Chiapas Rebels Offer to Give Fox--and Peace--a Chance

In a possible breakthrough in one of Mexico’s most intractable political problems, the leader of the 1994 Zapatista rebellion agreed Saturday to resume peace talks stalled for four years--but only if the government of new President Vicente Fox makes concessions first.

Subcommander Marcos, leader of the mostly Maya rebels here in Chiapas, demanded that the government evacuate seven army bases in the southern state, pass an Indian rights bill and release all Zapatista “political prisoners” as a sign of goodwill.

“Mr. Fox, if you choose the way of respectful, serious and sincere dialogue, show your willingness with deeds,” Marcos, wearing his trademark black ski mask, said during his first public appearance in more than a year.

“You can be sure you will have a positive response from the Zapatistas. And this way you can resume the dialogue and soon begin to build a true peace,” the rebel leader told about 250 journalists summoned to a jungle clearing north of the Guatemalan border for a late-afternoon news conference.

Marcos’ appearance was the most dramatic sign so far of the changes that could occur after Fox’s Friday inauguration, which ended the reign of the world’s longest-ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Fox did not immediately respond to Marcos’ proposals. But Mexican radio reports said the president and his top aides planned to analyze them.

The Zapatistas launched an uprising in January 1994 that claimed at least 145 lives during two weeks of fighting. Their subsequent peace talks with the government broke down in September 1996 and have been followed by a tense cease-fire.

Fox has made a peace accord with the rebels a top priority. At his inauguration ceremony, he said that his first proposal to Congress this week will be an Indian rights bill favored by the Zapatistas. Also Friday, he ordered the Mexican army to withdraw from roadblocks and encampments near rebel strongholds in Chiapas.

On Saturday, Fox traveled to Oaxaca, a southeastern state populated mostly by indigenous people, for the first leg of a “victory lap” around Mexico to celebrate his inauguration. Accompanied by, among others, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he reiterated his appeal to the Zapatistas to resume talks and vowed to “write a new history” embracing the country’s Indians, who have suffered from severe poverty and discrimination.

The Zapatista uprising, coming after Mexico had bound itself to the U.S. economy with the North American Free Trade Agreement, shocked politicians, investors and citizens alike. Initially, the rebels’ fight for indigenous rights and democracy won them sympathy around the globe. However, the rebels have become increasingly marginalized in Mexico as the situation has dragged on while the country has made significant democratic advances--including Fox’s election July 2.

In possible recognition of his isolation, Marcos indicated Saturday that he was ready to leave his hide-out in the Lacandon jungle and make an unprecedented trip to the Mexican capital. He said he was prepared to bring the top commanders of the Zapatista army to the national Congress early in the new year to plead their case.

But Marcos, who espouses left-wing views, showed that he was still unsure of what to make of Fox, who is from the conservative National Action Party, or PAN.

The rebel leader, dressed in the Zapatista uniform of olive fatigue pants and a brown shirt and sitting on a makeshift stage in this jungle village, began his 80-minute speech by assailing the course of Mexican politics in recent decades. He expressed suspicion that Fox’s victory could represent a triumph for the “ultra-right” and big business.

However, he added that the pullback of troops Friday and Fox’s appointment of a respected democracy activist, Luis H. Alvarez, to deal with the Chiapas conflict were positive signs.

“We hope this will be a new dawn,” he said, echoing a similar phrase used repeatedly by Fox.

Still, the rebel leader insisted on concrete concessions from the government before he will sit down to talk peace.

The government, he said, should withdraw troops from seven bases in Chiapas, including one at Guadalupe Tepeyac, a onetime rebel stronghold that Marcos had to flee under army pressure. Since the Zapatista uprising, the government has positioned tens of thousands of troops in the southern state. The encampments named by Marcos are all in highland and jungle towns where the Zapatistas have support bases.

Marcos also insisted that the government release all Zapatista “political prisoners” in Chiapas and around the country. It was not clear how many prisoners he was referring to; the government generally denies imprisoning citizens for political views.

Finally, Marcos insisted on the adoption of the San Andres accords. Those accords, on extending cultural and judicial rights to Indian communities, represented the only important agreement reached by the rebels and the government before the breakdown of talks in 1996.

The Zapatistas walked out of the negotiations when then-President Ernesto Zedillo objected to the language of an implementing bill for the San Andres accords submitted by a congressional committee.

While Fox did not immediately respond to Marcos’ proposals, radio reports said that his spokeswoman, Martha Sahagun, had reacted positively to them. Marcos’ olive branch came as the new president was continuing with a volley of proposals intended to show his concern for the country’s indigenous minority.

In Oaxaca, for example, Fox signed an agreement with Mary Robinson, a senior United Nations official, to expand human rights protections, especially for the indigenous.

“It’s very important that the president signed this on his first working day,” Robinson said in an interview. The accord had been hammered out over two years with the Zedillo administration, she said. However, it was Fox who invited her to Mexico for his inauguration and the signing.

“We have gotten very strong signals this government wants to do more,” said Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights and former president of Ireland.

At his rally Saturday, Fox also emphasized that he has upgraded the government’s office for indigenous affairs and moved it to Los Pinos, the Mexican White House. The official in charge of the office, Xochitl Galvez, greeted the crowd in her native tongue, Nha Nhu.

Fox’s pledge to end discrimination against the indigenous drew hearty cheers from the crowd of about 5,000, many wearing embroidered Indian clothing, that packed a plaza near a colonial church under a bright sun in Oaxaca city, the state capital.

Before the rally, the mayor of the capital, along with a group of indigenous leaders, presented Fox with the “ruler’s staff”--a wooden stick traditionally presented to the leader of Indian communities.

“We have hope. We want change,” Alberto Rodriguez said, shortly before he presented the staff to Fox. “Total change.”

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Kraul reported from La Realidad and Sheridan from Oaxaca. Times staff writer James F. Smith in Mexico City contributed to this report.

* ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

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