On the scene account of the Zapatista red alert:


Three days after my farewell from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) issued a red alert for the region where I had just spent a month and a half. The EZLN put their autonomous communities on alert and evacuated them to live clandestinely in the protection of the Laconda jungle highlands. They called it a "precautionary defense measure" and effectively took themselves out of danger from a government intent on wiping out their resistance.

Through its spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, the EZLN issued four communiques in a matter of four days to explain to the world their actions, their reasons and their assurances....