-Caveat Lector-
[radtimes] # 172
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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Contents:
--City bans scarves during summit, fearing protests
--Mexico Zapatistas Take Indian Rights on Tour
--Struggle for Indigenous Rights is Gaining Ground in the World
--There are bigger threats than guided missiles
--Weapon of Choice: How Terrorists Use the Web
--Zapatistas Reach Out to Other Rebels
--Activists bare all in Mexican resort to protest globalization
===================================================================
City bans scarves during summit, fearing protests
Anne Marie Owens and Heather Sokoloff
National Post
Ian Lindsay, The Vancouver Sun
February 26, 2001
Protesters at talks of the World Trade Organization in Seattle covered their
faces. Quebec City and the suburb of Saint-Foy have passed an anti-scarf
by-law as a security measure for the Summit of the Americas in April.
People in the Quebec City suburb of Saint-Foy could soon risk being arrested
for wearing scarves or covering up their faces.
A new by-law, which was adopted as part of security preparations for the
upcoming Summit of the Americas conference in Quebec City, is one example of
precautions being taken to squelch the activities of anti-globalization
activists and protesters who typically target these types of international
gatherings.
In addition to the scarf by-law, authorities plan to install a three-metre
high metal fence around several square kilometres of Quebec City and allow
only those with passes inside the perimeter. The area will be enforced by
3,000 to 5,000 police, RCMP and riot squads from across the country, and
police are freeing up 500 spots in the Quebec City prison to make room for
arrested protesters.
The by-law adopted by Saint-Foy councillors, which will be enforced during
the weeks leading up to and including the April summit, permits police to
immediately arrest someone in a crowd if even part of their face is covered.
A similar by-law is already in place in Quebec City.
If arrested, the burden of proof rests with the accused for providing a
valid excuse for covering up their faces, according to the by-law.
"I think the Quebec authorities responsible for this owe the public a pretty
full example as to why they think an extraordinary measure like that is
needed," said Alan Borovoy, general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties
Association. "I can imagine all sorts of perfectly logical reasons why
someone would have part of their face covered."
Mr. Borovoy says his organization grew concerned after seeing how various
cities have fought the inevitable protests and hearing how Quebec
authorities were ramping up for this particular session.
He says authorities "should not arrest, detain, search, seize or use force
beyond what is necessary to uphold the law."
The association has criticized the focus of the security tactics and urged
the federal Solicitor-General and Quebec's Public Security Minister against
using a heavy-handed and one-sided approach.
"Just as it is important to ensure the security of the summit, it is no less
important to protect the viability of the protests," said Mr. Borovoy.
"It is beginning to appear that the protesters will be quarantined miles
from the centre of conference activity ... The further away the protesters
are, the less viable their protest will be."
The April 20-22 meeting will bring together the leaders of 34 countries,
including Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, and George W. Bush, the U.S.
President, to discuss creating a free-trade zone covering all of North and
South America.
These gatherings have become a touchstone for anti-globalization activists,
particularly in the wake of the violence that erupted at the 1999 World
Trade Organization talks in Seattle.
===================================================================
Friday February 23
Mexico Zapatistas Take Indian Rights on Tour
By Lorraine Orlandi
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Rebel leader
Subcommander Marcos sets out from his Chiapas stronghold on Sunday
on a journey through Mexico to the capital, where he will try to persuade
Mexican leaders to deliver rights for millions of disenfranchised Indians.
On a two-week tour through the countryside to the doors of parliament in
Mexico City, the masked rebel and two dozen fellow Zapatista commanders will
seek to rally grass-roots support and pile pressure on the government to
accept their conditions for peace in the strife-torn southern state.
The march across 12 states is seen as a challenge to new President Vicente
Fox (news - web sites), who has made concessions but not yet gone far enough
to draw the rebels back to peace talks.
In a televised address on Friday, Fox welcomed the march as ''a bridge for
peace'' and said only dialogue and negotiation would allow an honorable and
fair outcome for all involved.
``If we all want peace, it will come soon. If the real fight is for the
restoration of indigenous rights, we're fighting the same battle,'' he said.
