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Saturday, 10 March, 2001, 16:35 GMT
Press alarm at Zapatista arrival
![]() Marcos will address supporters in Mexico City's huge central square
Leading Mexican newspapers have expressed alarm at the imminent arrival in the capital of rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos and his band of Zapatistas for a rally in support of Indian rights.
El Heraldo warns that Mexico City faces weeks of uncertainty. "Zapatista commanders are threatening to stay for however long it takes to get the Cocopa law (guaranteeing Indian rights) passed, threatening weeks of unrest for a city as complex as this." The longer their stay in the capital, "the greater the unnecessary risk to the country's tranquility", the daily said in an editorial.
El Heraldo complained that government efforts to guarantee the rebel leader's security on the so-called Zapatour were "extraordinary, almost raised to the level of national security". It did however admit the possibility of an attack on him during his address to crowds in the giant central square, the Zocalo. Deception Writing in a similar vein in El Universal, Alfonso Navarro accused Mr Marcos of hiding behind the Indian cause while yearning for a Marxist revolution.
"He is wrong if he thinks he is deceiving the Mexican people into thinking the ideological impulse of his fight is Indian rights." Another El Universal commentator, Jose Antonio Crespo, says a "significant and active minority" would give their "unconditional support" to Mr Marcos, although the majority of Mexicans were backing President Vicente Fox.
"Mexico cannot call itself democratic while it ignores the just demands of its original peoples." Saint or sinner? For Agustin Basave Benitez, writing in Reforma, Mr Marcos is an ambiguous figure.
"Their message zigzags opportunistically between violent revolution and democracy, indigenist causes and political liberalism." However Mr Basave acknowledges that Mr Marcos' "intelligence, sense of humour and historical allegories have contributed to diminish the solemnity and narrowness of Mexican political life". "The romance and literary vein of his discourse contains a germ of political redemption and mystical idealism of which, in my opinion, we are badly in need." BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. |
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