Free Gangland by Jerry Langton

difficulties”—he became a Maoist militant. He took the name Marcos after a friend of that name who was killed by the Mexican military.
    Marcos went to the southern state of Chiapas with the intent of starting a proletarian revolution, but the locals didn't take to his traditional communist rhetoric. He believed the problem was that he was a white, university educated, Spanish-speaking child of privilege and in order to succeed, he would have to become more like the Mayans. He immersed himself in their culture and studied the works of Italian communist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who maintained that cultural hegemony was the only way to maintain a capitalist society. Marcos became more popular and his enemy list expanded from the Mexican government to the concepts of capitalism and, especially, neoliberalism—the philosophy that encourages private enterprise, free markets and unfettered trade between nations.
    His group, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation or EZLN, but commonly known as the Zapatistas), declared war on the Mexican government on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA—the most obvious sign of neoliberalism—became law. That day, about 3,000 armed Zapatistas stormed and took control of four county seats in Chiapas, freeing prisoners and setting fire to police and military buildings.
    The Mexican military responded the next day and the Zapatistas suffered huge losses and were forced to retreat to the rain forests. On January 12, a ceasefire agreement mediated by influential Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia put an end to the armed conflict and the Zapatistas switched to non-violent means of spreading their word.
    Not everyone chose to abide by the ceasefire, however. On December 22, 1997, a paramilitary group called the Mascara Roja (Red Mask) loyal to the PRI opened fire on a church in the Chiapas town of Acteal. The worshippers were members of Las Abejas (the Bees), a pacifist religious commune of indigenous people who had openly sided with the Zapatistas, and 45 of them (21 of them women and 15 children) were killed and another 25 injured. No arrests were made.
    The south and all of Mexico, found hope for an end to official corruption in a presidential candidate named Vicente Fox Queseda. His father's family were of German origin (Fox was originally Fuchs) who emigrated from France to Cincinnati and eventually Mexico; and his mother was a Basque, born in Spain. A Harvard graduate, Fox started working for Coca-Cola in Mexico, eventually becoming its president. Under his leadership, Coke sales increased by 50 percent in Mexico and became the nation's favorite beverage.
    He ran twice for governor of the state of Guanajuato for the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party or PAN), losing the first time but getting twice as many votes as his PRI opponent in the second election. Fox immediately delivered on promises of financial transparency and developed innovative micro-credit initiatives.
    In 2000, he ran for president under a coalition called Alianza por el Cambio (Alliance for Change), which combined the conservative-religious PAN with the Greens. After a vigorous campaign, Fox won the election, which was watched by observers from a number of countries and organizations. When outgoing PRI president Ernesto Zedillo signed the documents ratifying Fox as the new president, it was the first time in Mexican history a government had changed hands without bloodshed.
    When Fox's election put the PRI out of power, the Zapatistas met with him. He implemented many reforms and projects in the area, but the Zapatistas continue to work outside the government with autonomous communities and education systems.
    The six-foot-five Fox was a charismatic and popular president who typically wore jeans and cowboy boots. After serving six years, his popularity helped lead to the election of another PAN president, Felipe Calderón.
    And it was his policies that