The rebels will travel unarmed. Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar announced on
Friday that some 1,600 security troops would be assigned to protect them
through the state. He urged other states to provide similar protection.
The so-called Zapatour departs from the colonial city of San Cristobal de
las Casas in the Indian heartland on Sunday and culminates in Mexico City on
March 11.
The journey is being compared to peasant revolutionary Emiliano Zapata's
triumphant arrival in the Mexican capital in 1914 for its political impact
and popular appeal.
``I expect Marcos will enter Mexico City in a triumphal march, with at least
a million people lined up in the streets wearing masks,'' said political
commentator Sergio Sarmiento.
Drawing international attention, the march reflects the public relations
savvy that has been the hallmark of the Zapatista movement since it rose up
on New Year's Day in 1994.
City officials were expecting as many as 25,000 people from around the world
to descend on San Cristobal to meet the rebel caravan's arrival on Saturday
afternoon, said mayoral spokesman Rene Genaro Mandujano.
The massive public demonstration will raise Marcos' profile, further
legitimize the Zapatista cause and increase pressure on the government to
act on rebel demands, analysts said.
Asked what concrete results could come from the march, Harry Cleaver, a
Chiapas expert at the University of Texas in Austin, said: ``Peace. Peace,
if we're lucky.''
Chiapas residents echoed that hope on Friday.
``I don't believe there is any person of good will in Mexico who does not
want peace accords signed,'' said Luis Arellano, a 23-year-old law student
from San Cristobal.
Peace Weeks Away
Fox said this month a peace accord for Chiapas was ``a few weeks away.'' His
optimism was based on a series of unprecedented gestures by his government
and the rebel leadership aimed at reviving the talks, which stalled in 1996.
But Marcos and Fox have engaged in political shadowboxing in recent days. On
Thursday, Marcos accused Fox of bad faith in his calls for a dialogue, while
Fox defended his commitment to bringing about lasting peace in Chiapas.
Marcos has also said he will not meet with the new president personally.
``If the accusatory tone by both sides continues this way during the march
the most likely outcome is that they won't get anywhere,'' said Noel Pineda
of the Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center in San Cristobal.
The Zapatistas are demanding indigenous rights legislation as a prerequisite
for renewing peace negotiations. Fox sent a rights measure to Congress in
December in one of his first acts as president.
It would grant autonomy to Indian communities, allow them communal ownership
of land and permit them the use of traditional customs to choose leaders and
dispense justice, writing those measures into the Constitution.
Legislators across the political spectrum balk at the proposal, and Fox
might have to do some arm-twisting, even within his National Action Party,
to pass it.
George Grayson, a Mexico scholar at William and Mary College in Virginia,
called Marcos a ``brilliant tactician'' for maneuvering Fox into a political
hard place before the two sides sit down to negotiate.
While previous President Ernesto Zedillo alienated and largely isolated the
Zapatistas, Fox has played into their hands, whether by accident or design,
analysts said.
``Fox said he would solve the Chiapas war in 15 minutes. He didn't do that,
but he managed in 15 minutes to revive the Zapatista movement,'' Sarmiento
said. ``A lot of people will come out to see Marcos, take the children and
see the guerrilla leader who managed to defeat the Mexican government.''
===================================================================
La Jornada
Friday, February 23, 2001.
The Struggle for Indigenous Rights is Gaining Ground in the World
by Hermann Bellinghausen, correspondent.
La Realidad, Chiapas
February 22.
The real news, The News, if there is any, is that the rights of the
indigenous peoples of Mexico are so important to the world. They are the
touchstone for the new modernity and the democratic transition, which takes
in everything. The debate concerning them, being conducted through
zapatista ski-masks, is leaving no sector of Mexican society untouched.
And those who are the most reactionary in this regard are being disrobed
through the most public of ridicules.
"Those who have spoken badly are losing now. The indigenous peoples are
going to win," said Subcomandante Marcos this morning, before more than one
hundred journalists - more than half of them foreigners - sent by major
newspapers, television stations and international agencies from the United
States and Europe, revving up their engines in order to cover the 3000
kilometer zapatista march, which is about to begin.
