Zapatista leader, Comandante Ramona, dies

Comandante Ramona, a leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement and an advocate for women's rights, died on Jan. 6 after a decade-long struggle with a kidney disease, rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said. Ramona was believed to be about 47 years old, but like most of the rebel leaders she did not reveal her age or name. Few details are known about her life, other than that she was a Tzotzil indigenous Mayan who joined the rebel movement sometime before its January 1994 armed uprising and rose to prominence in its ranks. Often visibly frail, Ramona became an advocate within the Zapatista movement for women's rights and a promoter of traditional handicrafts. "The world has lost one of those women it requires," Marcos said. "Mexico has lost one of the combative women it needs and we, we have lost a piece of our heart."