Subcomandante Marcos, Place wreath before statue of Zapata
The Mexican government's peace negotiator urged legislators to pass an indigenous rights bill championed by the Zapatistas. The Zapatista National Liberation Army is continuing its march to the capital to draw attention to the bill. Luis Alvarez said yesterday that, without this legal reference, it would not be possible to rectify the exclusion of Mexico's 11 million indigenous people. "We have a debt with the indigenous people," Mr Alvarez said.
He said that the government would also tackle the issues behind the seven-year-old conflict in the southern state of Chiapas. These include a lack of education, housing and work for indigenous communities. The Zapatista spokesman Subcomandante Marcos, who led the January 1994 uprising of the EZLN, has said that passage of the bill, which is based on the 1996 San Andres Accords, is a key condition for the resumption of peace talks that collapsed over four years ago.
As Alvarez spoke at the presidential palace, Marcos and another 24 masked Zapatista militants, as well as hundreds of supporters, continued their winding route to Mexico City. The so-called "Zapatour" started in the revolutionaries' base in Chiapas on February 24. The caravan toured the state of Morelos yesterday. The region was the powerbase of the forces of the revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, from whom the Zapatistas take their name. Mr Zapata led an uprising of Mexico's agrarian Indians in the early 1900s.
The EZLN members have been masked and uniformed as usual during the tour, but the revolutionaries have travelled without their weapons. Marcos placed a wreath before a statue of Zapata in Cuernavaca, the state capital, before addressing a crowd of about 7,000 supporters. He made light of threats issued by a local deputy, saying: "I just want to say don't shoot me in the head, because it would ruin my ski mask, and it is very expensive to repair."
Throughout the march, dubbed the "Zapatour," Marcos has urged Mexicans to back the indigenous rights bill and suggested this would pave the way for a peaceful settlement of the Chiapas conflict. His speeches have also contained strong attacks on the forces of globalisation and on foreign businesses in Mexico. He has also been very critical of President Vicente Fox and has ignored the government's overtures.
President Fox, who defeated the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party last year, has vowed to seek peace in Chiapas. He and has embraced the call for legal recognition of indigenous rights and culture. One of his first acts since assuming office in December was to send the San Andres Accords to Congress. He also closed four military bases in Chiapas and freed dozens of political prisoners. While Marcos has turned down an invitation to meet Mr Fox when the Zapatour arrives in Mexico City on Sunday, the EZLN is expected to hold talks with a parliamentary negotiating commission on Monday.