Without the EZLN comandantes having yet taken one step, already looking bad
are the International Red Cross, important members of the federal
government, the business associations - and some members of other chambers,
the legislative ones - as well as the most conspicuous bishops and the most
sententious opinion makers of the right, from the print as well as the
electronic media. And this is without having even spoken WITH them,
something which seems inevitable. The world is waiting.
"We're not going to be signing peace during this trip," Marcos warned,
forestalling the "bake shop surveys," which are asking for peace, period,
and the saccharine Teletones that are selling the word "peace" without
being interested in the content. But the Indians, those peoples and
cultures which go beyond the Mexico of illusions, are here with their
demands. And there is no way now of refusing them.
"The mobilization in the Mexico of those from below is very large. It is
without precedent," announced the rebel chief, as if he were saying: start
getting prepared, open your eyes, know how to see the demonstration which
is coming. "Our plan is to reach peace. To achieve a dialogue which is
not feigned."
The EZLN's spokesperson described the route from this Saturday forward, and
he said confidently: "We're going to go, we're going to arrive in those
places, we're going to speak with everyone. We're going to convince the
Deputies." The zapatistas are counting on "the same people who threw out
the PRI" to be accompanying the march and to be supporting the Indian
peoples in their demand for justice and free determination.
The Invisible Made Visible
It seems as if they're not there, that the cameras and microphones deployed
in a swarm are not aware of their existence, waiting for the words and the
figure of Subcomandante Marcos, live from La Realidad, which today looks
like the International Satellite Telephone Fair.
Women and men, children and old ones, faces covered and eyes emphasized by
scarves and ski-masks, form a fence at both sides of the table where
Subcomandante Marcos is speaking with the press, flanked by Tzeltal Major
Moise's and Tojolabal Comandante Tacho, who are the ones appearing in the
photos, for now.
They remain in La Realidad, but they will be revealed, throughout the way,
as people, like those men and women, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Chol, Tojolabal,
Zoque, Mame, Chinantec, Mixe, Zapotec, Mazatec, Huichol, Yaqui, Tarahumara,
Seri, "among others," Marcos says. In response to a reporter's question,
he says: "There is not one single indigenous people who does not support
our demand for recognition of their rights." It's up to the National
Indigenous Congress, "our organization, to which we, as indigenous,
belong," to secure these rights as law.
A little girl, Rosaura, carrying her one year old brother in a shawl,
expresses concern "because the compa~eros are leaving and something might
happen to them." Meanwhile, the Subcomandante, a few steps away from her,
says: "We don't think there are going to be any attacks. Everything is
going to turn out well. The losers are those who want them to turn out
badly. And if things go badly, the business groups, the PAN, the
government will have shown their faces. If the march turns out badly,
they'll become the public enemy on five continents."
According to Marcos, the EZLN delegation, during its 14-day trip to Mexico
City, will be meeting with groups and organizations from the country's 57
ethnic groups (in which the zapatistas generally include the mestizo
majority). When he was questioned, however, concerning ties with other
indigenous movements on the continent, the Subcomandante noted that they
maintain informal relations, "an exchange of greetings," with the Mapuches
of Chile and indigenous movements in Ecuador, Canada and the United States.
For right now the issue is about, with and for Mexico.
Global Repercussions
The remarkable international media presence is comparable only to that
received by the zapatista uprising during the first weeks of 1994. Except
now, in addition, solidarity groups and distinguished individuals from the
Spanish State, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Greece, the
United States and Argentina will also be present, supported by
mobilizations in their respective countries.
The scandal generated by the refusal of the International Red Cross to
accompany the zapatista march has impacted on top governmental levels,
especially in the Department of Foreign Relations, which is very involved
in the issue. In what sounds like a new version of the old "Iruegas
Doctrine," Chancellor Jorge Casta~eda said, according to the rebel chief,
that if the zapatistas "want a war of lies, they'll have a peace of lies."
There is nothing unusual about this ideological resurrection, which was
characterized by Ambassador Gustavo Iruegas when he was leading
negotiations for the Zedillo government in 1995, and who is now the Under
Secretary of the Department of Foreign Relations. At that time, Iruegas
lent the interpretation to the San Andre's negotiations that zapatista
demands would have to be negotiable, as there was no real military threat,
since they hadn't won, nor would the federal Army win the war.
