"And now, a message from Radio Insurgente:"

If you're like me, you've been wondering, "What's up with Subcommander Marcos, lately?"

For those in the dark (as I was when I first saw his face on a mural in the Left Bank of Paris), Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos is a Mexican (rumored to be a) former college professor turned revolutionary, the spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) that conducted an insugency in the Mexican state of Chiapas in the nineties, which eventually led to peaceful enactment of changes to the Mexican constitution to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples, making him the only Marxist college professor I've ever heard of to accomplish anything of substance. Though ostensibly only the spokesman, a cult of personality has grown up around him. (I've heard, though have been unable to substantiate, that he was chosen Sexiest Man in Mexico.) The more you learn of him and his work, the more this is not in the least bit surprising. In a world full of cowards, philistines, zealots, and bullies, he's a refreshing combination of Zorro, Che Guevara, and Jon Stewart.

After enactment of the COCOPA Law in August, 2001 (not quite fulfilling the EZLN's demands, thus they are still an insurgency), Marcos wasn't heard from for over a year. Then, in December 2002, he started a poigniant and hilarious exchange with a Spanish Supreme Court Magistrate and the Basque seperatist movement (ETA).

The Spanish magistrate, Fernando Baltasar Garzón Real, lambasted Marcos in the Mexican press, and challenged him to a debate. Marcos agreed to his challenge, but stipulated an outlandish scheme of conditions, including ETA declaring a 177-day cease-fire, that a meeting between ETA and the Spanish government, themed The Basque Country: Paths, to proceed the debate, and an offer to allow Garzón to unmask him should the panel of judges decide that Marcos had lost.

Predictably, the debate never took place. Somewhat less predictably, the ETA was enraged, especially by Marcos' presumption to critisize them for harming civilians. "We condemn military actions which harm civilians. And we condemn them equally, whether they come from the ETA or the Spanish State, from Al Qaeda or from George W. Bush, from Israelis or Palestinians, or from whomever, under different names or initials - whether in the name of reasons of State, or ideological or religious ones - claims its victims among children, women, old ones and men who have nothing to do with the matter."

Marco's reply to the ETA's indignation is both self-deprecating and a total beatdown. (Like Stewart vs. Carlson, except ETA didn't disappear like Crossfire did.) I'm having trouble deciding what the best quotes are - you'll just have to read it.

Earlier this month (three years after), Marcos issued an apology to the Basque people for the whole affair.

This year, Subcomandante Marcos has given himself the title Delegado Zero for EZLN's 31-state motorcycle/speaking tour for Mexico's 2006 national election (the EZLN is not participating in the election, itself).