mexnews: MEXICAN PRESIDENT INVITES CHIAPAS REBELS TO MEETING

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MEXICAN PRESIDENT INVITES CHIAPAS REBELS TO MEETING

Associated Press
February 10, 2001

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico -- Seeking to make peace with Zapatista rebels,
President Vicente Fox traveled to Chiapas state Friday and invited the
rebels to meet with him when they come to Mexico City in March.

Fox also announced a modernization campaign aimed at reducing poverty and
boosting economic development in Mexico's poorest region.

The Zapatistas plan to leave Chiapas for the first time for a 17-day march
to Mexico City, to lobby Congress for passage of an Indian rights bill.

Fox said he would welcome a meeting with them.

"It could be that there [in Mexico City] they could also start building
peace with us," Fox said.

Fox inaugurated a $50 million investment in improving the state's railroad
infrastructure, as well as a credit program designed to encourage the
development of the region's maquiladora, or assembly-for-export, industry.

Fox has made peace with the rebels a priority since taking office Dec. 1. In
an effort to restart long-stalled peace talks, he has closed military bases,
released rebel sympathizers from jail and sent the Indian rights bill to
Congress.

He has made two official trips to the state to lobby for his peace plan, in
which economic development is a key part.

On Friday he made his third, with plans to announce a program to renovate
200 miles of rail line between Chiapas and the Yucatan. The program is being
funded by Mexican businessmen and international banks.

The railroad has largely fallen out of use, transporting only the occasional
shipment of cement or petroleum even though it crosses several areas that
produce coffee, sugar and bananas.

Agricultural producers stopped using the trains to transport their goods,
complaining that they weren't reliable. Government officials believe they
can change that.

 
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