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01/02/2006:

"Zapatistas' Marcos quits armed struggle for peaceful campaign"

...The aim of the tour is, according to a recent communique, to "build a national programme of anti-capitalist and leftwing struggle". By dubbing his caravan "The Other Campaign", Marcos made it clear that much of the strategy hinges on rubbishing the July presidential election.

In a series of preparatory meetings in the jungle in August and September, Marcos reserved particular venom for the front-runner, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, calling him a traitor who would "give it to all of us" if he won. This alienated former fans in the intelligentsia who see Mr Lopez Obrador's candidacy as an unprecedented opportunity for the left.

The government has made little comment on his tour plans. But should the authorities decide to arrest the rebel leader and outlaw, identified by the government in 1995 as former university teacher Rafael Guillén, Marcos instructed his supporters in a communique not to resist. "Run away and spread the word," he wrote, "and bring me tobacco."
guardian.co.uk