Mexico Official Ready to Meet Indian Rebels
Government peace envoy Manuel Camacho Solis said Saturday that he is ready to meet Indian insurgents to seek the release of a former governor kidnaped in the early hours of their New Year’s uprising in Chiapas state.
Camacho, speaking to reporters in San Cristobal de las Casas, did not disclose when or where the meeting would take place.
But he said the self-styled Zapatista National Liberation Army had sent a message proposing the freeing of the retired official, Absalon Castellanos Dominguez, in exchange for release of rebels captured by the Mexican army.
The talks would be the first face-to-face meeting between Camacho and the rebels.
Such a meeting could be a breakthrough in the peace process and raised hopes that it would lead to an end of the 3-week-old uprising on Mexico’s southern frontier.
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