Mexico's Zapatista Rebel Leader Subcomandante Marcos Steps Down Agence France-Presse
go to original May 26, 2014

The leader of the Mexican Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Subcomandante Marcos, smokes his pipe at the San Cristobal de las Casas Community, state of Chiapas, Mexico. (AFP/Antonio Nava)

COMITAN, Mexico - Subcomandante Marcos, the mysterious masked leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, bowed out Sunday as chief of the 20-year-old movement.

Marcos made the announcement one day after making his first public appearance in years in the southern state of Chiapas, reportedly showing up at a comrade's funeral puffing on his trademark pipe and wearing an eyepatch.

"At 2:08 am on May 25, 2014, at the southwestern combat front of th EZLN, I declare that the one known as Insurgent Subcommander Marcos no longer exists," he said in a statement.

"The voice of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) will no longer come from my voice," Marcos said.

The enigmatic rebel, whose movement emerged in the majority indigenous state of Chiapas on January 1, 1994, denied rumors that he was sick.

"The handover of command is not due to illness or death, not to an internal shift, purge or purification," the statement said.

Marcos said the EZLN fueled the rumors to its benefit.

"The last great trick of the hologram was to fake a terminal illness and deaths," he said.

"Those who loved and hated Subcomandante Marcos now know that they hated and loved a hologram."

See the original at Yahoo! News

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