Zapatista Rebels to Address Mexican Congress

A Zapatista envoy and members of Mexico’s Congress agreed Friday that the masked rebels will make an unprecedented entrance onto the floor of the lower house next Wednesday to lobby for Indian rights.

Meanwhile, moving to meet rebel conditions for reviving peace talks, President Vicente Fox announced the closure of a fifth military base in the Zapatistas’ Chiapas territory and repeated a promise of amnesty for imprisoned rebels.

“The conditions are met, and we await the renewal of dialogue toward reconciliation,” Fox said after returning from a visit to California.

Repeating his call for a meeting with the Zapatista leader, Subcommander Marcos, Fox said, “It’s time we talk face-to-face, with openness and commitment.”

In Congress, lawmakers met throughout the day with Fernando Yanez, the legislative liaison for the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN, to set a date, ground rules and procedures for the rebels’ appearance.

The appearance was scheduled to begin late Wednesday morning in the full house chamber. It will last four hours, Deputy Salvador Rocha told reporters.

Officials of local governments in Mexico City and the nation’s 31 states will be invited. Fox was not on the list, said Rocha, a member of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which was ousted with Fox’s election last year.

Yanez and lawmakers will continue meeting Monday and Tuesday wrap up other details, such as the number and order of speakers and a list of special guests to be invited by the deputies and the rebels, Rocha said.

The Zapatistas, who took up arms seven years ago in the southern state of Chiapas in a fight for Indian rights, arrived in Mexico City two weeks ago. Their chief aim was to lobby Congress for legislation granting Mexico’s 10 million indigenous people autonomy to run their communities.