Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994 TAG: 9401030127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: OXCHUC, MEXICO LENGTH: Medium
As many as 55 people, including 22 police and 24 rebels of the newly formed Zapatista National Liberation Army, were reported killed during two days of fighting. Their attacks began with a surprise New Year's Day offensive that caught the army off guard. Five regular army soldiers and four civilians also were reported killed.
Rebels reportedly seized control of at least four cities and perhaps a half-dozen villages. In this village, guerrillas appeared to be in full control and unchallenged by Mexican troops. However, the state government reported heavy fighting in and around nearby Ocosingo.
Rebel leaders here said their forces were attacking Comitan, near Guatemala, while news reports had the rebels in control of Altamirano and Las Margaritas. "We will control the entire country, including the capital," said a rebel commander who refused to identify herself.
In a pre-dawn attack Saturday, rebels took San Cristobal de las Casas, the state's second-largest city, then left. They returned Sunday evening to fight an army battalion.
Mexico, which was toasting implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement on Saturday when the fighting began, has not experienced an armed uprising since the 1970s.
The free-trade agreement, along with widely reported abuses of Indian peasants by powerful, wealthy landowners here, appeared to be at the crux of the revolt. A leader of the Zapatista group said the uprising was timed to coincide with NAFTA's commencement and that it was a protest of the widespread, growing economic inequalities in this developing nation.
The rebel leader, identified as Comandante Marcos, was quoted Sunday in the newspaper La Jornada as saying the free-trade agreement represented an injustice to the Indians of Mexico, "which are ignored by the government of [President] Carlos Salinas de Gortari."
Government and Roman Catholic officials in Chiapas said the region's indigenous people have become increasingly angry in recent years because economic changes wrought by Salinas' government have not reached them.
Chiapas, largely covered by mountains and jungle, is home to many indigenous groups that live in landless poverty. According to government statistics, about 30 percent of Chiapas' 3.2 million residents cannot read or write.
A presidential spokesman indicated force would not be used to quell the insurrection. In several areas of Chiapas, however, soldiers were battling rebels.
In San Cristobal on Sunday morning, tourists panicked along with residents when men in a convoy of unmarked cars paraded through the streets shouting, "Long live the revolution!"
"Everyone is nervous, because we don't know when they will be coming back," said San Cristobal resident Margarita Jarra.
by CNB