Speaking to supporters and the press at the opening of the second phase of the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign" in the Chiapas highland city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Subcommander Marcos said that capitalism is provoking a "fourth world war" for control of the resource-rich lands of poor countries. He said global capitalism has entered a new phase, seeking total market control over lands, waters and even genetic resources. He cited as an example the struggle over Cerro Huitepec, a hill just outside San Cristobal where the developers of a soft-drink plant hope to mine water, with no benefit to the inhabitants of the city. He said that in the new order "national governments are mere managers, and a manager is not a director." (Notimex, March 25)

Marcos emphasized that "Latin America is one of the new theaters of this war of reconquest, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas will have, as for the last 500 years, a protagonist's role in the resistance." He warned that without a strong alliance between indigenous peoples, workers and peasants, the struggle could end in "a final rout."

Said Marcos: "With the exceptions of Cuba, the growing rebellion in Venezuela, and the specificty still being defined in Bolivia," the governments of Latin America, regardless of ideology, have become "capitals of reconquest." (EFE, March 25)

Sources archived at Chiapas95.

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