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 Editorials | January 2006 
Will Marcos Cost Mexico’s Left the Presidency
 Thomas Muirhead - GlobalPolitician.com
| | Mexico's Zapatsita rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos arrives at a rally in Cancun. The Zapatista rebels are touring Mexico on a campaign timed to coincide with this year's Presidential elections. (Reuters/Victor Ruiz) |
The Zapatista rebel Subcomandante Marcos has shed his violent past and made a move towards formal political influence. His campaign to gather supporters to a far-left agenda could, however, split the country’s left-leaning voters and hand the presidential election to the right.
The beginning of 2006 saw what most have heralded as a welcome move away from the violent insurgency that Mexico had been privy to since 1994. The Zapatista group, led by Subcomandante Marcos, has reaffirmed its decision to move towards peaceful protest and a unification of Mexico’s disenfranchised communities.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos is the figurehead of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation or EZLN. The group came to prominence in 1994, when in protest to the launch of NAFTA, they took to arms in Chiapas, a region of South East Mexico heavily populated by indigenous communities. After just twelve days of fighting a ceasefire was agreed that left several municipalities more or less autonomous under the control of the Zapatistas. Since then, different Governments have dealt with the group in different ways, but the current government of Vicente Fox campaigned promising to work closely to resolve the situation. After dropping from the spotlight for a few years Marcos has returned to the limelight dramatically in light of the upcoming election.
The Other Campaign
A new era began on the 1st of January 2006 with Marcos roaring down Mexico’s roads on a motorbike emblazoned with Zapatista lettering, and flying the Mexican flag out behind him. The parallels to ‘Che’ Guevara were, if anything, too obvious. He was beginning a tour of Mexico’s towns and villages, visiting all 31 states, called ‘The Other Campaign’, which he hopes will rally support for his organisation and himself, under his new moniker ‘Delegate Zero’.
Marcos has made clear that the Zapatistas won’t be running for elected office or joining the political mainstream, but he certainly intends to be able to exert influence on their machinations. It seems the attempt is to create a unified base of disillusioned Mexicans who come under one banner and control the elections by negotiating with the power of their unified vote. Ecuador’s indigenous group Pachakutik wield this sort of power quite potently, as the election of the ill-fated Lucio Gutierrez showed.
A split could damage the left
This newly created political entity could do more damage than good to the hopes of Mexico’s left. Marcos has expressed strong criticism of PRD presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who leads the race for the elections in July. What’s most surprising of all about this is that Obrador leads Mexico’s left. Marcos criticised him for being a centrist who has fooled much of Mexico’s voting population into believing they stand for a socialist agenda. Spanish news agency EFE cites Marcos as saying quite clearly,
"Those who attend these meetings should be honest and if they are with López Obrador, they can't be with the EZLN."
The upcoming elections could herald the return of the left to control in Mexico, under the leadership of Obrador, of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), whose reputation for honesty and integrity has made him favourite at this early stage. Obrador has made 50 promises in his presidential campaign widely available and has made his position on the centre-left quite clear. A recent poll by Covarrubias y Asociados put Obrador ahead with 35% of the vote ahead of the PRN candidate with 24%. His lead is large, but has been slipping slightly recently.
Had Obrador been able to count on the support of Marcos he would probably have ridden the crest of a powerful wave, however, should Marcos attain a reasonable amount of support, and hold their vote back from the PRD it could allow the Partido Acción Nacional presidential candidate Felipe Calderón to follow on from current president Vicente Fox Quesada. Marcos doesn’t command a particularly large political following, but does represent an ideology that many aspire to, and is hailed as a hero amongst some of Mexico’s indigenous and poorer citizens.
Such an outcome would strongly disadvantage the very people the Zapatistas claim to represent, and suggests Marcos’ aims and objectives are far more personal than he maintains. He has been overshadowed in Mexico by the rise of Obrador and the return of the indigenous’ issues to the forefront of Mexican politics without his involvement. The performance that is his tour of the towns and villages, still mocked up in his symbolic balaclava, should be seen for what it really is: an attempt to create enough support to become a legitimate personality in Mexican politics, and a claim to regain the influence he once used to have. For all the denials, I believe we shall see Marcos’ name on the ballot papers sooner or later.
His influence and support is not likely to see him dominating Mexican politics, and his appearance is not fazing many of the heavyweight politicians, however, the effect of moving many whom would otherwise have backed Obrador could swing the momentum back towards the PRN. If Marcos fails to put his support behind the PRD, he could end up moving Mexico closer to the USA and further from the left-leaning government’s he believes in, such as Evo Morales in Bolivia and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Thomas Muirhead has been published in Urban Latino, Buenos Aires Herald and dogmanet.com. In addition to English, he also speaks Spanish and French, as well as some Russian. Mr. Muirhead currently resides in London, but in the past he lived in Argentina, Ecuador, Australia and China. He also traveled throughout Europe, Tunisia, Thailand, Laos and India. Mr. Muirhead also writes for www.describedthoughts.com. He may be reached at thomasmuirhead@hotmail.com |
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