Marcos' statements, and the march of the zapatista and indigenous caravan
to the Congress of the Union, are letting so many ghosts out of the closets
that the national political scene is resembling a horror film a la George
Romero. During the night of the living dead spreading across the country
in the wake of the declarations, there has been no lack of death threats
proffered by the Governor of Quere'taro, and a new instant classic, Morelos
Deputy Salomon Salgado, former PAN member (and former member of the Party
of the Poor, or another repentant). A certain panic invaded the upper
levels of business as the peaceful march by Mexican indigenous became
inevitable.
There is nervousness in the positions of the federal Army, demonstrated at
the checkpoints (which do not officially exist) and in the coming and going
of vehicles and troops in the areas surrounding the zapatista
Aguascalientes and in the Autonomous Municipalities. The same thing is
seen with the immigration police, who have stepped up their controls in
order to detect the foreigners who are arriving, in great numbers, in order
to accompany the march by the EZLN delegation.
But "it's the hour of the Congress of the Union," Marcos said. It can do
nothing less than accept the "Cocopa Law," which is "under the San Andre's
Accords."
>From the Selva Lacandona to Space
At the moment, the spotlights and news stories which are travelling from
the Selva Lacandona to the satellites in space, and from there bouncing
back to the civilized world, are focused on Subcomandante Marcos. On that
individual, whom some see as thinner, others as tired, who speaks calmly
and harshly, to the discomfort of the political system and the media
effusiveness.
His forged image is now selling furniture on television, while his real
words are in the headlines. But what is really going on here, and at the
stops along the planned trip, is the indigenous will to exist. There is no
media circus or trivializing propaganda which can quiet the voices of the
Indian peoples, the subject of all of this, the hand which is drawing back
the veils of deceit and the war of extermination which has not been ended
in these lands.
Regarding the campaigns by business persons, the Church and the electronic
media to "try to force the EZLN to surrender," according to Subcomandante
Marcos, they only "assure the continuation of the war and an outbreak of
other armed rebellions in other parts of the country."
The EZLN insurgents who are guarding the press conference, armed and
masked, are shining a little calm in the corners and access points to the
Aguascalientes. For a moment it seems incredible that so little (so
little?) is defying the power and putting the nation face to face with its
most ancient and poor peoples. They are merely the point of a thread which
runs across deep Mexico, and is today coming aboveground, as never before
in these godforsaken lands, in order to appear on the front pages.
In a few hours the zapatista caravan will be making visible the Mexico
which the nation's society has refused to look at for centuries. How much
noise is going to be necessary in order to prevent them from being heard?
Jose Saramago, one of the individuals who will be accompanying the
indigenous march, has said that this mobilization will put Mexico in the
center of the world.
===================================================================
There are bigger threats than guided missiles
By Molly Ivins
AZ Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona
Sunday, 25 February 2001
Darn it. Last week was National Security Week - Karl Rove said so - and I
was so busy pointing out the numerous idiocies of George W. Bush's tax cut
that I missed the whole thing.
It is painfully clear, however, the new administration folks wouldn't know
a threat to national security from the "Waltz of the Flowers."
They propose yet another blue-ribbon commission to study what to do about
the military. Their only other idea is to spend at least $50 billion on the
perfectly useless National Missile Defense system to protect us from the
North Koreans, who have a warhead but no heat shield for it, rendering it
slightly moot as a weapon.
Meanwhile, the hopelessly retro Bush defense team - I've never seen so many
retreads in my life, from Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Daddy - are Cold Warriors
all.
Look, this is really simple. The single greatest threat to the national
security of the United States is the rapidly deteriorating global
environment.
National Missile Defense does not do a thing to protect us from global
warming. Nor does it do dog to protect us from drug-resistant strains of TB
that are spreading concomitantly with AIDS, or from the consequences of
massive poverty in the Third World and what are called "failed states" -
the new politically correct way to say "regimes corrupt to the point of
disaster."
