FYI [EMAIL PROTECTED]
from
LEFTNEWS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Marcos Interview (fwd)
> FROM LA JORNADA, Translated by Commission of Information
> National Commission for Democracy in Mexico
> To Hermann Bellinhausen, reporter, and Gloria Munoz Ramirez, San Pedro
> de Michoacan, Chiapas., 10 de febrero . "They are deceiving us. They
> are making time to attack us during the dry season, in hunger
> times. What follows, if it's not stop by anybody, is guerrilla
> warfare''. Subcomandante Marcos says.
>
> The morning of February 9, the army leader introduced himself
> to these reporters, who had gone to the town of Guadalupe Tepeyac
> searching for an interview. "Today there are no interviews. If you
> want to we can talk for a while, but I already promissed the
> interview to another media for next week''.
>
> Subcomandante Marcos looks calm, thoughtful. Accompanied by
> Mayor Moises, for a change. Without hiding the tiredness that shows
> in his eyes through the ski mask, he is sceptical about the
> possibilities of a quick dialogue with the government.
>
> The town looks calm. The daily life of the families continues.
> The news is that the peacocks got loose and the dogs went after
> them through the whole town and pulled their fancy feathers
> from their tails. The swings from the school creak as half
> a dozen little girls play there . Nobody knows what comes next,
> but Marcos is worried from the government signals they have
> received.
>
> "They tried to threaten us with annihilation, but I already sent the
> message that they can proceed, that to surrender is not within
> our plans."
>
> The day before, at noon, representatives of the National Commission
> for Intermediation (CONAI) visited the town, and in the evening a
> new message from the President arrived. Marcos was not in the
> area. He arrived precisely to know the messages from the government.
> As much as we insisted, he refuses to reveal the content of the
> talks. His theme is about something else. He persists in talking
> about guerrilla struggle and the cost it carries for the indigenous
> people and for the whole country. "Once by themselves, the guerrilla
> forces have their own autonomy and we are getting ready for that,
> because that lasts for a long time. They are taking us to a long
> term armed resistance and to weaken us gradually, we'll see
> what happens."
>
> We understand that February 8 CONAI and the government envoy
> insisted with the Zapatista leadership about the convenience to
> reinitiate the dialogue, as they insisted on the political willingness
> of the President. The police attacks on two alledgelly Zapatista
> homes had already started, as we would later learn. Here, at least
> for what we could tell, nobody knows anything.
>
> During this brief talk, Marcos insists that they are ready to reinitiate
> the dialogue, but he says, "I don't which way''. The conversation is
> with pauses and long silences. Marcos walks from one place to
> another on the grass; sometimes it seems that he is about to leave,
> and as he is accustomed to do it, without goodbyes, clasping hands
> on his back, smoking.
>
> He carries a newspaper in his hands, which makes him comment: "The
> speech of Zedillo in Queretaro made Robledo and the landowners
> more belligerant and makes more difficult the next meeting (with
> the government), not as much for the lack of complying with the
> agreements in Tabasco and Veracruz, but indirectly because of the
> situation in Chiapas. I think that they are thinking of breaking the
> dialogue and have ready the military operative''.
>
> And he comes back to the idea that seems to obsess him: "We are not
> going to attack, but if they do it... bye''.
>
> He turns to Mayor Moises and tells him, as if we were not present
> and as if they refered to something they had been talking about:
> "With the threath we are not going to sit down (to dialogue). The
> government better understand that with threaths we are not going
> to sit down . They think we are desperate and don't take into account
> that we are prepared for this, "or what, Moi?" At that moment they
> make us understand that they are leaving. "One last question," we say.
>
> -"What next?-If they are lying to us and attack, I believe that the
> people would understand us and are going to react. They (the people)
> are the only ones who can stop what is coming. Either way, we are
> going to be in the mountains resisting."
>
> Marcos and Moises say goodbye. "Well, now that you got your
> interview at least write that we are going to win "Right?, that
> what we say is, just like that: that we are going to win'."
>
>
>
> "La Jornada", February 11, 1995
>
I shortened the following but leftnews source can give complete text.
> February 2, 1995
>
> Confidential and secret.
>
> To: Esteban Moctezuma Barragan
> Secretario de Gobernacion (Secretary of State)
> Mexico.
>
> From: Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
> Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional.
> Cuartel General. Montanas del Sureste Mexicano, Chiapas, Mexico.
>
> Senor:
>
> A few hours ago I received the communique from the Secretary of
> State reasserting your willingness to dialogue. In that communique,
> there is an absurd reference to an absurd declaration by the
> usurper Robledo Rincon. I do not know if the Secretary of State is
> now spokesman for the misgovernment of the state of Chiapas, but
> that is not the point. Only that it increases our distrust of your true
> intentions in looking for a dialogue. From other sources I have been
> inform of the ultimatum that you allow yourself to direct to the EZLN
> about the supposeddly 'strongly armed' Zapatista military posts in
> the municipality of San Andres Samach. 'If you don't remove them,
> they will be displaced by the army' your threath states. I also
> appreciate the campaign in the media about the alledge advance of
> our troops in the region of Los Altos. You know very well that the
> "strongly armed" posts and the "Zapatista troop advancement" in
> Los Altos is a lie. The only thing that existed was a civilian post
> to avoid the introduction of weapons, alcohol, and drug trafficking.
> That was the decision of the civil authorities and not from the
> EZLN. The same media give accounts of the people who were in the
> posts and who DID NOT CARRY WEAPONS. Otherwise, in one of the
> civilian posts 5 kilos of mariguana were confiscated that was being
> to the federal troops in the military post of Cathe.
>
> It is particularly interesting that your ultimatum does not mention
> any of the violations of the federal troops in the border with
> Guatemala which go against the 15th of January, 1995, agreement,
> signed by you and this writer. Violations which have been
> communicatted to you promptly. 'That's small stuff', you may say,
> but they contribute to the deteriorating climate of stretching sides.
> .......
>
> If this is all a pretext for a military action, I deplore that Mr.
> Zedillo's regime had decided to dirty his hands with indigenous
> blood, and that you be an accomplice of this barbarism.
>
> That is all.
>
> Desde las montanas de Sureste Mexicano.
>
> Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
>
> Mexico, Febrero de 1995.
>
>
>
>
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