Zapatista "Red Alert"

On Monday, Mexico's Zapatista guerrillas in the southern state of Chiapas issued an order closing their offices and sending their leaders into hiding. The reason was not given.

From an AP report at the Washington Post:

The order appeared to come in response to some perceived threat, but the statement, signed by rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos, said only that the decision was made to move local rebel officials to "ensure their safety."

"We are evacuating the members of governing councils and autonomous authorities to ensure their safety. For an undetermined amount of time, they will carry out their work clandestinely," the statement said.

The Zapatistas, who champion the cause of Indian rights, have complained of government attempts to co-opt their movement through aid programs, but there was little to suggest that officials were planning to launch a military attack.

The rebels, however, also fear potential attacks by conservative Indian communities and organizations which the rebels have described as paramilitary groups. Attacks are often motivated by disputes over land and other natural resources in the poverty-stricken mountains of Chiapas

Some of the Zapatistas' communiques and an up-to-date commentary on the events can be read [in Spanish] at goleech. México desde fuera also has commentary:

México necesita claridad, disposición a la construcción de acuerdos, inteligencia y, sobre todo, la capacidad para construir acuerdos que nos permitan resolver el más grave problema del presente nacional que no es otro que el de la pobreza y la desigualdad.

Tristemente, nada de eso ha sido aportado por el EZLN. Al contrario, en los últimos 11 años ha hecho del bloqueo de soluciones y la creación artificial o el ahondamiento igualmente artificial de conflictos un deporte en el que el señor Marcos, con toda su cauda de acríticos seguidores puede considerarse como campeón mundial.