On the TB front, John LeCarré's new novel, "The Constant Gardener," is both
a great read and an excellent primer on the role of multinational
pharmaceutical companies in the Third World - a splendid tale of corporate
evil-doing, but with the exquisite sadness of the heartbroken idealist that
distinguishes LeCarré's work.
On the global warming front, the fresh evidence is almost too depressing
to contemplate in conjunction with the Bushies' blindness. All the news is
bad.
The journal Science reports that an analysis of ice cores drilled in the
Himalayan mountains shows that the past decade has been the warmest for
1,000 years. The fate of Pacific coral reefs suggests an even longer period.
The New York Times reports that the snows of Kilimanjaro, which have
floated for thousands of years like a cool beacon over Tanzania, are
retreating so fast that they will be gone in 15 years. The same is true of
icecaps from Peru to Tibet.
The most chilling report is by the IPCC - the United Nations' International
Panel on Climate Change. (I'm afraid that's an abgreviation with which you
will become familiar.) The panel consists of more than 400 of the world's
leading climatologists.
They predict that global warming may raise the average temperature of Earth
as much as 10 degrees over the average temperature of 1990. That is a
dramatic escalation from 1995, when they predicted a maximum hemispheric
rise of 6 degrees. We're in big trouble.
If we were being invaded by aliens from space, we would react more
intelligently than this. At least we'd recognize it as a national security
threat.
I know that many of you who are well-informed about global warming
sometimes despair of breaking through the denial, partially paid for by the
energy companies - not to mention the depressing sight of Texas oilmen
running the country's energy policy.
Despair is not only a grave sin but, I think, unwarranted. If you can
remember when President Nixon went to China, this country essentially
turned on a dime. From decades of denouncing Beijing (which we then spelled
"Peking") as the heart of absolute darkness, we suddenly noticed it also
happened to be the largest market in the world. That took about 10 minutes.
As for the terrible epidemic, I would like to salute Time magazine for the
challenge on its recent cover story: "This is about AIDS in Africa. Look at
the pictures. Read the words. And then try not to care."
If compassion is beyond you, despite its newly Bushian status in politics,
try this: There's not a chance that victims of "failed states" and climate
change are going to stay where they are. The most massive migrations in
history will follow if nothing is done. In your children's lifetimes.
Perhaps it is only the fleeting effect of public relations, but I gather
that Secretary of State Colin Powell is not entirely blind to these
consequences. If so, may he prosper in the much-predicted political warfare
within the Bush defense team.
Even in the Texas Legislature, they know it is from time to time necessary
to rethink their "pry-roarities."
===================================================================
Monday February 26, 2001
Weapon of Choice: How Terrorists Use the Web
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nf/20010226/tc/7731_1.html
By Jay Lyman, www.NewsFactor.com
The same advantages the Internet and advanced technology bring to the
general public and to business -- speed, security and global linkage -- are
helping international terrorist groups organize their deadly and disruptive
activities.
"The Internet and e-mail provide the perfect vehicles for these groups to
communicate with each other, to spread their message, to raise money and to
launch cyberattacks," iDefense director of intelligence for special projects
Ben Venzke told NewsFactor Network.
A recent report from U.S. officials indicates that terrorists' use of the
Web for communication and coordination through the use of encrypted messages
is widespread, with numerous sites -- many of which are unaware of the use
to which they are being put -- serving as conduits for terrorist
conspiracies.
Government and private Internet security firms are doing their best to keep
up with the terrorists, but the task is made more difficult by advancing
technologies available to groups bent on targeting the U.S. and its
citizens, allies and businesses.
Terror Tool
Security officials in government and private industry agree that the Web is
heavily used by terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and other extremist
groups, including Middle East terror organizations Hezbollah and Hamas.
"Terrorists use the Web mostly for propaganda and for information exchange,"
said Matthew Devost, founding director of the Terrorism Research Center. "If
you move beyond the Web, terrorist organizations do use information
technology as a very viable and secure communication mechanism."
Devost told NewsFactor that despite the Internet's viability as an economic
medium, it has proven somewhat insecure for commercial transactions.
He said the Web could help facilitate attacks by terrorist groups on not
only the Internet economy, but on power, transportation and other systems
that rely on information that is linked to the Web.
