The Zapatistas of Chiapas, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), made the first public appearance outside their home community in almost five years. According to one estimate, 15,000 supporters gathered Saturday in San Cristóba to protest the Calderón governments offensive against the drug cartels.
The meeting was part of a general "march for peace" held in a range of cities across Mexico, a mobilization that for the EZLN represent its first rally since the confusing and unproductive "Other Campaign" of Marcos and the EZLN in 2006, when the essential message from the Zapatistas was a "plague on all your houses," where Marcos called on citizens not to vote, either for the PRD or any other party, a decision that may have cost the left its victory in 2006, in favor of the conservative PAN.
Yet then as now it remains unclear what the EZLN's agenda is, particularly beyond Chiapas state.
