Chiapas: Zapata rides again

Confronting the 'new world order' Rosario Ibarra with the EZLN's sub-commander Marcos other parts of Latin America - and Europe. FOR OVER a year the revolt of the indigenous people of the state of Chiapas has defied the repression of the Mexican armed forces, deliberately reviving the revolutionary heritage of Emilio Zapata. A renewed February offensive by 60,000 troops (half the Mexican army) has failed to locate or destroy the rebels or their charismatic masked leader Subcommandante Marcos, whose statements continue to be published by the popular press. The revolt now coincides with a rise of militancy among Mexico's powerful working class against the austerity programme introduced as the consequence of a $50 billion US loan to prop up the sagging Mexican peso.lt has captured the imagination not only of the poor and oppressed in Mexico itself, but