Mexican government finally drops terrorism charges against Zapatista legend Subcomandante Marcos

[Judi Lynn]

Mexican government finally drops terrorism charges against Zapatista legend Subcomandante Marcos
by Rafa Fernandez De Castro
February 24, 2016 4:05 p.m.

A federal judge in Mexico has decided to drop terrorism and rebellion charges against iconic Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos after a more than 20-year manhunt that never took place.

Marcos, a swashbuckling, pipe-smoking rebel leader who captured the world’s attention as a modern-day Zorro during the Zapatista uprising in 1994, is now officially off the Mexican government’s wanted list.

But whatever happened to the mysterious masked man? And did Mexican authorities ever find out the true identity of the man behind the iconic ski mask and plume of pipe smoke?

On New Year’s Eve, 1993, a ragtag indigenous rebel group calling itself the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN in Spanish) declared war against the Mexican government and captured several municipalities in the southern state of Chiapas. The Zapatistas opposed Mexico’s newly ratified North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada, arguing the international treaty would issue in a new era of unfair globalization depriving the already marginalized indigenous communities from their lands.

More:
https://fusion.net/story/273016/mexican-government-finally-drops-terrorism-charges-against-zapatista-legend-subcomandante-marcos/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Subcomandante Marcos — Mexico's Che Guevara — Is No Longer a Wanted Man

Subcomandante Marcos — Mexico's Che Guevara — Is No Longer a Wanted Man

By Jo Tuckman and Nathaniel Janowitz
February 24, 2016 | 3:30 pm

He was once viewed as the internet era's answer to Che Guevara, spreading revolutionary ideals to a new global generation from the jungle canyons of Mexico's southern state of Chiapas. Now, Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos — once the bane of the Mexican government — isn't even wanted by the courts.

An arrest warrant from February 1995 detailed that Marcos was sought on charges of terrorism, sedition, riot, rebellion, conspiracy, and the illegal use of firearms, among other crimes.

This week the federal judicial authority released a statement saying that the statute of limitations on all the charges has now expired. This means, it added, that the pale-skinned and mask-wearing leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation is no longer a wanted man — even though the EZLN's conflict with the state has never been formally closed.

"We put out a statement because of the media interest that Marcos had in his time," a source in the judicial authorities said of the decision to publicize the automatic matter.

More:
https://news.vice.com/article/subcomandante-marcos-mexicos-che-guevara-is-no-longer-a-wanted-man