebels on Saturday struggled amid shouts and catcalls to hammer out the details of the new movement that they pledged would "shake this country up," starting with a six-month nationwide tour by rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos.
Marcos said he will embark without the rest of the rebel leadership on a roughly six-month tour starting on Jan. 1 and timed to grab attention away from the country's July 2006 presidential election.
The state-by-state tour aims to inspire what the rebels call "another way of doing politics." But no one on Saturday
Palo Verde Generators start crawl from Mexico
PHOENIX Drivers are advised to avoid a king-size caravan carrying nuclear-plant equipment through southern Arizona this week.
Two gigantic flatbed trucks are each carrying an 806-ton steam generator. They're already headed north through Mexico from Puerto Peqasco (pee-KAHS-co), where they were delivered by barge. At a snail's pace, the convoy will travel along Arizona 85 from Lukeville to Gila Bend, then on local roads west of 85 heading north toward the plant.
The convoy is expected to reach the border as early as today, but will take another two weeks to reach Palo Verde near Tonopah
EZLN Out of Mexico State Conflict
Sub commander Marcos, leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), separated Tuesday that insurgent group from the violent social conflict that broke out in Mexico State last week.
Marcos considered that the actions that followed an attempt to evict walking flower sellers are the result of the peoples rage due to the autorities ineptitude to resolve the problem through the dialogue.
He demanded the immediate release of over 200 people detained on Wednesday and Thursday in Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, adding that among them there are people seriously wounded and various women raped.
Faced
