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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2005 
Special Envoy Gives Blessing to Milan Match
 Wire services
| | The proposed game would pit the Chiapas rebels' squad against Inter Milan, one of Italy's top professional teams. |
Mexico City – President Vicente Fox's envoy to Chiapas said Tuesday he sees no problem with a soccer match pitting Italian powerhouse Inter Milan against skimasked Zapatista rebels in Mexico City.
"I can't speak for the whole government," said Luis H. Álvarez, tapped by the president to head-up negotiations with the guerrilla group for a lasting peace in Mexico's southernmost state. "My personal opinion is that it's fine."
On Friday, a senior official for Mexico City's government endorsed the idea of hosting both the Italian squad and the rebels for what would be one of the stranger soccer matches in Mexican history.
Inter Milan President Massimo Moratti and the Zapatistas agreed in principle to play a charity match, though Inter officials have said they have yet to formally start preparations.
Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos issued a May 25 letter to Moratti suggesting a game at the stadium of the capital's National Autonomous University, or UNAM, a stronghold of pro-Zapatista sentiment.
He also proposed six other matches, including at least one in Italy an idea that would create intriguing immigration issues since the Zapatistas wear ski masks in public, use noms de guerre rather than their real names and rarely have passports in any case.
The Zapatistas have not actively battled government troops since they burst from the Chiapas jungles and staged a brief revolt in January 1994. They drew hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets of the nation's capital when they held a peaceful caravan in 2001. They have not returned since.
Fox, who while campaigning for office once famously quipped he could put an end to the Chiapas conflict in 15 minutes, has been unable to persuade the rebels to endorse a peace agreement.
The Zapatistas severed negotiations with Álvarez in 2001, after Congress approved a drastically watered-down version of an Indian rights bill the rebels had once supported. |
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