Narconews' Giordano: Marcos Rips Up the Script
January 20, 2006
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Correspondent Al Giordano, reporting from Yucatán, Mexico for The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign, informs us
of the following:
"After two long days of sedentary meetings in an idyllic religious retreat center outside of this capital city, in front
of hundreds of sympathizers, Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish
initials) announced a sudden change in Friday's itinerary: 'We're going to Chichen Itzá tomorrow,' he said – provoking a
thunderous applause from below and to the left."
"The first day and a half of meetings in Chablekal," continues Giordano, "with adherents to the Zapatistas' Sixth
Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle were dominated by academic discourse by 'educated' people, expounding on the plight
of the indigenous or merely offering self-referential speeches about how long the speaker had supported the Zapatista
cause. Certainly, there were some other voices, indigenous and mestizo, telling stories of authentic struggle – these
will be reported in detail by the Other Journalism in the days to come – but one had to listen much harder to hear them
in between so many presentations by individuals and organizational representatives that clearly had more experience
attending meetings than struggling at the grassroots.
"Then, at 5:40 p.m. on Thursday, the dam broke."
Read the full report, along with all the latest from Marcos' six-month tour of the Mexican Republic, here:
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin