I am sitting at a coffee place in San Cristobal de las Casas, a misty town in Chiapas, in southern Mexico. I am told that occasionally Subcomandante Marcos, the famed leader of indigenous people in the region, used to come here. I wonder if I will see him, although he has not made a public appearance in more than two years. He doesn't come -or may be I didn't recognize him without his signature ski mask- so I spend my time reflecting on the consequences or legacy of his movement.
Subcomandante Marcos' movement, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), took its name from Emiliano Zapata, the commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican revolution, which broke out in 1910. The EZLN has largely defied political classification, being mainly a movement seeking to redress the unjust treatment by the government — largely in response to the new world economy — of the country's indigenous people.
The movement went public in 1994. On Jan. 1, 3,000 armed insurgents briefly took several towns in Chiapas, including San Cristobal de las Casas, the residence of the late Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruiz — an almost legendary figure widely respected by the indigenous people in the state. The goal of the insurgents was to dramatize the harsh living conditions, poverty, and lack of governmental response to the serious situation facing Mexico's indigenous population, which had deteriorated markedly as Mexico rushed to become a player in the global economy.