Stan, I think that this is not so much a 'publicity stunt', but rather
something that was forced on the Zapatista leadership by the emerging
strength of the Mexican State's new face, as represented by Vicente Fox.
The Mexican Left (as a whole) took a tremendous beating with the victory
of Fox. Essentially, instead of being seen as the primary
opposition to Mexico of old, and the PRI state, as it had been....the
Mexican Left was marginalized in the eyes of the masses with the victory
of Fox.
The Zapatistas are not even the principle force on the Left. They
are only one component of a very compartementalized Left. The major
bloc of the Left was the PRD (especially in Mexico City) around the
Cardenas campaign. The defeat of Cardenas by Fox was a tremendous
setback for this component of the Mexican Left.
What is more, much of the Mexican public wants to give Fox space to
change things. There is a battle going on to see which side in the
Fox-Marcos struggle appears 'reasonable'? And which of the two
appears intransigent?
This is the current danger for the Zapatistas. Will they appear
intransigent and unreasonable to the general Mexican public? Is Fox
genuinely trying to open up things politically, but Marcos is pushing
too fast? If the majority of Mexico can be convinced that this is
the case, then the Zapatistas are hung.
Fox and the Mexican media are trying to create an image for the public,
of a 'reasonable' Fox in the middle, and an 'unreasonable' opposition to
both sides of Fox that must be suppressed. All for Mexico to
progress.
Fox for progress.... PRI dinosaurs and romantic intransigents causing
strife.... Which would you pick? Fox will make a great show of
being 'equal' in his future suppression of both sides.
The question is, after the rallies and march where do the Zapatistas go,
and what do they do next? This 'generous' Fox will then demand some
display of pliability.
Tony
_______________________________
Stan wrote...
<I find myself here in strong agreement with Tony. I have long been more
than a little skeptical of the whole Zapatista "movement." It has been
the darling of many infantile leftists here, precisely because it never
really fought. And for precisely that reason, they have been effectively
and slowly encircled over time, restricted to a tiny cluster of
mountains, until this last publicity stunt was the only strategy left
them. There's never been the least ideological clarity there, and
therefore no real practical strategy. Our coffee house radicals here
loved them and hated the FARC, for example, because the FARC had the
temerity and bad taste to actually shoot government soldiers... while
the Zapatistias exported designer coffees and embroideries.>
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