Weekly Report -18 January 2005

President Vicente Fox has managed to raise the profile of the Zapatista rebels by proclaiming, during a visit to the southern state of Chiapas, that their movement 'is practically receding into the past'. Inevitably, this brought back memories of his fateful pre-inaugural remark that he would sort out the Zapatista rebellion 'in 15 minutes', which elicited from politicians and commentators the conclusion that he was ill-informed or had lost touch with reality.