By
The Associated Press
GUADALUPE TEPEYAC, Chiapas - As soldiers completed their withdrawal from two bases in southern Chiapas state Thursday, President Vicente Fox said an address to congress by masked Zapatista rebels was proof that Mexico is a true democracy.
"Today, fortunately, we have a democracy. We've had it since July 2," Fox told a meeting of businessmen in Mexico City, referring to the day he was elected to end a 71-year string of presidents from the same party.
As 24 rebel commanders prepared to leave Mexico City and return to Chiapas after a month-long march through Mexico, Fox's peace negotiator, Luis H. Alvarez, visited the southern state to check on the last two army bases Fox has ordered closed.
The Zapatistas have demanded he close seven particularly sensitive bases in the southern state as a prerequisite to restarting peace talks. The other five have already been shut.
Alvarez said the Guadalupe Tepeyac base and the nearby Rio Eusebio barracks, both located deep in the jungle near the Guatemala border, have been 80 percent dismantled.
A small group of soldiers sat on the grass and in their vehicles outside the bases Thursday, waiting to hand over the remaining buildings to the federal Social Development Secretariat, which will turn them into community centers for the local Tojolabal Indians.
Alvarez said that handover would occur in the next few days.
Following the relatively good-natured congressional session Wednesday in which the rebels - without their military leader, Subcomandante Marcos - argued for passage of an Indian rights bill, Fox declared that the peace dialogue had been reopened for the first time since it stalled in 1996.
Alvarez told local news media that he had had his first meeting since Fox appointed him Dec. 1 with the rebels' liaison, Fernando Yanez, late Wednesday.
The rebels have asked that Yanez and Alvarez oversee the fulfillment of three rebel demands - the closure of army bases, the release of Zapatista prisoners and the passage of the bill - before formally setting a date for renewed talks that will presumably culminate with the rebels laying down their arms.
The rebels staged a brief armed uprising in January 1994 to demand greater democracy and Indian rights.
