Riots give rebel icon new spark in Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- The masked man brought his revolution to the capital last week. Hardly anyone paid attention until the riots broke out.

Subcomandante Marcos, the iconic pipe-smoking leader of the Zapatista indigenous-rights movement, came to Mexico City as part of what he calls a peaceful national tour, 12 years after he led a famous uprising in Chiapas.

But the week ended anything but peacefully when a melee erupted between radicals and police in a town east of Mexico City. While it is debated whether Marcos helped inspire the clashes, he certainly cheered on the radicals and now is calling for more protests.

That Marcos still might represent a challenge to the government was a surprise for many Mexicans who thought his brand of what critics call "guerrilla theater" was a thing of the past.

When Marcos marched from the U.S. Embassy to the city's central plaza Monday, he was escorted by machete-clanging radicals from San Salvador Atenco, a historically rebellious town east of the capital that is best-known for blocking President Vicente Fox's plan to build an international airport there in 2002.

Marcos had visited Atenco before entering the capital, praising the residents for having taught the Zapatistas "to challenge the powerful people, to confront them and to defend what they want to take away from us--land, liberty and life."

On Wednesday, some of the Atenco activists who marched alongside Marcos were arrested after a protest in town turned into full-scale riots, only to be quashed a day later by 3,000 federal and state anti-riot police.

Zapatista sympathizers called Thursday's crackdown a "direct aggression" against Marcos' movement. But his detractors wondered whether the clashes had been timed and organized to dramatize his Mexico City visit, which much of the media had ignored or ridiculed.

On Friday, Eduardo Medina Mora, Fox's federal security chief, downplayed the Marcos connection, saying the Atenco protesters may have tried to adhere themselves to his movement and that there were no worries about a wider security breakdown.

The riots erupted after local police tried to remove eight flower vendors from an Atenco street. The town's land-rights activists came to the vendors' defense, blocking roads.

Then clashes broke out with the police, one of whom was kicked and beaten bloody while cameramen in helicopters broadcast live images to the nation. Other wounded officers were held hostage.

At least one protester, a 14-year-old boy, was killed during the daylong melee.

An army of riot police moved in to crush the unrest at dawn Thursday, clubbing and bloodying some protesters who already had fallen to the ground.

Protesters say Fox used the disturbances to exact revenge for the town's opposition to the airport. Fox, criticized then for caving in to protesters, said the government would not put up with it anymore.

"The regrettable, violent acts perpetrated by a small group yesterday in the state of Mexico are an outrage against society and an attack on the rule of law," he said Thursday.

As the clashes escalated Wednesday, Marcos said the Zapatistas were going on "red alert." He stayed out of sight Thursday as police arrested more than 200 protesters but resurfaced Friday night in Atenco, where he said he planned to stay and lead more protests until the detainees are released.

Marcos began his national tour in January. He has visited dozens of towns on his campaign to underscore the grievances of millions of Mexicans who he says have been left behind in the country's pursuit of modernization and free trade.

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