'No Limit'
Terrorists are beginning to use the Web in interesting ways, Vigilinx
director of intelligence Jerry Freese told NewsFactor.
"There's really no limit to it," Freese said. "Anywhere you can send an
e-mail with an audio or graphics file is fair game."
Freese, whose security company provides secure servers, intruder detection
and security audits, said terrorist cells around the world use the Internet
for scheduling, meeting and organizing.
"We see the Web as a terrorism-assistance tool that allows them to do things
in secrecy," he said, referring to encrypted messages. "The thing is, it can
originate from anywhere. The Web, of course, is ubiquitous."
Freese said steganography -- putting encrypted messages in electronic
files -- is widely used by terrorist groups. A recent government report
indicated that terrorists have been hiding pictures and maps of targets in
sports chat rooms, on pornographic bulletin boards and on Web sites.
Reliance on the Net
Despite their ongoing efforts to cripple parts of the Web, disrupt
infrastructure systems such as electrical power or steal money and
information from government and businesses, terrorists have a vested
interest in keeping the Internet working.
"It's a very good tool for them," Freese told NewsFactor, "so they don't
want to disrupt the flow of the Web; rather, they'll target specific
companies that are working with or are sympathetic to their enemies."
Rogue Rights
While law enforcement officials are aware of terrorists' use of the
Internet, they cannot monitor Web sites for both logistical and legal
reasons, according to spokesperson Steve Berry of the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigations' National Infrastructure Protection Center.
"However repugnant to our perception and to the general public and law
enforcement their Web site or use of it might be, that does not give us the
authority to block them," Berry told NewsFactor. "That's free speech. That's
the country we live in."
Venzke, whose company tracks Web-based threats for Fortune 500 companies and
government, said law enforcement is also limited by national culture and
geography. The Web offers entry into any country from anywhere, and with so
many points linked together, terrorist activity is often impossible to
track.
"How do you force an [Internet service provider] halfway around the world,
which may not be friendly to you to begin with, to shut down a Web site?"
Venzke asked.
Predicting Protection
The rapid advancement of technology makes it hard to fight terrorists, who,
experts agree, are adept at using the Internet and other advanced
technology. Bin Laden's al Qaida and other terrorist groups have reportedly
used encryption programs available free on the Web, as well more powerful
anti-spy software purchased on the open market.
The Terrorism Research Center's Devost said that despite a number of valid
efforts to combat terrorists, targeted countries and businesses are not
prepared.
"Most nations, and most companies, are not being diligent with regard to
addressing information security concerns and fortifying their security
posture," said Devost.
Counter Strike
Security experts claim they are getting better at detecting and decoding
terrorist communiques, but more awareness and information sharing is needed.
"Right now, it's very hard to detect where these messages are coming from
and what their intent is," said Freese. "Information exchange is a key issue
here. We have a lot of repositories of information, but it isn't shared. The
government is trying to collate information from private and government
sources to coordinate defenses."
Devost agrees, adding that despite increased efforts to keep tabs on
terrorists, vulnerabilities are on the rise.
"Governments are making great progress in understanding the way these groups
are utilizing technology," Devost said, "[but] while we are making progress,
it is not enough."
===================================================================
Zapatistas Reach Out to Other Rebels
By Wendy Patterson
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Feb. 26, 2001
JUCHITAN, Mexico - Announcing they had received a second death threat on
their march for peace, Zapatista rebels asked for support from Mexico's
other revolutionary groups as they passed through Oaxaca state Monday.
The two-week trip, called the "Zapatour" by local newspapers, is the
first time the ski-masked rebel leader, Subcomandante Marcos, has emerged
publicly from the southern state of Chiapas since the Zapatistas launched
its revolt for Indian rights on Jan. 1, 1994. He is traveling with 23 rebel
commanders.
The caravan, on its third day Monday, is expected to pass through 12 states
on the way to Mexico City, where the rebels will lobby for passage of an
Indian rights bill in Congress.
In a communique released late Sunday, the Zapatista National Liberation
Army asked for Mexico's "militant-political revolutionary organizations" to
participate in the motorized march, which is scheduled to end up in Mexico
City on March 11.
