Mexico's Fox and Zapatista Marcos Near Summit

by Diego Cevallos

(IPS) MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's new president and its highest-profile rebel leader are each maneuvering for advantage as they work toward a resumption of peace talks between the government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).

On Wednesday, Jan. 10, President Vicente Fox invited 12 Latin American ambassadors to the southern state of Chiapas to witness the withdrawal of army troops, as the EZLN has demanded. Fox is preparing future visits to this rebel stronghold for diplomats from Europe, Asia and North America.

Rebel leader "Subcommander Marcos," meanwhile, is packing his bags for a trip to Mexico City with 24 other EZLN commanders, a tour that will begin Feb. 25 in the jungles of Chiapas and end March 6, after making stops in several states to gather supporters.

The tour, which has already attracted the attention of the international media, is intended to pressure the government to comply with the guerrilla movement's demands, Marcos has said.

Political analysts indicate that the movements made by Fox and the rebel leader are just additional steps in their respective local and international publicity campaigns. The president is attempting to prove he is interested in peace in Chiapas, and Marcos hopes to attract attention to demands for full recognition of Native rights.

Though the president has not announced whether he will personally meet with the guerrilla leader in the capital, Semo believes a face-to-face encounter is inevitable, and that Fox should be pleased with the Marcos trip because it gives him the opportunity to take center stage and assert his intentions.

But nothing is set in stone, and in the coming days and weeks either man could make surprising changes in his strategy, said the political expert.

Beginning with his presidential campaign, Fox has demonstrated a charisma capable of attracting mass support and the skill to break away from the traditional formalities of Mexican politics. Today, according to opinion polls, his popularity is about 75 percent.

Marcos also holds the interest of a great many Mexicans, and of many foreigners, despite the fact that the nation's intelligence services accused him of sedition in February 1995.

The intelligence services assert that Marcos, who covers his face with a ski mask for his few public appearances, is in fact Rafael Guillen, 43, a former militant of the now-defunct National Liberal Forces who has a degree in philosophy from the Autonomous University of Mexico.

Fox, 56, holds a degree in business administration from the Ibero-American University, has served as the regional president of Coca-Cola, and belongs to the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church.

Now he and Marcos are at the forefront of the Chiapas conflict, which has been simmering since the rebels declared a short-lived war on the government on Jan. 1, 1994.

Unlike his predecessor Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000), the last president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) 71-year rule, Fox has unhesitatingly attended to several of the EZLN's demands and has cast aside all accusations against the rebels.

In his short time in the presidency (since Dec. 1, 2000), he has withdrawn from Chiapas three of the seven military deployments demanded by the Zapatistas, initiated the release of six of the 100 guerrilla sympathizers considered prisoners of conscience, and has suspended all military surveillance in the EZLN's zone of influence.

In accordance with the conditions laid out by the EZLN, Fox presented a bill before Congress on Native rights that was drafted by a committee of lawmakers in 1995, based on the San Andres Accords. It was a bill that former president Zedillo refused to support.

Further spicing up the scenario, a governor was recently elected in Chiapas who is not a member of the PRI, and the restrictions Zedillo had set for activists from foreign-based political or human rights groups for visiting the state have been lifted.

But Marcos maintains that Fox's efforts are still insufficient and that more army troops must be withdrawn from Chiapas because, asserts the rebel leader, the soldiers have only been relocated to other areas of the state.

The true intentions of the president are still in question, indicated Marcos.

"I don't know what more they could ask this government to do in Chiapas," now it is the EZLN that must express its willingness to dialogue and resolve the conflict, Fox responded.

Political analyst Alfonso Zarate commented that Marcos is playing one of the last cards of his strategy by visiting Mexico City, because Fox has shown everyone that he is ready to sign a peace accord with the Zapatistas.

Marcos launched a political offensive through the communications media beginning the second week of January 1994, when the government of then-president Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) ordered a halt to military strikes against the EZLN, which had taken up arms on the first of that month.

Despite being surrounded by the army, the rebels won the media spotlight because Marcos proved with his epistolary relationship with society and his political proposals that he is highly capable of managing communications strategies.

The EZLN was able to mobilize political and human rights organizations in Mexico and abroad on its behalf, which turned into an obstacle for any idea the government may have had about attacking the rebels.

Now, with a different scenario -- one in which the PRI does not play a part -- Fox promises to demonstrate through actions that his intentions toward the Zapatistas are good.