FZLN Congress in Mexico City (Reuter/Eng 9/3 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Wed, 3 Sep 1997 08:41:00 -0400 (EDT) sender Milt Shapiro FZLN Congress in Mexico City MEXICO CITY, Sept 2 (Reuter) - A group supporting Mexico's Zapatista guerrillas said on Tuesday it planned to launch itself as a new kind of grassroots political organization that will not fight elections. The Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN), an unarmed companion to the guerrilla force known as the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), will hold a four-day inaugural congress in Mexico City starting on Sept. 13. The congress will follow a five-day march in which 1,111 Zapatista supporters plan to trek about 750 miles (1,200 km) on foot and by vehicle from the rebel stronghold in southeastern Chiapas state to Mexico City on Sept. 8-12. Both the Zapatista Army and the Zapatista Front seek full rights for Mexico's Indians, farm workers and peasants, who make up the bottom end of Mexico's enormous gulf between rich and poor. ``The objective of the front is to create a new organization with a different political character whose principle element is that we don't aspire to elective offce,'' Enrique Avila, a member of the front's organizating committee, told a news conference. The EZLN rose up in arms on Jan. 1, 1994, occupying several towns in Chiapas. There was 10 days of fighting before a cease-fire was called. Protracted peace talks have been at impasse since late last year. The greatly outnumbered rebels have been surrounded by the Mexican army and represent no real military threat, but rebel leader Subcommander Marcos told Reuters in a recent interview that he might participate in the march. When the march ends, some 4,000 Mexicans from 26 states plus some two dozen groups from the United States, Italy, Australia and elsewhere plan to attend the Zapatista Front's congress, Avila said. Particpants will spend four days mapping out the Zapatista Front's goals and proposals. Avila said the Zapatista Front was not to be considered the political arm of the guerrilla group. ``We're organizing from below, with the people,'' Avila said, but he nonethless praised the example set by the Zapatista combatants. ``That's the clearest, best, didactic example that the Zapatistas can give us,'' he said. 18:15 09-02-97 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-09.11.97-19:44:42-6813