Zapatista leader slams Obama over Gaza silence

Mexico's Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos slammed US president-elect Barack Obama for failing to speak out on Israel's bombing of Gaza, in a speech on Friday marking the 15th anniversary of his rebellion. Marcos made his remarks on the first day of a gathering of close to 3,000 supporters of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas state. The meeting was billed as the 1st World "Dignified Rage" Festival. The masked leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation -- which rose up in arms in Chiapas, southeast Mexico, on January 1, 1994 -- also criticized a government clampdown on spiraling drug violence, in his first public appearance in more than a year. Speaking about Israel's ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip and Obama's reaction to it, Marcos said that those who supported the Democrat in last year's balloting - partly in hopes that he would change the United States' foreign policy in the Middle East - could be disappointed by the president-elect. Obama "supports the use of force" against Palestinian people, Marcos said in a speech to some 2,500 leftist politicians and activists from 25 countries. Obama has kept a low profile on the Gaza conflict, stressing that there is only one president at a time ahead of his inauguration on January 20. Marcos also criticized Mexican President Calderon for his clampdown on drug violence, with the deployment of more than 36,000 soldiers countrywide so far failing to stop more than 5,300 deaths in drug-related attacks last year. "Calderon promised he'd use all the force of the state against organized crime, but it's evident that organized crime directs the force of the state," Marcos said. The small guerrilla army has now essentially become a political movement that groups several indigenous and peasant organizations as well as radical leftist militants.