Zapatista leader warns of brewing rage in Mexico

Mercury News
May. 10, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said Tuesday that Mexico is in a ``state of rage and social indignation,'' and he warned that the upcoming presidential election will do nothing to stop the discord from intensifying.

In a rare television interview with Mexico's Televisa network, the masked rebel leader said last week's deadly riot that left a teenager dead and scores injured in a town outside Mexico City is indicative of the country's brewing tensions.

He compared the current climate to the social tension that led to the Zapatistas' brief armed uprising in January 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas -- but he emphasized that his rebel group is now committed to peace.

Marcos, smoking his trademark pipe, called the three major presidential contenders ``mediocre,'' and said they offer no solutions to the country's serious problems.

``They are fighting for business and not for the direction of the country,'' said the rebel leader. He added, however, that the Zapatistas will not boycott the July 2 elections for the presidency, state governorships and congressional seats.

Marcos predicted that leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, will win the race, despite recent polls showing Felipe Calderón, of President Vicente Fox's conservative National Action Party, taking the lead.

Marcos said his decision to not support López Obrador cost the Zapatista leader ``fans,'' but was the right thing to do.

He said that if López Obrador was elected, he would have an ``administration of handouts,'' while Calderón would mean more of the same disappointing policies the country has seen under Fox, who took office in 2000. But the worst of all three candidates, he said, is Roberto Madrazo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

``No one trusts him, not even his family,'' Marcos said.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, ruled Mexico for 71 years before Fox's victory. Fox is banned by Mexican law from seeking re-election.

Marcos also denied accusations by Madrazo that the Zapatistas instigated last week's riot in the town of San Salvador Atenco, about 15 miles northeast of Mexico City. The violent clashes between residents and police left one dead and dozens injured.

But he said he supports the dozens of protesters who were arrested and will remain in Mexico City until they are released.

One resident was killed in the running street battles, in which members of a radical group of townspeople kidnapped and beat six policemen who tried to prevent vendors from setting up stands in a nearby city.

Marcos said the attack against the police stemmed from ``people's furor.''

``They were not beating the person, but rather what he represents.''

The rebel leader came out of his jungle hide-out in January and is touring Mexico trying to forge a national leftist movement.