The rebels did not say which groups that might be, but said they ask "they
take measures they consider pertinent so that this peaceful march reaches
its high and just end," the communique stated.
Rebels also asked the armed groups for permission to pass through Oaxaca,
where splinter factions of the former People's Revolutionary Army, a
radical leftist guerrilla organization also is fighting for Indian rights.
Unlike the Zapatista rebels, the factions say they will not negotiate with
the government and have launched persistent armed attacks on police and
military posts.
At least one of the factions, the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army,
said they would support the march but did not say how, local media reported.
Meanwhile, the Zapatistas announced Monday that they had received a second
death threat. Zapatistas left their home state of Chiapas on Sunday amid
heavy police guard after rebels said they had received a death threat from
a man in neighboring Oaxaca state.
But 65-year-old Rogelio Zarate Valtierra, who admitted sending the telegram
to the Roman Catholic bishop in Chiapas, said it was never intended to be a
threat but rather a warning for the rebels' safety. Police, who said the
man appears to be mentally unstable, are investigating.
Zapatistas announced another threat Monday, which they believe to be from a
gang called "Porta Mortajas" or "Coffin Carriers."
Angel Fonseco, a spokesman for the rebels' citizen support group, said the
note read: "To receive a coffin carrier tomorrow in Jalapa de Marquez."
Rebels were to pass through the Oaxacan town Monday.
The Interior Ministry said it assigned 3,500 federal police officers to the
route and noted that as many as 300 foreign observers and 200 Mexican and
foreign journalists had joined the march.
Despite the acknowledged risks, Marcos, backed by thousands of jubilant
supporters, pledged to keep going.
The Indian Rights bill is one of three conditions the rebels say must be
met before they will renew long-stalled peace talks with the government.
President Vicente Fox, whose election last year ended seven decades of rule
by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, submitted the bill to Congress
shortly after taking office in December.
He has also closed some military bases in Chiapas, the Zapatistas want
them all closed, and has released some rebels from prison.
===================================================================
Tuesday, February 27 2001
Activists bare all in Mexican resort to protest globalization
CANCUN, Mexico Feb 26 (AFP) -
Mexican activists dropped their drawers Monday in a naked attempt to
protest globalization, as bankers, industrialists and
government officials discussed economic and social issues at the seaside
resort of Cancun.
Chanting "death to capitalism" and other slogans supporting Palestinian
activists and opposing the US-backed anti-drug Plan
Colombia, about 200 protesters marched several kilometers along the main
avenue under tropical heat.
Several of the anti-globalization activists dropped their pants as a
handful of bemused tourists and a few hundred police
watched on.
Later in the day, a dozen militants defied heavy security and staged an
anti-globalization protest in front of the luxury hotel that
hosted a two-day meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Police in full riot gear and armed with shields and batons were deployed
around the demonstration, at times blocking traffic and
causing consternation among busloads of foreign tourists.
The protesters placed human skull on the ground to symbolize what one of
them said were "the victims of globalization."
"We are symbolically closing this event, because it is an illegal
association of rich people who get richer as the rest get poorer,"
said protester Eugenio Navarro.
As participants in the World Economic Forum held a first day of talks on
poverty and economic development in Latin America,
globalization foes held an alternative gathering to discuss similar issues
from a radically different angle.
Some of the participants toured impoverished neighborhoods making up what
they call "the other Cancun."
Organizers said they planned to hold a large protest on Tuesday, but gave
no details because of what they called "security
reasons" -- 1,600 anti-riot police deployed across the city. They said they
hoped to avoid the type of violence that marked
similar events in Davos, Prague and Seattle, but they could not vouch for
ultra-leftist students who traveled to Cancun from
Mexico City.
They also said they had responded positively to an invitation to discuss
their views with participants in the World Economic
Forum. The meeting was scheduled for Tuesday morning.
===================================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
======================================================
"The world is my country, all mankind my brethren,
and to do good is my religion."
-Thomas Paine
======================================================
" . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . "
-Samuel Adams
======================================================
"You may never know what results come from your action.
But if you do nothing, there will be no results."
-Gandhi
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