Welcoming Crowd Shows Support For Indian Rights

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY, March 11 -- Mexico's largest civil rights demonstration in decades -- a two-week, cross-country caravan demanding better treatment of Mexico's
10 million Indians -- reached a thunderous climax today in Mexico City's historic central square.

With perhaps 100,000 supporters cheering them on, Mexico's Zapatista rebels and their charismatic leader, known as Subcomandante Marcos, arrived in the vast
square on an open flatbed truck beneath a banner that read, "Nevermore a Mexico Without Us."

"Don't let there be another dawn without the flag having a place for us," Marcos told the crowd, as an enormous Mexican flag flapped overhead.

The Zapatistas left their jungle hideout near the town of San Cristobal de las Casas two weeks ago on a journey to press President Vicente Fox and Congress to
pass far-reaching legislative reforms that would address the anti-Indian discrimination that ignited the rebels' seven-year armed uprising in the southern state of
Chiapas.

"The Indians are fighting against 500 years of non-Indians telling them what to do; this is a real step toward democracy," said Mariclaire Acosta, Fox's top adviser on
human rights, who joined the crowd today under a fierce afternoon sun in the square, known as the Zocalo.

Despite today's outpouring of emotion, it remains unclear whether the Zapatistas will be able to turn two weeks of good publicity and raucous sound and fury into
solid gains for Mexico's poor and marginalized Indians.

Marcos and 23 rebel leaders, all wearing their trademark black ski masks, will meet this week with members of Congress to press for constitutional reforms that
would guarantee indigenous communities broad leeway to govern themselves and administer justice according to their traditions.

There is a clear desire in Congress and among the Mexican people to end the Chiapas uprising, which began with an armed assault on San Cristobal in January
1994. But the legislative hurdles are great; many critics worry about allowing millions of Mexicans to live by standards of law and governance different from those in
the rest of the nation.

A showdown is brewing: Marcos, emboldened by opinion polls showing his popularity rising steadily since the March for Dignity began, has vowed to stay in Mexico
City until he gets what he wants.

"They think that we are a passing fad, that you are going to return to your homes and to your jobs when we leave," Marcos said Friday. "But let this be clear: We
aren't going to leave here until there is a constitutional recognition of Indian rights and culture."

Fox, who has been subjected to daily invective from Marcos, says the Zapatistas and the government must seize the moment. Fox made peace in Chiapas a key goal
of his first 100 days in office, which ended Saturday. Marcos has staked his considerable reputation on getting results in Congress. Failure for either man would be a
severe blow.

"We are close to peace because there is no alternative left, either for Marcos or for President Fox," Fox said Friday. "If either of the two fails, he will look very bad,
extremely bad, in the face of public opinion."

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Fox said he welcomed the coming discussions with Congress.

"Welcome, Subcomandante Marcos, welcome to the Zapatistas, welcome to the political arena, the arena of discussion of ideas," Fox said. "This is, in fact, the start
of the dialogue that we Mexicans have waited for so anxiously . . . the dialogue that will lead to peace."

But today belonged to the men and women in ski masks, who held forth for hours in one of Mexico's most important spots. The Zocalo, built over the ruined
pyramids of the Aztec civilization, is at the center of Mexico's identity.

Government is headquartered in the National Palace, adorned with murals by Diego Rivera on one side of the square. Next to it sits the city's grand cathedral,
representing the religious identity of a nation that is 90 percent Roman Catholic. In the center of it all stands the pole bearing the huge Mexican flag.

"For us, this is an incredible political symbol," said Homero Aridjis, a noted poet who attended the demonstration. "There's a rebel movement, an insurgent army,
right there with the Mexican flag in front of them and the National Palace in the back."

In the crowd, Mexicans and sunburned foreigners, mainly Americans and Europeans, milled around in Zapatista T-shirts. Many of them wore black ski masks in
solidarity with the Zapatistas.

"This represents a real turning point in the Zapatista movement," said Mitch Deacon, 27, a graduate student at the University of Texas, who came with 30 classmates.

Deacon said the tremendous public support for the Zapatista caravan, which picked up hundreds of people in dozens of vehicles over the past two weeks, is a
victory not just for Marcos, but for Fox as well. Both have advocated passage of the proposed pro-Indian constitutional reforms, and Deacon said the outpouring of
public support "really puts pressure" on Congress to act.

"It's definitely going to be difficult to make the argument against" the reforms, he said. "Now there's momentum."

Jose Luis Barranco, 44, a Mexico City municipal employee, said the momentum was being supplied by a crowd genuinely supportive of the Zapatistas. In Mexico,
crowds at political rallies are frequently assembled by offering people a free lunch or a small amount of cash to attend.

"We came here by our own free will; they didn't give us a sandwich or any other kind of bribe," Barranco said. "We're going to change things by pressure. Until
victory, we'll be here to fight."

Researcher Bianca Toness contributed to this report.

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